"I have betrayed something?
"I have been false? To what?
"I only exchanged saffron cakes for cakes of another sort, the tales in Mother's books of legends for others far more vivid and entrancing—a bit of green in the window for the free, fresh green of the woods and fields—litanies for romances—the narrow, stifling routine of my daily life for sunshine and flowers, for gladness and love! I never betrayed you—I never knew you!
"I knew nothing of your sorrow, you never spoke to me of yourselves. Why did you not tell me of your love, of the love which is your very being, why did you not tell me of your beauty—of the terrible, blood-stained beauty of Israel?
"The beautiful, the precious, the exalted in our religion, you hid it in yourselves, you men, you kept it from me, you kept it from us.
"Of me, of us, with our flesh and blood, with the strength of our youth struggling and crying out for life—of us you asked only butter-cake and Gelle Challeh!
"You cast us out!"
———
He who is high above all peoples, who alone can see clearly through their tangled web of prejudice and hatred—He shall judge her.