nd in the
seventh year (shemittah), Rabbi Isaac Elhanan Spector of Kovno, the
leading rabbi and Talmudist of his time, decided, in opposition to the
Jerusalem rabbinate, that the law had ceased to be effective with the
destruction of the Temple. Baron Edmond de Rothschild of Paris also came
to the rescue of the colonists, and, more important still, there began
an immigration of Russo-Jewish farmers into Palestine, of the class,
numbering about ninety-five thousand souls, whom Arnold White described
as "an active, well set-up, sun-burnt, muscular, agricultural people,
marked by all the characteristics of a peasantry of the highest
character." With them the colonies began to flourish, the debts were
paid off, and a better regime set in. "There was no crime or
drunkenness," says Bentwich, "in those settlements, and the only usurer
was a Russian peasant, who charged the Jewish borrowers thirty-six per
cent for loans. If ever I saw practical religion carried into daily
life, it was among those brave and sober Hebrew ploughmen."[12]

Whatever may be one's views on Zionism, there can be no doubt that it
has proved a power for good in Russia. It introduced new ideals and
revived old expectations. It has accomplished, in a measure, the fond
hope of the Maskilim and awakened within the Russian Jew a feeling of
self-respect and a "consciousness of human worth." Different and
contending elements it has coalesced into one. It has, above all,
brought back to the fold the doubting Thomases and careless Gallios,
even the avowed scoffers, among the Jewish youth, and imbued them with
courage and pride,[13] and given them a new shibboleth, _Meine Kunst der
Welt, mein Leben meinem Volke_ ("My art for the world, my life for my
people").

"We have seen our youths return to us," writes Lilienblum,[14] "and our
hearts were filled with joy. In their restoration we found balm for our
wounds, and with rapturous wonderment we asked 'who has borne us
these?'" The poets welcomed them with songs. Gordon, whose sorrow had
silenced his muse, was inspired once more and called:

Behold our sons, of whom we despaired,
Return to us, the great and the small;
God's grace is not ended, our power's unimpaired,
Again we shall live, and rise after the fall!

Frug sang in Russian:

My own Nation,
Thou art not alone; thy sons behold
Coming back in crowds as in days of old!

And Zunser represented Rachel as soliloq