David S. Ariel

While some modern Jews have rejected the notion of chosenness altogether, others have reinterpreted it as an ethical mission or a national spirit.

In Jewish sources, the ideal Jewish society will be situated in Israel and ushered in by catastrophic events.

Early Zionist thinkers envisioned, in great detail, the perfect human--and Jewish--society.

The medieval mystics made a distinction between the infinite, unknowable God and God's revealed aspects.

Unlike the creation stories of other Near Eastern cultures, the biblical creation story is not concerned with God's origins.

The masters of Kabbalah explained all of the elements of the Sabbath rituals as a consistent thematic drama of the reunion of the Shekhinah the Sabbath bride, with her mate--and in so doing exerted considerable influence on the shape of those rituals.

"Unitive" and "restorative" impulses propel the religious life of the Jewish mystic.