Uri Zvi Greenberg

Decay of the House of Israel
by Uri Zvi Greenberg
[1936 - The following are excerpts]

Let everyone here sink lower than the lowest pit on earth
why bother with the vision of a revolution, the end of which
is an Oceanic Kingdom of Israel .. no one prays for that.

The arms of their ancestors reached out for G-d
But these have lost G-d and lost his Heavens, and they
offer no arms in prayer; they offer their necks
to anyone who flashes a knife, even a child.

Rise from the fire, be a burning bush of rage here!
Rise from the blood, be a pillar of cloud pouring forth
the sword of lightening and the power of thunder!
don't comfort, don't cuddle, No!
enough sickeningly sweet songs to satisfy
the victims death, the horizon turned to ruins.

Rip apart! Rip the roofs off houses
Scatter across the seas to the seventy exiles
(Diasporas deceived by speeches and stories
of the wonders of our Great Society of kibbutzim and villages --)

Scatter the stench of a sick bureaucratic-literary-philosophical Judaism...
They could have heroically realized the dreams of old
and become rulers here, like all other peoples on earth ...
The stench of those who run from Mastery
to hide in the shade cast by Josephus, on the ground of David!
The stench of their "reasonableness" so hopefully offered
by those who pity Arab killers but not their own brothers
whose blood is shed so near their homes ...
They who are willing to be ashamed by any Gentile
and are ready to persecute the brother who dares reveal the shame
who dares stir them to Mastery, plain and simple: like all other peoples on earth.
There's no other land like this on earth!

Now in this land that longs for a new Song of David,
for a new conquest, form the sea to the Mountains of Moab --
No princely children of David walk, robed in fire
burning with G-dly desire for power -
only atrophied children of David
small of mind and poor of understanding
bereft of G-d and Malkhut and so, mocking of G-d and Malkhut.

The faith of Sinai -- foreigners could not melt its steel
even if they melted our bodies around the world.
Here, the Jews rush to rid themselves of the Faith, or ignore it
Their hands cut faces from our national mosaic --
No: kings, prophets, fanatics, gaonim
martyrs who drank their own flaming bodies, not water,exiled prisoners who were masters at heart
poets for Zion with unparalleled desire
poets who sang this desire for Malkhut David
into every drop of our people's blood, to this day

They came not to build a State, only a haven
that doesn't demand a battle march, a ready soul
"Life is easier without Malkhut David, without Sinai, without a bush that burns!"

Have we failed to fall a third time?
At the hands of Rome? Arab slime?
Without a word? To surrender --
without even a battle? You who hate this realty
You who scorn this travesty
You remain a rebel, speaking for
those forever loyal to Sinai!
Rip apart! Rip the roofs off houses here
And scatter the stench across the seas