"You convinced me, Lin. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info" Nathan said to Hayashi, "I fully support your plan and trust your judgment. In fact, I had already made such a decision in my mind before I came. ”

"Yes." Sara smiled as well, "Someone who can see through Uncle Meyerkar's plan deserves such trust. ”

"Last time, your reminder allowed Sara to bring great benefits to our family, and you can see my support for your program today as a reward for that help." Nathan looked at Lin Yizhe and said, "Maybe it's risky, but I'm willing to give it a try and help you realize your dreams." ”

"And to thank you for your support, Your Excellency the Viscount, I will also use all my strength to help you realize the dream in your heart." Lin Yizhe replied with a smile.

"The dream in my heart?" Listening to Lin Yizhe's words, Nathan looked a little surprised.

"Yes, the dream of Mount Zion." Lin Yizhe looked at Nathan fixedly and said.

Lin Yizhe's words hit Nathan's heart like a hammer, Nathan's pupils suddenly constricted, and his body froze there.

Sarah, who was sitting next to her father, also had a look of astonishment on her face.

"Forgive me for my presumptuousness, Your Excellency." Lin Yizhe noticed Nathan's strange appearance, and knew that what he had just said had had an effect, so he continued, "Haven't you ever thought of letting the Jewish people, who have wandered for thousands of years, return to the holy city of Jerusalem? ”

"Have you never thought that the great prophet Moses would lead the Jewish people out of Pharaoh's yoke and out of Egypt to return to the Promised Land of God?"

Nathan was stunned, and suddenly began to sing in Hebrew.

Lin Yizhe did not know Hebrew and did not know what he was talking about, but from the tune he sang, it sounded like an ancient Jewish psalm.

Nathan only sang a single sentence before his voice choked and tears oozed from the corners of his eyes.

As if to make Lin Yizhe understand what his father was singing, Sara, who was sitting next to his father, then sang in English:

"On the banks of the Babylon we sat down, and we wept at the thought of Zion......"

"We hung our harps in the willows there, for there our captives made us sing, our robbers made us laugh......

"And they said, Sing us a song of Zion."

"But how can we sing Jehovah's song in a foreign land?"

"O Jerusalem! If I forget you, I would like my right hand to be scorched and crippled. ”

"O Jerusalem! If I do not remember you, and if I do not look at Jerusalem above my greatest pleasure, I would rather have my tongue on the roof of my mouth, and I could no longer speak......"

Hearing his daughter's singing, Nathan's tears finally flowed.

As soon as Sara finished singing, her blue jewel-like eyes glistened with tears.

Nathan hung his head, his elbows on his knees, and his hands over his face, sat there, sobbing silently.

It was a long time before Nathan looked up, took the handkerchief from his daughter, and wiped the tears from his face.

"Please forgive me, Lin, it's the first time in so many years that I can't restrain my feelings like this." Nathan said in a slightly hoarse voice.

"I deeply understand your feelings." Lin Yizhe said, "I beg your pardon, the question I just mentioned is too presumptuous. ”

"No, dear Lin, it was you who said the thoughts that I had been suppressing in my heart but could not express. We've been doing this dream for too long. "It has always been in the depths of my heart, and you, dear Lin, have been heard by God through the mouth of you, a stranger." ”

"The dream of Mount Zion exists not only in our hearts, but also in the hearts of every Jew." Sara looked at Lin Yizhe, and her face unconsciously showed a look of arrogance and determination.

Lin Yizhe knew that although the Jews seemed to be submissive and submissive in the face of persecution, in fact, they were always optimistic, confident, and even arrogant on the spiritual level. They were devout in Judaism, believing that they were God's "chosen people" and that all suffering was a passing thing, nothing more than God's punishment for their wrongs. The Messiah will come, the Jews will be saved, their nation will prosper, and their children will be "as numerous as the stars of heaven and the dust of the earth." It was with the support of this spiritual strength that the Jews maintained their faith in the face of frequent hardships. When property is confiscated, it is re-assembled and created through its own efforts; Driven from the place where they have lived for generations, they find a new place to rebuild their homes. Although they were afflicted physically and outwardly spurned by Christians, they were spiritually proud. And it is this spirit that does not perish, and the Jewish nation is not destroyed.

The desire to one day return to their homeland has always been present in the minds and prayers of the Jews. Both during the Turkish conquest and during the persecution of the Jews by Tsarist Russia, the organized return to Zion never stopped. British Prime Minister Disraeli, who is Jewish, once wrote a novel set in Zionism, "Tank Raymond"; Karl, a Jew? Marx's friend Moses? Hess had written a pamphlet in 1862 called Rome and Jerusalem, arguing that the restoration of the Jewish state was necessary for both the Jews and for others.

During the millennium-long history of the Middle Ages, the Jews in the diaspora experienced great suffering, discrimination, expulsion and massacre, and were isolated from the political and cultural life of Western society. In 1516, the Republic of Venice expelled the city's Jews into a gun foundry on a small island, cut off from the outside world by wide canals and heavy gates. At night, the gate is closed. This experience was later replicated by other countries in establishing ghettos in cities for Jews, known as ghettos. Within the ghetto, Jews could have their own synagogues, schools, and shops, but outside the ghetto, they were unwelcome gentiles. It wasn't until 1797 that Napoleon abandoned the Venetian ghetto, but the city did not allow Jews to freely choose where to live until 1866.

In the 16th century, the Reformation movement in Europe, Catholicism and Protestantism were mired in doctrinal disputes, and the impact of the Renaissance movement shook the absolute authority of the Catholic Church, and European Jews were given a temporary respite. But in general, since then, the Jews have become a discriminated against, banished, and unpopular race. Whenever there was an economic crisis or other social upheaval in the country where the Jews lived, the Jews were the first to be the targets of the shock and the scapegoats. Countries that welcomed Jews in one century may well expel them in the next. Towns that have been quiet for decades, allowing Jews to live, can suddenly erupt in a pogrom against Jews overnight. This was a very dark period in Jewish history, and the bullying and persecution they received was indescribable.

"I have always wondered why the Jewish people have survived thousands of years of wandering, countless discrimination, enslavement, persecution, robbery and killing." Lin Yizhe said, "Later, I learned that as long as the dream of Mount Zion remains, this nation will not perish. ”

"Our situation in Europe is much better than before, but I know that our suffering is far from over." Nathan said, a flame burning in his eyes.

Under the influence of the bourgeois revolutions in Britain and France and the American Revolution, the status and political treatment of European Jews gradually improved. From 1723, Jews could own land in England, after 1753 Jews could become British citizens, and by the mid-19th century, Jews could be elected to Parliament. In 1791, the French National Assembly passed by giving French Jews the right to take an oath as citizens of the country. In 1807, Emperor Napoleon approved the restoration of the Sanhedrin, declaring that French Jews "may find a Jerusalem on French soil." From 1833 to 1871, the German states of Prussia, Austria, Saxony, and Baden granted citizenship to Jews. The Netherlands (1796), Belgium (1830), Denmark (1848), Norway (1851), Sweden (1865), and Switzerland (1874) also declared equal citizenship rights for Jews. In the more civilized part of Europe, the Jews seemed to have fulfilled their dream of acceptance. But the situation of the Jews in Tsarist Russia never improved much. In 1550, Tsar Ivan IV decreed a ban on Jews entering the country. From 1648 to 1656, the Khmirnitsky Cossack bandits, who opposed the Polish aristocracy, carried out massacres against Jews living in Poland and Ukraine, killing 100,000 people. At the end of the 18th century, when Poland was partitioned and destroyed, the fate of the millions of Jews who had lived in Poland from the more secular Catholic Poland to the more hostile Orthodox state of Russia was even more bleak than before.

In 1835, the Russian government announced the creation of "palisade districts" (Pale) in 16 provinces in the west, from Lithuania to Ukraine, and 10 provinces in Poland. This area was basically the spoils of the three Russian partitions of Poland at the end of the 18th century. Under the rules of the Russian Empire, Jews were forbidden to settle outside the "fenced areas" except for Jewish children with musical or artistic talents and their parents (an exception that led to a disproportionately high number of Jews devoted to cultural and artistic causes).