Rabbi Ya’aqob Yehuda León (1602-1675) builds a Bet haMiqdash

Yesterday we explained that Rabbi Yahacob Yehuda Leon was born in Portugal and lived in Amsterdam. We mentioned that among his many works are: the vocalization, Spanish translation and illustration of the Mishna (the latter two texts are lost) and the translation into Spanish, with commentary of the book of Tehillim.
We also mentioned that his name has many variations. He called himself “Leon Hebreo” but most authors of his day called him “Leon or Yehuda Templo”. Why “Templo”?  Rabbi Leon was also a great artist and designer, specialized in heraldry, the designing of coats of arms.
Rabbi Leon used his artistic talents to build a miniature model of the Bet haMiqdash, the great Temple of Jerusalem.
To build his Temple Rabbi Leon used all available Jewish sources: biblical sources, the Talmudic treaty of Middot, the writings of Josephus Flavius and the detailed description of Maimonides in his Mishne Tora.
In 1641 Rabbi Leon finished his elaborate model of the Temple on a scale of 1: 300. The model measured in meters  1,30 x 1,20 x 0,60.
jleon-1
Together with this miniature Bet haMiqdash Rabbi Leon also wrote an explanatory book that guides the reader, and those who visited his exhibition, inside the Bet haMiqdash, describing each of its enclosures, vessels,  utensils, etc. This book was called “Portrait of the Temple of Solomon”.
The book was originally published in Spanish, but aroused much interest among the Yehudim of the world and even among Gentiles. It was soon translated into Hebrew, Dutch, French, English, German and Latin.
Rabbi Leon exhibited the model of the Bet haMiqdash in his own house. And the exhibition got a lot of attention.
In 1642 the Jewish community in Amsterdam had an illustrious visitor. Henrietta Maria of France (1609-1666), Queen consort of England, wife of Charles I, who accompanied by Prince William of Orange and his fiancee Mary Stuart, came to the house of Rabbi Leon to visit his miniature  Bet haMiqdash.
According to some historians in 1671 Rabbi Leon took the model of Bet haMiqdash to London. We have a beautiful letter of recommendation written by Constantijn Huygens addressed to King Charles II,  See here .  (Some historians say that while in London Rabbi Leon designed the first coat of arms used by the British Freemasons). The model of the Bet haMiqdash remained in London for nearly 100 years, and was exhibited by the descendants of Rabbi Leon, including Isaac de Leon and Moshe Isaac de Castro.
One such exhibition was held in London in 1729. In the journal of the court he put a sign that read: “You can see every day in the Royal Exchange, the model of the Temple of Solomon in all halls, walls, Gates , Chambers and holy vessels, the great Altar of Sacrifice, the bronze sea, the laundry and the Holy of Holies with the Ark of the Covenant, the chair of Mercy and the golden cherubs, the altar of incense, the candlesticks, the tables, and the two famous columns Yakin and Boaz. “
Rabbi Leon also published the book “Treaty of the Ark of Testament” written in Dutch in 1647. This book describes in detail and draws the Aron haBerit, the ark of the covenant.
He also wrote in Latin “Treaty of cherubim”, where eh explains, describes and illustrates the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant.
And finally he wrote the book “Portrait of the Tabernacle of Moseh”, in Spanish, published in Amsterdam in 1654.
Here is this beautiful book, which describes what we are reading in the parashiyot of these weeks. I recommended to see in the first pages the original artwork of Rabbi León, in full color, of the Mishkan and all its details. Click  here
Rabbi Yahacob Yehuda Leon Hebreo “Templo” died in 1675.


Rabbi Ya’aqob Yehuda León (1602-1675) and his translation of Tehilim

Today we will learn about Rabbi Ya’aqob Yehuda Leon. Born in 1602. Some say he was born in Hamburg, which at the time belonged to the Netherlands, and some say he was born in Coimbra, Portugal. We will follow this second opinion. His grandfather and great-grandfather came from the city of Leon, in Spain, where they practiced Judaism in secret. His father, Simaõ de Leão was born in Portugal. He was a trader in Tavarede and Buarcos, near Coimbra. His mother was Felipa de Fonseca. In 1605 his entire family fled Portugal and openly embraced Judaism once they came to the Netherlands. There Ya’aqob studied with a great Tora scholar Rabbi Isaac Uziel (died in 1622), which besides being a distinguished Talmudist, was a physician and an expert in diqduq, Hebrew grammar.
In 1628 he moved to Hamburg, to the Sephardic synagogue “Cardozo” to replace Rabbi Isaac Attias, who was the first rabbi of Hamburg, and who also a student of Rabbi Uziel. In 1635 he returned to Amsterdam as Hakham of one of the three Portuguese Jewish communities.
Nothing about this Rabbi is simple. His life and works are fascinating. Let’s start with his name. His original name was Ya’aqob (he wrote it “Yahacob”) Yehuda Leon, but he called himself and signed, “Yahacob Yehuda, Leon Hebreo” ( “Hebreo”, Hebrew,  means “Jew”). In many circles, he was known simply as “Leon Hebreo”. But in most encyclopedias his name is Ya’aqob Yehuda Leon “Templo”. Tomorrow we will explain why he was given this second surname.
One of the most important things he did was the vocalization of the Mishna, with Rabbi Menashe ben Israel . This was a monumental project, because as anyone familiar with Rabbinic literature knows, the Mishna was never vocalized. The vocalization of the text was received by tradition. In this case, these two Rabbis were students of the same eminent teacher Rabbi Isaac Uziel, who belonged to the uninterrupted chain of Sephardic Rabbis, whose tradition dates back to the times of the Geonim.
We can see above an image of one page of that Mishna (If you zoom you can read some marginal notes in Spanish to explain some difficult words).
It appears that Rabbi Leon also translated the Mishna into the Spanish, along with Rabbi Menashe ben Israel, but I think that that Mishna is lost…. Something else that is lost are the illustrations made by Rabbi León to the Mishna. Let me explain: aside from being a great Talmudic scholar and an expert in grammar, Rabbi Leon was also an artist. His specialty was “heraldry”, namely the design and manufacture of “coats of arms”, something very fashionable in those days for noble families. Rabbi Leon then illustrated some texts of the Mishna, which obviously allowed a better understanding of the issues at hand. B’H tomorrow we will continue explaining how Rabbi Leon used his artistic talents for ‘abodat haQodesh.
Perhaps the most significant contribution made by Rabbi Leon for Spanish-speaking Jews was his translation of the Book of Tehilim. We live in privileged times. One of the privileges we have today as Yehudim is that we can now access from our computers, virtually all Tora books that have ever been published. Most of these books can be found in the website “www.hebrewbooks.org”and many others in “google books”. In the latter server is where I found the book of Tehillim by Rabbi Leon. To my knowledge, this is the first Jewish translation of the Tehillim to Spanish (there were probably other translations to Ladino). He called this book KODESH HILULIM (Praises of Holiness). In this book  Rabbi Leon does three things: 1. He translates literally the text of Tehilim from Hebrew into Castilian. 2. He paraphrases it, i.e., extends the translation to facilitate its understanding. 3. Writes a brief commentary on some words and ideas.
I will transcribe a few paragraphs for the reader who wants to practice reading old Spanish. (Please note that the ancient script of “s” looks very much like an “f”).
On the cover, it says:
“Las Alabanzas de la Santidad, traducción de los Psalmos de DAVID por la misma phrasis y palabras del hebraico, ilustrada con su paraphrasis que facilita la inteligencia del texto y anotaciones de mucha doctrina , sacadas de los mas graves autores, dirigida al ilustrísimo señor Ishak Senior Teixeyra residente de su majestad, la reina de Suedia,  por el Haham Yaacob Yehuda, León Hebreo,  autor de las obras del retrato del tabernáculo de Moseh, y del templo de Selomoh y de todas sus circunstancias, en Amsterdam, año 5431. “
“, Translation of the Psalms of David for the same syntax and words of Hebrew, illustrated with paraphrases to facilitate its  understanding, with text and annotations of doctrines, drawn from the most serious  authors,  dedicated to the illustrious Mr. Ishak Senior Teixeyra [son of Abraham senior Teixeyra, a nobleman and a famous Jewish philanthropist. Isaak was the ambassador of the Queen of Sweden, Christine, in Hamburg] residents of her majesty, the queen of Suedia [Sweden],  by Haham Yahacob Yehuda, Leon Hebreo, author of the Portrait of the tabernacle of Moseh and the temple of Selomoh, and all its circumstances, in Amsterdam, the year 5431 [1670]. “
To download Rabbi Leon’s Tehilim click here


12th PRINCIPLE: When is the Messiah supposed to come?

האומר הריני נזיר ביום שבן דוד בא …. הרי זה אסור לשתות יין לעולם

 

We continue to explore the views of Maimonides on the subject of the Messianic era. Yesterday we explained that, according to the tradition we received from our sages, in the times of the Messiah humanity will “discover the existence of HaShem “,  all Jews will live in Israel, with our Bet haMiqdash built and at peace with our neighbors (see here what we wrote yesterday ).

 

But what about the other details of the days of Mashiah? Will there be a war between Gog and Magog? And who is Gog and who is Magog? And most importantly, when is the Messiah really coming?

 

Maimonides explains that these and other similar questions about the Messianic times are beyond our knowledge, because there is NO oral tradition that has been received on these issues (beyond what we explained yesterday). And although the prophets spoke of the times of Mashiah, and the Rabbis of the Gemara also discussed the issue, the prophets spoke in metaphors or with names that we cannot identify, and the Rabbis of the Gemara, aware of this limitation, only expressed their personal interpretations about these texts. There was no consensus among them and the Gemara deliberately did not arrive to any conclusion on these issues, but leave this issue open.

 

Consider the words of Maimonides:

 

Hilkhot Melachim 12: 2: “It seems from what we read in the writings of the prophets [= ie there is no oral tradition received about the meaning of these texts YB] that at the beginning of the messianic age will be a war between Gog and Magog, and that before the war of Gog and Magog a Prophet will come  to correct the people of Israel and prepare their hearts …. and these issues, and all similar topics [details of the Messianic times] will not be known by people until they actually happen,  since the Prophets did not write explicitly about it and our Sages did not receive an oral tradition (וגם החכמים אין להם קבלה בדברים אלו) on this subject. What the sages say about it’s just what they interpret from what they read in verses, so [in the Gemara] there is no definitive conclusion on these issues … “.
 
I think, first, that these words of HaRambam, constitute a monumental testimony to the credibility of our oral tradition, to the integrity and intellectual honesty of our Hakhamim.

 

Second, we now understand why the opinions of the rabbis about the signs that will anticipate the coming of Mashiah are so many and often contradictory. Because in this issue, their views are speculative, and as we said, the Gemara left this matter unsettled.

 

HaRambam also says in the next Halakha that issues relating to the Messiah should not be the subject of intense study, since in the absence of a definite tradition,  it will be just speculative. And this speculative study will not contribute to our spiritual growth:

 

“[And since there is no tradition in these matters] a person should not, therefore, be heavily involved in the analysis of Haggadot [= the parables of the Rabbis] and Midrashim [= interpretations of the rabbis] in these matters because learning from these materials will not lead a person to increase his love or fear for God. “

 

Finally Maimonides refers to the question of timing: when will the Messiah come?  This is also an matter for which we have no oral tradition. Moreover, this theme is particularly sensitive because several times in Jewish history, when someone said that the Mashiah will be coming in such or such day or in such or such year, it caused enormous damage to the people of Israel, as happened for example in 1666, with the false Messiah Shabbetai Tsebi, and many other times.

 

Maimonides says, paraphrasing the words of the Talmud:

 

“Similarly, one should refrain from calculating when the Messiah will come. Our sages have warned us about this negative practice saying. ‘May the souls of those who calculate the coming of the Messiah be destroyed [for the damage they cause to Jewish people]. You just have to hope and believe that the Messiah will come, as we have explained. “

 

So, in conclusion, when will the Messiah come?

 

To answer this question I would like to share with the readers the old Sephardic greeting, before one goes to sleep.

 

Among the Sephardim it was very common to greet each other, among friends or even among parents and children, saying at night, “BETOB TALINU”, which roughly means, “May you sleep well.” But the most interesting was the second part of this salutation, the mandatory answer to this greeting: “TAQUISU BISHU’AT HASHEM” which means, “May you wake up with the redemption of HaShem” that is, “I wish you to wake up tomorrow finding that the redemption of HaShem has already begun. ” So every night, before going to sleep every Jew would express his or her EMUNA TEMIMA, the hope and perfect faith, that B’H the next day, upon awakening, the Messiah will be already here.

 

I believe this simple greeting captures, better than any philosophical disquisition, the essence of what Maimonides wrote about when the Messiah will come.

 



12th PRINCIPLE : what do we know about the messianic times?

Last week we wrote about the penultimate chapter of Mishne Tora, where Maimonides discusses the subject of the Messiah, specifically the person of the Messiah. We explained that the Messiah will be the King of Israel, a descendant of David, who will bring all Jews to Israel, build the Bet haMiqdash and inaugurate the Messianic era (ימות המשיח).

 

What will happen in the messianic age?

 

Maimonides says that there is certain information we know about the messianic age, while other themes remain unknown, because we do not have a definitive or agreed tradition on those matters.

 

Today we will write on what we DO know about the times of the Messiah. And tomorrow, BH, we will explain why we do not have some precise “details” of what will happen in the Messianic era.

 

Maimonides writes about the messianic age in the last chapter of the Mishne Tora:

 

1. NATURE: There will be no changes in nature. What the prophet Isaiah (11: 6) says “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb”, HaRambam explains (Hilkhot Melakhim 12: 1) “does not mean that animals will no longer eat each other. It is a metaphor to say that the nation of Israel, the sheep, will no longer be persecuted by the wolf, i.e., the powerful enemies of Israel who seek its destruction. ” In Perush haMishnayot (Sanhedrin 10: 1) Maimonides says that men will remain mortals,  but we will live longer, because we will have fewer worries. The Messiah will not come to change the Tora or replaced it ח”ו. On the contrary: In the Messianic times people will observe the Tora without laziness and enthusiastically.

 

2. THE WORLD: At the time of the Messiah the world will recognize that there is only one God, and that HaShem is that one and only God. As the prophet Yirmiyahu said (31:33): “Man will not have [the need] to teach his friend or his brother ” HaShem exists” because [in Messianic times] all people will know me, old and young “. Knowledge of God will be as broad as the waters that cover the sea (Yesha’ayahu 11: 9). This knowledge of God will be the tipping point , the most important “life changing” event in the history of humankind.From the moment that humanity will recognize that God exists, and will be no longer discussions about Who is the real God, peace will reign on earth. This time of world-peace will bring abundance. There will be no hunger,  no theft and no corruption. From that moment people will not be occupied in material pursuits more than necessary. Because once humanity will discover that God exists, there will be  nothing more important than getting close to God. No one would want to be distracted from what will be considered the most important objective in life: connecting with God, studying His Tora, and knowing Him as much as we, limited human beings, can do it.

 

3. THE JEWISH PEOPLE: Anti-Semitism will disappear. All Jews will live in our land, Israel, in peace with our neighbors. Maimonides also says: Why do we want so much to live in the times of the Messiah?. I quote (Hilkhot Melakhim 12: 4): “The people of Israel do not desire the coming of the Messiah to rule over the world [as the antisemites say YB], or to subjugate the peoples of the earth, or to be adored by other nations, or to party, by eating and drinking and be merry. The reason we want so much for the Messiah to come, is our desire to be able to devote ourselves entirely to the Tora and its wisdom, with no one that harasses us, or prevents us from studying it, or observe its commandments” .

 



12th PRINCIPLE: Was Yeshu the Messiah?

Today we’ll talk a little more about the Messiah, and next week, BH, I will write on what Mishne Tora says about the “Messianic times”.
We explained earlier that the Messiah or Mashiah will be a monarch, a ruler of Israel, a descendant of the dynasty of David, with a position close to that of King David and Bar Kokhba.
His mission: to bring all the Jews back to Israel and rebuild the third and final Bet haMiqdash.
Maimonides also insists again and again that the Messiah will not come to change the laws of the Tora. On the contrary, he will come to teach, implement them and defend them.
This is what Maimonides says when he talks about the ways to identify who is NOT the Messiah (Hilkhot Melakhim 11: 3):..
“Our Torah, its precepts and laws, will never be changed. Nothing will be added to its precepts and none will be void or removed. If anyone suggests [on behalf of God] to add or to remove a commandment, or to interpret it out of what our tradition explains [גילה פנים בתורה והוציא הדברים שלמצוות מפשוטן], we know that he is an impostor or a heretic “.
In other words, if a candidate to be the Mashiah proposes to change even one single law of the Tora, we know that this is a false Messiah. Here Maimonides refers to the two great biblical religions, who accepted the Hebrew Bible, but tried to change, add or remove from its precepts, and more specifically Maimonides refers here to Yeshu (Jesus), because he was a self-proclaimed Messiah of the Jewish people.
Not everyone knows that there are several rabbinical sources that mention explicitly “Yeshu” and how he tried to change the Tora. The Talmud mentions him for example in Masekhet Sanhedrin. Of course, the comments of the rabbis, many of them were contemporaries of Yeshu, were not received with much enthusiasm by the Church. And numberless times the Talmud was burned publicly, with this pretext. In some exceptional cases the Church allowed to reprint the Talmud,  but the paragraphs talking about Yeshu had to be omitted.
With the book of Maimonides something similar happened. Particularly with a paragraph in Chapter 11 of Hilkhot Melachim where Maimonides speaks of the Messiah, and mentions Yeshu. This paragraph was also censured for centuries, but survived in many manuscript editions of the Mishne Tora produced in Arab countries. And only 15 or 20 years ago this paragraph was again reprinted in the new editions of the Mishne Tora.
What does Maimonides say about Yeshu? I quote:
Hilchot Melachim 11: 4a.
“Also Yeshua of Nazaret imagined that he was the Messiah, and he was executed by the order of the court. This had been prophesied by Daniel, who said.” And the children of those indecent among your own people, will rebel in fulfillment of their [own] vision, but they will fail “(Daniel 11:14). And, is there any bigger failure than this? All prophets said that the Messiah will redeem the people of Israel and will save them [from their enemies], and that the Messiah will bring them back to their homeland, and strengthen the observance of the Torah…  and this [man, Yeshu] caused [the opposite]: the death of the Jews by the sword, the exile of the Jews and their dispersion [around the world]; Yeshu tried to replace the Tora, and he deceived most of the world into serving a god who is not HaShem “.
Maimonides explains very clearly why Yeshu represents the opposite of what the Messiah will be for the people of Israel. He attempted to change the Tora, and we were exiled, persecuted and killed, ironically “in the name of Yeshu”… Is this “our” Messiah?.
The true Messiah will lead, and defend the people of Israel from its  enemies. With the help of HaShem, he will fight to protect us and he will bring us all back to the land of Israel, where we will live in peace with our neighbors, free to serve HaShem in the Bet haMiqdash, study His Tora and observe HaShem’s eternal commandments.


The last words of Isaac de Castro Tartas (1623-1647)

Dear reader,  5 years ago I started writing Halakha of the day, and usually, once a week, I write about unknown Sephardic rabbis. This is the first time I write about the life of a Sephardic Jew who was not a rabbi (it is also the first time I write about someone so young, who died when he was only 24 years old). After reading, I hope you will understand why I was moved to pay tribute to this, unfortunately unknown, hero of Am Israel.
Isaac de Castro was born in the city of Tartas, in southwestern France, in 1623. His parents were from Portugal and belonged to one of the thousands of Jewish families that in 1497 were converted to Christianity “by decree”, and since then practiced Judaism secretly for 3, 4 or more generations (it is estimated that in 1497 no less than 120,000 Jews lived in Portugal).
In Tartas, Isaac’s name was Thomas Luis. In 1640 his family moved to Amsterdam where they finally were able to practice their religion openly. There, Thomas and his father were circumcised and changed their names to Hebrew names. Thomas was called from now, “Isaac de Castro”. Castro (or Castro), surely the original surname of his family, was a typical Sephardic las name (see here the most famous Sefaradim named Castro). As an illustration we can mention rabbi Ya’aqob de Castro (1525-1610) of Portuguese origin, one of the most important rabbis of the Jewish community in Egypt.
Isaac began studying Judaism and medicine in the Netherlands. In 1642 or 1643 we find Isaac in Brazil. As explained last week, his uncle, Rabbi Moshe Refael Aguilar, came to Brazil to found a community in the city of Recife. At that time, Brazil was divided into two zones: one belonged to the Dutch and the other to the Portuguese. Recife was in the Dutch side. There, Isaac lived a completely Jewish life. Not only that but he was also dedicated to inspire hundreds (or thousands) of converts residing in Brazil to practice more openly their Judaism. While there were no courts of the Inquisition in Brazil, such as those that existed in Peru or Mexico, on the Portuguese side there were many officer who watched that the “New Christians” -that is, Jews who were converted to Christianity more than a century ago- would no return to their religion.
No one knows exactly why, but the young Isaac left Recife and traveled south to the city of Salvador, capital of Bahia de los Santos, in Portuguese territory. There, Isaac was recognized by the local authorities. He tried to hide his Jewish practice but something gave him away: his tefillin.
Isaac was taken prisoner, accused not only of “Judaizing” but also of Jewish proselytism among the “new Christians”. He was extradited on a ship to Lisbon.
The Portuguese Inquisition first tried to persuade him to give up his Jewish faith and embrace Christianity. Isaac refused with very solid arguments, showing that Judaism is the true faith. Seeing that despite his short age he was a very knowledgeable man, the Inquisition sent its experts philosophers and theologians. But nothing and no one could persuade Isaac to renounce his faith.
For the first time in history, according to Miriam Bodian,  a Jew used the following argument: “I have the right to practice Judaism in light of a universal human law: freedom of conscience … an act performed in accordance with one’s conscience can not be judged guilty, and the act I do and I will continue to do – the act of professing the Jewish religion – is carried out according to the dictates of my own conscience. “ When the Inquisition saw that every effort was useless, it resorted to a last resource: public execution. The accused were sentenced to be burned alive in those cynically named “autos de fe” (acts of faith).
In December 15, 1647, when Isaac was only 24, he was taken to the public square, along with five other conversos, convicted of the same crime: Judaizing (judaizar).
The archives of the Portuguese Inquisition report that Isaac was left standing for several hours, near the fire, close enough to repent from his “great sin” (being a Jew) for fear of the fire. But Isaac resisted. And while being embraced by the flames, with his last breath, Isaac recited with a very loud voice “Shema Israel HaShem Elokenu HaShem Ehad”.   
They say that the cry of Isaac caused an enormous impression on all those who had come to witness the public execution. Even the cruel executioners felt remorse for having taken the life of such a young brave man. The Gentiles who witnessed the execution, for weeks did not talk about anything else. What’s more, the words of Isaac, the Shema Israel, had now become the symbol of freedom of conscience in Lisbon. And it inspired many converts to re-embrace their Jewish faith. Moreover, for several years the Gentiles repeated the words of the Shema …  the Inquisition had to impose a severe punishment for anyone heard saying the Shema Israel, the last words of Isaac de Castro Tartas זצוק”ל .

 



12th PRINCIPLE: Who qualifies to be considered the Jewish Messiah?

The 12th principle of the Jewish faith declares our belief in the coming of the Messiah (in Hebrew “Mashiah”).

When we speak of the Messiah, there are two issues that must be treated independently. One is “the person of the Messiah” and the other is the “Messianic Times”. Today we will talk about the person of the Messiah, that is, who can be considered as a candidate to be the Messiah.
Maimonides says that an individual can be considered as the Messiah if he meets three requirements a priori and two posteriori. And only when all these five conditions are met we can say that this person is the true Messiah:
Maimonides says in chapter 11 of Hilkhot Melakhim, Halakha 4 (numbers and parentheses are added by me for better understanding):
“If a king will arise (1) from the House of David (2) who diligently studies the Tora and observe its mitsvot, as set out in the Written Tora and in the Oral Tora, as David, his ancestor, and he would urge all the people of Israel to walk in the (way of the Tora) and he would correct the breaches in the observance of the Torah [i.e., he would rectify what the Jews are doing wrong in terms of religious observance], (3) and he would fight the wars of God, he could be considered the Messiah. If he is successful in the foregoing, and (4) he builds the Bet haMiqdash [= Temple] in its place [= har Habayit, Jerusalem], and (5) he gathers the exiles of Israel, one can then say without a doubt that this person is the Messiah. “
Let us analyze this text step by step text.
Yesterday we explained the first pre-requisite
(1) To be a descendant of King David. This would exclude automatically, for example, anyone who is Kohen or Levi, because David belonged to the tribe of Yehuda. For more detail on this point, see what I wrote yesterday.
There are two other requirements to be met.
(2) To qualify as a candidate for the Messiah, this person must be a studious and observant of Tora, both the written and the oral Tora law, as was King David. He must be a leader who cares and does everything possible for the Jewish people to behave according to the Tora, both individually and collectively.
(3) The Messiah must fight the “wars of God” (לוחם מלחמות ה ‘). What does “Wars of God” mean? It does not refer here to “wars” in a metaphorical sense, as if the Messiah ought to be the commander of a “Salvation Army” or fight “spiritual battles” (that is actually part of the second condition) or command an army of children. “HaShem wars” are the real wars and real military battles that we Jews fight against our enemies, as we fight today in Israel (see Hilkhot Melakhim 4:10, 7:15).
The models taking into account by Maimonides, and which he explicitly mentions in his description of the Messiah, are two historical characters: one is King David, who obviously met the three requirements (the other two were not applicable in his kingdom). And the other one is Bar Kokhba (ca. 90 -135 CE).
Maimonides cites Bar Kokhba in a different context: to explain that doing miracles is not a prerequisite for being considered the Messiah:
Hilkhot Melakhim, Halacha 3
“Do not assume that the Messiah must perform miracles and wonders … or perform other similar actions [to qualify as a candidate to be the Messiah] as the ignorant say. This is definitely not true. The evidence we have is the case of Rabbi Aqiba, one of the greatest sages of the Mishna, who supported the king Bar Kozibah [Bar Kokhba] and considered him [a priori] as the Messiah. He, and all the Sages of his generation regarded him as the anointed King [= Messiah] until he was killed [in battle] because of the sins. Once he died, [the Sages] realized that he was not the Messiah. Still, the Sages never asked him to do miracles or wonders [to be considered as the Messiah].”
Bar Kokhba met indeed all the requirements of the Messiah: (1) He was a descendant of David (2) he was a very observant Jew, who imposed the law of the Tora (see this) and (3) he fought against the enemies of Israel, then the Romans, in order to establish a Jewish state, independent of Rome, where the Tora would be the law of the land. In this independent state the other two conditions should have been met (4) rebuilding the Bet haMiqdash (the Temple destroyed by the Romans in the year 68 of the Common Era) and (5)  repatriating to Israel all the Jews who were exiled when the Romans destroyed the Bet haMiqdash.
When Bar Kokhba died in battle, the sages realized that, while Bar Kokhba had all the attributes for being Israel’s leader, he was not the Messiah they were waiting for.
To be continued…


11th PRINCIPLE: Divine Justice: who, when, where and how?

The eleventh principle of Judaism says that God is just. He rewards those who keep His commandments and punishes those who transgress them.

Where do we learn this principle from?

Maimonides explains: When Bene Israel made the golden calf in the wilderness, and HaShem told Moses that the Jewish people deserved to be eliminated for this great sin, Moses interceded and begged God to forgive His people, and he said: If You do not forgive them, “erase me from Your book that You wrote” [= kill me]. God replied to Moses: “[Only] those who sinned against Me, those individuals will be erased from my book.

From here we see that HaShem does not act arbitrarily but with a justice that is comprehensible to us, in that every human being, based on their free will, is responsible for his or her own actions.

Beyond this basic notion,  we cannot understand most details of God’s execution of justice, because as it is well explained in the book of Job, this understanding is beyond our mental capacities.

Some examples.

1. We do not know, for example, WHO deserves to be punished or rewarded and who does not. Since we ignore how HaShem exactly measures our merits and mistakes. Let me explain: Only God knows the true potential of a man, “our denominator.” A math teacher would assess two students by the same yardstick: If student “A” answers correctly 8 questions in a test, his score will be 8. If student B answers correctly only 5 questions, his score is 5. Hashem in virtue of His omniscience (= He knows absolutely everything) knows, for example, that the student who answered 8 questions had the ability to respond well 10 questions, but he did not do his best effort.   While the student who answered 5 questions has the intellectual potential to respond well 5 questions, he made every effort to achieve his full potential, and he did it. Now, while for the math teacher, 8 is greater than 5, and “A” will be rewarded and “B” will be punished, for HaShem, 5 will be greater than 8. Because although 8 is greater than 5, the truth is that 5/5 is greater than 8/10. God’s “privilege” is that He (and only He) knows the denominator of each individual, and therefore He alone can determine whether A or B deserves to be punished or rewarded.

2. We also ignore WHEN and WHERE  Divine justice will be served. We Jews believe in life after life, in the immortality of the soul. And that there is not necessarily an immediate reward for an act of kindness, and no automatic punishment for a transgression. We do not always see with our own eyes the punishment of the wicked and the reward the righteous. The execution of God’s justice, both punishment and reward, is not limited to this earthly life. And it is possible that a bad deed will be punished in the next world, after this life, and not in this world. Or viceversa.

3. We do not know HOW would God punish or reward us.

We know that HaShem never punishes in the sense of revenge, and we also know that not all suffering is a punishment. Sometimes we have to suffer in this life to correct ourselves, to leave our bad actions, or to educate ourselves on the highest ideals. Perhaps to understand the suffering of others,  to become more sensitive and get closer to God, etc.

Our sages also explained that there are feelings and emotions that are part, or and atonement, of our punishment, like remorse and guilt. Or the loss of our own self-esteem, provoked by our bad actions.Or the loss of our respect; or the shame that our sin causes to our families; or the awareness that we have offended God, Who gives us so much. These are all forms of “punishments” or “expiations” for the sins committed.

In sum: HaShem is righteous. And although we do not know precisely who, when, where and how, good deeds are, or will be rewarded, and evil will be punished.



10th PRINCIPLE: Living under His sight

The Creator, blessed be His name, knows all of man’s deeds and thoughts.”He who molded every heart together, He understands what each one does.” (Psalm 33:15.)

 

The Tenth principle asserts our belief that the Creator knows all the thoughts and actions of man. HaShem is all-knowing, or omniscient i.e., He knows everything.

 

His knowledge, obviously, is completely unlike our knowledge. We ‘acquire’ knowledge (now I don’t know, now I do ) while His knowledge is not something that can be separated from His essence  (there is not such a thing as ‘God knows now something He ignored before’)…He and His knowledge … are One… This concept is beyond the power of speech to express, and beyond the power of the ear to hear. There is no way the human mind can comprehend it” (Maimonides  MT, Yesode haTora 2:10).

 

Man cannot understand the nature of God’s knowledge, i.e., how God knows what we are thinking or feeling, or how His knowledge of the future does not compromise our freedom of choice, etc. As the prophet Yesha’ayahu said (55:8): “My thoughts [=God’s thoughts] are not your thoughts, My ways are not your ways”.

 

What we do understand about God’s knowledge, and which concerns us the most, is that God knows us intimately.

 

In the words of Rabbi Hayim Pereira-Mendes : “Whatever we do or say or think, God knows it.   It is useless for us to try and deceive God by false excuses. God knows our thoughts. God knows what conduct should be expected of us by reason of our intelligence or education or environment. The greater our intelligence, the better our education, the more enlightened our environment, the higher are the ideals of conduct expected from us by God…. God has given us the power of discerning between right and wrong. He knows that we possess that power. Therefore we must use it rightly and wisely.”

 

Beyond its philosophical value, this principle signals primarily our ethical responsibility: we must live a life with the consciousness that God knows our thoughts, actions and intentions. We might easily deceive other human beings.  Hide our negative intentions or secrets plans behind eloquent words, rhetoric or gestures.   But when it comes to God,  there are no lies, excuses or pretensions.  The more we become alert of God’s omniscience, the easiest to live a life of righteousness. And vice-versa.

 

The Shulhan ‘Arukh (or more precisely, the glosses of Rabbi Moshe Isserles, 1520-1572, or MURAM) in the first article of the first chapter, explains this idea deeper. He implies that having HaShem present and realizing that nothing is hidden from His sight, protects us from ourselves, “As it is said in Tehillim: “I’m aware of [lit. I put] HaShem’s [Presence] always in front of me. ” This is a greatly important concept in the Tora, and it is the fundamental quality of the tsadiqim (righteous people) who conduct themselves on the paths of HaShem. Since the way a person conducts himslef … and performs his daily activities while alone at home is not the same as when he is in front of  a sovereign. In addition, the way a person talks or expresses himself, while in the privacy of his home …is not the same as when he would address a mortal king. Then, when one sets in his mind that the Almighty King, the Holy One, blessed He is, is in front of him…  then, if a person is about to do something wrong, even privately, the thought of knowing that Hashem is seeing us… will make a person feel ashamed before God, and he will not do any wrong… “

 



9th PRINCIPLE: Can the Tora be changed or replaced?

We are exploring the 13 principles of Jewish faith. These were first formulated by Maimonides, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, or Maimonides (1135-1204) in his Pirush haMishanyot, Sanhedrin Chapter 10.

 

The 9th principle says that “the Tora will never be changed or replaced. God will never give another Tora or a new religion to the people of Israel or to any other people.”

 

In Mishne Tora Yesode haTora 9:1, Maimonides also says: “If a prophet comes to change any law of the Tora of Moshe, we would immediately know that he is a false prophet. Whether this prophet is or is not Jewish, and regardless of whether he offers evidence of his divine mission through miracles he can perform… if the prophet says that God sent him to add or subtract a Tora commandment … we know that he is a false prophet. The mission of the true prophets is to inspire the people of Israel to fulfill the Tora and warn the people when they are transgressing it. “

 

The 9th principle aims primarily to warn us about “Biblical religions”, particularly Christianity and Islam. Both religions are based on a replacement theology which states that the commandments of the Torah must be replaced by a New Testament (Christianity) or a new revelation (Islam).

 

In last week’s Parasha we read about the most important event in Jewish history, in Hebrew Ma’amad Har Sinai, the event at Mount Sinai. What happened at Mount Sinai? The usual answer is: we received the Tora. But the broader response should be: on Mount Sinai, God chose us and offered us to make a covenant with Him, which we accepted. This covenant or “berit” is known in Judaism as “berit ‘olam”, an everlasting covenant that will last כימי השמים על הארץ “while the heavens are above earth.” And the main part of that “covenant” or “berit” is that we received the Tora. Without going into the details of that covenant, it is interesting to know that in the Christian jargon the covenant is called “testament” (as “testimony”). And the basis of Christian theology is that God replaced ח”ו the Old covenant/Testament for a new one (the intent of this replacement becomes clear when we explore this concept in Hebrew, where the the New Testament it is called “Berit Hadasha ” the new pact). The first reason why Jews reject Christianity is precisely the idea that, contrary to this principle,  the Tora can be modified or replaced.

 

Probably alluding to another dogma of the Christian religion, Maimonides explains that in messianic times, no commandment of the Tora will be modified. Unlike Yeshu, the true Messiah will come to ensure compliance with all the laws of the Tora, not their abolition or replacement.

 

The 9th principle also implies that no commandments may be added to, or removed from the Tora, as it is said in Debarim 13: 1 “These words that I command you, you shall keep and observe them, you shall not add to them, nor subtract from them.”

 

Certainly, there are many commandments of the Tora that we do not fulfill today. But that is because today we do not have the right conditions for doing so. For example, there are dozens of commandments which deal with the religious services at the Bet-haMiqdash, the Temple of Jerusalem, which we have not rebuilt yet.

 

Are there commandments that are out of fashion? Back in the days of the Greeks many commandments of the Tora were criticized for being “outdated”. For example, The Greeks believed that the weekly Sabbath rest was only relevant to the ancient Judeo-Egyptian slaves, but in the era of “modernity” (250-300 years before Common Era) the Shabbat was outdated, not relevant any more ….  this past Shabbat my son David Bitton, visiting New York, addressed the issue of Shabbat in our days. He said that it looks like Shabbat has never been so necessary as today, in the history of humankind. Because today Shabbat is not just about resting or refraining from work. In our days, Shabbat also helps us to disconnect from the electronic world, from the media-addiction, from cell phones, electronic games, gadgets, etc. All this digital universe around us that, which not only does not allow us to think, but also prevents communication between us and our loved ones. Today, the only people in the world who possess the formula to make their children leaving the phone in order to communicate with their parents around a table, is the Jewish people. And that Divine formula is the “old” Shabbat.

 

The 9th principle declares that the Tora is not modern. Is eternal.