ABSTRACT
Millenarian ascetics, perfectionists of daily practice in literal awaiting of the apocalyptic end of Jewish history, gathered in the desert and cliff caves around the Dead Sea. In a complicated mesh of visionary hallucination and nationalist politics, Zealots of various nuances called for Armageddon and programmed the coming of the heavenly host. Judaism knows exemption from death for Enoch, the miraculous effacement of any known burial for Moses, a translation into heaven for Elijah. The proposition that some mode of kenosis, of divine self-bestowal in human form, was too anthropomorphic to pass muster in Jewish beliefs is contradicted by the strong vestiges of the anthropomorphic, of the divine "physicality" in the Torah, notably in God's direct, carnal encounter with Moses. The Old Testament and the Talmud, rabbinic teachings and Jewish historicism are unquestionably brimful of the messianic promise and of the awaiting of the Messiah in moods both anguished and exultant.
