lt, let it be known, with their own hands; for they were too poor
to hire workmen. They carried the beams and boards on their shoulders,
singing and dancing on the way, as they sang and danced at the
presentation of a scroll to the synagogue. They hauled and sawed and
hammered, till the last nail was driven home; and when they conducted
the holy man to his new abode, the rejoicing was greater than at the
crowning of a czar.

That little cabin was fit to be preserved as the monument to a
species of idealism that has rarely been known outside the Pale. What
was the ultimate source of the pious enthusiasm that built my
great-grandfather's house? What was the substance behind the show of
the Judaism of the Pale? Stripped of its grotesque mask of forms,
rites, and mediaeval superstitions, the religion of these fanatics was
simply the belief that God was, had been, and ever would be, and that
they, the children of Jacob, were His chosen messengers to carry His
Law to all the nations. Beneath the mountainous volumes of the
Talmudists and commentators, the Mosaic tablets remained intact. Out
of the mazes of the Cabala the pure doctrine of ancient Judaism found
its way to the hearts of the faithful. Sects and schools might rise
and fall, deafening the ears of the simple with the clamor of their
disputes, still the Jew, retiring within his own soul, heard the
voice of the God of Abraham. Prophets, messiahs, miracle workers
might have their day, still the Jew was conscious that between
himself and God no go-between was needed; that he, as well as every
one of his million brothers, had his portion of God's work to do. And
this close relation to God was the source of the strength that
sustained the Jew through all the trials of his life in the Pale.
Consciously or unconsciously, the Jew identified himself with the
cause of righteousness on earth; and hence the heroism with which he
met the battalions of tyrants.

No empty forms could have impressed the unborn children of the Pale so
deeply that they were prepared for willing martyrdom almost as soon as
they were weaned from their mother's breast. The flame of the burning
bush that had dazzled Moses still lighted the gloomy prison of the
Pale. Behind the mummeries, ceremonials, and symbolic accessories, the
object of the Jew's adoration was the face of God.

This has been many times proved by those who escaped from the Pale,
and, excited by sudden freedom, thought to rid themselve