What has the land of Israel meant for the Jewish imagination? This book provides a lively and readable answer, covering Biblical times to the present. Its aim is to pierce the mystery of the images of Israel, to grasp their meaning and function, to trace their origins and history, and to resituate in historical terms the fertile mythology that has peopled and continues to people the Jewish imagination, interposing a screen between a people and their land. Describing the real, however, is not sufficient to disqualify the myths. The authors believe, with the famous French historian Pierre Vidal-Naquet, that: "Things are not so simple. Myth is not opposed to the real as the false to the true; myth accompanies the real."
Today, Israel is an undeniable fact and no longer has to legitimize its existence. It is in the midst of living through the crises of adulthood. The authors simply want to reconstitute and trace the genealogies of these contemporary crises. Only upon a clear understanding of this present and this past can a future be constructed.
| ISBN: | 9780804741125 |
| Publication date: | 17th December 2002 |
| Author: | JeanChristophe Attias, Esther Benbassa |
| Publisher: | Stanford University Press |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 294 pages |
| Series: | Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture |
| Genres: |
Judaism Theology |
What has the land of Israel meant for the Jewish imagination? This book provides a lively and readable answer, covering Biblical times to the present. Its aim is to pierce the mystery of the images of Israel, to grasp their meaning and function, to trace their origins and history, and to resituate in historical terms the fertile mythology that has peopled and continues to people the Jewish imagination, interposing a screen between a people and their land. Describing the real, however, is not sufficient to disqualify the myths. The authors believe, with the famous French historian Pierre Vidal-Naquet, that: "Things are not so simple. Myth is not opposed to the real as the false to the true; myth accompanies the real."
Today, Israel is an undeniable fact and no longer has to legitimize its existence. It is in the midst of living through the crises of adulthood. The authors simply want to reconstitute and trace the genealogies of these contemporary crises. Only upon a clear understanding of this present and this past can a future be constructed.
Israel, the Impossible Land features in the following genres: Judaism, Theology
Israel, the Impossible Land is available in Hardback, Paperback
Israel, the Impossible Land was written by JeanChristophe Attias, Esther Benbassa and published by Stanford University Press
Israel, the Impossible Land has 294 pages
Yes it is part of Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture series