The
actual, living Herzl said and did much that was open to question;
and those who did not wilfully blind themselves were bound sometimes
to oppose him most strenuously; and even to complain of some of the
methods which he adopted. But the ideal figure of Herzl, which is
being created before our eyes in the popular mind - what a splendid
vision it will be, and how potent its influence to cleanse that very
mind of the taint of galuth, to awaken it to a sense of national self-respect,
and to whet its desire for a real national life! The first fruits
of that influence are already visible, before the month of mourning
os over. And, of course, imagination has not yet finished its work.
The creation is not yet perfected. As time goes on, and the ideal
picture of the national hero attains its perfect form, he will perhaps
become for our day what the old national heroes were for our ancestors
in days gone by; the people will make him the embodiment of its own
national ideal, in all its radiance and purity, and will derive from
him strength and courage to struggle onward indefatigably along the
hard road of history.
Herzl
gave us the Congress, the Organization, the Bank, the National Fund.
Whether these are to be reckoned great achievements we cannot yet
know. All depends on whether they endure and in what form they continue
to exist. But one thing Herzl gave us involuntarily which is perhaps
greater than all that he did of set purpose. He gave us himself, to
be the theme of our Hymn of Revival, a theme which imagination can
take and adorn with all the attributes needed to make of him a Hebrew
national hero, embodying our national aspirations in their true form.