Narrative
The Sermon
הדרשה
Hayim Hazaz · 1942
Synopsis
Youdké, a stonecutter from the south of Russia and a Palmach fighter, is not an orator: he has never spoken in public. One day, however, before a committee chaired by the head of the Haganah, he asks to speak. Hesitating, apologising, begging to be heard, he declares that he is against Jewish history: this people made no history, it endured persecution and waited for the Messiah instead of acting. He goes on to argue that Zionism and Judaism are not one thing, but two things that contradict each other.
Context
The text appeared in September 1942 in the literary annual Luah ha-Aretz, under the author's name, and was meant to form a chapter of a book that never saw the light of day. It at once provoked a controversy: did the writer think what his character says? Many critics saw in it a manifesto against exile, which weighed on the thinking of the Canaanites; Baruch Kurzweil and Dan Miron refused to confuse the author with Yudke, and more recent readings note the irony of a hero who calls for a new man while stammering, and who cites the books he says he has not studied.
Who it is for
A monologue almost from beginning to end, in Hebrew, readable in English. Better to know that the Palmach was the permanent fighting force of the Haganah, the clandestine army of the Yishuv.
Prizes and reception
Translated into English, Yiddish, Arabic, Chinese, Italian, Swedish and German; the most discussed of the author's stories.