ABSTRACT
Repeated history of persecution, lethal hostility and genocide have affected Jewish liturgy, literature, collective memory and sociotheological visions. In the aftermath of national disasters and atrocity, texts expressed horror, lament and protest. Historically, literature of atrocity has been grappling with the Jewish belief in the Hebrew God and His covenant with His people; and it is this belief that was put under painful strain in time of atrocity.1 This motif inheres in the complexity and depth of Jewish literature and hagiography in time of atrocities. Harsh reality poses a dilemma between predicament and belief, and mystical search of God may arise or falter in times of predicament. Recurrently, in time of atrocity, theology generates a deep sense of atonement and selfexpiating accusation before God, enhancing piety and search for righteousness. Closely related, belief in God and His covenant has produced messianic visions of a utopian era without persecution, trouble, death or toil; this messianic world will come through expiating good deeds that will rid the world of evil and redeem the righteous. Concomitant with messianic visions comes the mystic advocacy of suffering envisioned as ‘pangs of messiah’, whereby times of atrocity and persecution are delineated as painful labour before the birth of messianic times.2 The Jewish people have
traditionally vindicated their belief in God’s covenant by interpreting atrocious times as a transitional path to messianic time.
