suggest are related to it, biritum means "space between" while bereiti means "fetter" or "binding agreement." This notion of dividing and then binding is present in the Hebrew phrase for covenant making, lichrot brit (literally, to cut a covenant) and the ceremony that went with that term which in its earliest form involved the halving of an animal and passing between its two parts to symbolically reunite them. 9 It can be said that, in Jewish tradition, the ties of covenant are the concretization of the relationship of dialogue which, when addressed to God make man holy and, when addressed to one's fellows, make men human. As the Bible itself makes clear, the covenantal bonds transform what most religions understood as a mystical union into a real one, making life -- including political life -- possible in an all-too-real world. In many ways, the progress of civilization can be traced as corresponding to the periods in human history when significant groups of people have recognized the covenant idea and sought to concretely apply it to the building of human, political and social relationships. Translated into less theological terminology, a covenant-based politics looks toward political arrangements established or, more appropriately, compounded for particular moral purposes, through the linking of separate entities so that each preserves its respective integrity while creating a common association to serve those purposes, broad or limited, for which it was called into being. The purposes range from keeping the peace through permanent but limited alliance of independent