Letter from Arnold Zweig to Sigmund Freud, March 1, 1935

Haifa, Mt. Carmel
1 March 35

Dear Father Freud,

My left eye is now suffering from overstrain, my right is not yet functioning, so I am writing without being able to see very well and the result is in keeping. But the thought

that I might be able to say something to you about your Moses and thus about the cause of your gloom is too strong and my feeling of gratitude to you too pressing to resist. Please read Elias Auerbach's1 Desert and Promised Land. You will there find in print all the daring statements you touched on in your last letter. Horeb-Sinai etc. He treats only the historical factors but that he does thoroughly and the book is based on a critical and systematic knowledge of the Bible and its sources. There is just one step Au. does not take: he does not turn Moscheh into Mizri. It makes extremely stimulating, exciting reading and it is written with exemplary objectivity. So far I have just read the first 100 pages but you would find them of great interest. I am very pleased to be able to draw your attention to this work. Nothing mythological, just an attempt to write history.

On Tuesday I am off to Jerusalem. Perhaps while I am there Eitingon will be able to tell me something about your daughter Anna's discoveries and lectures. I would so like to know something of them and reading is out of the question. My work goes gaily on. Lily replaces my eyes by hers, by her patience, her assiduity and her sympathetic understanding. Dita has got stage fever. She is giving an exhibition of landscapes in Jerusalem on Tuesday: Eichkamp, Mondsee, Sanary, Carmel-very fine things. But I have my worries: it is difficult to balance our budget: my son Michi has outgrown his strength, has got something on his pleura, is too thin, is full of complexes. But all this can be endured. Could you not manage to take a trip here? Greetings to all, specially to the ladies

From your
Zweig