the will to apply them actively in our chaotic, untidy existence, which is terribly blocked up with all kinds of idle clack and home-spun philosophy, and which gets more and more saturated with silly arrogance and puerile bragging. Somewhere deep in the Russian soul—no matter whether it is the "master's" or the muzhik's—there lives a petty and squalid demon of passive anarchism, who infects us with a careless and indifferent attitude toward work, society, people, and ourselves.
I believe that the morality of Judaism would assist us greatly in overcoming this demon,—if only we have the will to combat him.
In my early youth I read—I have forgotten where—the words of the ancient Jewish sage—Hillel, if I remember rightly:
"If thou art not for thyself, who will be for thee? But if thou art for thyself alone—wherefore art thou?"[1]
The inner meaning of these words impressed me with its profound wisdom, and I interpreted them for myself in this manner: I
- ↑ "If I am not for myself who is for me? And being for my own self, what am I?" "Pirqe Aboth," I, 14—Translator's Note.
