Holocaust and Return to Zion: A Study in Jewish Philosophy of HistoryIn Holocaust and Return to Zion Shubert Spero traces the efforts of medieval and modern Jewish thinkers to account for the major events of their times in theological but also historical terms, and then presents his own innovative attempt to explain the recurrent upheavals of Jewish history--the destructions of the Temples, the expulsion from Spain, and the Holocaust--in terms of both Jewish and world history. In Spero's view, the long exile of the Jewish people should be viewed not as a punishment, but as reflecting the slow, progressive development of three elements: the physical location and demographic increase of the Jewish people; Torah literature as both philosophical worldview and code of conduct, and the development of international structure based on law and order, the spread of democracy, and the doctrine of human rights. All these reflect providential guidance in making possible the reestablishment of the Jewish State of Israel. |
Contents
Rabbinic | 3 |
Does History Have Meaning? | 7 |
The Bible as History | 20 |
Divine Providence and the Principle of Desert | 37 |
The Prophets and Foreign Policy | 51 |
Formulations | 61 |
the Rabbis View Their Own Times? | 76 |
Signs of the Redemption | 91 |
History Its Purpose and Dynamic | 222 |
History as the Process of Divine Actualization | 230 |
How Powerful Is the Good? | 238 |
The Doctrine of DoubleCausation | 246 |
AntiSemitism and the Holocaust | 264 |
The Effects of AntiSemitism on the | 270 |
Is AntiSemitism Inevitable? | 277 |
The Second Temple Period and the Development of the Oral | 283 |
the Rabbis Lose Interest in History? | 107 |
Was Medieval Jewish Thought Ahistorical? | 121 |
Absorbing the Old and Fittingin the | 136 |
The Impact of the Spanish Expulsion on Jewish | 163 |
The Unity of Israel and Redemption | 177 |
The Modern Period | 186 |
Nachman Krochmal | 192 |
The Orthodox Approach | 200 |
The Herald of Nationalism | 212 |
The Destruction of European Jewry 19331945 | 289 |
A Blow to Secular Humanism | 294 |
Prophecy Come True | 309 |
Would the Land Receive Them? | 322 |
Jewish Demography | 339 |
Torah Ready for Immediate Consumption | 353 |
Conclusion | 371 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abarbanel Abraham anti-Semitism appear Babylon Babylonian Bar Kokhba become believed Bible biblical Book called century Christian concept culture David destruction Deuteronomy diaspora divine earth Egypt elements empirical entire Eretz Yisrael evil exile Exodus explain expulsion faith galut Genesis goals God's Graetz Halevi Hasmonean Hebrew historian Holocaust Holy human Ibid Ibn Daud idea idolatry individual Isaac Abarbanel Isaiah Jeremiah Jerusalem Jewish communities Jewish historiography Jewish history Jewry Jews Judah Judah Halevi Judaism Judea Kalischer king Kingdom knowledge Krochmal land of Israel later laws living Lord Maharal Maimonides means ment messianic midrash moral Moses Moslem Naḥmanides nations nature Palestine Philosophy of History political promise prophecy prophets punishment question Rabbah Rabbi Akiva rabbis Rashi redemption religion religious repentance Rome schema Second Temple sense significance social society Solomon Spain Spanish Expulsion Talmud teachings tion tokhaḥah Torah tradition ultimate understanding unity universal Yosippon