Hadar Betari
"Hadar" is a Hebrew word which hardly is at all translatable into another language: It combinesvarious conceptions such as outward beauty, respect, self-esteem, politeness, faithfulness. The only suitable "translation" into the language of real life must be the Betari - in his dealings,
actions, speech and thought. Naturally, we are all as yet removed from such a state of things, and
in one generation cannot be achieved. Nevertheless, "Hadar Betar" must be the daily goal of each
one of us: our every step, gesture, word, action and thought must always be strictly executed
from the Hadar viewpoint.
If "Hadar" is important to every man generally, it is doubly so to us Jews. We have already stated that life in the Diaspora has greatly weakened many of our soundest normal instincts: The
outward form of our life has however been still more neglected. We all know, we often deplore
the fact that to the average Jews manners of appearance are of no consequence whatsoever, this is
not a "trifle" it is an important problem of self-respect. A man must care of his bodily cleanliness
not because he fears his fellow men, but simply by reason of self-respect. He should also
accustom himself to speech and gestures in which there must be discerned an equal esteem of his
own "Majesty" for every man has majesty of a kind; a Jew especially, if the expression
"aristocrat" has any meaning, it is this: an aristocrat is he whose fathers, grandfathers and so on,
for many generations were men of "culture"; men who were not merely existing but were capable
to engross themselves in noble ideas and suit their way of life in accordance with higher ideals. If
such is the case, we Jews are the most "aristocratic" people in the world. Even the most ancient
of ruling dynasties have to their credit not more than 20 - 30 generations of culture. Further,
some where at the beginning we find at best a medieval, half-savage peasant, or a robber. Jews,
however, have seventy generations of man in the past; men who could read and write; men who
studied and discussed G-d, history, ideas of justice, human problems and the future. In this sense,
every Jew is a "prince" and the bitterest of all jokes that the Diaspora played upon us is, that the
Jews are generally considered as hailing from G-d knows where....
Only the ignorant can persuade themselves that the question of "Hadar" is a private matter or a "family-affair" Each of us recognize the fact that we behave differently towards a man who
manners show "uncivilized" abandon or coarseness than towards a person whose every word
denotes him a "princely", though he is poorly dressed and is a woodcutter in a forest. Were all
Jews to act properly the anti-Semites probably would hate us anyhow but it would be a hate
mixed with respect, and our situation in the world would have been quite different than it is. In
attaining the Zionist aims too, a tasteful mode of life would help us greatly; a dolt who yells,
jostles and has no sense of order, is incapable to create an impression of "state-leadership". On
the other hand, a group, every individual of which shows in his behavior and mannerism a long-standing tradition of culture, forces even an enemy to admit that, "Yes, this is a nation, these
people can build a State".
One of the good methods of "Hadar" education is, in fact, the Betarian discipline but is not
sufficient. Every individual must examine and weigh and measure his personal habit. "Hadar"
consists of a thousand trifles which collectively form every day life: Eat noiselessly and slowly,
do not protrude your elbows at meals, do not sip your soup loudly: walking upstairs at night, do
not talk - you awaken the neighbors; in the street give right of way to a lady, to an elderly person,
to a child; to every man - let him be rude, be not so yourself. All these as well as an endless row
of other trifles make up the "Hadar Betari".
More important is moral "Hadar". You must be generous, if no question of principle is involved. Do not bargain about trivialities, you, rather should give something instead of exacting it from somebody else. Every word of your must be a "word of honor", and the latter is mightier that
steel. A time must eventually arrive, when a Jew desiring to express his highest appreciation of
human honesty, courtesy and esteem will not say, as now: "He is a real gentleman!" but "He is a
real Betari!"