Abstract

Eschatology in the literal sense means discourse about the eschaton: the end, the furthest, or the utmost. This book relates to the eschaton as the best of all possible worlds, whether now or in the future, and however it is accessed. Beyond Hope is the first academic monograph devoted to rabbinic eschatology in Late Antiquity, and it addresses distinct patterns within rabbinic eschatology that have been overlooked in scholarship and in Jewish imagination. Contrary to what is usually expected of eschatology, this book demonstrates that the rabbis held a sustained eschatology of irresolution. While the rabbis occasionally waxed poetic along the lines of a perfected new world in the eschaton, a vast store of rabbinic texts depicts a deeply imperfect eschaton. This is the profound difference between rabbinic and early Christian eschatology. But despite its differences from the Christian doctrine of perfection, rabbinic eschatology aligns neatly with a different Christian concept, namely inaugurated eschatology. The eschaton is not only be hoped for in the future, but can be attained in the present. The best of all possible worlds has not yet been entirely actualized, but it has been inaugurated, in the rabbinic view by the exodus from slavery in Egypt, the revelation of the Torah at Sinai, and the construction of the Tabernacle in the wilderness. This is a paradigm shift for thinking about rabbinic eschatology, which rejects the dogmas and binaries taken for granted for generations.