Q&A: Messiah
Messiah
Question
Hello Rabbi,
One of the Thirteen Principles is belief in the coming of the Messiah.
Now, Maimonides wrote that the purpose of the Messiah’s coming is that he will gather in the dispersed of Israel and rebuild the Temple, among other things.
And because of this I have found it difficult to understand: why must one believe that specifically the Messiah will do this? What would happen if a group of public leaders were to do it?
And if you say that indeed these actions do not specifically have to be done by the Messiah, then what do we need a Messiah for?
Happy holidays.
Answer
If a group of people does it, then they are the Messiah. Who said the Messiah is a persona? It has already been written that the Messiah is not necessarily a person but perhaps an era. According to this, the Messianic king is a metaphor and not a factual description.
But regarding your question itself, I didn’t understand it. If you accept the tradition that a Messiah will come and gather in the dispersed of Israel, then that is what the tradition says. It could have been that the ingathering would happen without a particular person, but the tradition says that a person will do it. What is the problem with that? For some reason, you assume that there is a tradition that there will be an ingathering of the exiles, but no tradition that it will be through a person. How do you know that?
Discussion on Answer
I don’t know what to say. Plainly, “the majority of its inhabitants” means the majority among those known as its inhabitants (as Jews).
Maybe the novelty is that God is the Messiah (not in a body, Heaven forbid), who redeems Israel.
Behold, I send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord; and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers.
I had innocently thought that even tradition is supposed to have some logic to it, and that is why I asked.
In any case, on the substance of the matter, I connect with what you wrote — that there need not be a specific individual called the Messiah. Maybe this is included in what Maimonides wrote, that we will not know these things until he comes.
The necessity of assuming this is because empirically it seems that the ingathering of the exiles is being carried out by a group of people (and even heretics, God forbid), unless we assume that Herzl is the Messiah (as Rabbi Kook, of blessed memory, said), or unless we assume that the ingathering of the dispersed of Israel means all twelve tribes.
And as for the twelve tribes, can we even say anything definite about them nowadays?
Seemingly, according to Jewish law, it appears that by now the overwhelming majority of the twelve tribes are literally gentiles (except for the tribe of Dan, and even about that many hold they are doubtful gentiles). If so, one should ask: regarding matters that depend on all twelve tribes — such as the obligation of tithes and priestly gifts and challah, which require “when all of you come,” and according to several medieval authorities (Rishonim) require a majority from all twelve tribes — do we need to wait until they convert them, or have they already dropped out of the tribal count?