ABSTRACT
The creative use of ‘aggadah in descriptions of childhood is an outstanding and unprecedented feature of the works of the three most prominent Hebrew writers of the period 1881-1948: Mendele Mokher Sefarim, Hayyim Nahman Bialik and Samuel Joseph Agnon. To each of the three writers the world of ‘aggadah seemed real and eternally present in childhood. Mendele, however, writing at a critical distance of over a half-century, conveys the reservations of a maskil who had devoted more time to his three-volume Toldot ha-teva — the first work of its kind in Hebrew—than to any of his fictional works. Nevertheless, although Mendele appears to dismiss ‘aggadah as a world of fantasy belonging to a bygone age, he depicts the first stirrings of his artistic instinct through ‘aggadic symbolism. The picture and the ‘aggadah of Rabbi Yose struck a chord in the child’s heart, for he determined to copy Hirzl’s work.
