There is a tendency to think of folklore as something old, an ancient repository of wisdom, belief, and value. Folklore, however, is not merely an inheritance of the past. Telling tales, composing songs, or coining proverbs are processes that are ongoing. Folklore cannot be ascribed to any particular time or place. It is the result of human creativity responding to a conception of the past, the exigencies of the present, and hopes for the future. It is something that is as modern as it is ancient.
The birth of a nation, the formation of a people, is one of the grand themes addressed in folklore. The numerous epics, legends, and songs that recount great battles, the deeds of valorous heroes, and the establishment of kingdoms constitute the sacred histories of nations. They have inspired works of written literature known and esteemed throughout the world.
The birth of the modern nation of Israel and the forging of an Israeli identity inspired the creation of the chizbat, a folkloric response. Although this folklore does recount the deeds of warriors and heroes, it was less than epic in its scope and less than majestic in its expression. It is virtually unknown outside of Israel, and even there it is being forgotten. Never sacred, it was nonetheless incisive and profound.
The Palmach And The Chizbat
In 1941, Rommel's Afrikakorps landed in Libya to aid the failed Italian offensive against Egypt. By the early summer of the following year, the offensive stood one hundred kilometers from Alexandria with no apparent obstacle in the way of the German conquest of Egypt, Palestine, and the remainder of the Middle East. The leaders of the yishuv, the Jewish settlement in Palestine, recognized the necessity of organizing an independent Jewish fighting force for the defense of the country. The British agreed to train several hundred Jewish commandos who could serve to harass German lines in the event of a British withdrawal. Thus the military force known as the Palmach was born.
When the German advance was repelled at El Alamein, the British dismantled their training program, realizing that these forces might eventually be turned against the British themselves. Yishuv leaders, however, decided that the maintenance of an independent, permanently mobilized Jewish strike force was necessary. Because no funds were available to support a military, and because the enterprise would have to be hidden from British authorities, it was decided to organize the units of the Palmach on the kibbutzim (collective farms) throughout the country. By working on the farms for half of every month, the Palmach recruits earned the bed and board that freed them to train during the other half.
The Palmach was more than a military organization, however. Its members were a group of dedicated Jewish youth entrusted by the yishuv with the awesome responsibility of its defense. They shared many of the secular, socialist values of the kibbutzim on which they were stationed. Most of them were born and raised on kibbutzim. They were idealists imbued with a mission of establishing and defending a Jewish homeland. But if that mission was to succeed, it would have to be carried out by a new kind of Jew. And the Palmachniks (members of the Palmach), in their fashion, set about to make themselves in this new
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