GOD’S WARS
We have already mentioned two elements that characterize the Messiah that we Jews expect :
(1) The Mashiach will be a Jewish monarch or political leader, a descendant of King David.
(2) His mission as a political leader will be to re-establish the Tora as the Constitution of the Jewish people.
The third element mentioned by Maimonides is that
(3) The Messiah will be “fighting God’s wars” (‘לוחם מלחמות ה’)
What does “the wars of God” mean?
This Hebrew expression is a clear allusion to the military battles that the Jewish people wages against their enemies. These battles are called God’s wars because the enemies of Israel are the enemies of God. Why? Because whoever attacks the Jewish people rebels against the will of God, who chose Israel as His people, and promised to protect them (this is the subject of the famous Psalm 2 of Tehilim).
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YESHU AND THE TRUE MESSIAH
Let us clarify that God’s wars are not “spiritual battles” or wars in a metaphorical sense. The Jewish Messiah is not going to be the head of a Jewish “Salvation Army” or something like that. HaShem’s wars are real military battles that we Jews fight to regain or defend our sovereignty, as we have been doing in Israel since 1948 (see H. Melakhim 4:10, 7:15). In the text we are analyzing (see below) Maimonides explicitly mentions two historical figures in reference to the Messiah: King David and Bar Kokhba (ca. 90 -135 CE), both served as commanders-in-chief of the Jewish army and fought against Israel’s enemies.
ALL ABOUT BAR KOKHBA
Let us explore now a little more in depth, what did the rabbis see in Bar Kokhba to consider him the Messiah. They saw that
1. He was a descendant of the house of David. If he had triumphed against the Romans, he would have been appointed (and anointed) by the Jews as a legitimate king of Israel.
2. The main intention of the Bar Kokhba rebellion was to restore the observance of the Jewish religion. In their times (125 – 138 CE) the Romans had prohibited under penalty of death the observance of any Tora commandment or ceremony: including the Berit Mila, Shabbat, etc.
3. Bar Kokhba was a warrior. He started, and he led the rebellion against the Romans, which at first was resoundingly successful, and he was able to restore Jewish sovereignty over the land of Israel for about three years. Bar Kokhba was the commander-in-chief of the last Jewish army, before 1948. But then he was defeated and killed. The defeat of Bar Kokhba is one of the five tragedies for which we mourn on the 9th of Ab. Bar Kokhba, Maimonides explains, initially had the support of Ribbi Aqiba, but he did not have enough merit to succeed in his mission ( נהרג בעוונות). When that happened, the rabbis said that although Bar Kokhba was considered the Messiah, his death demonstrated that he was not. They called him then “Bar Koziba”, that is: “the one who caused disappointment” of those who believed that he actually was the Messiah.
WHAT DID BAR KOKHBA MISS?
For a Jewish leader to be declared, and appointed as the Messiah, he would have to:
(4) restore completely Jewish religious life in a sovereign Israel, that is: rebuilding the Bet haMiqdash.
(5) And once he achieves this, he should bring all the Jewish refugees, scattered around the world, into the land Israel (or at least, I think, Jews should have the opportunity to return to the land of Israel).
Now the picture of the Mashiach, I believe, should be a little more complete. The true Messiah that we Jews are waiting for will be: a (1) political (2) religious and (3) military leader of the Jewish people.
WHY BAR KOKHBA?
The rabbis never wrote explicitly the conditions and characteristics of the Mashiach. On the other hand, Maimonides explains, the greatest rabbis of all time, such as Ribbi Aquiba and the Sages of his generation, “believed that Shimon Bar Kokhba was the Mashiach”. And since there were no other personalities in Jewish history who have been considered a candidate for the Mashiach by the greatest rabbis (the case of the impostor Shabbetay Zevi -1626-1676- is a separate story that would deserve a long explanation) this rabbinical identification represents “a legal precedent” to determine in the future the characteristics that we must find in a Jewish leader to consider him as the Mashiach (and / or to reject pseudo-messiahs). Lastly, I believe that if we take seriously the figure of Bar Kokhba as the model for the Messiah, as Maimonides suggests, it would seem that the future Mashiach we are waiting for should be an “active” military leader in the Israeli army, or at least have authority over the army of Israel when Israel fights against its enemies.
MT, Melajim, 11.8
ח ואם יעמוד מלך מבית דויד הוגה בתורה ועוסק במצוות כדויד אביו, כפי תורה שבכתב ושבעל פה, ויכוף כל ישראל לילך בה ולחזק בדקה, ויילחם מלחמות ה‘–הרי זה בחזקת שהוא משיח: אם עשה והצליח, וניצח כל האומות שסביביו, ובנה מקדש במקומו, וקיבץ נדחי ישראל—הרי זה משיח בוודאי.
MT, Melachim, 11.8
8) And if (1) a king arose from the house of David, (2) a Torah scholar and observant of the precepts like David his ancestor, who followed both the written Torah and the oral tradition, and led all the people of Israel to walk in it, and strengthen the Divine law, (3) and fight the wars of God, then we can consider that he is the Messiah. And if he achieves [these goals], and is successful, and defeats all the nations around him, (4) and builds the Temple in its place, and (5) gathers the exiles of Israel, then we can be sure that this individual is the Messiah.
(Translation and numbers are mine)
