Abstract:

The paper presents three different visions of eschatology and argues that the dominant rabbinic Judaic view is of an eschatology that does not deal with the end of days but with ruptures within history. Further, the real threat to historical improvement and the nation-state system that is the backbone of a pluralistic system of nation-states comes from various visions of a universal and unified world order. The fundamental Jewish system which is at the basis of the modern era as defined by the first modern nation-state, Holland, is of a system of nation-states. All efforts to supercede this system are usually carried out by utopian visionaries and they threaten the basis of a system that thrives on small but steady improvements in the nation-state system.

Author: Howard Adelman