לע”נ הרב אליהו דב בן גיטל

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) 

SOVEREIGN AND SOVEREIGNTY

We explained earlier (see here) that according to Maimonides the Messiah will be a monarch, a ruler of Israel, descendant of David’s dynasty. To understand a little better the topic of the renewal of David’s monarchy through the Messiah, we need to understand the following. The Tora, the Pentateuch, does not speak explicitly of a Messiah —and later we will understand why— but it does speak in Debarim chapter 30, 1-10 of two events that will occur in the Messianic times. (1) The return of the Jewish people (2) to their “sovereign” Israel (וירשתה). In messianic times, we Jews will not return to “Palestine”, that is, to the land of Israel that is under English, Ottoman or Roman. In the text we mentioned before the Tora anticipated that the Jewish people will return to “their” land, that is: Israel under Jewish sovereignty

SHIABUD MALKHUYOT

I will try to explain it better. The Talmud —and Maimonides— repeats again and again in the name of the great Rabbi Shemuel of Nehardea (165-254 of the common era) that the fundamental (“exclusive”, according to Shemuel) difference between the messianic times and the present times (that is: the times of Rabbi Shemuel) will be that in messianic times there will be no “shi’abud malkhuyot”, that is, the submission of the Jewish people to a non-Jewish nation, as happened for example when Israel, the land and people, were under the Romans which is when this concept, שעבוד מלכויות, was coined. Now it can be better understood how these two elements go hand in hand: the Messiah is the Jewish sovereign, because there is a sovereign Jewish state. Prior to 1948, the last time we had a sovereign Jewish State was in the time of the Hashmonayim, around 160 BCE. This national state existed for about 80-90 years. But for the following 2,000 years, Jewish sovereignty in Israel was an unattainable dream. Unlike today, B”H, that the necessary political conditions are met for the coming of the Mashiach.

THE SECOND CONDITION OF THE JEWISH MASHIACH

“When a king (1) would arise from the House of David who (2) diligently studies the Toras and observed its Mitsvot as prescribed by the Written and Oral Tora, as David, his forefather did, and he urges all the people of Israel to conduct themselves in the path of Tora, and corrects the Jewish people’s flaws in their Tora observance…” 

MT, Melakhim chapter 11 : 4.

The second requirement for a monarch descending from David to be considered the Mashiach is that his personal behavior and his actions as the king are similar to that of his ancestor, king David. That is, he must be a scholar and a strict follower of the Tora. And in his role as monarch, he must ensure that the Tora be observed by his people. In other words: in the times of Mashiach, the Tora will become again into what it always was: The Constitution of the Jewish Nation. And to enforce its observance will be the responsibility of the Mashiach. Why is it important to mention this point? In the first place, because if we review the history of the kings of Israel, we will see that unfortunately most of the Jewish monarchs -even many of David’s descendants- were not loyal to HaShem, to His Tora, or to His prophets! Many did not enforce the observance of the Tora, personally or nationally. That is why Maimonides’ clarifies that the Messiah “must be like David”, the most faithful and loyal king to God.

CANCELLING THE TORA?

There is another additional reason that led Maimonides to clarify this point. In this context, and taking into account the Christian replacement theology, Maimonides clarifies that the Mashiach will NOT come to change the laws of the Tora. Quite the contrary: he will come to teach them, apply them and enforce them! (Melackim 11:3): “Our Tora, its precepts and laws, will never ever be superseded. Nothing will be added to its precepts and none will be annulled [even in messianic times]. And if someone suggests [in the name of God] to add or remove a precept, or to interpret it outside of what our tradition explains, we will know that it is an impostor or a heretic…».

In other words, if a candidate to be the Mashiach proposes to change even “one” of the laws of the Tora, we will know that he is a false Messiah. Here Maimonides also alludes to the two Biblical religions, which in theory accepted the Hebrew Bible, but changed, added or removed its precepts.

In this context, Maimonides mentions explicitly Yeshu (or Yeshu’a, Jesus), since he proclaimed himself the Messiah of the Jewish people. Maimonides explains why Yeshu represents the opposite of what the Mashiach should have been for the people of Israel.

Hilchot Melakhim, 11:4a.

«…Yeshua imagined that he was the Messiah and he was sentenced by order of the Jewish court. This had already been prophesied by Daniel, who said: “And the sons of the wicked of your own people will be exalted, and they will try to fulfill a prophetic vision [which they themselves falsely formulated], but they will fail” (Daniel 11: 14). And is there any failure greater than this? All the prophets said that the Messiah will save us [from our enemies], bring us back to His land, and strengthen Tora observance. And this [man, Yeshu] caused [just the opposite]: the death of the Jews by the sword, the exile of the Jews and their dispersion and persecution; he tried to replace the Tora, and deceived most of the world [making them] serve a god, other than HaShem»

To be continued

TALMUDIC REFERENCES TO YESHU HANOTSRI

There are several rabbinical sources that explicitly mention Yeshu and describe how he attempted to modify the Tora (see Hebrew references below). These rabbinical texts, the Jewish historiography of Yeshu, were not received with much enthusiasm by the Church and were cancelled for centuries. During the Middle Ages the Talmud was publicly burned many times to repress these texts (see document below). In some exceptional cases, the church allowed the Talmud to be reprinted, as long as the paragraphs that spoke of Yeshu were omitted. Something similar happened with the book of Maimonides. The paragraph quoted above, in chapter 11 of Hilchot Melakhim, was censored for centuries, but it survived in manuscript editions of the Mishne Tora produced in Arab countries. And just 20 or 25 years ago, this text was reprinted again in the new editions of the Mishne Tora.

“ישו בן פנדירא” מוזכר כמורהו של איש בשם יעקב, אחד מהמינין (“ישו בן פנדירא” בתוספתא מסכת חולין, “ישו הנוצרי” בתלמוד בבלי, מסכת עבודה זרה, דף י”ז, עמוד א’).

ישו, אחד מפושעי ישראל, אשר עם רוחו התייעץ אונקלוס לפני התגיירותו, ואשר נידון בגיהנם בצואה רותחת משום ש”הלעיג על דברי חכמים” (תלמוד בבלי, מסכת גיטין, דף נ”ז, עמוד א’).

ישו, איש שהיו לו חמישה תלמידים, אשר נתלה בערב הפסח “על שכישף והסית והדיח את ישראל” (תלמוד בבלי, מסכת סנהדרין, דף מ”ג, עמוד א’).

אותו אדם (ישו, ש”כישף והסית והדיח את ישראל”) מופיע גם בסיפור בתלמוד בבלי, מסכת סנהדרין, דף ק”ז, עמוד ב’, כתלמיד של ר’ יהושע בן פרחיה.

ישו הנוצרי, דוגמה של “בן או תלמיד שמקדיח תבשילו ברבים” (תלמוד בבלי, מסכת סנהדרין, דף ק”ג, עמוד א’; מסכת ברכות, דף י”ז, עמוד ב’).

Tish’a BeAb and the mourning for Jerusalem are behind us. Now the Jewish people begin a period of happiness and especially consolation. This mood of comfort began even before the end of the 9th day of Ab. Indeed, this past Sunday, while we continued fasting and still dressed in mourning, we read some beautiful verses linked to the final redemption and the Messiah, for whom we usually pray so much. Following this same direction I would like to write a few lines about the Jewish Messiah, not only because it is the ideal timing, but also because it is one of the topics about which I constantly receive questions.

DISINFORMATION ABOUT THE MESSIAH

The problem with the topic of the Messiah is not lack of information: it is rather misinformation. Ideas coming from other religions that have “seeped”, so to speak, into our own religious vision, without us realizing it. The best example I can think of is the meaning of the word “Messiah”. If we ask an average man or woman, non-Jewish, or even Jewish (I did!) what “messiah” means, they will probably say that “Messiah” means “savior”, “redeemer”.  But that is not the literal nor Jewish meaning of Messiah. The Hebrew word MASHIACH,  משיח, does NOT mean “savior”. In Hebrew, “savior” is called moshi’a, and it is a term that in our Tefilot —prayers— we use exclusively in reference to God, not to another human being! As we say in the Amida מלך עוזר ומושיע ומגן. “God… Helps us, SAVES US (moshi’a) and protects us.” The association between Messiah and savior is not Jewish, but 100% Christian.

MASHIACH MEANS KING

In Hebrew, the word mashiach means “anointed”. In Biblical times (see Mishne Torah, Kings, 1: 7) the official coronation ceremony of a king was performed by pouring oil (in Hebrew: limshoach and shemen hamishchah) on the monarch’s head. The word mashiach then literally means “anointed” in the sense of “officially crowned king.” And why is it important to clarify that this leader of Israel will be an “anointed” king, and not just saying that he will be “a king”? Because there have always been impostors or charlatans who proclaimed themselves to be the leaders of our people. When we say “mashiach” then, we are clarifying that this will be the “official” leader, anointed / crowned, and accepted by the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court of Justice. Any other leader who would not have this validation cannot be considered a legitimate Jewish monarch. The Messiah, then, is not a prophet or a miracle worker or even a rabbi. He is above all a political ( in the good sense of this word!) figure whose mission will be to lead the Jewish people to live again in their land, Israel, and follow the laws of the Tora, including the Mitsvot of the Bet. haMiqdash. The Mashiach simply said, will restore the Jewish monarchy, which it should be defined as a “semi-monarchy”. Why? Because in the nation of Israel the monarch of flesh and blood, even the Messiah, is a king with lower case “k”. And his role consists mainly of enforcing the laws of God, and crowning Him as The King with a capital “K”. This is, for example, what king David did.

MAIMONIDES AND THE REQUIREMENTS TO BE THE MASHIACH

In his monumental work Mishne Torah, in the penultimate of its 1,000 chapters (sic.) Maimonides explains that there are five conditions or requirements for a Jewish individual to be considered as the Messiah.

Of these five requirements, three are a priori and two a posteriori.

Let’s read Maimonides, Mishne Tora, Sefer Melakhim, Chapter 11, Halakha 4. (I added numbers and parentheses for better understanding YB)

“If a king (1) arose from the House of David who (2) diligently studied the Tora and observed its mitsvot as prescribed by the Written and Oral Torah, as David, his forefather did, and urged all the people of Israel to follow the path of Tora and correct the gaps in Tora observance [ie: fix what the Jewish people are doing wrong in terms of religious observance], (3) and would wage HaShem’s wars , this individual could be considered as the Mashiach. If he meets all of the above, and additionally (4) builds the Bet haMiqdash [=Temple] in its place [=Har haBayit, Jerusalem], and (5) gathers the scattered Jews in the land of Israel, then it can be affirmed without a doubt that he is the Messiah”.

REQUIREMENT NUMBER ONE

As we just explained, the true Jewish Messiah is a man, ”the future king of Israel.” Now, the Jewish monarchy was granted by God exclusively to the descendants of King David. The official title of the Jewish Messiah is “MELECH MASHIACH BEN DAVID”, “The anointed king, descendant of David”. This requirement, for example, would automatically exclude anyone who is Cohen or Levi, since David belonged to the tribe of Yehuda.

To be continued

DE MAL EN PEOR

After the death of Agrippa, the governor of Judea (Yehuda, Israel) between the years 41 and 44 of the common era,  a very difficult period for Am Israel began, which culminated with the destruction of Bet haMiqdash in the year 68.The Romans promoted the immigration of pagan heathen to Israel, exempted them from taxes and favored them with their laws. If a Jew, for example, did not pay the exorbitant taxes to the emperor, his lands were confiscated and handed over to the pagans for free. The Jewish population felt increasingly displaced and deprived of their lands. On the religious level the situation was no better: The provocations and humiliations against the Jews continued to grow more and more. Maimonides indicates that the offense of Apostomus, where for the first time the Romans publicly burned a Sefer Tora, took place in the time of Governor Cumanus (48-52). After Cumanus came Felix, who ruled Judea for 8 terrible years (52-60). Felix was a slave in his youth. And as governor, although he responded to the directives of the Roman emperor, he had a free hand to do everything he wanted in his province. Felix abused his power against the Jews. The Roman historian Tacitus denounced this attitude by saying that Felix: “… practiced all sorts of cruelty and abuses, using his power as a king [of the Jews] to unleash his slave’s instincts.”All this was part of a deliberate and orchestrated campaign by the Romans for Judea to cease to exist as Jewish territory, and for Jews to emigrate or become “normal” citizens of the empire. The situation was hopeless. The Jews did not have the power to change what was happening. And faced with this desperate situation the Jews, unfortunately, were more divided than ever.

JUDEA DIVIDED

Although the great majority of Jews followed the tradition of their parents, observing the written and oral Tora (Parushim) there was also an important group, related to the aristocracy and the priesthood, called Sadducees (Tsadoquim), who did not accept the traditional rabbinical leadership and traditions and were not very unhappy to live under the Roman Empire. There was another group called the Essenes, who were ascetics who retired to live in very closed communities in the desert and were separated from the rest of the people. There were also Jews influenced by Greco-Roman culture and philosophy, who were less strict in the observance of the Tora. In addition, the desperate situation of living under the Romans encouraged many Yehudim to harbor messianic hopes (as was also the case with Ribbi Aqiba in the times of Bar Kokhba, etc., in the 135).  Between 40-60 of the common era, several messianic groups were formed, and some ended up becoming antagonistic to Judaism (Christianity, for example).

FREEDOM!!!

Divisions were not limited to the religious sphere. Many Jews thought that the only possible way to survive as a people was to revolt against Rome, and they decided to take up arms, to entrench themselves in Jerusalem, to resist and fight against the Roman Empire, to restore an independent Jewish state. And while it is true that no people in antiquity had been able to resist, let alone defeat, the Roman Army,  Jews had the fresh memory of the Hashmonayim, under the leadership of Matitiyahu and his sons, we fought and defeated the Greek army! The memory of this epic triumph, which occurred only 200 years before, was very fresh in the minds of the people.

This idea gave rise to what was called: HAMERED HAGADOL, the “great rebellion” of the Jews against the Roman Empire. But this rebellion was unsuccessful, and culminated in the destruction of our Beth-haMiqdash. Why did we fail? Our Sages attributed this failure to a single factor sinat hinam, we were divided. Even those Jews who rebelled and were actively fighting against Rome did not agree on having a united leadership, and in fact the different militias fought against each other.… Our Sages explain that when we are divided, the Divine Presence stays away from us.

(To be continued….)

FIRST REBELLION AGAINST ROME

Previously, we wrote about the process that led Judea (Israel) to losing its independence and becoming a vassal state of the Roman Empire around 63 BCE.  In 54 BCE, the Jews tried to rebel against the empire and regain their sovereignty. Alexander, the son of Yehuda Aristobulus, led a rebellion against the new Roman consul: Crassus. But he failed. 13,000 Jewish combatants were killed and 30,000 civilians were captured and sent to Rome as slaves. Many Jewish cities were destroyed and turned into Roman cities. To further weaken the Jews, the Romans invited pagans from across the empire to settle in the land of Israel, offering them reduced taxes with the purpose to outnumber the local Jewish population. Furthermore, the new kings or governors of Judea were appointed by the Roman emperor, and their allegiance was primarily to Rome and not to their Jewish brethren. The best known of these kings was undoubtedly Herod, who reigned from 37 BCE to 1 CE. Herod was born in Judea but was not a Jew but of Idumean or Edomite descent.

THE EDOMITES AND THE JEWS
The history of the Edomites and their relationship with Am Israel is quite complex. Edom descended from Esau, Ya’aqob’s brother. This would normally mean that Jews and Edomites should be close allies, distant “cousins.” However, for a long time, especially in the days of King David (1000 BCE), Israel and Edom were sworn enemies. The same thing happened at the time of the destruction of the first Bet haMiqdash (Jerusalem Temple, 586 BCE), the Edomites joined our enemies, the Babylonians, and their wickedness and unspeakable cruelty towards the Jews was explicitly recorded for posterity in the famous Psalm 137 of Tehilim ‘al neharot Babel (137:7). At the time of the Hashmonayim (150 BCE) the Edomites converted to Judaism and many of them fully integrated into the Jewish people and fought in its ranks like many Druzes in the Israeli army today. But Herod was different. His unconditional loyalty to the Romans was also the product of his hatred toward the Jews. Herod fully collaborated with the Romans, collecting very heavy taxes from the Jews, and establishing pagan temples in various cities in Israel, such as Caesarea and others. His greatest provocation was placing the Golden Eagle, the military banner, and a roman “object of religious worship”  at the entrance gate of the Bet-haMiqdash.

JEWISH YOUTH vs ROMAN EAGLE
The rabbis encouraged a group of young Jews to physically remove the Roman idol from the Temple precinct. But the mission failed, the young men were seized and brought before Herod. Flavius ​​Josephus records the dialogue that took place at that time. Herod said to them, “Who sent you to remove the eagle?” The young people answered: “The Laws of our fathers”. Herod asked them: “And why do you seem to be so excited and calm at this moment? Don’t you know that I am going to execute you? The young Jews responded: “We know! But we also know that eternal life awaits us in the world to come (‘olam haba).” Herod had these forty young Jews killed along with two of the greatest rabbis of Israel, burning them at a public stake.

FROM A VASSAL STATE TO A ROMAN PROVINCE

In  the year 6 of the common era, a few years after Herod’s death, the situation got even worse for the Jews. Augustus, the first Roman emperor, abolished the “Jewish” monarchy and the relatively independent Jewish state was formally turned into a Roman province. In other words, from that moment on there would be no more local Jewish kings or governors: Judea would be “directly” under the jurisdiction of the Roman emperor. This also implied that the Roman religion became the official religion of Judea. The Romans, like the Greeks 200 years earlier, now expected the Jews to abandon their religion and adopt the Roman gods, “as the rest of the empire had happily done.” And unfortunately, as happened before in the days of the Greek Empire, many Jews, especially those belonging to the higher economic levels, betrayed their faith and their brothers in order to obtain tax exemptions and other benefits for collaborating with the Romans.

Once Judea became a Roman province, the Romans appointed the High Priest (Cohen Gadol) who would slowly begin to make changes to the Jewish Temple Laws, undermining the holiest place of Judaism.  The Romans would also have unlimited access to the treasures of the Bet haMiqdash, whose religious objects (kele haqodesh) were made of gold and silver. The well-known Roman prefect Pontius Pilate (26-36 of the common era) stole part of the treasures of the Bet-haMiqdash and with those funds he ordered the construction of an aqueduct in Jerusalem.

This new scenario became increasingly intolerable for the Jews.

And a new idea (suicidal!) began to ferment in the minds and hearts of the Jews: “We must rebel against the Roman Empire and recover our political and religious autonomy, before Judaism disappears completely.” Echoes of an all-or-nothing Jewish rebellion against the invincible Roman army could be felt in the air of Jerusalem…

To be continued