The Ashkenazi Revolution

56he lived in those distant days, he would have made a stand in preventingthis rift and in founding one nation, Jewish-Samaritan, allied and mixed.The historical accomplishment of the Samaritans and of the Jews, fromthen until today, gives great justification to the path our forefathers took.The political understanding of the Jewish leaders of that time was muchgreater than that of the modern Ben-Tzvi and his friends. Had theintegration taken place, it would have brought about the formation of asmall and mediocre nation, which would have been completely expired bynow, or have become a lowly and wretched tribe. The entire history of theworld would have, in this case, been different. Neither Christianity norIslam would have arisen. The entire world would have been poor andexceedingly miserable compared to how it is today. Above all: The wellof eternity would have been blocked for Israel.The rejection of Samaritan help was an act of great understanding, and anyother approach would have been a lowly betrayal. Only full faithfulness tothe historical tradition of Judah, and only the will and desire to fulfill thistradition completely, and to optimize the use of its true strength, was whatallowed the flowering of the Second Temple and the development thatfollowed. The Jewish victory, in the Jewish-Samaritan competition, has agreat ramification in that it gives decisive legitimacy both to the supremacyof the element of time over the element of space, and to the format of theelement of time in Jewish understanding.5In the Land of Israel during the days of the Second Temple, powerfulforces were alligned to ensure Jewish rule over time, that is to say Jewishcontinuity, and at the same time, immense powers were forming in Rometo enable rule over space. We’ve already mentioned that the Romans werenoteworthy in everything pertaining to space and their rule over it. Theirpower was great in agriculture, the paving of roads, drainage, irrigation andwater-works, the military, administration and diplomacy. In all these areasthe Jews were inferior and not on the same level as the Romans. Even asplanters of orchards and as olive growers, the Romans were better than the