The Jewish view of world history is optimistic, but it is an optimism with substance and meaning:
The realization of the hope that it offers depends on us.
It can be summarized like this:
Humanity is born into the perfect world of the Garden of Eden, and begins to descend into decadence and immorality.
But this downfall is only part of the story.
At the same time, there is another, parallel momentum: a path that leads upward.
Step by step – sometimes revealed, sometimes hidden – this inexorable process leads to redemption.
And when that process is complete, Man and the entire world will ascend to their point of departure and even transcend it.
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
From “Universal Introspection” by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, Syndicated column, September 2007