בין גלות לימי הביניים: על פריודיזיציות של עבר ועל פריודיזיציות של ההווה

The article reflects on the notion of periodization and its role in the monotheistic religions as well as in modern historiography. Concentrating on the Jewish complex attitude concerning the continuity and rupture after the destruction of the Second Temple, its aim is to demonstrate the tension that accompanied the attempt to accommodate Jewish history to the modern historiographical model, based on the division to ancient, medieval and modern periods. It follows the role of the concept of exile in shaping Jewish consciousness and mainly in the Jewish counter-Christian polemics, and accordingly examines the tension between the concept of “exile” and the notion of “middle ages” in modern Jewish historiography. On these grounds it examines the ways in which Zionist historians of the “Jewish middle-ages” dealt with this tension.