JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

ESCAPA, JOSEPH BEN SAUL (1570–1662), Turkish rabbi
and author. Escapa was the descendant of a family from Castile
which settled in *Salonika. He served there as head of a
yeshivah, and was a colleague of Ḥayyim *Shabbetai. From
about 1620 he was rabbi of the Salonikan community in
Smyrna, and in 1648 was appointed rabbi of all the congregations
of the city. Under his leadership, the united Smyrna community
became one of the most important in Turkey. Gifted
with administrative ability, he introduced regulations concerning
the collection of taxes and the supervision of communal
affairs; these practices are followed to the present day by the
community of Smyrna and surrounding territory. Escapa’s enactments
were collected by R. Joshua Judah and published in
his Avodat Massa (Salonika, 1846). Escapa was one of the most
vehement opponents of *Shabbetai Ẓevi, who was his disciple
and whom he had ordained, and proclaimed it a religious duty
to put Shabbetai Ẓevi to death. Escapa wrote a commentary
on the Shulḥan Arukh, called Rosh Yosef, of which only sections
– on Oraḥ Ḥayyim (Smyrna, 1657), and Ḥoshen Mishpat
(ibid., 1659) – were published. He also wrote responsa (Frankfurt
on the Oder, 1709), and a work on *Maimonides which
has remained in manuscript.
Bibliography: J. Sasportas, Ẓiẓat Novel Ẓevi, ed. by I. Tishbi
(1954), 378, index; Conforte, Kore, 46a; Rosanes, Togarmah, 2 (1938),
208–10; Werses, in: Yavneh, 3 (1942), 101ff.; Scholem, Shabbetai Ẓevi,
89–90, 113, 119–20, 140, 304–5.
ESCHATOLOGY. In general, the term “eschatology” designates
the doctrine concerning “the last things.” The word
“last” can be understood either absolutely as referring to the
ultimate destiny of mankind in general or of each individual
man, or relatively as referring to the end of a certain period
in the history of mankind or of a nation that is followed by
another, entirely different, historical period.
introduction
The Bible has no word for the abstract idea of eschatology. It
does, however, have a term – ʾaḥarit ha-yamim – that often has
eschatological connotations, at least in the broad sense mentioned
above. It means literally “the end of the days,” i.e., “the
end of time.” Just as the cognate Akkadian term, ina aḥrât ūmī
(from the older ina aḥriāt ūmī), often shortened to ina aḥrâti,
means simply “in the future” or “for [all] the future,” so also
the Hebrew term be-ʾaḥarit ha-yamim can sometimes mean
merely “in the future, in time to come,” without necessarily
having any eschatological connotation (thus, e.g., Deut. 4:30;
31:29; cf. ʾaḥarit, “a future,” in Jer. 29:11; et al.). In the Prophets,
however, be-ʾaḥarit ha-yamim generally has an eschatological
connotation (see below).
In the last few centuries before the destruction of the
Second Temple, a new term with a strictly eschatological
meaning in the absolute sense appears. This term, keẓ (qeẓ)
ha-yamim, means literally “the term of the days” (Dan. 12:13b;
cf. the similar term, ʿet qeẓ “the time of the term,” Dan. 8:17;
11:35, 40; 12:4, 9).
eschatology
Some scholars have sought to derive Israelite eschatological
ideas from similar concepts of its ancient neighbors, Egypt
and Babylonia. At most, there may have been some borrowings
from these sources by the Prophets in the secondary details
of their descriptions dealing with the horrendous conditions
of the eschatological period. More likely, the features for
which there are early extra-Israelite parallels were concepts
common to the entire ancient Near East. Essentially, eschatology
in Israel is an inner-Israelite development. Only in the
very later period, i.e., in Daniel and the so-called intertestamental
literature of the Jews, can a certain amount of borrowing
from Persian sources be shown as probable.
It is difficult to date several eschatological oracles. In certain
cases where, for instance, reference is made in a pre-Exilic
prophet to Jerusalem as already destroyed and the people of
Judah as already in exile, it is legitimate to suggest that such
passages are later insertions into the pre-Exilic Prophets. However,
when such criteria are lacking, the supposition should
normally be that the eschatological oracles in question belong
to the pre-Exilic prophet to whom they are attributed.
in the bible
For the sake of showing how eschatological ideas evolved in
ancient Israel, it is useful to consider the preprophetic period,
the early prophetic oracles, the later pre-Exilic Prophets, and
the Exilic and post-Exilic Prophets.
Pre-Prophetic Period
In the age of the Patriarchs, of Moses and Joshua, and of the
Judges, and in the first few centuries of the monarchy there is
little evidence of true eschatology. Yet the basis of later Israelite
eschatology was really laid down in that early age. From
the time of Abraham on, those descendants of his who later
called themselves bene Yisrael, “the Israelites,” venerated their
one and only God as a “living God,” i.e., as one who took an
active part in the history of His people. They were conscious
of the fact that He had made them His “*chosen people.”
Since He was not only the special God of Israel but also the
sole Lord of the entire world, Israelite religion combined a
certain “particularism” as the “chosen people” with a certain
universalism, which looked forward to their God’s reign over
all mankind. They regarded Him as a just God, who would
reward or punish all men according to their morally good or
evil lives. Because of His *covenant with His chosen people, He
proves Himself to be faithful and loyal to His promises (thus
showing His frequently praised ʾemet or ʾemunah, “faithfulness,”
and ḥesed, “mercy”); therefore in times of need He sends
His people “saviors,” such as Moses and Joshua, the various
“Judges,” and especially David, the ideal mashi’aḥ, “anointed”
(see *Messiah) king, who was promised an everlasting dynasty
(II Sam. 7:11–16). The hope and expectation that this relationship
between the God of Israel and His people would continue
in the future led to the genuine eschatology that is found in
the books of the so-called “writing” Prophets (as distinct from
such earlier prophets as Elijah and Elisha). The essential ori-
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6 489