In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

In 1930 Uziel delivered a speech during a celebration of his fiftieth birthday (apparently held against his explicit wishes). In this speech, he made several autobiographical comments placing himself within the greater narratives of Jewish and Sephardi history and spoke about his vision of Ashkenazi-Sephardi unity. Mr. Chairman, dearest and most esteemed rabbis and teachers, I am speechless ; you have bestowed much love and effection on me in your words. [. . .] And in seeing you all here tonight convened together, pleased with the event that vis-à-vis my mere personality is trivial, and [yet is] precious regarding my public stature in your giving honor to the Torah. In my eyes, I am hereby filled with comfort and encouragement, and draw renewed strength for our future task. I’m not [feeling] fifty today after spending time in your company, but rather twenty, and ready to enlist in the task, and for this I again thank you. And now a few words directed at our welcomers. First of all I want to say that to tell you the truth, the descriptions and praise that you’ve heaped on me out of love are undeserved. While I am an offshoot of two large families in Israel— Uziel on my father’s side, may he rest in peace; and Hazan on my mother’s side, may she live long—I cannot state that I inherited the entirety of the holy treasure stored in my father’s soul, nor all the noble attributes. Our sages teach us the duty to tell the truth, wherein if one says to an individual that he is learned in two Talmudic tractates, and he is learned only in one, the individual must reply, “Do not say of me more than is actually in me.” As it is said: One who studied only one tractate, then went to another locale, where he is held in esteem for the fact that he had [as it were] studied two tractates, is obligated to tell them, “I studied only one tractate.”2 Based thereon, I say that while I am neither a genius nor great among Israel, I try to train myself toward that so that I shall be worthy 15 | A Speech in the Celebration of My Jubilee Excerpt from Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel, “Ne’um be-Neshef Yovel ha-Hamishim,” in Sefer Mikhmane ‘Uzi’el: ma’marim kelaliyim, mikhtavim tsiburiyim u-le’umiyim, ne’umim yesodiyim li-tehiyat Yisra’el u-vinyan artso (1939, Jerusalem: ha-Va‘ad le-hotsaa’t kitve Maran, 2003), 473–78. 2. [Talmud Yerushalmi (Palestinian Talmud), tractate Shevi’it, p. 30/b ch. 10, halakha 3.] 78 | b e n -z i o n m e i r ha i u z i e l of being called by my father’s name, and worthy of the seat of honor that I now occupy. And now to return to what was said by one of the speakers, who said that whenever he runs into me I am carrying the book [the Torah]. This [always carrying the Torah] in itself is not something that needs to be praised, but it is imperative to note [because] in the original [rabbinic] literature [the Torah is] the people’s soul and its hope, and [it is essential to be] a loyal son thereof. My good friend and peer, the esteemed Rabbi Fishman,3 touched in his speech tonight on the Sephardic and Ashkenazic, about whom I have stated at other times that I do not understand the difference. The great ones of Israel gave us neither a Sephardic country nor an Ashkenazic one, but, rather, the Torah with its many branches and tributaries—the Torah that accompanied us to all corners of our misery [diaspora], from the Land of Israel to Babylonia, from Babylonia to Spain, and from there to France, Germany, and beyond—the Torah is what reared the great ones of our people, generation after generation and country to country, in whose glorious footsteps we walk. All these are likened unto the creeks that split off from the sea and then return thereto. From the days of my youth, I drew all that I could from the Torah of our rabbis, who handed down rulings in locale after locale, and from them I feel my soul always. I now appeal to the friend of my youth, the esteemed writer A. [Avraham] Elmaleh, and I say to him: I am a lover of the unity of our people...

Share