He was naturally blessed with many wondrous combinations of traits.
He combined a fine soul with a handsome figure. Everything about him was charming, both inwardly and outwardly: his noble stature, his countenance, the warmth of his gaze, the pleasant timbre of his voice, his generous smile. There was charm in his every move. Gracious and magnificent charms together produced admiration and wonder, yet were not intimidating but rather heartwarming, drawing one to him and creating bonds of affection even while inspiring awe. Whoever saw him and enjoyed the radiance and splendor about him felt as though he himself were lacking, flawed in body and soul. But for whoever had the privilege of glancing at his face once, this would suffice – as Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi said of Rabbi Meir – for his entire life.
Both dreamer and man of action, visionary of redemption, he soared far in his flight without becoming entangled in imaginings and fantasies. Rather, he watched his goal with clear eyes, and wisely and honestly considered the means for achieving it, showing excellent perception even regarding subtle maneuvers, and adeptly choosing the right time to realize his distant dream and vision; a combination of innocence and astuteness.
The fury and defiance of a forceful, resolute warrior were combined with the tenderness and delicacy of a spiritual poet’s soul, and a heart full of grace and mercy. A rebel and revolutionary – rebel against his past and his generation, rebel against a long tradition of assimilation –with the refinement and charm of a courteous gentleman, fond of polished manners and careful of the dignity of his fellow man; a blend of nobleness and informality, he was both a loner dwelling in the shrine of literature and a man who goes about in society.
A blend of devotion with joy of living, of idealistic purity and sacredness together with hedonistic pleasures – a new conception of sacredness and purity, which turns away from abstinence and frugality.
One is aware that such pairings of opposites are precious and rare, and the rarest of all is the combination of a great soul with the inclination towards public or political action. “As a rule, a man is sociable just in the degree in which he is intellectually poor and generally vulgar…” (Schopenhauer).
He arrived at the idea of Jewish redemption not out of solidarity for the Jewish nation and its culture, but out of general solidarity for humanity, sorrow and empathy for the nation’s hardships and the oppression and degeneration it suffered, moral indignation at the wickedness of the gentiles and the world-encompassing injustice of the nations, and a sense of beauty that rebelled against the ugliness of exile. And it is this – the human, moral-aesthetic element, the superior philanthropic element if you like – that gives his approach its innovation and its excellence.
Some say it was the Dreyfus affair that led him to seek a solution for the Jewish question in national independence or in a Jewish state. But this is like saying that the falling of the apple led Newton to discover the law of gravity. This affair was only an external factor, not a motive but merely an incidental catalyst, the timely reason for the bursting forth of his moral fury and defiance. It was what set off the revolution within him, elevating the concept of a nation to the glorious, heroic level of the people’s redemption in the land of Israel.
And it is also one of the secrets of his tremendous influence on all levels of the nation. He appeared before it suddenly, from the outside rather than from within the Jewish world, not waving the banner of the Torah or of the spirit of Judaism, but rather of a demand for national freedom in the name of human morality. He was the first visionary of Israel’s redemption in this secular aspect, the aspect in which it is “like all other nations”.
Therefore his appearance in itself, even if it had not generated such a colossal enterprise, would still represent a change of values and a revolution unprecedented in our national history. For many generations to come we will yet have a need for the edifying influence of that sudden appearance: the spirit of Herzl in each and every generation.