Ben-Yehuda urged the revival of
Hebrew and the resettlement of Palestine as the foundation for the
rebirth of the Jewish people. Herzl was unaware of the existence of
these works. His eyes were not directed to the problem in the same
manner. When he wrote "The Jewish State" he was a journalist, living
in Paris, sending his letters to the leading newspaper of Vienna, the
_Neue Freie Presse_, and writing on a great variety of subjects. He
was led to see Jewish life as a phenomenon in a changing world. He had
adapted himself to a worldly outlook on all life. Through his efforts,
the Jewish problem was raised to the higher level of an international
question which, in his judgment, should be given consideration by
enlightened statesmanship. He was inspired to give his pamphlet a
title that arrested attention.

* * * * *

He wrote "The Jewish State" in a mood of restless agitation. His ideas
were thrown pell-mell into the white heat of a spontaneous revelation.
What was revealed dazzled and blinded him. Alex Bein, in his excellent
biography, gives an intriguing description, drawn from Herzl's
"Diaries," of how "The Jewish State" was born. It was the revelation
of a mystic vision with flashes and overtones of prophecy. This is
what Bein says:

"Then suddenly the storm breaks upon him. The clouds open. The
thunder rolls. The lightning flashes about him. A thousand
impressions beat upon him at the same time--a gigantic vision.
He cannot think; he is unable to move; he can only write;
breathless, unreflecting, unable to control himself or to
exercise his critical faculties lest he dam the eruption, he
dashes down his thoughts on scraps of paper--walking, standing,
lying down, on the street, at the table, in the night--as if
under unceasing command. So furiously did the cataract of his
thoughts rush through him, that he thought he was going out of
his mind. He was not working out the idea. The idea was working
him out. It would have been an hallucination had it not been so
informed by reason from first to last."

Not only did the Magic Title evoke a widespread interest among the
intellectuals of the day, but it brought Jews out of the ghettos and
made them conscious of their origin and destiny. It made them feel
that there was a world that might be won for their cause, hitherto
never communicated to strangers. Through Herzl, Jews were taught no