The Genius of Perez
And they earned that honorable distinction of being called "fathers," though coming later than Abramovitz, because they were the first to approach the shrine, and light the taper of Yiddish literature at the sacred fire. Abramovitz discovered the road, cleared it, laid out the path, and led the procession, but never entered into God's land. Perez and Rabinowitz, who followed him all the way, marched in and conquered.
And of these two conquerors, Perez was by far the mightier, the greater. Sholem Aleichem dubbed himself Grandson of old Grandfather Abramovitz, and tried hard to follow in his footsteps, to imitate his manner and ways; and imitation and discipleship are poison to genuine creative power. Sholem Aleichem's artistic powers are also limited. He is essentially a humorist. His eye always seeks out the comic, the laughable in life; and, like all humorists, he at times grows pathetic, sentimentally pathetic. But neither the comic nor the pathetic in life are vital or essential. They may tickle the soul or touch it, but never stir it. They may affect our mood, pacify our passion, lighten our hearts; but they will not impel us into action, drive us into effort, into destruction or creation; and what is life if not action — action that either creates or destroys?
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