ABSTRACT
For almost two thousand years, since the Judeo-Roman War in the first century of the Common Era, the Jews cherished the hope of returning to their ancient homeland. It was an aspiration that assumed different forms in successive generations. It was incorporated in the Prayer Book, it inspired messianic movements and it drove leaders of the people and large numbers of members of religious sects—Cabbalists, Hassidim, Perushim—throughout the Middle Ages and also in the Modern Era to make a pilgrimage to and to settle in the Holy Land.
