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The Path Leading to the Abyss: Hebrew and Yiddish in the Poetry Of The Path Leading to the Abyss: Hebrew and Yiddish in the Poetry of Yaakov Steinberg 1903-1915 Elazar Elhanan Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2014 © 2014 Elazar Elhanan All rights reserved ABSTRACT The Path Leading to the Abyss: Hebrew and Yiddish in the Poetry of Yaakov Steinberg 1903-1915. Elazar Elhanan This dissertation explores the dynamics of identity construction and nation building in Hebrew and Yiddish literature in Russia and Poland in the decade following the 1905 revolution. It examines these dynamics through a study of the poetry of Yaakov Steinberg between the years 1903-1915. Steinberg, an important but little studied poet and writer, wrote extensively in both languages. He renounced Yiddish upon his immigration to Palestine. Through the comparison of Steinberg’s Hebrew poems and the poems he wrote in Yiddish this dissertation exposes the intricate relations between the languages and the political ideologies of Yiddishism and Zionism that accompanied them, in Steinberg’s work and in general. The dissertation shows how the constitution of a modern national subject became the prime concern for these literatures, both as a general ideological demand and as a personal, emotional question. By placing the conflict between the two language ideologies in the center of the debate, this dissertation seeks to point out to a serious methodological lacuna in the study of Hebrew literature and of Zionist history. By placing Yaakov Steinberg’s poetry in a wide polyglot context and defining his bilingualism as a fundamental characteristic and a major theoretic concern, this work seeks to demonstrate the depth and span of the discourse on the future of the Jews, as individuals or as a nation, that took place in the revolutionary space of turn of the century Russia. Table of Contents Acknowledgments ii Introduction. 1 Chapter I. 38 Part 1. Poems: the romantic foundations. 38 Part 2. The Book of Satires: the romantic self and the poetics of separation. 57 Part 3. The Book of Lonelinesses and the Aesthetics of Decadence 83 Chapter II. Yiddish Poems 112 Part 1. Poems 1903-1909: negotiating the romantic self. 112 Part 2. Yiddish poems 1910-1914: the decadent persona 163 Chapter III. Rusland 184 Chapter IV- Massa Avisholem 237 Discussion 286 Bibliography 291 Works by Yaakov Steinberg. 291 Works consulted: 294 i Acknowledgments My first and most profound debt of gratitude is to Dan Miron whose work is a constant source of inspiration for me. As my dissertation advisor his encyclopedic knowledge, critical eye, intellectual sophistication and wit were invaluable in the formation and development of my work. I would also like to express my profound gratitude to Hannan Hever, who accompanied me throughout this process. Hever’s careful reading of my work and his precise remarks in all matters of literary theory, nationalism and nation-building were of great value but it was his friendship, kindness and attention that were priceless. I would like to thank Uri S. Cohen who accompanied me from my first day in Columbia was there for every station of this road. I would like to thank Prof. Nurit Peled-Elhanan who had read my work with attention, care and severity as only a loving mother would and to whom I owe a debt of gratitude as large as only a loving son could. Likewise I would like to thank my family that stood by me, encouraged me and supported me all along. A special thanks goes to my friends. Without their support, love and care none of this would have been possible. Last but not least I wish to thank my partner Neta Hemo, who was the one who actually saw me through this thing to its end. ii Introduction. This dissertation is a study of the literary dynamics and ideologies in Hebrew and Yiddish in the first decades of the 20th century. The study looks at the relation of these literatures to both the political ideologies of Zionism and Yiddishism and the major aesthetic debates of the time: the question of cultural nationalism and romanticism, individualism and decadence, and modernism as it is personified in the work of Yaakov Steinberg. Yaakov Steinberg is an important but little studied poet and writer. He was a prominent figure in the literary scene, both in Hebrew and in Yiddish. Steinberg found himself, like many other writers at the time, forced to choose between the two languages. The study examines closely the poetry Yaakov Steinberg published in Hebrew and Yiddish before his immigration to Palestine in 1914 and reads it as the intersection of two vectors. The first is Steinberg’s relation to the modernist, pessimist and decadent poetic climate in which he functioned. Opposing that is his commitment to the project of national liberation, either in Hebrew or in Yiddish, which demanded very different poetics. We shall claim that these different poetic positions were an effort to legitimize Steinberg’s own precarious notion of the poet in society and in the context of national literature. This research shows how Steinberg produced sets of poetic expression: a major critical one in Hebrew that opposed the reclusive critical hedonist to the demands of the national literature, and a minor one in Yiddish, which presented a softer lyrical, sentimental speaker contending with the contradiction between modernity and romanticism. It is our contention that Steinberg attempted to form, in either language, a personal expression that would allow him to participate in the national project while not effacing his particular identity or his objections to its romantic premises. 1 1. Yaakov Steinberg Yaakov Steinberg (1887-1947) was born in a small Ukrainian town Bialya-Cherkov near Kiev, to a lower middle class family. He received traditional Jewish education in the kheder and then the yeshiva, the rabbinical school. At fourteen he ran away from home and came to Odessa. In Odessa, as a novice poet, Steinberg sought out Bialik and his circle “for material and spiritual aid”. He published his first poem in Hebrew in 1901 and his first Yiddish poem in 1903. In 1903, after two years in Odessa, a period marked by hunger and strife that left its mark on his work, Steinberg moved to Warsaw. 1 There he found a translator’s post in the short-lived Hebrew language Zionist daily Ha’zofe, which also published his first stories.2 The young poet frequented Y.L. Perets’ circle of Yiddish writers and attended his Thursday parties, fashioned after Mallarmé’s.3 His first book of Hebrew poems was published in 1905, entitled Poems. Steinberg first book was celebrated as a major event. It received wide acclaims, most important of which was H.N. Bialik’s high opinion of it. Steinberg left Warsaw between 1905 and 1906. He traveled to Bren in an unsuccessful attempt to study medicine and then to the region of Kiev to escape the political unrest that followed the failed revolution. He later returned to Warsaw, which became his home base until his departure to Palestine. During this time Steinberg was employed in “Der Fraynd”, the 1 Israel Cohen, Ya`Akov Shtainberg: Ha-Ish Vi-Yetsirato ([Tel-Aviv]: Devir, 1972), 16-19. 2 Tsiporah Sivan, Shirat Ya`Akov Shtaynberg (1991), Thesis/dissertation (deg); Microfiche (mfc); Microfilm (mfl), 13. 3 Cohen, Ya`Akov Shtainberg: Ha-Ish Vi-Yetsirato. 19 2 important Yiddish periodical where he would publish a great deal of his Yiddish work.4 In Hebrew he published mostly in the journal “Reshafim” and in other periodicals. The publishing house “Sifrut” that owned “Reshafim” published two collections of Steinberg’s poems from those years: The Book of Satires and The Book of Lonelinesses.5 These books were badly received and were viewed as a misguided detour from the high road indicated in Steinberg’s first book.6 Besides poetry he also published prose work and drama in different Hebrew and Yiddish periodicals. Between 1906 and 1914 Steinberg became a prolific Yiddish prose writer, overshadowing his Yiddish work in drama and poetry.7 In 1909 he publishes the book Collected Writings, a collection of works in prose and poetry in Yiddish.8 During that year he published nine stories in different publications. Over the next three years he published a play and no less than fourteen stories in Yiddish. 9 Steinberg’s Yiddish poetry was published sporadically in different periodicals and dailies between 1903 and 1909. This period was followed by “the years of bounty” between 1910 and 1914 when the bulk of his prose and poetry work in Yiddish was published.10 This most likely due to his association with the daily “Der Fraynd”, which even 4 Ibid. 20-21 5 Jacob Steinberg, Sefer Ha-Satirot, Shirim, Bibliotekah Shel Sifrut; (Varshah: Hotsaat "Sifrut," Place: Poland; Warsaw, 1909); Sefer Ha-Bedidot : Shirim(Varshah: Hotsat "Safrut", 1910). 6 Sivan, Shirat Ya`Akov Shtaynberg, 15-16. 7 Zalman Niger Samuel Rejzen, Leksikon Fun Der Yudisher Literatur Un Prese, Steven Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library (Varshoy: Tsentral, 674, 2003). 601-04 8 Jacob Steinberg, Gezamelte Shriften. (Varsha: Velt bibliotek, 1908). 9 Aharon Komem, Darkhe Ha-Sipur Shel Ya`Akov Shtainberg (Yerushalayim: [.h. mo l.], 1976), Thesis/dissertation (deg), 37. 10 Ibid. 3 published a supplement dedicated to his work. Steinberg’s work includes several dozens of short poems, one long Bialik-like epic poem, three other longer works and his chef-d’oeuvre, a long narrative poem Rusland, which was serialized in 1911 in “Der Fraynd” and was later published in a book form with a preface by the known critique Bal-Makhshoves.11 He received acclaims for his Yiddish poetry from prominent figures such as Avrom Reyzin.
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