The Jewish Messiah is yet to come

AT THE centre of all major religions is the unshakable belief in a divine – an omnipotent, omnificent, omnipresent entity that redeems its believers and offers them hope. And in some cases, as in Christianity, it is coming back to take them to a place where everybody lives in eternal peace and harmony.

But, while believers are waiting for salvation and to be ascended to a place of bliss and happiness, mankind in entrenched in hatred, evil, wickedness, greed, covetousness, enmity, among other ills, which have escalated into rumours of war, war and much shedding of blood, thus the questions: Where is the divine in all of this? Why not intervene and end the suffering, pain, bloodshed and violent deaths?

Last week, in Part I, the blood of Jesus, the Christian divinity/redeemer was in the spotlight, as its potency was questioned. There were hundreds of responses to this hot-button topic. Some people were upset that the writer could even have conceived such a questions. There were agreements, disagreements, praises and condemnations, as expected.

Yet, while Christians have a Messiah whose presence or absence, actions or inactions might be questioned, in Judaism, there is no such Messiah, for Jews believe that the Moshiach (Messiah) is yet to come. Chabad.Org, a Jewish platform says, “The Messianic Redemption will be ushered in by a person, a human leader, a descendant of kings David and Solomon, who will reinstate the Davidic royal dynasty. According to tradition, Moshiach will be wiser than Solomon, and a prophet around the level of Moses.”

It continues, “In every generation there is a scion of the House of David who has the potential to be the Moshiach. During the Messianic Era, the Moshiach will serve a dual role. He will be a monarch, ruling over all of humanity with kindness and justice, and upholding the law of the Torah – 613 commandments for the Jews, and seven for the non-Jews. He will also be the ultimate teacher, the conduit for the deepest and most profound dimensions of the Torah which will then be revealed by God.”

The Moshiach will not be identified by his ability to perform earth-shattering miracles. In fact, he is not required to perform any miracles at all (although the performance of miracles does not disqualify him either). When the Messiah has come, he will be identified by the following criteria, as written by Maimonides: “If we see a Jewish leader who toils in the study of the Torah and is meticulous about the observance of the mitzvot (divine commandments), influences the Jews to follow the ways of the Torah, and wages the ‘battles of God’, such a person is the ‘presumptive Moshiach’.”

Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides, and also referred to by the acronym Rambam, was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages.

The site also says, “If the person succeeded in all these endeavours, and then rebuilds the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and facilitates the ingathering of the Jews to the Land of Israel, then we are certain that he is the Moshiach … Ever since the destruction of the Holy Temple, in every generation there is an individual, a scion of the House of David, who has the potential to be the Moshiach. If at any moment the Jews are worthy of redemption, this person would be directed from above to assume the role of the redeemer.”

Does this mean the world, and the current bloodshed in Palestine and other places, will have to wait some more for the long-awaited peace and salvation? For his perspective, F amily and Religion reached out to Rabbi Yaakov Raskin. He said, in essence, the basis of the conflict between the Jews and the Palestinians is the hatred of the latter for the former.

“Hamas is ISIS, they don’t care about land. They are evil on Earth. It’s more than just land. They are Jew haters. If we had a country somewhere else they would come kill us there too, just like Hitler … They are terror dressed in civilian clothes, they put their civilian in danger … Jews hate killing anyone … If we want long-term peace, we must get rid of each terrorist,” Rabbi Raskin said.

“These are not innocent peoples. We are talking about millions, dressed in civilians clothes, putting their babies out there … They had so many options to run away and go away so that we can get rid of the terrorists, they did this. Israel is not blood thirsty at all. Look at history, look how many times we tried to do peace, but now it’s a war to get rid of this evil … The land of Israel that God gave to the Jewish people is to be safe to Jewish people.”

The hatred of which Rabbi Raskin spoke is deeply embedded in the claim that Muslims and Jews have for the land of Palestine. It is not detached. They seem to hate one another because one side is claiming that the other has stolen its land. The Jews strongly believe thy have a right to their God-given land on which the Christians and Muslim settled after they were driven out.

These are centuries-old claims and counter-claims, but Palestine is not the only place where Jews, Christians and Muslims are in conflict, and where blood is running all over the place. Jesus, the Christian redeemer, is yet to intervene to stop it, once and for all. The Jews are saying their redeemer is yet to come. Now, where are Allah and Muhammad in all of this?