Messiah

Throughout the entire novel, the central character Gurion Maccabee shows he's obsessed with the question of whether he is the messiah. He studies Torah and talks with rabbis about the question, then decides if he is the messiah he may never know in his lifetime, and that he could potentially be the messiah along with every other Jewish child in the world. As Gurion assumes a somewhat messianic role among his fellow students confined in the Cage, his doubts about his status as the true messiah grow stronger, although his fellow students are all too happy to accept him as such.

Israelite vs. Jew

Gurion Maccabee makes a distinction in his own mind between Israelite, to designate a member or descendant of one of the original tribes of Israel, and Jew which applies to anyone anywhere in the world who practices Judaism. He uses the term Israelite judiciously...