Halachic Vs Mystic Messiah 3
Rabbi Zvi Aviner
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The Messiah and Returning to Zion
Isiah
Last class we learned about Isiah and his vision about the Messiah. To him, the Messiah King is a teacher and leader of all nations towards the knowledge of Hashem.
Isiah does not mention the word Messiah at all. He refers to him as the Offshoot of Yishai or David. The reason is that, for Isiah, the term Messiah is technical, carrying no guarantee that the anointed one would remain loyal to Hashem. His father, brother, son in law and grandson were all technically anointed kings yet wicked idolaters. For Isaiah, the term David Offshoot is more accurate and appropriate.
Now to take Isiah of all prophets and make him a staunch prophet of a Cosmic figure they call Messiah, a Mystic figure that sits next to God’s Throne in a Heavenly Pantheon, is a sheer distortion of his words. It is possible to do such a thing only when your audience does not read Hebrew. To them you can tell anything on your mind, your theology, while claiming you quat the scripture. No other prophet’s words have been distorted like the worlds of Isaiah.
Slide timeline
Jeremiah
Isiah lived 750 BC. Let’s move down the road of history to the First Temple destruction by Babylon in 580 BC. Thus is the time of Jeremiah, who foresaw the destruction, the question arose what would happen to the Messiah Vision? Now that Israel goes to exile, how would the Messiah arrive? (Remember, Jeremiah followed Isaiah who followed the Torah and Bilaam)
Thus Jeremiah addresses that question by promising the people of Israel that they would return to the land, 70 years later, and restore David House that would also bring the Messiah King down the road at the End of the Days .
Thus, Jeremiah says (23: 5-6) :
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch,offshoot)
a King who will reign wisely
and do what is just and right in the land.
In his days Judah will be saved
and Israel will live in safety.
This is the name by which he will be called:
The Lord Our Righteous Savior.
And in Chapter 33 14-15 he says
“‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah.
“‘In those days and at that time,
I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line;
he will do what is just and right in the land.
Jeremiah builds his prophecy on Isaiah who had spoken before him about the righteous offshoot or branch of David.
In chapter 33 Jeremiah says
“For thus saith the LORD
David shall never cease to have a man sitting upon the throne of the house of Israel;
Neither shall the priests the Levites cease to have a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually. “
Jeremiah prophesizes about two anointed Messiahs – the High Priest Messiah, and the Messiah King of David House. Both will remain forever, even after the destruction of the First Temple.
Seventy years after the Temple destruction, the exiles returned to Zion as Jeremiah had prophesized. With the permission of Cyrus, the Persian – Iranian king, they began building the Second Temple in Jerusalem.
WHAT AN IRONY – THE FIRST ZIONIST EVER WAS AN IRANIAN KING.
To the elderly, the new House of God was a meager resemblance of the old House. They remembered the glory of Solomon First Temple and they wept. Besides its small size, several essential things were missing.
Daniel (chapter 9: 24) counts these missing items as follows:
“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, sealing up vision and prophecy and anointing the Most Holy Place. “
The angel tells Daniel that the new House would stand “seventy sevenths” which may refer to the 420 years it stood, pending on the way you count,
but also, that this House would lack the Holy Ark and the Cherubs and the Shechinah, and therefore there would be no more prophets!
Moreover, there would be no more anointed ones – neither anointed High Priest Messiahs, nor anointed Messiah Kings, since Moses’ oil would be missing.
How did the Rabbis of the era react to the situation?
On one hand they were happy to return to the Land of Israel, as described in the Book of Ezra.
On the other hand, they were despaired.
Isiah II who lived at that time (chapters 42 till the end) says that the people of Israel came to him claiming they wished to exit their Covenant with Hashem. It does not work well for us, they said. Let Hashem pick up another nation.
The prophet answered in the name of Hashem: show me the divorce document I’ve given to your mother! There is no such a thing! “
The prophet Ezekiel reports a similar incident. People wished to assimilate, to escape the Jewish experience.
To them Ezekiel said: There is no need for golden Cherubs. Hashem is riding His chariot all over the world. (The entire chapter projects the Holy of Hollies onto the world).
And to the depressed people of Israel who came to him he said – God has shown me a valley full of dead bones, but then He told the bones to resuscitate, and they did. So are you, the Children of Israel, are to be resuscitated and recover.
The Rambam sees the prophecy of the resurrection as a metaphor. Other see it literally.
The Rabbis found comfort in Ezekiel and Daniel words. Although several essential ingredients would be missing from the new Second Temple, yet as Jeremiah saw the House of David should be restored down the road. The world needs a Messiah.
Slide steps 3
The Rabbis knew from Daniel, that from thereon there would be no prophet to tell them what to do and what to expect. There would also be no more Messiah King of David House to rule, nor a Messiah Priest to teach Torah.
The leadership of the nation fell on their tiny shoulders. The Mishnah in Avot preserves that moment of transition between Prophecy to Rabbinic Wisdom, the Oral Torah.
The Mishnah says that Joshua transferred his leadership to the elders and Judges, they to the prophets and they to the Torah Scholars
According to the Rambam, the Rabbis of the era, those who came back to the Land, convened to decide their posture towards the coming years.
They formed a body of sages called the Great Assembly, the Great Knesset. It was comprised of 120 members, three of them the last prophets Haggai, Zecharia and Malachi. The rest were the members of all the Rabbinic Courts in the country.
The Great Assembly wished to restore the Glory of the past, to plant again the Tree of Israel in the Land, so that David Kingship would be restored and the promised Messiah would come.
They were aware of the necessary stages that the Tree of Israel should grow in the land to restore the past. They knew it from Bilaam and Isiah.
- Thus they composed a prayer in which they ask Hashem to help us restore those stages one by one by order.
- That is the Amidah prayer that we still recite twice as day with no change since 510 BC.
It says
God, help us Return to your Torah so that we will
Slide amida
1 Return to the Land
- Return our independence (Redemption)
- Return the Torah Judges
4 Return and rebuild Jerusalem to her former glory
- Return and rebuild the Holy Temple
- Return the Kingship of David
- Return the Shechinah to the Temple
- So that the Offshoot of David House would come
No word here about the fearful and awesome events of the End of the Days Judgment.
Thrm
The Rabbis at the Great Assemble knew that some ingredients were missing and that it might take them a long time to fill the gap.
Thus, they missed
- The stage of Redemption from alien rulers was still missing.
- So was the stage of Restoration of David Kingship
- And the presence of the Shechinah in the Temple.
As long these ingredients were missing, the Messiah would not arrive.
However, Zechariah keeps saying –
A Crown for Joshua
9 The word of the Lord came to me: “Take silver and gold from the exiles Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah, who have arrived from Babylon. Go the same day to the house of Josiah son of Zephaniah. 11 Take the silver and gold and make a crown, and set it on the head of the high priest, Joshua son of Jozadak Tell him this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the Lord. It is he who will build the temple of the Lord, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. An
And he[h] will be a priest on his throne. And there will be harmony between the two.’ The crown will be given to Heldai,[i] Tobijah, Jedaiah and Hen[j] son of Zephaniah as a memorialin the temple of the Lord.\ Those who are far away will come and help to build the temple of the Lord,and you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you. This will happen if you diligently obey the Lord your God.”
Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Thus for the next 400 years, all through the Second Temple Time, the issue of the Messiah King from David House seemed to be dormant. You don’t see the Messiah in the many books written during that long period –
- Like the Book of Hanoh, speaking about the Day of the LORD
- Book of Sira,
- Book of the Maccabees.
Around 100 BC. The Jewish population was divided into
2nd Temple Society
Oral Torah David Resurrection Next Life
Pharisees +. +. +. +
Sadducees _. _. _. _
Essences Kumerans +. +. +. +