The Moschiach(The Messiah): Who is He/She?
Arriving in late this evening, and unable to sleep, I thought resuming blogging with two new procative subjects would be just the right dosage of cerebral medicine after a long flight and subsequent wait.
One day, while in Miami, we had the chance to stay with my cousin and his family who are Orthodox Jews. The topic of the Mosciach (sp) came up during conversation. According to Jewish law, the Moschiach, or Messiah will one day come to earth and bring or surface as a result of peace. From my understanding, the Moschiach is a person, and will not be a son of God, as for the Jews there can only be one God.
Please excuse the spelling errors, but considering the late hour, and the Hebrew transliteration, I may be making some errors, and I apologize.
Here are the questions of the day: Is it necessary for all Jews to unite for the Moschiach to arrive? When Jews are opposing, criticising, displacing or thrashing each other, does this operate as a hinderance to the arrival of the Moshiach? Is it possible for the Moshiach to be a woman and if not why not? From what I have been reading over the past few days, women, actually, in many ways are the backbone and strength of the Jewsih people, so I ask this question with much interest.
Thank you for your minds.
One day, while in Miami, we had the chance to stay with my cousin and his family who are Orthodox Jews. The topic of the Mosciach (sp) came up during conversation. According to Jewish law, the Moschiach, or Messiah will one day come to earth and bring or surface as a result of peace. From my understanding, the Moschiach is a person, and will not be a son of God, as for the Jews there can only be one God.
Please excuse the spelling errors, but considering the late hour, and the Hebrew transliteration, I may be making some errors, and I apologize.
Here are the questions of the day: Is it necessary for all Jews to unite for the Moschiach to arrive? When Jews are opposing, criticising, displacing or thrashing each other, does this operate as a hinderance to the arrival of the Moshiach? Is it possible for the Moshiach to be a woman and if not why not? From what I have been reading over the past few days, women, actually, in many ways are the backbone and strength of the Jewsih people, so I ask this question with much interest.
Thank you for your minds.
posted by BarbaraFromCalifornia at
2:54 AM
17 Comments:
It is very improbable that the mashiach would be a woman. Women are the backbone of the Jewish people. Just like in any person, it is impossible to function properly without a backbone, also the Jewish people would not be able to function without their women.
That being said, how many times have you noticed a person's backbone? If it was so important, you would think that it should have a more external role. That should be the part that everyone sees when they look at a person.
In Judaism there is a concept called כבודו בת מלך פנימה or "The honor of the princess is inside." Throughout Jewish history, women have stepped into public roles when it was appropriate. But I believe that was in specific instances when there were no men who were qualified for the role.
The question, as I see it, is "Can people unite on any one subject? Especially if the subject is as important as a Messiah.
Humyns can't agree on anything, that's why there are as many nations as there are. That's why families don't talk to each other. That's why there's war. If we could agree, we wouldn't need blogs.
If someone today starting telling others s/he was the Moschiach, s/he would be committed to a mental hospital--no one would believe this persyn. I know I certainly wouldn't. Would you?
I'm not trying to be snarky, just my skeptical pessimistic self.
Very interesting topic. I tend to think of religious scriptures in mystical, metaphorical ways... so I also wonder if the Moschiach could turn up in a form that isn't actually human or corporeal at all... Hmmm.
There are traditionally two ways that the Messiah can come. The first, and more preferable way, is if all of us reach such a state of perfection that we bring in the Messianic Age. That would, by necessity, involve all of us getting along and uniting. (Especially since the reason given for destruction of the Second Temple was baseless hatred between Jews).
The second way is if the world has sunk into such depravity that it can no longer exist unless we are "saved." This is obviously not the better way...
TRW:
Thank you for this explanation.
Is it less likely that with all the conflict now in Israel that the state that Jews will reach a state of perfection?
Can you compare it to the destruction of the second Temple or is that not a good comparison?
I'm very reluctant to make the comparison, just because if were true, it would absolutely terrify me.
I sincerely hope that we haven't reached that level, but we're definately living in extremely frightening times in terms of how people are treating each other.
"All we need is love, love..."
If only we could all live life so simplisticly.
Truth is, there is a ton of good deeds and love being produced, but that's not as exciting for the media, so it's not publicized. Due to the media's fixation with finding evil in people and situations, it's a lot harder to see the good ones, but they certainly exist in large quantities! They're just very overlooked. We don't stop and say "Wow, that person smiled at me as he was walking past." We're much quicker to say "that person just completely ignored me" and allow that one incident to ruin our day.
I think if we take the time to be aware of good in others, it makes us try to do more good, subsequently causing others to do good...so maybe there is hope?
Like you, trw, this would be the worst of all possible situations in my eyes. As I post on my blog often, it is bad enough to be belittled and hated by others in the world, but a situation of Jew v. Jew is positively horrible.
Like you, I want to see the good in people, and, for the most part, from what I see around me, most Jews, here and in Israel are good. Practicing good deeds is a foundation of our religion. B'H' it should only bring us to a better place both physically, spiritually and mentally.
It would be nice if the Messiah was a woman, but would we recognise she/he if they turned up?
Would we expect to see great miracles as proof, and would we put them down to clever high-tec trickery?
Or would we lock them up in the nearest institution?
Another comment.
I can see Jews fighting each other today, and like you, am hesitent to make any comparision, but in some ways, words, not weapons are the weapons of choice.
You can look at some of the blogs and see how Jews are treating each other. No matter what they say, some negative spin is cast. This brings me great pain. The issue of the contradiction and hyprocricity also surface, as those same people who believe that for the Moshiach to come, there must be a state of perfection among us, are creating imperfection by their own very words.
The Messiah is a projection of the lack of political power, and the overwhelming burden of the human condition, that a small group of people in the Near East used to console themselves thousands of years ago.
Or, as John Lennon sang, "God is a concept by which we measure our pain."
I wouldn't wait around for a messiah -- in any event, while you're waiting, let's make sure that now, at the very point where we as a species actually have the capacity to actually vastly improve the actual conditions of existence for every member of the species, we use our lives to further that goal. We can all worry about the hereafter hereafter.
According th the Talmud, Moshicah will come when one of the following 2 things happen:
1) All Jews are united and acting good
2) All Jews are divided and acting bad
Unfortunately it seems that at this time for Moshiach to come it will have to be under option 2.
Peace!
NJ from Nj
As far as Moshiach being a woman, although there is nothing wrong with it, the Talmudic sources seem to all say that he will actually be a man! He is referred to in scripture as well as Moshiach the SON of David. He is referred to as KING ( not queen) Moshiach.
Be well.
Peace!
NJ from NJ
NJ
Thank you for that great explanation.
But if the Moschiach comes when all the Jews are acting bad, like the destruction of the Temple, and end up hating and destroying the Jewish people, what is the point of the Moschiach without Jews?
Is his precence not meaningless in this case?
In that case, he would come, but only the best of the best would survive. So there would still be Jews around to welcome him...just not very many..
From jewish man on the verge of thinking: Our talmud affirms the second condition that will be present on earth, upon the advent of our Mashiach;
In the footsteps of the Messiah insolence will increase, youths will put old men to shame, the old will stand up in the presence of the young, a son will revile his father, a daughter will rise against her mother, a daughter in law against her mother in law and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. The face of the generation will be like the face of a dog (impervious to shame). A son will not feel ashamed before his father, so upon whom is it for us to rely upon? Upon our father who is in heaven; man will become more and more debased, and there was none to
ask, not to inquire, upon whom is it for us to rely? Upon our Father who is in heaven. (Sotah 49b)
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