Q&A: Religious Messianism vs. Secular Messianism in the Test of Success Since the Destruction of the Second Temple
Religious Messianism vs. Secular Messianism in the Test of Success Since the Destruction of the Second Temple
Question
Hello and blessings to the Rabbi,
I wanted to ask: if the messianic belief of Judaism is indeed part of Torah from Heaven that Jews are supposed to believe in, how is it possible that God, may He be blessed, would bring about, seemingly, so many messianic failures among Torah scholars and God-fearing Jews (throughout the entire period since the destruction of the Second Temple), and especially among kabbalists? This would seemingly contradict the verse stating that God “does not withhold good from those who walk with integrity,” whereas specifically the secular messianism of Herzl of blessed memory and others did, seemingly, prove itself as a movement that succeeded in turning the history of the Jewish people for the better?! Does this not testify a thousand times over to the superiority of the secular worldview over the religious-traditional one in everything relating to the messianic issue?
Thank you to the Rabbi for the answer
With great respect
Shimon
Answer
I didn’t understand the question.
First, the fact that some messiah failed does not necessarily mean he was a false messiah. There are messiahs who did not succeed because we were not worthy.
Herzl’s secular messianism did not succeed. The Temple has still not been rebuilt, and the kingdom has not yet returned either. There was also success in the sense of improvement in the past, and it is hard to define Zionism as a messianism that succeeded. All the more so since it could still fail in the future.
The Holy One, blessed be He, did not bring about the failures. They brought them about for themselves. The fact that there is belief in the messiah does not mean that every messiah who arose was someone one was supposed to believe in. That was their own decision.
As for the question itself—whether messianic belief is an obligatory belief: according to Jewish law, yes. According to the truth, I do not know (the question is whether this is a tradition from Sinai or a later development of our tradition).