Zerubbabel stopped upon the threshold of the meeting-house
and surveyed the great assembly. And when he saw the men with
tear-stained eyes and with their hands upon their heads, his eyes
flashed and his lips turned white with scorn and ire. He was
surrounded by the crowd, the old men pressing close to him and the
young men in the rear.
“What have you brought us, Zerubbabel?” the old men asked. “Open your
lips and tell us what news of Esther and what do you know of her?”
The questions were to his anger like oil upon flames, and he opened
his mouth to speak harsh words. “Why do you ask me of Esther? What
do you wish, you greybeards, of that woman? And what shall I tell
you of her?—Am I, then, her sweetheart, and shall I tell you of her
beauty,—the sweetness of her body and the charm of her love?”
The assembly gaped at him in stupefaction, and the elders spoke again
to him: “What has come over you, Zerubbabel, and what have you on
your heart? You are wroth and speak harsh words to us. Or can it be
that you do not know what has happened? That a great disaster impends
over the Jews,—complete annihilation? And who can help us if not
Queen Esther? Or do you know another aid? Speak, and we will hear.”
Zerubbabel rose to his full height; his eyes lighted up, and his
voice was as hard as steel and iron. “Yes, I know another aid, and I
have come to tell it to you. It lies _within you_,—in your courage
and in your arms!”
His hearers received his words, mouths agape with surprise and
astonishment; Zerubbabel spoke further and his voice throbbed with
warmth. “Why do you eye me so? Or can you have misunderstood me? Your
salvation lies in you alone,—in your courage and in your arms. Why
have you so yielded to despair? And why have you covered yourselves
with ashes; wherefore your fasting? Are you weakening your bodies so
as to make the work of your enemies all the more easy? I tell you,
rather arm yourselves. Gird your loins and strengthen your muscles.
Instead of wringing your hands over your heads and despairing, learn
how to brandish a sword; instead of blinding your eyes with tears,
teach them to aim an arrow. Be not like sheep who are easily led
to the slaughter, but like lions that stand forth against their
pursuers. It is only a game for one to seize a sheep and kill it,
but the heart of the lion-hunter trembles, and only one out of a
thousand can hunt lions. You sit and weep and fast and torture
yourselves, and our enemies will mock and laugh. ‘We need not whet
our swords,’ they will say. ‘With our dog-whips we’ll be able to
strike dead the starved and terrified Jews.’ And they will praise
Haman for the permission he secured from the king and must even now
be rejoicing beforehand over the Jewish property that will so easily
be surrendered to them. But if they learn that you propose to make
a bold, heroic stand against them,—that your hands are skilled in
wielding the sword and your eyes trained to direct the dart, they
will look upon you with respect and admiration. They will no longer
laugh or mock, but will consider the matter well. And they will say,
‘We have permission from Haman, but who will provide for our widows
and orphans in case we fall at the hands of the Jews?’”
When he had spoken thus and more, the elders shook their heads and
the youths looked at the ground in embarrassment. At last the old men
could restrain themselves no longer and broke in upon his speech. And
they said, “You are young in years, Zerubbabel, and speak according
to your years.”
Zerubbabel, however, interrupted them and his voice echoed with
scorn. “I am young in years! How could I have failed to foresee that
such would be your answer! I am young in years! But of what avail
are your grey hairs, when you, too, are at a loss for counsel and
place your hopes upon a woman’s undergarment? I am young in years!
But young in years and even younger than I was my grandfather David,
yet he delivered the Jewish people from Goliath. Just as you here,
now, so then, too, your men were in despair. They were frightened
and trembling and knew not whither to turn for help. Then came young
David and brought them salvation. Young in years, but he knew that a
little stone, well aimed and well delivered, was more effective than
fasting, more powerful than tears. Therefore I say to you, why do you
reckon my years for me? See, I bring you deliverance. Be not like
women,—‘cry babies’ who begin to weep at whatever happens to them.
Be men, who feel the strength of their arms and the power of their
loins. Come, let us cry out a manifesto in the streets: ‘Haman has
purchased the Jewish people and given it over to annihilation, but
the Jewish people is not an object to be bought and sold, nor will
it accept its destruction idly. The Jews have armed themselves and
they are being trained for battle. And when their enemies fall upon
them to kill and wipe them out, they will defend themselves even as
the lioness defends her cubs, and for every Jew that perishes ten
of his opponents will forfeit their lives. Come, let us make public
this manifesto and you will see how much longer the countenances
of our opponents become and how downcast they will look. Cast off
your sackcloth, I tell you; wipe off your ashes and straighten out
your shoulders. Gird your loins and take double-edged swords in your
hands. And you will see that aid will come to you, and your blessing
will fall upon Zerubbabel.”
His countenance blazed like a torch and he looked upon the assembly
with the eyes of a leader. But all eyes were turned away from him
and the elders shook their heads. At this moment the door opened and
Mordecai entered. All rushed toward the newcomer, surrounding him and
showering him with their questions.
“What says Esther?”
“What does Esther?”
“What news of Esther?”
V
And Mordecai, the son of Jair, was garbed in sackcloth and ashes. His
forehead was furrowed with deep wrinkles and his eyes were careworn.
It was easily to be seen that many thoughts weighed upon his mind. He
opened his lips and answered the questioners. “There is no news from
Esther. And what would you hear from her? Do you not know that she
asked for three days, and that this is only the first?”
All the assembled hearers bowed their heads in mourning and wiped
their eyes. And when Mordecai, with a deep sigh, sank upon a bench,
the entire house resounded with sighs and groans from all hearts.
Zerubbabel stood alone; none looked upon him. His heart was bitter to
the point of crying out, and he would gladly have struck to right
and to left with his fists; he relieved his mood with a wild outburst
of laughter. All eyes were directed to him in astonishment, and
Mordecai spoke. “Zerubbabel, arrayed in his finest clothes, laughs
with such incisive laughter.—What ails him?”
Those about Mordecai stepped back, as if to open a path for
Zerubbabel, that he might approach Mordecai. Zerubbabel, however,
did not stir from his place. Brimming over with scorn and bitterness
he cried, “Tell him what ails me!” In a few words they repeated the
tenor of Zerubbabel’s speech, saying that he summoned his people to
battle and counselled them not to place their faith in Esther.
Mordecai raised his glance to Zerubbabel; both men eyed each other
like two enemies measuring each other’s strength. Then Mordecai
spoke, emphasising every word. “In every age there are certain
persons who imagine that the easiest way to break a wall is with
one’s head.”
Zerubbabel answered with aversion and mockery. “But not every age
has the misfortune to possess a leader with the timidity of a weak
woman, who can only raise his hands to his head and cry bitterly!”
The gathering turned its glances from Mordecai to Zerubbabel and from
Zerubbabel to Mordecai. It was as if two gladiators had stepped forth
into the arena to wrestle and seek victory. And the onlookers became
entirely absorbed in the scene about to take place, forgetting their
great misfortune. Yet they crowded more closely about Mordecai, as
though expecting protection from him against Zerubbabel.
Mordecai felt that all were with him and none was with Zerubbabel, so
he uttered cutting words. “Better a weak old woman as a leader than
a madman who inspires to impossibilities. The weakest of women may
prevent a calamity, but the most insignificant madman can bring down
upon his people the most grievous of disasters. I do not desire to
insult you, Zerubbabel, but what you counsel is sheer madness.”
Zerubbabel replied bitterly: “Woe unto the people to whom it is
preached that self-defence is madness, and greater woe still unto the
people among whom such preachment finds ready ears. Such a people is
a heap of dead bones, from which all signs of life have fled.”
Mordecai interrupted him with a calm, self-confident voice. “Who
says that self-defence is madness? Am I not, then, for self-defence?
Do I desire, then, that we exterminate ourselves before the enemy
attacks us? Do I wish, indeed, that we cease to be? Do I not yearn
to rescue our people? Let our people defend itself; but the means of
self-defence are various, and your way, Zerubbabel, is folly.”
Zerubbabel stood there, looking at Mordecai as if he had not
understood, and he asked, in great surprise, with a quivering voice,
“How long has the self-defence of a people meant the pretty face of a
young woman? Is Esther’s body our self-defence?”
Again Mordecai replied calmly and confidently. “You understand by
self-defence only the power of our arms, while I term self-defence
the power of beauty and the power of money likewise. You are young,
Zerubbabel, and surely you know the power of beauty. Say, is it not
the surest way? The king’s heart can be purchased for us with beauty,
and Esther must do it. Is not Esther my uncle’s daughter? Was she
not to me even as my own child? Is she not the flesh and blood of
all of us? And yet we told her to risk her life and go unbidden to
the king; and should her beauty not win the king and should she as
a consequence be put to death, then we will choose still another
Jewish daughter,—one even more beautiful. And even if we should have
to sacrifice all our Jewish daughters and sisters and wives, we will
do so, despite the great grief it will cause us and the heaviness of
the blow. Is not that, too, self-defence? And when our beauty has
proved unsuccessful, we will defend ourselves with our money, with
our possessions. Haman purchased us with ten thousand silver talents;
then we can buy ourselves free for twenty, thirty, forty. From time
immemorial these have been the surest means of self-defence. Was not
our father Jacob freed from his brother Esau by his possessions?
Did not also your great-great-grandfather, King Asa, save himself
from Baasha, King of Israel, through bribing Benhadad, King of Aram?
And did not Judith with her beauty rescue the Jews from Holofernes?
_Your_ self-defence, on the contrary, is self-destruction. Small and
few are we among the peoples of the hundred and seven and twenty
provinces. Who will fear our weapons? Who will be impressed by our
arms? And it may come to pass, moreover, that if the king learns that
Jews are arming themselves, he will send against us his powerful
army, trained in warfare; and there will not be a vestige left of our
people. Would you have it thus, Zerubbabel?”
Zerubbabel made answer in loud and bitter tones: “Shame upon you
and upon all who side with you! Shame upon the whole Jewish people
which beholds its salvation in money and its self-defence in the
beautiful bodies of its daughters! Now will I rend my garments and
put on sackcloth and ashes! Now will I weep and wail my bitter
lamentation! My people is dead! My people is a putrefying corpse. It
is an abode only for worms, reptiles and insects. All living spirits
have forsaken it. Where shall I find words to express my abhorrence?
Where shall I find the thunder with which to boom forth my wrath?
Judah, where are your warriors? Where are your heroes, Israel? Behold
who your leaders are, and hear what they counsel! In their debasement
they do not revolt against defiling their most sacred possessions,
and the honour of their daughters is of less worth to them than the
meanest life! Lion of yore, you have turned into a dog!”
Zerubbabel struggled for air and words failed him. He rent his
garments and tore his hair, crying aloud and bitterly. He wrung his
hands high above his head and kept repeating, “Shame upon them!
Shame! Shame!” He left the meeting-house, his legs wavering like
those of a drunkard.
The men, gathered in the meeting-house, followed him with frightened,
astonished looks, and not a mouth opened to speak a word. Only
Mordecai smiled and quoted the popular saying, “Is that not correct?
It is better to be a live dog than a dead lion.”
The assembly, however, became as if something had defiled it and
rendered it unclean. Yet none found in him the courage to follow
Zerubbabel.