Sand

Sand is a text by Shlomo Sand, a scholar teaching at the Tel Aviv university. In 2008 he published The Invention of the Jewish People, challenging traditional narratives about Jewish history. In the book, he argues that modern Jewish identity is largely a 19th-century construction, not a direct continuation of an ancient nation.
regardless of what we personally think about his research, the book sparked intense debate and for over a decade was an important question mark in my own world. It explained a lot. In fact, it was the only reasonable explanation to a lot of important questions. It felt like even though it raised questions, more than it offered answers I felt I could trust, it gave me some solid, rational ground to stand on in a world's dominated by ideology.
Reading through the book again, this year, my experience was simply that of more doubt, less ground, less clarity. And in this case, maybe I felt now what others had felt back when the book was first published.