"This book launches a landmark four-volume collaborative work exploring the political thought of the Jewish people from biblical times to the present. The texts and commentaries in Volume I address the basic question of who ought to rule the community."--Descripción del editor.

Weber’s classic study which deals specifically with: Types of Asceticism and the Significance of Ancient Judaism, History and Social Organization of Ancient Palestine, Political Organization and Religious Ideas in the Time of the Confederacy and the Early Kings, Political Decline, Religious Conflict and Biblical Prophecy.

Aaron Wildavsky, a giant of American political science, brings his profound understanding of human affairs to bear on the founding of the world's most enduring political community, the nation of Israel. At a time in which we are rediscovering the indispensability of resolute and perspicacious leadership, Wildavsky's brilliant study of Moses as founding father illuminates not only the Jewish past but the enduring political questions of how to build and preserve a decent, righteous, and stable community, here and hereafter. A marvelous book! -- Leon Kass, University of Chicago

This volume traces the trends and the developing relationships of constitutionalism and covenant that ultimately led to the transformation of the latter into the former. Elazar explores the paths that emerged out of the constitutionalized covenantal tradition in Europe such as federalism, communitarianism, and the cooperative movement.

Co-published with the Center for Jewish Community Studies, this volume is based on the finest fruits of a summer Colloquium of The Institute for Judaism and Contemporary Thought held at the Kibbutz Lavi in Israel. Explores Jewish political life and thought from the Biblical period to the present in order to ascertain the content and character of the Jewish political tradition and its relevance for our time.

In this first volume of a trilogy, Daniel J. Elazar addresses political uses of the idea of covenant, the tradition that has adhered to that idea, and the political arrangements that flow from it, Among the topics covered are covenant as a political concept, the Bible as a political commentary, the post-biblical tradition, medieval covenant theory, and Jewish political culture.