The intertwining of history

The seventeenth century scholars of the Bible knew that the flood occurred 1656 years after creation, so they expected the Second Coming to come in the year 1656 C.E. or thereabouts. Jews, and particularly the Marranos, also put great faith in the coming of the Messiah, and lo and behold, the Messiah, Shabbatai Tsvi, appeared in Smyrna at the time. This expectation had not been far from the thoughts of Menassah ben Israel and coincidentally from that of Oliver Cromwell. [Margaret Gullan-Whur, Within Reason: A Life of Spinoza P. 203] Rabbi Yaakov Emden revealed his most intimate personal life to the world at large, at a time when Jean Jacques Rousseau sought enlightenment by unburdening his inner life and anxieties. Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson created a mass movement of followers of a simplistic understanding of complex issues of faith at a time when Billy Graham, the evangelist, reached out to millions with his simple Southern Baptist message of Christianity. History has to be understood in its context. You can't discuss the rise of Zionism, without considering nationalism, Jabotinsky without reference to Mussolini, and for that matter, Mussolini without considering the conditions after the First World War which brought forth dictators throughout Europe, Salazar in Portugal, Franco in Spain, Metaxas in Greece, Stalin in Russia, Horthy in Hungary, Antonesdcu in Rumania, and failed politicians with dictatorial ambitions in almost every country of Europe. So what is the common context of apparently disparate events of our time? What is common to what is happening in the Middle East, ISIS, Iraq and Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia, in Africa, the Congo and Central African Republic, Sudan and South Sudan, Nigeria, North and South, Zimbabwe, and the Ukraine and Russia? It will be future generations of historians who will see the unifying pattern of the conflicts of this age.