A.Z. Foreman | "On the Butchery" by Bialik, read in Ashkenazic Hebrew and in English translation @a.z.foreman74 | Uploaded 11 months ago | Updated 1 hour ago
In which I read Bialik's "On the Butchery", written after the 1903 Kishinev pogrom. I read the original Hebrew using traditional Ashkenazic pronunciation, because I refuse to destroy Bialik's rhyme and rhythm with Israeli vowels and word-stress.
The Book of Judges serves as a not-so-subtle (to the Hebrew reader anyway) textual anchor throughout the poem. In Judges: 6, Israel lies in the hands of the Midianites, suffering under the cruelty of foreign oppressors. The same notion lies at the heart of Bialik's view of the Czarist regime- the foreigners who are slaughtering Jews. In Judges: 6, the Israelite judge Gideon contemplates the plight of his people and sinks into doubt and faithlessness. Eventually, Gideon, after asking over and over for a sign from God, finally receives such an answer in the form of two miracles. Bialik, by contrast, cries out but but receives no answer.
In which I read Bialik's "On the Butchery", written after the 1903 Kishinev pogrom. I read the original Hebrew using traditional Ashkenazic pronunciation, because I refuse to destroy Bialik's rhyme and rhythm with Israeli vowels and word-stress.
The Book of Judges serves as a not-so-subtle (to the Hebrew reader anyway) textual anchor throughout the poem. In Judges: 6, Israel lies in the hands of the Midianites, suffering under the cruelty of foreign oppressors. The same notion lies at the heart of Bialik's view of the Czarist regime- the foreigners who are slaughtering Jews. In Judges: 6, the Israelite judge Gideon contemplates the plight of his people and sinks into doubt and faithlessness. Eventually, Gideon, after asking over and over for a sign from God, finally receives such an answer in the form of two miracles. Bialik, by contrast, cries out but but receives no answer.
