Ancient Zionism: The Biblical Origins of the National IdeaSimon and Schuster, 2010 M06 15 - 277 pages In this unusual and provocative book, Victor Erlich uncovers the origins of the national idea in the Hebrew Bible. Through a series of sensitive and original readings of well-known biblical episodes, Erlich argues that ancient Zionism was not an ideological construct but rather a unique marriage of literary imagination and ethnic pride. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 84
Page 4
... poetry , and from this experience a rich national literature emerged . Its chief purpose was to charge the Land's people with lively thought , about monotheism par- ticularly but also about the intellectual life in general . Since , as ...
... poetry , and from this experience a rich national literature emerged . Its chief purpose was to charge the Land's people with lively thought , about monotheism par- ticularly but also about the intellectual life in general . Since , as ...
Page 9
... poetry itself , the Land can be made to stand for the reach of human consciousness . I view the Bible as an artfully edited compendium of ancestral texts compiled by unknown redactors in the period of the Babylonian cap- tivity . These ...
... poetry itself , the Land can be made to stand for the reach of human consciousness . I view the Bible as an artfully edited compendium of ancestral texts compiled by unknown redactors in the period of the Babylonian cap- tivity . These ...
Page 11
... poetry of Ezekiel and in the stories of still later poets . I greatly admire Robert Alter's The Art of Biblical Narrative ( Basic Books , 1981 ) . But rereading Alter's impressive book now , I see how far we still are from appreciating ...
... poetry of Ezekiel and in the stories of still later poets . I greatly admire Robert Alter's The Art of Biblical Narrative ( Basic Books , 1981 ) . But rereading Alter's impressive book now , I see how far we still are from appreciating ...
Page 12
... poetic language is too rich to tolerate the dry abstraction of any " ism . " Yet Zionism was alive in ancient Israel and portrayed by the old Hebrew writers , although without use of the term . In the Bible we find no word for ...
... poetic language is too rich to tolerate the dry abstraction of any " ism . " Yet Zionism was alive in ancient Israel and portrayed by the old Hebrew writers , although without use of the term . In the Bible we find no word for ...
Page 13
... poetry that makes life worth living . But Buber's On Zion does not focus on ancient Zionism , following instead its subtitle , The History of an Idea , into centuries less rigorously poetic and more mystical . This obscures the initial ...
... poetry that makes life worth living . But Buber's On Zion does not focus on ancient Zionism , following instead its subtitle , The History of an Idea , into centuries less rigorously poetic and more mystical . This obscures the initial ...
Contents
Land and Intellect | 21 |
Land and Literacy | 37 |
Land and Law | 53 |
Land and Loot | 69 |
History and Hell | 85 |
David in Zion | 99 |
Brickkiln and Winepress | 113 |
Ritual in the Land | 127 |
Landless and Illiterate | 169 |
The Ancient Hatred of Zionism | 181 |
The Hebrew Mind in Diaspora | 197 |
Zohar | 211 |
A Bough Over the Wall | 225 |
Zion as Tragicomedy | 241 |
Ancient Zionism and Its Modern Competitors | 255 |
Acknowledgments | 271 |
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Common terms and phrases
Aaron Abraham Ammon Ammonites ancient Hebrews ancient Zionism Arab Babylonia Balaam behold Bible blessing Boaz Canaan children of Israel conquest covenant daughter David Deuteronomy Diaspora dream earth Egyptian Ephron Esau Esther exile Exodus Ezekiel father Genesis God's Haman hand hath hatred Hebrew culture holy idea idolatry idols imagination inheritance intellectual nationalism invention Isaac Isaiah Jacob Jebusites Jephthah Jerusalem Jewish Jews Jonah Joseph Joshua Judah King Korah land of Egypt literal literary living Lord thy magic Manoah metaphor mind Moab Molech monotheism monotheistic Mordecai Moses Nazirite Nineveh Numbers Palestinian passage Pharaoh poetic poetry priest prophets rabbis readers redactors reign remind represent ritual Ruth sacrifice Samson Samuel Saul say unto servants Shechem Solomon story Sumeria Talmud Terah thee thine thou hast thou shalt thy seed told took understanding unto the Lord Uriah vision wife word Zion Zionism zohar
Popular passages
Page 4 - And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us ; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.