This essay is dedicated to dealing with two basic questions: the first focuses on the swift changes that have occurred in our time in the status of the nation and its state – from one of necessity to one of liberty, from determinism to voluntarism, from enforced identity to chosen identity – and the expected ramifications upon the life of the nation and its state of this change. The second question focuses upon the new challenge that the “War of Civilizations” (real or imagined) poses for us. Ravitsky claims that total dedication – military, political, social, cultural, and religious-ethical – to one of the battling cultures distorts the character and unique world of historical Judaism and threatens our collective future.
