Information AboutJewish Messiah |
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Today, the various Jewish Denominations have sharp disagreements about this subject (see below). (Note: The concept of the Messiah in Judaism is briefly discussed in the Jewish Eschatology entry. This article discusses the Jewish view of the messiah in more detail. For the beliefs of other religions regarding the Jewish Messiah see Messiah ) VIEWS OF MAIMONIDES The predominant Jewish understanding of ''moshiach'' ("the messiah") is based on the writings of Maimonides , (the ''Rambam''). His views on the messiah are discussed in his Mishneh Torah , his 14 volume compendium of Jewish Law , in the section ''Hilkhot Melakhim Umilchamoteihem'', chapter 11. Maimonides writes: :"The anointed King (''HaMelekh HaMoshiach'') is destined to stand up and restore the will return your returned ones and will show you mercy and will return and gather you... If your strayed one shall be at the edge of Heaven... And He shall bring you" etc.( Deuteronomy 30:3-5)." :"These words that are explicitly stated in the Torah, encompass and include all the words spoken by all the prophets. In the section of Torah referring to 's" ( Obadiah 1:21)." :"And by the Towns of Refuge it states: "And if the Lord your God will widen up your territory... you shall add on for you another three towns" etc. ( Deuteronomy 19:8-9). Now this thing never happened; and the Holy One does not command in vain. But as for the words of the prophets, this matter needs no proof, as all their books are full with this issue." :"Do not imagine that the anointed King must perform miracles and signs and create new things in the world or resurrect the dead and so on. The matter is not so: For Rabbi Akiva was a great scholar of the sages of the Mishnah , and he was the assistant-warrior of the king Bar Kokhba , and claimed that he was the anointed king. He and all the Sages of his generation deemed him the anointed king, until he was killed by sins; only since he was killed, they knew that he was not. The Sages asked him neither a miracle nor a sign..." :"And if a king shall stand up from among the 3:9)." :"But if he did not succeed until now, or if he was killed, it becomes known that he is not this one of whom the Torah had promised us, and he is indeed like all proper and wholesome kings of the House of David who died. The Holy One, Blessed Be He, only set him up to try the public by him, thus: "And from the seekers of wisdom there shall stumble, to purify among them and to clarify and to brighten until the time of the ending, for there is yet to the set time" ( Daniel 11:35)." Views on Jesus and Muhammad See Also: Judaism's view of Jesus Maimonides next writes why Jews believe that Jesus was wrong to create Christianity and why they believe that Muhammad was wrong to create Islam ; he laments the pains that Jews felt as a result of these new faiths that attempted to supplant Judaism. However, Maimonides then goes on to say that both faiths help God redeem the world. :"As for whereas this one caused the loss of Israel by sword, and to scatter their remnant and humiliate them, and to Change The Torah and to cause most of the world to erroneously worship a god besides the Lord. But the human mind has no power to reach the thoughts of the Creator, for His thoughts and ways are unlike ours. All these matters of Yeshua of Nazareth and of the Ishmael ite who stood up after him ( Muhammad ) are only intended to pave the way for the Anointed King, and to mend the entire world to worship God together, thus: "For then I shall turn a clear tongue to the nations to call all in the Name of the Lord and to worship him with one shoulder." :"How is this? The entire world had become filled with the issues of the Anointed One and of the Torah and the Laws, and these issues had spread out unto faraway islands and among many nations uncircumcised in the heart, and they discuss these issues and the Torah's laws. These say: These Laws were true but are already defunct in these days, and do not rule for the following generations; whereas the other ones say: There are secret layers in them and they are not to be treated literally, and the Messiah had come and revealed their secret meanings. But when the Anointed King will truly rise and succeed and will be raised and uplifted, they all immediately turn about and know that their fathers inherited falsehood, and their prophets and ancestors led them astray." TEXTUAL REQUIREMENTS Most of the textual requirements concerning the messiah and what he will do are located within the Book Of Isaiah , although requirements are mentioned in other prophets as well.
PRESENT-DAY POSITIONS Orthodox Judaism also affirm Maimonides' writings, while emphasizing that the Messiah will perform supernatural miracles. This point is conceded by Maimonides, who nevertheless states that the Messiah ''need'' not perform miracles to gain acceptance.--> Conservative Judaism ''Emet Ve-Emunah'', the Conservative Movement's statement of principles, states: :"Since no one can say for certain what will happen in the Messianic era each of us is free to fashion personal speculation. Some of us accept these speculations are literally true, while others understand them as elaborate metaphors... For the world community we dream of an age when ". :"We do not know when the Messiah will come, nor whether he will be a Charisma tic human figure or is a symbol of the redemption of humankind from the evils of the world. Through the doctrine of a Messianic figure, Judaism teaches us that every individual human being must live as if he or she, individually, has the responsibility to bring about the messianic age. Beyond that, we echo the words of Maimonides based on the prophet Habakkuk (2:3) that though he may tarry, yet do we wait for him each day." The messiah in Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism generally do not accept the idea that there will be a messiah. Some believe that there may be some sort of " Messianic Age " (the World To Come ) in the sense of a " Utopia ," which all Jews are obligated to work towards. In 1976, the Central Conference Of American Rabbis , the official body of American Reform rabbis, authored "Reform Judaism: A Centenary Perspective". While not an official statement of principles, it is meant to describe the spiritual state of modern Reform Judaism. In regard to the messianic era, it states: :"Previous generations of Reform Jews had unbound confidence in humanity's potential for good. We have lived through terrible tragedy and been compelled to reappropriate our tradition's Realism about the human capacity for Evil . Yet our people has always refused to despair. The survivors of The Holocaust , being granted life, seized it, nurtured it, and, rising above catastrophe, showed humankind that the human spirit is indomitable. The State Of Israel , established and maintained by the Jewish will to live, demonstrates what a united people can accomplish in history. The existence of the Jew is an argument against despair; Jewish survival is warrant for human hope. We remain God's witness that history is not meaningless. We affirm that with God's help people are not powerless to affect their destiny. We dedicate ourselves, as did the generations of Jews who went before us, to work and wait for that day when "They shall not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." TALMUD "The Talmud nowhere indicates a belief in a superhuman Deliverer as the Messiah." (Cohen, 1949. Chap. XI, ''The Hereafter'', ยง I. The Messiah, p. 347) SEE ALSO
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