Hayim Nahman Bialik House, Tel Aviv

What do we leave behind? What remains when we are no longer alive?

Nahman Bialik left behind many beautiful and critically acclaimed poems, his beloved house, and love for Israel that still resonates, among many other things. His strong stance against anti-Semitism influenced the founding of Haganah (a Jewish paramilitary organization, and a predecessor of IDF).

Nahman Bialik - a Jewish poet who wrote in Hebrew and Yiddish was a pioneer of modern Hebrew poetry. He was born in 1873 in a small Ukrainian village. Bialik did not have a happy childhood, a fact often felt in his poems. He studied at a Talmudic academy in Lithuania but eventually drifted away from religious studies. He made a living teaching Hebrew while studying Russian and German literature in Odessa. He moved around a lot, not staying too long in one place.

Bialik's first collection of critically acclaimed poetry was published in 1901 in Warsaw, Poland. In 1924 he moved to Tel Aviv, purchased a plot, which at the time was nothing but sand, and a year later his house was built. Bialik was so famous at the time, that as soon as he purchased the parcel of land, the name of the tiny road was changed from Bezalel Hill to Bialik Street.

This is one of his poems that I really liked.

The Old Acacia Tree

Neither daylight nor the darkness
See how silently I wander
Not on Mountain, nor in valley,
Does an old acacia ponder.

The acacia solves all mysteries,
Tells my fortune while I tarry.
I shall ask the tree to tell me
Whom O whom, am I to marry?

Where will he be from, O Acacia,
Is it Poland, Lithuania?
Will he come with a horse and a carriage
Or with staff and sack will he appear?

And what present will he bring me -
Necklace of pearls and coral flower?
Tell me, will he be fair or dark-haired?
Still unmarried or a widower?

If he's old, my dear Acacia,
I won't have him, please don't try me.
I'll tell my father: you may slay me,
But to an old man do not tie me!

At his feet I'll fall and with tears I'll cry;
To an old man do not tie me.

I grew up in Poland where every young girl would tear a leaf filled stem from an acacia tree, and recite a rhyme while tearing off the leaves. The belief was that whatever the last remaining leaf says, would be true. The rhyme went: loves, likes, respect, doesn't want, doesn't care, is joking, in his thought, in his speech, in his heart, at the alter. Bialik's poem is in similar vein as that childhood rhyme.

This house was once a gathering place for poets, intellectuals, politicians, and other important members of Tel Aviv's society.

The outside of the house features a tower, an outdoor terrace, domes, arched windows and an oriel window (protruding balcony).

Entrance to the Bialik house is about 10 Shekels and it comes with a laminated booklet (to have while touring the house) with his detailed biography and descriptions of each room.

I fell in love with this house, it was not only stunning but it had so much warmth and character.

The interior of the house incorporates both western, and middle eastern elements.

There are magnificent ceramic tiles throughout the first floor of the house.
The two columns in the reception room feature twelve months of the year, and the twelve tribes of Israel.