Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D
The word “Messiah” (mashiah, in Hebrew) means “anointed.” In the Bible, it is often used for kings and priests. The term took on a different meaning later on. According to the ancient Rabbis, it refers to an individual, presumably chosen by God, who will restore the Davidic kingdom, bring back all Jews to the land of Israel, rebuild the temple of Jerusalem and establish peace among the nations. In Judaism we have had a few contenders to this title. Here below are the most important:
In
the genealogy of Jesus in Mathew 1:16, we read: “Jacob was the father of
Joseph, the husband of Mary, of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ
(“Messiah”).” It is presumed that Jesus was a Galilean Jew, born in
Nazareth around 4 BCE. He probably was a Pharisee, and , like other Jews of his
time, spoke Aramaic. He most likely belonged to a group of charismatic visionaries
who predicted the end of the Roman Empire, causing the ire of the Roman
authorities in ancient Palestine who crucified him around 30 CE.
He was the Jewish leader of what is known as the Bar Kohba
revolt against the Roman Empire in 132 CE. Rabbi Akiba considered him the
Messiah. Other Rabbis disagreed. Bar Kokhba established an independent Jewish
state which he ruled for three years as Nasi ("Prince"). However, his
state was conquered by the Romans in 135 following a two and half-year war. He died in 135 CE in battle. After the revolt, Hadrian, the
Roman emperor (he died in 138 CE), changed the name of Jerusalem to Aelia
Capitolina.
SABBETAY
ZEVI
A charismatic
mystical Rabbi from Izmir, today in Turkey, he was born in 1626 .But he was
also a manic depressive. He was declared Messiah by one of his followers,
Nathan of Gaza. Because of the attention he gathered, the Ottoman Turks first locked
him up in a castle and then when things got out of hand, they offered him to
test his vocation by summitting to an ordeal. Instead, he accepted to convert
and became a Moslem. His followers, who became known as donmes (“converts “in
Turkish) did the same, maintaining a dual life-style, Jewish at home but Moslem
in the streets. He died in 1676.
JACOB FRANK
His
real name was Yakov ben Judah Leib Frankovich (1726-91). He was born in
Podolia (then Poland, now a region of Ukraine), the son of a rabbi. As a
young man he traveled in the Middle East, where the Turks gave him the surname
Frank. On his return to Poland in 1755, he founded the Frankists, a
heretical Jewish sect. Subsequently, he claimed to be the recipient of direct
revelations from heaven and exhorted his followers to espouse Christianity as
an intermediate stage in the transition to a future messianic
religion. After his death, leadership of the sect passed to his daughter
Eve Frank, but the movement was soon absorbed into the Roman Catholic Church.
Orthodox Jews today still pray for the coming of the Messiah.
Reform Jews, like me, do not. In fact, I consider Messianism as dangerous
because it promotes false hopes, in as much as no single individual can solve
the world’s problems by him/herself. It is better to affirm good will and
cooperation by many people and nations.
SONSINO’S
BLOG, rsonsino.blogapot.com
