From Words to Power
- Gedaliah Borvick
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
Standing near Bar-Ilan University before my daughter's college graduation, I happened to look up at the street signs. The streets at the intersection were named for Bialik and Begin.
At first, I couldn't figure out why those two names belonged together.
One honors Hayim Nahman Bialik, the poet born in 1873 who helped shape modern Hebrew literature and awaken Jewish national identity. The other honors Menachem Begin, born four decades later, the underground fighter and later prime minister who helped secure Jewish sovereignty.
A poet and a statesman. One wielded words, the other political and military power. At first glance, they seemed to have little in common. The more I thought about it, however, the more those two street signs told a single story.
Bialik lived at a time when the Jewish people had no state, no army, and little control over their own destiny. His response was cultural. He wrote in Hebrew when Hebrew was still struggling to become the language of everyday Jewish life. Through his poetry, he helped inspire a national revival. More importantly, he gave Jews a way to see themselves, despite being scattered across the globe, as one people with a shared past and a shared future.
After the 1903 Kishinev pogrom, Bialik wrote In the City of Slaughter, a searing poem that challenged Jews to reclaim their dignity. He could not change the political reality, but he challenged Jews to stop seeing themselves as passive victims and instead as a people capable of shaping their own future.
By the time Begin emerged decades later, the situation had changed dramatically.
Begin belonged to a generation that no longer believed words alone would be enough. The Jewish people, in his view, also needed to defend themselves and determine their own destiny. As commander of the Irgun, he led the struggle against British rule in Mandatory Palestine, insisting that the Jewish people must take responsibility for their own future.
Later, after the establishment of the State of Israel, Begin led the Herut party and spent nearly three decades as leader of the opposition before becoming prime minister in 1977. The national aspirations that Bialik's generation had dreamed of, Begin's generation helped achieve.
They never worked together, and they lived in different eras. Yet both confronted the same question: How could the Jewish people regain control of their own future?
Before there could be a Jewish state, there first had to be a Jewish people that believed it deserved one. Bialik helped nurture that belief. Years later, Begin helped transform it into reality.
Standing at that intersection before my daughter's graduation, I realized I wasn't looking at two unrelated street signs. I was looking at two important chapters of the same story. A nation needs the people who give voice to its aspirations, and it needs the people who turn those aspirations into reality.
Gedaliah Borvick is the founder of My Israel Home (www.myisraelhome.com), a boutique agency that guides overseas buyers through the complexities of purchasing and selling homes in Israel. To receive his monthly market updates, contact him at gborvick@gmail.com.
