The Messiah

by Rabbi Yosef Gabay
July 10, 2006
The Messianic Age is the focus of the entire Creation. The arrival of
the Messiah is a fundamental belief in Judaism. This yearning gives
Jews all over the world hope concerning the ultimate future of mankind.
They look with a seasoned eye at the irrational oppressions and insults
by so many nations around them, noting in their heart that these
nations will eventually be confounded and confronted. Awaiting the
Messiah gives Jews great optimism knowing that, in the end, they will
be vindicated. Through His prophets, God promised better days for the
Jewish People. He will surely keep His Word, regardless of the rise of
new ideologies or social upheavals.
The Messiah will be a mortal human being, born of human parents
(Rambam, Melachim 11:3). He will be a direct descendant of King David.
He will inspire all of mankind to abandon evil and do good. The world
will recognize his profound wisdom and Divine inspiration, and come to
seek his advice.
Although man will still have free will in the Messianic Age, he will
want to do good and follow God’s teachings. It will be as if the power
of evil were totally annihilated.(*) The world will become increasingly
Godly, as the prophet said (Isaiah 11:9): “For the earth shall be full
of the knowledge of God, as the waters cover the sea.”
Peace and harmony will prevail between nations, as they realize the
foolishness of war. Social justice, as well as economic affluence, will
be the norm. Thus, the prophet foretold (Isaiah 2:2-4): “And he (the
Messiah) will judge between nations and decide between peoples. And
they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into
pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation neither
shall they practice war any more.”
During the Messianic era, all idols will be rejected and all the
statues will be broken down in the same way those of infamous tyrants
are eventually pulled down by popular revolutions. Imagine when God’s
presence shall once more rest over the Holy Temple in Jerusalem,
setting the stage for a world without disease, malnutrition or crime.
From the destruction of the Holy Temple to this day, the Divine
Presence never left the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Jewish tradition(1)
explains that God took an oath, as it were, that the Western Wall will
never be destroyed. This in itself represents an irrefutable proof that
Judaism is a God-given religion. Indeed, that special wall was for too
long under the control of enemies who could have destroyed it any time
they wished. Its very existence should confound the skeptics and the
cynical alike.
Throughout our memorable and turbulent history, the prophets and sages
of Israel longed for the Messianic era in order to serve God without
any preoccupations. It will be the time to study the Torah and to
discover God’s Wisdom. Israel’s yearning for this revered period is
neither to rule over nations nor to indulge in an excess of food and
drinks. This will be the time when the whole world’s priority will
consist in knowing more about God.(2)
During that era, the prophecy of Zechariah(13:2) will be realized: “It
will happen on that day – the word of God, Master of Legions – that I
will eliminate the names of the idols from the lands, and they will not
be mentioned again; I will also remove the false prophets and the
spirit of impurity from the land.” In the Messianic times, the tendency
to choose right over wrong will be natural. This newly developed human
nature will translate into the elimination of evil.
One of the most important signs heralding the Messianic age is the
in-gathering of the Diaspora Jews and the resettlement of the Land of
Israel. There is also a tradition that the land will be cultivated at
that time, based on Ezekiel’s prophecy (36:8): “But you mountains of
Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to my
people of Israel for they are at hand to come.” The Talmud teaches that
there is no better sign of the coming of the Messiah than when the Land
of Israel will once again give its fruit (Sanhedrin 93a). Today, the
fruit grown in Israel is sold in many European countries, while the
same land refused to yield its fruit to foreign occupiers as long as
the Jews were not back to settle it.
An additional noteworthy event is reported in Kabbalistic books written
two thousand years ago (Zohar Chadash 27b). An anti-religious Jewish
leadership who will rule over the land of Israel during the
pre-Messianic times. Jewish atheists with alien philosophies will
strive to minimize, if not eliminate, Torah knowledge among the people
of Israel. This remarkable prediction is currently being witnessed.
Legislation to further weaken the observance of Judaism have passed in
the Israeli parliament during the last few years.
Other important considerations heralding the arrival of the Messiah are
the rebuilding of the Holy Temple and the return of prophecy, which can
exist only in the Land of Israel.
The current resettlement in the Land of Israel by Jews is a precursor
to this grand era, from which all of mankind stands to benefit.
The ongoing international talks and declarations favoring the
establishment of a Palestinian state in Israel will only result in
wasted political energies and fruitless focus. Although the Land of
Israel has been the subject of invasions and occupations by numerous
armies, there has never been any independent sovereign nation in the
land except for the nation of Israel. The reason behind this incredible
and irrefutable fact is simple: this land belongs to God, as does the
entire world, and He gave it to the Jews.
“They will dwell on the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, within
which your fathers dwelled; they and their children and their
children’s children will dwell upon it forever; and My servant David
will be a leader for them forever.” (Ezekiel 37:25) This divine
commitment can not be foiled by a US president or by the leaders of a
United Europe.(3)
If a group of Arabs had settled in France for one or two hundred years,
does this fact make France theirs?
When the Babylonians conquered the Land of Israel, they did not create
an independent Babylonian state in Israel. Their king, Nebuchadnezzar
continued to rule his empire from Babylonia. Later in history, the same
development took place with the Persian invaders, then with the Greeks,
the Romans, the Crusaders, the Ottomans and finally, with the British.
None of these powers were successful in establishing an independent
state in the Land of Israel. God has promised that as long as the Jews
are away from their land no other nation will be able to settle it: “I
will make the land desolate; and your foes who dwell upon it will be
desolate.” (Leviticus 26:32)
When dealing with the Land of Israel, the international community
significantly fails to consider the most important component of the
equation; namely, God. One cannot rationally fail to recognize God’s
persistent involvement with the Land of Israel and the Jewish People,
for better or for worse. Similarly, no one can deny the persistent
fascination the world shows with the political and religious upheavals
taking place in Israel. The international media seems to be stubbornly
obsessed by any small or large story developing in Israel. This
interest is neither coincidental nor a passing fancy. Rather, it is
Divinely inspired to ready mankind for the great day when the whole
earth will proclaim God as their King: “On that day, the Lord will be
One and His Name will be One.” (Zachariah 14,9)
For the past 60 years, secular Zionist leaders have caused severe harm
to the Jewish people and the Jewish cause by failing to unequivocally
make this point. They stood before the United Nations, before kings and
presidents, and deliberately brushed aside this special, albeit
tumultuous, relationship between God, Israel and the Holy Land. As a
result of their haughty attitude toward Judaism, many generations in
the Arab world, in Asia and Europe have been raised to believe the
biggest lie of this past century – that Israel, or any part of it,
belongs to the Palestinians.
The disdain of secular Israeli leaders toward our holy Torah and the
harm they caused the Jewish people are unforgivable. Not only are they
ashamed of their religion, but they have acted shamefully. For the
first time in history, and through the power of international
telecommunication, they had the opportunity to show the world that we
are indeed a “light unto the nations.” They would have earned the
respect and admiration of the world had they conveyed to mankind God’s
message. Instead, they deliberately avoided an reference to God in
their discourses, which were delivered to so many viewers. In this
area, too, they failed miserably.
Additionally, for the past sixty years, these secular leaders have
devised educational curriculums intentionally devoid of Torah and of
God’s veneration, the historical identity and essence of the Jew. The
disastrous outcome is a new Israeli generation on the verge of a
spiritual holocaust. Sixty years of Israeli secular leadership is
causing more spiritual damage to the Jewish people than the lengthy
years of European persecutions. This force-fed culture of atheism upon
the Jewish youth is dutifully overseen by a tyrannical Supreme Court -
a bastion of atheism that disdains religious tolerance. The court
constantly issues “legal” rulings thwarting Torah education.(4)
The Jewish People is now living through the fifth and most trying
galut, or exile. Indeed, sages of mysticism(5) have predicted that the
Jews will undergo five agonizing exiles before the realization of the
Messianic times. These are: the Babylonian exile; the Persian exile;
the suffering under the Greek pagans; and the long tribulations under
Edom, Christianity. The final and most challenging exile is currently
taking place in the Land of Israel, under secular leadership. It is at
the end of this exile that the Messiah will be heralded.
Notwithstanding the physical suffering and humiliations incurred during
these various exiles, their real common denominator is the trying
aspect through which we are to unequivocally maintain our faith in God
and the Torah.
When a tragedy strikes a wicked person, he refers to it as natural
coincidence. When it strikes a righteous individual, he sees God’s
hands in it. He takes stock of his deeds and then repairs his ways. The
secular Zionist politicians have been slapped with numerous wars,
terrorist attacks, Scud missiles, international condemnations and an
ailing economy.
The country and its commendable citizenry are in an incessant gasping
mode. To the leaders, the daily anxieties and financial uncertainties
of the people are of little relevance. The leaders justify these
tragedies as national struggles and coincidences in the land about
which it is written: “A Land that the Lord, your God, seeks out; the
eyes of the Lord, your God, are always upon it, from the beginning of
the year to year’s end.” (Deuteronomy 11,12) If anything can stand
unquestioned, it is that in the Land of Israel there is no such concept
as “coincidence”.
In his work Laws of Kings, Maimonides writes that if a king from the
House of David arises who studied Torah constantly and occupies himself
with commandments like his forefather David, in accord with the written
Torah and the Oral Torah, and he compels all of Jewry to follow it and
support it, and wages God’s wars, then he is assumed to be the Messiah.
If he acts and succeeds, and builds the Temple on its site, and gathers
in the Jewish dispersed, then he is certainly the Messiah. He will
improve the entire world, to serve God together, as foretold: “Then I
shall turn the nations with a clear language, to have them all call
God’s name to serve Him in unison.” (Zephaniah 3:9)
As long as these prophecies have not been fulfilled, no one should
delude himself as to whether the Messiah has arrived. Notice this
Divine Promise:
It will be when all of these things come upon you, the blessing and the
curse that I have presented before you – then you will take it to your
heart among all the nations where the Lord, your God, has dispersed
you; and you will return unto the Lord, your God, and listen to His
voice, according to everything that I command you today, you and your
children, with all your heart and all your soul. Then the Lord, your
God, will bring back your captivity and have mercy upon you, and He
will gather you in from all the peoples to which the Lord, your God,
has scattered you. (Deut 30:1-3)
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