ABSTRACT
In the Jewish imagination, the biblical landscape stayed alive wherever Jews lived, as did the seasonal cycle of the land of Israel, commemorated in the Jewish calendar. Even defunct outdoor national celebrations were preserved in memory after the destruction of the Jewish state by the Romans in 70 CE. The Jewish homiletic tradition transforms the natural world into a vessel for a theology of morality, dependent on Torah study. The Jews gave up agriculture, though they sought ‘new Zions’, in the countries of their dispersal; and likewise, other peoples who accepted the authority of Scripture tended to regard their land as a ‘new Zion’.
