we know that the jews were prohibited from inverstigating the future. The Torah and prayers instruct them in remebrance, however. This stripped the future of its magic, to which all those succum who turn to the soothsayers for enlightnment. This does not imply, however, that for the Jews, the future was turned into homogenus, empty time. For every second of time was the strait gate through which the messiah might enter...

benhamin, from these on the philosophy of history.