Messiah in Judaism

In Jewish eschatology, the term Messiah refers specifically to a future Jewish king from the Davidic line, who is expected to save the Jewish nation and will be anointed with holy anointing oil and rule the Jewish people during the Messianic Age. and will gather the Jews back into the Land of Israel, usher in an era of peace, build the Third Temple, father a male heir, re-institute the Sanhedrin, and so on. However, the word Mashiach is rarely used in Jewish literature from the 1st century BCE to the 1st-century CE. The Jewish tradition of the period centering on the destruction of the Second Temple (70 CE) alludes to two redeemers, one suffering and the second fulfilling the traditional messianic role: respectively, ben Yosef and ben David. and later codified in halakha by Maimonides in the Mishneh Torah as one of the fundamental requisites of the Jewish faith, concerning which it has been written: "Anyone who does not believe in him, or who does not wait for his arrival, has not merely denied the other prophets, but has also denied the Torah and Moses, our Rabbi." ==Origins and history==

Pre-exile Jewish eschatology (8th–6th cent. BCE) The roots of Jewish eschatology are to be found in the pre-exile prophets, including Isaiah and Jeremiah, and the exile prophets Ezekiel and Deutero-Isaiah. The main tenets of Jewish eschatology are the following, in no particular order, elaborated in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel: • End of world (before everything as follows). • God redeems the Jewish people from the captivity that began during the Babylonian captivity, in a new Exodus • God returns the Jewish people to the Land of Israel • God restores the House of David and the Temple in Jerusalem • God creates a regent from the House of David (i.e. the Jewish Messiah) to lead the Jewish people and the world and usher in an age of justice and peace • All nations recognize that the God of Israel is the only true God • God resurrects the dead • God creates a new heaven and a new earth Second Temple period (516 BCE–70 CE) Early in the Second Temple period, hopes for a better future are described in the Jewish scriptures. The Messiah might be a kingly "Son of David," or a more heavenly "son of man", but "Messianism became increasingly eschatological, and eschatology was decisively influenced by apocalypticism", while "messianic expectations became increasingly focused on the figure of an individual savior." Enoch contains a prophetic exposition of the thousand-year reign of the Messiah. The older sections (mainly in the Book of the Watchers) of the text are estimated to date from about 300 BCE, while the latest part (Book of Parables) probably to the 1st century BCE. Enoch is the first text to contain the idea of a preexistent heavenly Messiah, called the "Son of Man". 1 Enoch, and also 4 Ezra, transform the expectation of a kingly Messiah of Daniel 7 into "an exalted, heavenly messiah whose role would be to execute judgment and to inaugurate a new age of peace and rejoicing." He is described as an angelic being, Messianic titles of the Dead Sea Scrolls VanderKam further notes that a variety of titles are used for the Messiah(s) in the Dead Sea Scrolls: • Messiah - the Damascus Document, the Rule of the Congregation, the Commentary on Genesis, 4Q521 (Messianic Apocalypse), possibly 4Q246 ("Son of God Text") • Righteous One • Chosen One • Son of Man • Son (of God) • God's Servant • Prince of the Congregation • Branch of David • Interpreter of the Law • (High) Priest Messianic allusions Messianic allusions to some figures include Menahem ben Hezekiah who traditionally was born on the same day that the Second Temple was destroyed (1st century). Jesus '' by William Holman Hunt, 1860, depicting the New Testament episode Finding in the Temple|alt=Mary and Joseph find Jesus in the Temple Jewish Christianity Christianity started as a messianic Jewish sect. Most of Jesus's teachings were intelligible and acceptable in terms of Second Temple Judaism; what set the followers of Jesus apart from other Jews was their faith in Jesus as the resurrected messiah. While ancient Judaism acknowledged multiple messiahs, the two most relevant being ben Joseph and ben David, Christianity acknowledges only one ultimate Messiah. According to Larry Hurtado, "the christology and devotional stance that Paul affirmed (and shared with others in the early Jesus-movement) was not a departure from or a transcending of a supposedly monochrome Jewish messianism, but, instead, a distinctive expression within a variegated body of Jewish messianic hopes." Rejection of Jesus as the Messiah According to Maimonides, Jesus was the most influential, and consequently the most damaging, of all false messiahs. However, since the traditional Jewish belief is that the messiah has not yet come and the Messianic Age is not yet present, the total rejection of Jesus as either messiah or deity has never been a central issue for Judaism. Judaism has never accepted any of the claimed fulfillments of prophecy that Christianity attributes to Jesus. Judaism forbids the worship of a person as a form of idolatry, since the central belief of Judaism is the absolute unity and singularity of God. Jewish eschatology holds that the coming of the Messiah will be associated with a specific series of events that have not yet occurred, including the return of Jews to their homeland and the rebuilding of the Temple, a Messianic Age of peace and understanding during which "the knowledge of God" fills the earth." And since Jews believe that none of these events occurred during the lifetime of Jesus (nor have they occurred afterwards), he is not the Messiah for them. Traditional views of Jesus have been mostly negative (see Toledot Yeshu, an account that portrays Jesus as an impostor), although in the Middle Ages, Judah Halevi and Maimonides viewed Jesus as an important preparatory figure for a future universal ethical monotheism of the Messianic Age. Some modern Jewish thinkers, starting in the 18th century with the Orthodox Jacob Emden and the reformer Moses Mendelssohn, have sympathetically argued that the historical Jesus may have been closer to Judaism than either the Gospels or traditional Jewish accounts would indicate. ==Post-Temple and medieval views==

Talmud The Talmud extensively discusses the coming of the Messiah (Sanhedrin 98a–99a, et al.) and describes a period of freedom and peace, which will be the time of ultimate goodness for the Jews. Tractate Sanhedrin contains a long discussion of the events leading to the coming of the Messiah. The Talmud tells many stories about the Messiah, some of which represent famous Talmudic rabbis as receiving personal visitations from Elijah the Prophet and the Messiah. Midrash There are innumerable references to the Messiah in Midrashic literature, where they often stretch the meaning of biblical verses. One such reference is found in the Midrash HaGadol (on Genesis 36:39) where Abba bar Kahana says: "What is meant by, 'In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as an ensign for the peoples, of him shall the nations inquire, and his rest shall be glorious' (Isaiah 11:10)? It means that when the banner of the anointed king shall be lifted-up, all the masts of ships belonging to the nations of the world shall be broken, while all the lines (halyard, downhaul and sheets) are cut loose, while all ships are broken asunder, and none of them remain excepting the banner of the son of David, as it says: 'who shall stand as an ensign for the peoples'. Likewise, when the banner of the son of David shall arise, all the languages belonging to the nations shall be made useless, and their customs shall be rendered null and void. The nations, at that time, will learn from the Messiah, as it says: 'of him shall the nations inquire' (ibid.); 'and his rest shall be glorious', meaning, he gives to them satisfaction, and tranquility, and they dwell in peace and quiet." Maimonides The influential Jewish philosopher Maimonides discussed the messiah in his Mishneh Torah, his 14-volume compendium of Jewish law, in the section Hilkhot Melakhim Umilchamoteihem, chapters 11 & 12. According to Maimonides, Jesus of Nazareth is not the Messiah, as is claimed by Christians. Maimonides, citing a reference in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 91b), says: "There is no difference between this world and the days of the Messiah, excepting only the subjugation of kingdoms." Spanish Inquisition Following the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, many Spanish rabbis such as Abraham ben Eliezer Halevi believed that the year 1524 would be the beginning of the Messianic Age and that the Messiah himself would appear in 1530–1531. ==Contemporary Jewish views==

Orthodox Judaism Orthodox Judaism maintains the 13 Principles of Faith as formulated by Maimonides in his introduction to Chapter Helek of the Mishna Torah. Each principle starts with the words Ani Maamin (I believe). Number 12 is the main principle relating to Mashiach. Orthodox Jews strictly believe in a Messiah, life after death, and restoration of the Promised Land: Starting in the late 1960s, the Rebbe called for his followers to become involved in outreach activities with the purpose of bringing about the Jewish Messianic Age, which led to controversy surrounding the messianic beliefs of Chabad. Some Chabad Hasidim, called mashichists, "have not yet accepted the Rebbe's passing" and even after his death regard him as the (living) 'King Messiah' and 'Moses of the generation', awaiting his second coming. The "Chabad-Messianic question", regarding a dead Messiah, got oppositional addresses from a halachic perspective by many prominent Orthodox authorities, including leaders from the Ashkenazi non-Hasidic Lithuanian (Litvak) institutions, Ponevezh yeshiva in Bnei Brak, Israel, and got vehement opposition, notably that of the Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim (RSA) in New York and that of the Rabbinical Council of America. Conservative Judaism Emet Ve-Emunah, the Conservative movement's statement of principles, states the following: Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism generally do not accept the idea that there will be a Messiah. Some believe that there may be some sort of Messianic Age (the World to Come) in the sense of a utopia, which all Jews are obligated to work towards (thus the tradition of Tikkun olam). In 1999, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the official body of American Reform rabbis, authored "A Statement of Principles for Reform Judaism", meant to describe and define the spiritual state of modern Reform Judaism. Karaite Judaism Karaite Judaism holds to Elijah Bashyazi and Caleb Afendopolo's 10 principles of Karaite belief, with the tenth one being about the Messiah: ==Calculation of appearance==

According to the Talmud, the Midrash, and the Zohar, the "deadline" by which the Messiah must appear is 6000 years from creation (approximately the year 2239 or 2240 in the Gregorian calendar, though calculations vary). Elaborating on this theme are early and late Jewish scholars, including Nahmanides, Isaac Abarbanel, Abraham ibn Ezra, Bahya ibn Paquda, the Vilna Gaon, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, Aryeh Kaplan, and Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis. ==See also==