Halevi draws distinct parallels between the historical setting of The Anointed and today's world. Set in the turbulent Spain of 1492, he presents a story that crosses ethnicity, religion, and social status. This story follows the life and experience of Don Immanuel, a retired courtier who has relocated to the small Castillian town of Zeona. Drawn here by a message in a dream, he quickly establishes himself as a well-loved member of the community, taking an interest in rich and poor alike. He bringss his remaining family -- daughter and brother-in-law -- to the house shown in his dream, and here forms a small, non-denominational study group to study the commonality between the faiths, and examine the esoteric ideas about the deep spiritual forces that guide our lives.
These are turbulent times in Spain. Not only are there religious problems within its populace -- city Christians, Islamics, and Jews did not rub shoulders willingly -- but the Inquisition is systematically hunting down the undesirables.
When their small study group is betrayed to the Inquisition, Don Immanuel quickly finds himself transformed into the spiritual pivot of the age, while his daughter falls in love with one of the Inquisition's soldiers. The whole town looks on as this horrible mechanism comes to claim one they have adopted as their own.
Z'ev ben Shimon Halevi uses an all-too-real fictional world in order to demonstrate the basic esoteric principles in action. He shows how, despite all odds, it is tolerance and wisdom, compassion and understanding that come to undermine the efforts of prejudice, fear, ignorance, and hate. Set in a world not entirely unlike our own, The Anointed finds common ground inseemingly irreconcilable religious differences, demonstrating that God's business transcends the human delineations of religion and class.
