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SCH / JEWISH FAMILY CRISIS
29
ind” (1965), Pinchas Sheinbaum, veteran o f the labor pioneer
ovement has his son enlist in the para troopers where he loses
is life, the victim o f his fa th e r ’s nationalistic pride. In each o f
ese examples, it is clear tha t the fa ther symbolizes, among o ther
ings, the authority o f the o lder generation as well as the burden
f the Jewish past. It is on this altar tha t the son is sacrificed. For
izhar, Oz and o ther writers o f ou r generation, the conflict
etween the generations is irreconcilable. T he son is not saved as
the biblical story; he is instead bound and killed. We neither
ea r a voice calling out to the father, “Lay not thy hand upon the
d,” no r are we told, “And they went both o f them toge ther.”
ather, we are presented with what might be called a distorted
kedah.
An exception to this prevalent reversal o f the biblical
otif worth mentioning is A.B. Yehoshua’s “T h ree Days and a
hild” (1968) in which one can discern elements o f healing and a
ope with the coming o f the blessing o f rain and the deliverance
f the child from death at the story’s end.
OMINATING MOTHER
Whilst the
Akedah-pattern
continues into the twentieth century,
specially among Israeli writers, the focus o f the crisis in the fam
y has actually shifted into ano ther area, that o f the relationship
etween child and mother. Precursors o f this theme in general lit
ra tu re are to be found in Marcel Proust’s
Remembrance of Things
ast
(begun in 1913), and
Sons and Lovers
by D.H. Lawrence
913). It is clear from the latter tha t there is no longer a signifi
ant role for the fa ther or husband to play in the family unit. One
ight say tha t the earlier rebellion, as found in Ibsen and Butler,
ad achieved its goal: the fa ther has been thrown ou t o f the house
nd the wife, now free o f his dom ination, is in control. T he femi
ist tendency is clearly felt in American literature o f this period
ee the study by Leslie Fiedler,
Love and Death in the American
ovel,
1966 ed., p. 62, etc.) T he m o ther assumes the place o f the
eposed puritanical father, bu t this new situation does not p ro
ide any solace for the child in search for the spiritual freedom;
the r, a new and even h a rd e r crisis develops, the well-known
edipal crisis, marked by ambivalent feelings o f love and hatred
wards the mother. The works o f Lawrence point to this crisis
en before it was defined by Freud. The maternal th rea t is not
e o f dea th bu t ra the r a kind o f castration; her suffocating love