Dreams, messianism and politics: Zoharic motifs in the oratorio Tikkun Hatzot

This paper presents a case for the intersection of religion and literature, secularism and theology, faith and politics in Israeli culture, by focusing on the acclaimed Hebrew Oratorio “Tikkun Hatzot” (Midnight Vigil). The oratorio was composed by Mordecai Seter (1916–1994) with a libretto by the poet Mordecai Tabib (1910–1979). The paper shows how the text offers a modern artistic dialogue with Zoharic notions and how, within this context, the textual evoking of dreams and of dreaming is key. In particular, the paper argues that dream, redemption and politics are connected in the oratorio and that this relation comprises Seter and Tabib’s focus of interest. Taking place within the context of modern Israel, the oratorio carries an explicit political theology, as it links together, in a complex, perhaps ambivalent, manner, zoharic notions of messianism and the end of time and their Zionist realization.