VISUALIZACIÓN

Eretz Yisrael is literally the land of ISRAEL, but symbolically it denotes more than a parcel of land.

Eretz Yisrael is the Promised Land, the fulfillment of the COVENANTbetween God and the PATRIARCHS. The TANAKH, the Hebrew Bible describes it as a land flowing with milk and honey, a fertile earthly paradise.

After the TEMPLE was built in JERUSALEM, the land became further sanctified as the dwelling place of God. In the future, it was believed, the land of Israel, also known as Zion, will expand its borders to accommodate the returning Jews who will dwell there in the MESSIANICAGE.

The ancient rabbis glorified the land of Israel, declaring it the navel of the universe, insisting that those who live there must lead a sinless life, and maintaining that any life inside Eretz Yisrael is holier than a life outside it. Through the Middle Ages poems and prayers yearned for the land and extolled its virtues. In modern times ZIONISMhas pushed for a return of the Jews to Eretz Yisrael.

The dreams of a Jewish state within the land of Israel were realized in 1948.

Further reading: Jean-Christophe Attias and Esther Benbassa, Israel: The Impossible Land (Stanford, Calif.:

Stanford University Press, 2003); Martin Buber, On Zion: The History of an Idea (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1997); Lawrence A. Hoffman, ed., The Land of Israel: Jewish Perspectives (Notre Dame, Ind.:

University of Notre Dame Press, 1986); Tzvia Ehrlich-Klein, To Dwell in the Palace (Jerusalem and New York:

Feldheim Publishers, 1991).

eruv

An eruv is a ritual enclosure around a town or neighborhood that creates a common area, within which observant Jews may carry objects on SHAB

-BAT, the Sabbath day. Talmudic law prohibits Jews

from carrying items on Shabbat outside the area of their home or yard. According to the ancient RAB

-BIS, one cannot carry any object more than is use-ful, such as two sips of milk, because any amounts more than these would be functional and thus constitute melachah (work).

This prohibition can cause great inconven-ience to observant Jews. For example, religious Jews, who do not ride in vehicles on the Sabbath and therefore walk to SYNAGOGUE, at times need to carry items such as keys or a baby stroller. To get around the prohibition, rabbis permit carrying within an area enclosed by an eruv.

Technically, an eruv can be set by stringing nearly invisible wire between poles or buildings. It creates an invisible shield within which one’s

“home” boundaries are extended and one is per-mitted to carry items. The area may enclose a few homes, or a few streets, an entire neighborhood, or even a city. It can also be an island, as long as its population does not exceed a certain number of people.

Further reading: Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer, The Contem-porary Eruv: Eruvin in Modern Metropolitan Areas (Jerusalem and New York: Feldheim, 1998); Herbert Danby, ed., The Mishnah: Translated from the Hebrew with an Introduction and Brief Explanatory Notes (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1933, 1977); Alan Dundes, The Shabbat Elevator and other Sabbath Subterfuges: An Unorthodox Essay on Circumventing Custom and Jewish Character (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Pub-lishers, 2002); Isaac Klein, A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice (Philadelphia and Jerusalem: Jewish Theologi-cal Seminary of America, 1988).

eschatology

The term eschatology refers to the study of the end times as predicted in various religions, and derives from the Greek word eschaton, meaning “last” or

“final.” The term itself is found in Christian rather than Jewish texts, but the questions addressed in eschatological writings have been explored exten-sively by Jewish thinkers as well.

eschatology 143 J

Scholars of eschatology often ask questions concerning the sequence of events and the nature of the MESSIANICAGEto come, and often try to find answers by exploring the symbolism used in eschatological texts. For Jews, the best example of eschatological literature is found in the biblical book of Daniel, although certain passages in ISA

-IAHand EZEKIELare important as well.

Eschatological views vary within Judaism. The most common understanding is that wars and catastrophes will precede the coming of the MES

-SIAH, who will be announced by the prophet ELIJAH. The Messiah will rebuild JERUSALEM, and the sacri-ficial system will be reinstituted in the TEMPLE. Suf-fering will cease and all humanity will acknowledge that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (see PATRIARCHS) is the one true god. After the Messianic Age ends, the Day of Judgment will occurs, during which the righteous will be rewarded with everlast-ing life and joy, while the wicked will be punished.

Further reading: Abraham Cohen, Everyman’s Talmud.

(London: J. M. Dent, 1949); David Novak, “Law and Eschatology: A Jewish-Christian Intersection” in Last Things (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2002).

Eshkol, Levi

(1895–1969) Zionist leader Levi Eshkol was a Labor Zionist leader and the third prime minister of the State of ISRAEL.

Eshkol was born Levi Shkolnik in the Ukraine in 1895. He received a traditional Jewish education, as he was part of a wealthy Hasidic (see HASIDISM) family. In 1914 he immigrated to PALESTINE. He volunteered for the Jewish Legion of the British Army during World War I, founded the agricultural community Detah Tikvah, and then became a founding member of KIBBUTZDegania Bet. Eshkol combined manual labor with political activism. He was among the founders of the HISTADRUT(General Federation of Labor), where he became involved in labor issues and later in the promotion of coopera-tive agricultural development.

In 1937 Levi Eshkol played a central role in the establishment of the Mekorot Water Company.

Eshkol served as Mekorot’s managing director until 1951, introducing a system of countrywide water management that made intensive irrigated farming possible, and turned the desert into an oasis. On the political front, he was able to per-suade the German government to allow Jews immigrating to Palestine to take some of their assets with them.

Like most Israelis Eshkol also participated in the defense of the state. He served in the HAGANAH

high command. As director-general of the Min-istry of Defense in 1950–51 he helped lay the foundation for Israel’s defense industries. From 1951 to 1963 Eshkol was minister of agriculture and development, while also serving as head of the settlement division of the JEWISHAGENCY.

In 1963, Levi Eshkol became prime minister of Israel, the highest office in the state. In 1964, he made the first state visit of an Israeli prime minis-ter to Washington, D.C., laying the foundation for the close rapport that has existed between the two countries ever since.

And in 1965, Eshkol oversaw the establish-ment of formal relations between West Germany and Israel. As a conciliatory gesture to the politi-cal opposition, he ordered that the remains of Labor’s fiercest political rival, Ze’ev JABOTINSKY, founder and ideological leader of the Revisionist movement, be brought to Israel and reinterred in a state funeral on Mount HERZL in JERUSALEM. Thus, Eshkol honored Jabotinsky’s last will, writ-ten in 1935, requesting that his remains be trans-ferred to Israel “only on the instruction of a future Jewish government.”

Levi Eshkol died in office in February 1969 of a heart attack at the age of 73. Though his estab-lishment of good relations with the UNITEDSTATES

was important, the 1967 SIX-DAY WAR, with its stunning military victory, was undoubtedly the highlight of Eshkol’s six years as prime minister.

Further reading: Theodore Draper, Israel and World Pol-itics: Roots of the Third Arab-Israeli War (New York:

Viking Press, 1968); Adam Garfinkle, Politics and Soci-ety in Modern Israel: Myths and Realities (Armonk, N.Y.:

K 144 Eshkol, Levi

M. E. Sharpe, 2000); Colbert C. Held and Mildred McDonald Held, Middle East Patterns: Places, Peoples, and Politics (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1989).

Essenes

The Essenes were one of the three primary sects or religious factions within Judaism during the late second TEMPLEperiod (150 B.C.E–70 C.E.), along-side the PHARISEESand the SADDUCEES.

While the Jewish philosopher PHILO JUDAEUS

and the Roman Jewish historian JOSEPHUS both mention the Essenes, there is no direct reference to them in the TALMUD. However, many scholars believe that Talmudic passages about the Hasidim ha-rishonim, “the first pious ones,” may have been referring to the Essenes.

According to Philo and Josephus, the Essenes numbered approximately 4,000 followers, most of them living in secluded areas within Judea (see JUDEA ANDSAMARIA). The sect arose in about 150

B.C.E. and disappeared some 250 years later.

The Essenes adhered to MONOTHEISM, stressing the omnipotence and omniscience of the One God.

They were extremely concerned with ritual purity, and had a heightened awareness of the need for a virtuous lifestyle, including truthfulness and obe-dience to God’s will. They led a monastic, ascetic lifestyle and many chose to remain unmarried or to become celibate after having children. The Essenes emphasized the rituals of daily immersion in water and eating meals communally. They had a socialist economy, interpreted the Bible allegori-cally, stringently observed SHABBAT, the Sabbath, and believed that an individual’s destiny could not be changed.

Many modern scholars consider the DEADSEA

SCROLLSto have been the property of the Essenes, although this has not been proven beyond a doubt. However, unlike the Pharisees, the Essenes had little impact on the development of NORMA

-TIVEJUDAISM.

Further reading: Gabriele Boccaccini, Beyond the Essene Hypothesis: The Parting of the Ways Between Qumran and

Enochic Judaism (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerd-mans, 1998); Lawrence H. Schiffman, From Text to Tra-dition: A History of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism (Hoboken, N.J.: Ktav Publishing House, 1991); James C. Vanderkam, An Introduction to Early Judaism (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2000).

Esther

(fifth century B.C.E.) biblical figure, Jewish queen of Persia

Esther is one of only two women to have a book of the TANAKH, the Hebrew Bible, named for her (RUTHis the other). She remains one of the great heroes of Jewish history.

Esther, in the biblical account, was an orphaned Jewish girl raised by her uncle and fos-ter father Mordechai. When Persian king Ahashverous banishes his queen, Mordechai enters Esther in a beauty contest to win the king’s favor, but directs her not to reveal her identity as a Jew. The king then chooses Esther as his new queen.

Meanwhile, the king’s minister Haman issues a decree that everyone in the kingdom should bow down to him. Mordechai refuses to do so because he is Jewish and will only bow down before God.

Angered, Haman asks the king to issue a decree ordering the death of all the Jews in the kingdom, and the king agrees. In the end, Esther success-fully beseeches the king to spare her life and the life of her people and thus saves the Jews. The events are commemorated in the holiday of PURIM, which is specifically established in the book of Esther.

The book is written with literary flair, and has attributes of hyperbole, satire, and farce. Thus, scholars question the accuracy of the details, although the character of King Ahashverous may be accurately based on an actual Persian ruler, one of the emperors named Xerxes, and the story may very well represent incidents that occurred to Jew-ish communities in the ancient DIASPORA.

The ancient rabbis debated whether to include the Book of Esther in the Tanakh, because of its questionable religious status. There is no mention Esther 145 J

of God, and the Jewish people seem to be saved entirely by human actions, although a period of fasting indicates that prayer is involved. More-over, when Esther conceals her Jewish identity, she presumably did not observe KASHRUT, the laws of kosher food, nor SHABBAT; heralding her as a true heroine is therefore problematic.

Nevertheless, Esther has become one of the most popular books of the Tanakh; it is read in the synagogue twice during Purim, when congregants are permitted to try to drown out every mention of Haman’s name. Purimspiels, or dramatic reen-actments of the story, became very widespread from the medieval period; they were often improved with topical additions relating to the issues facing particular Jewish communities, espe-cially from their local “Hamans.”

Finally, the story of Esther provides a model for managing dual loyalties and the pressures of

ASSIMILATION and ACCOMMODATION on minority Jewish communities in the Diaspora.

Further reading: Leila Leah Bronner, From Eve to Esther: Rabbinic Reconstructions of Biblical Women (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994);

Naomi M. Hyman, ed., Biblical Women in the Midrash: A Sourcebook (Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 1997);

Ronald H. Isaacs, Legends of Biblical Heroes: A Source-book (Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2002); Tanakh:

The Holy Scriptures According to the Traditional Hebrew Text (Philadelphia and Jerusalem: Jewish Publication Society, 1985).

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