ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book traces the transmission of the image of Eldad and the texts attributed to this figure — from his initial appearance in ninth-century Kairouan to the modern state of Israel. It aims to present various applications of the historian’s craft. While philology allowed to establish the very existence of Eldad, literary criticism helped to uncover the ideological message that Eldad brought to the Jewish diaspora at a crucial point in its development. The course of Jewish history, as portrayed through the transmission of the Eldadian corpus, narrates how disparate traditions can co-exist in what might be termed “cultural globalization.” The success of such instance relies on the ability to incorporate ever-changing local traditions within larger, even global, stable boundaries, thus fostering unification through diversity.
