PROLOGUE to the book “The Psalms of Jabotinsky”
In Jewish tradition, there is a book
called Perek Shirah.
It teaches
that everything created in this world
sings its song to the Almighty
and, through that song, serves God.
Although Perek Shirah belongs to Jewish tradition,
its idea is universal.
The heavens have their song.
The earth has its own.
Water and wind,
trees and birds—
every creation
has its voice.
The human being also serves God.
His song
is not only prayer.
It is his words.
His actions.
His choices
and his responsibility
for what has been entrusted to him.
This is how Jewish history unfolds.
What was created by Jews for Jews
with time became a spiritual light
for all of humanity.
The Torah
was given
to the Jewish people,
and for this very reason
it became the foundation
of the spiritual life of the world.
The Psalms of David
were written
by the king of Israel
for his own people.
They became
the most powerful
and the most widely read prayers
in human history.
Perek Shirah,
the song of creation,
in which everything sings to the Almighty
and serves God,
became understandable
and close
to people of many nations.
Such is the design.
What is born
within Israel
carries light
far beyond its borders.
At first, I wrote a book
about Ze’ev Jabotinsky
in prose.
I tried to understand and convey
who he was,
what he thought,
and what he did
for the Jewish people.
With time, I realized
that this was not enough.
This conversation
required another language.
Studying the Psalms
within the context of Jewish spiritual tradition,
I saw
that the Book of Psalms
is not the work of a single author.
Within it resound the voices of David,
and Moses,
and Asaph,
and the sons of Korach,
and the Levites.
Psalms
are not a matter of authorship.
They are a form of service.
They are a language
through which different people,
in different eras,
spoke to God
from the depths of their lives.
And then I understood
that I could speak
about Jabotinsky
in the language of psalms.
Not because he wrote them,
but because he lived
as those live
whose lives
become a song of service.
Ze’ev Jabotinsky
sang to the Almighty
with his life.
He sang
through words
and through action.
He wrote the essay
“The Iron Wall”—
a text that became the foundation
for understanding the right
of the Jewish people
to defend their lives
and their land.
Later, he wrote
“The Ethics of the Iron Wall,”
where he stated clearly:
power without morality
destroys,
and defense without responsibility
is unacceptable.
These texts
became part of the ideology
and the foreign policy
of the State of Israel.
They taught
that a Jew has the right
to be strong
and the obligation
to remain human.
So it was before
in Jewish history.
Moses received the Torah
and led the people
out of slavery.
He did not enter
the Land of Israel.
He did everything
so that we would enter it.
He gave the law.
He paved the way.
He prepared the people
for life
on their own land.
Without Moses,
there would have been no entry.
David
received this law
and transformed it
into song.
Thus the Psalms were born.
Stones
sing with memory.
Trees—
with growth and fruit.
Water—
with flow.
Wind—
with movement.
The cat—
with silence.
All creation
sings its song
to the Almighty
and through that song
serves God.
And the human being
also sings.
Not every life
becomes a song.
A song is born
where there is responsibility.
Where there is a choice of good.
Where there is a striving
for correction
and return.
A life lived
without teshuvah,
without inner movement
toward the right path,
can hardly become a song
before the Almighty.
Ze’ev Jabotinsky
sang to the Almighty
with his life.
As each of us sings to the Almighty
not only with words,
but with the way
he lives.
“The Psalms of Jabotinsky”
is an attempt
to hear
and to convey
the song of service
that he
sang to the Almighty
with his life.
And if so,
may this book as well
sing its song
to the Almighty.
May it be heard
and fulfill
its song of service.
Amen and amen.
