The Ashkenazi Revolution

49peoples” and lived on its land, during the First Temple, as a confederacy oftribes-peoples that fought, each one against the other, for maximumautonomy. This is all because the Israelite ideal is not to rule over spacebut over time. The rule over space requires centralization and unity.However, this is not the case with the rule over time, which requires amaximum of liberty and independence for each of the peoples of Israel.Chapter 3Birth and Exile1The destruction of the First Temple in the year 586 BCE, and the exile ofJudah, forcefully presented the question to the Jews: Which is preferable,time or space? In the perception of the Patriarchs of the Israelite race, theemphasis was on time, and the space of Canaan was given secondaryimportance. But the Patriarchs were shepherds and nomads while thechildren of Israel, during the era of the First Temple, were mostly farmersand small city dwellers. For the nomad, who wanders upon the wide planesand uproots himself from land to land, the concept of space becomesunclear. In contrast, time turns into the utmost reality for him. Not so thefarmer and the city dweller, who is attached to the place of his dwelling andsees no possibility of existing outside it. The preference of time over spacewas corrupted, however, among the peoples of Israel during the period ofthe First Temple. There is no doubt that the peasant saw space aspreferable, and this is the underlying reason why he went, time and timeagain, after the local gods. However, the intellectual class was indecisive.The destruction of the Temple and the kingdom very forcefully brought upthe question: What is preferable to what, space or time? That is to say, is itpossible to exist after the crutch of space is pulled away and lost? Theanswer to this question is given empirically. Among the Babylonian exilesthere was a movement of renewal and awakening, which saw time as themain thing. This awakening is what gave rise to the movement for a return