Becoming Elijah: Prophet of Transformation (Jewish Lives)

Judaism encompasses the communal act of transforming Torah, the Five Books of Moses, from literature into lives well-lived.

How, then, can individuals stay alive, intensely alive, psychically alive? The answer given by Jewish tradition is that one cannot avoid death or death-in-life. The only way to overcome death is by rebirth.

The Jews who remained Jews, who remained faithful to the historical character of the Exodus, continued to insist that redemption could not be fully realized without social, political, and economic liberation as well as spiritual fulfillment.

The Rabbis’ fundamental theological breakthrough was a “secularization” insight. God was becoming less visible, more hidden. The Destruction was a signal that manifest divine activity was being curtailed. God would not stop the Romans or save the Temple (even though God had destroyed the Egyptians at the Red Sea). Still the covenant was not being d