When Joseph met Zuleika – the theo-political underpinning of Joseph in Shlonsky's early poetry and its critique of the halutz ethos

ABSTRACT

Rabbinic, kabbalist and hasidic traditions perceive Joseph as an emblem of righteousness, a guardian of the Covenant, a symbol of Sefirat Yesod and a divine representation of the earthly zaddik. In various sources, Joseph's struggle with Zuleika, Potiphar's wife, is elevated to a mythological struggle of the righteous with the forces of evil, manifested as a seductive, demonic woman. Zuleika casts her net to capture Joseph and break the divine union of God and “Knesset Israel.” Avraham Shlonsky's account of the charged relationships between Joseph and Zuleika is a metaphor and a prism for his critical view of the Zionist-halutz ideology and its concepts of body, masculinity and sexuality. Reading Shlonsky's early poetry collected in the book titled Bagalgal (In the Wheel, 1927) while applying hermeneutical methods taken from the field of Jewish thought brings the array of references and allusions to Jewish traditional texts to the surface. These references range from the Bible through the Talmud and Midrash to Hasidism. This method yields two important contributions; first, it highlights the unique contribution of Shlonsky's poetry. Second, the reconstruction of the theo-political elements of Shlonsky's early poetry deepens our understanding of the theological undercurrents of what is considered “secular Zionist culture” and demonstrates the unique role of the modern Hebrew poet as a secular prophet of the Jewish national revival.

KEYWORDS:

• Political-theology
• Zionism
• Third Aliyah
• Hebrew poetry
• Kabbalah
• Hasidism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Dr Haim O. Rechnitzer is Associate Professor of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew Union College – JIR and a poet. His research is dedicated to Jewish and Israeli political theology and poetry. His recent books are Prophecy and the Perfect Political Order: The Political Theology of Leo Strauss (Jerusalem, 2012), Songs of the Third Exile (Jerusalem, 2014) and Shibolet (Vortex) (Jerusalem, 2015).

Notes

1. Barzel refers his readers to Shlonsky's writings in Shlonsky (1960, 32). On Shlonsky and his rebellion against Bialik, see Hagorni-Green (1985).

2. Recently, Hagit Halperin suggested four different explanations for the title of the book – “the Wheel” as a symbol of the world's insanity; “wheel” as gematria of suffering (makhuv); “Wheel” as an alarm bell used by the halutzim to mark the end of the work day or an emergency, and “Wheel” as symbolizing an eternal cycle from bad to good and from good to bad. See Halperin (2001, 312–313).

3. (Shlonsky 1927) The poem cycle Beḥufzi was composed in 1920 during Shlonsky's flight from the Kazaks’ pogroms in Ekaterinoslav to Krim (Crimea). Honolulu was published in its entirety in the Journal Hedim 1923.

4. The poetry volumes Stam (unadorned, insignificant, meaningless), Behofzi (In my haste), Le'aba-Ima (To father-mother) were published in the early 1920s.

5. Shlonsky scholarship usually treats these volumes as individual units collected in Bagalgal and does not regard this edition as a new/renewed creation. See for example Avneri (1973, Chapters 2, 3, 7), and Ofengenden (2010b).

6. When already a well-established Israeli poet Shlonsky would say that “Every poem is a personal biography but its value is measured only if the personal biography is rooted and paralleled with the objective time of the society.” An interview with the poet, Israeli Broadcast Association – the Educational T.V. (1968). (My translation) http://www.23tv.co.il/1474-he/Tachi.aspx (30 September 2014); see also Isiah Ben-Prat's interview with Shlonsky, Ha'aretz (16th March 1962); and Shlonsky's testimony in an interview with G. Yardeni as cited by A.B. Yoffe (1966, 7–8).

7. For a Zaddik as “a Vessel” that can draw down God's powers, see Idel (1995, Chapter 6) and Garb (2011, 79); for bodily mystical experiences, see Wolfson (2010, 147–199).

8. See for example Jer. 13; 15; 18. Ezek. 3:22- 5 end. Ari Ofengenden emphasizes the disappearance of the speaker by the implementation of the symbolic literary style and interprets this as a manifestation of Shlonsky's passion for absence. My interpretation attempts to present Shlonsky's symbolic style and his mythologization of nature and the poet's life as a part of the messianic process. See Ofengenden (2010b, 12–15).

9. Shlonsky is known for his attempts to transcend Bialik's dominance of the Hebrew literary scene and overcome Bialik's influence over his own poetic soul. For Shlonsky's conflicts with Bialik, see Hagorni-Green (1989, 87–97). And Halperin (2001, 217–228). Halprin presents the poem Hitgalut as a dialogue with Bialik's poem Hozeh lekh berah (Prophet, run away). Bialik portrays the prophetic mission as a burden while Shlonsky accepts it “with excitement bordering with intoxication, devoid of any hesitation and anxiety” (Halperin 2001, 218).

10. First published in Hapo`el Hatza`ir, No. 17 vol. 1–2, p. 9 (19th April 1923). See also Bahat (1981, 220–235).

11. The theme of the poet as the locus of world's condition repeats in various poems; see, for example, “If the universe – is drunk and torn- / I am its wild song, / I am the song” (Shlonsky 1927, 37)

12. See also Yehudah Liebes “The Messiah of the Zohar: on R. Simeon bar Yohai as a messianic figure,” in Liebes 1993, 1–84, 163–193.

13. The name appears in medieval period Midrash traditions and its source is Muslim.

14. See for example Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 35:b (Epstein 1961); Bereshit Rabbah 87.9 (Margalioth 1975); Midrash Hagadol I (Vayeshev, 39:-9) 561–567.

15. There are numerous sources for this tradition, here are a few samples: Babylonian Talmud, Sukkah 52:a; and for a modern source see Rabbi Kook “The Lamentation in Jerusalem” (An eulogy to Dr Theodor Herzl) English translation in Kook (2003).

16. Ḥabad theology here refers in our discussion to the second generation of Ḥabad Rabbis, and especially to that of Rabbi Aharon Halevi Horowitz.

17. Due to the scope of this paper, I cannot delve into a close reading of these poems. For further analysis, see Rechnitzer (2014) and Ofengenden (2010b).

18. In Hebrew – Zimah and Tevel. The context is that of a violation of sexual taboos. See Leviticus 18:17: “You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and of her daughter, nor shall you take her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness; they are blood relatives. It is lewdness.” and ibid verse 28 “Also you shall not have intercourse with any animal to be defiled with it, nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it; it is a perversion.”

19. In Hebrew Zafi'a with a connotation also to a name of a poisonous snake Zefa’. See also reference to Ezekiel 4:15 “Then He said to me, ‘See, I shall give you cow's dung in place of human dung over which you will prepare your bread.’"

20. For example Shlonsky (1927, 105).

21. For recent work on Jewish secularism, see Ben Rafael et al. (2006) and Jobani Fall (2008, 160–169).