The year 1000 is the transitional year between the periods of the Gaonim and the Rishonim. The center of Jewish life became Spain - not Babylonia. Rabbi Wein paints the picture of how Jews rose to wealth and prominence there, including the spell-binding story of the career of Shmuel Ha Nagid, Jewish prime minister of Granada, symbolizing an unparalleled moment of hope in Jewish history.

• Why did Babylonia disappear so completely?
• the pattern of internal Jewish conflict
• the steady rise of Spanish Jewry
• the unlikely Jewish kingdom of the Khazars