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sores and he spends the day
bandaging his wounds.
Yehoshua approached
Mashiach and asked when
he would make himself
known. "Today," Mashiach
replied.
The next day, Yehoshua
returned to Elijah. He was
bitterly disappointed;
Mashiach still had not
come.
Elijah told the rabbi that
the Messiah had spoken
the truth, but that
Mashiach had uttered only
the first word of a phrase
from Paslms 95:7, "Today,
if you but hear his voice" —
that is, if the Jewish people
will obey God's command-
ments.
Rabbi Chayim Bergstein
of Congregation Bais
Chabad of Farmington
Hills has a different idea.
"Some imagine
Mashiach will be a rickety
man, thinned out from
fasting, who can spout out
50,000 volumes' worth of
knowledge in a moment,"
Rabbi Bergstein said.
"That's not Mashiach. A
leader is not just a tzaddik
(righteous man)."
Instead, Mashiach will be
a human of regal bearing, a
brave fighter, a learned
and observant man who in-
spires confidence and is
recognized as a leader,
Rabbi Bergstein said. His
most important role: he
will bring Jews to the
Torah.
Rabbi Bergstein bases
his comments on
-Maimonides' descriptions
of Mashiach, contained in
the Mishnah Torah. The
Mishnah Torah was
written to clarify all laws
and practices the Torah
demands of a Jew, in-
cluding belief in the com-
ing of the Messiah.
The one undebatable ge-
nealogical factor is that the

Messiah must be a descen-
dant of the House of David,
Rabbi Bergstein said.
Samuel II relates how God
chose King David and his
family to rule forever over
Israel.
Most scholars believe
Mashiach's Davidic des-
cent will be patrilinial,
though others say it's
possible he could be the son
of daughters from the
House of David.
A handful of Jews today
claim they can trace their
genealogy to the House of
David, and the great schol-
ar Rashi was known to be
of such lineage. Rabbi
Bergstein said the
Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi
Menachem Mendel
Schneerson, also is a
descendant of the House of
David.
"I'm not saying he is or
isn't Mashiach," he added.
"But there is no one as
learned, as pious, as car-
ing, as courageous, as in-
tellectual and as influen-
tial in this generation (as
Rabbi Schneerson). These
are all the traits
Maimonides identified as
belonging to Mashiach."
Mashiach is described as
a king, Rabbi Bergstein
said, but this cannot be
understood through
modern descriptions of
such a ruler. Rather, the
Messiah "will be subject to
the people, one who sub-
dues his own needs for the
needs of others."
The Zohar, the leading
work of Jewish mysticism,
states that each generation
has the possibility of pro-
ducing a Moses and the
Messiah. Rabbi Bergstein,
too, believes that "in every
generation Mashiach can
come.
"But don't look for him to
come with wings out of the
sky, be able to lift 500

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%
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Mashiach (literally,
"anointed one") would ap-
pear on a white donkey,
some said. He would be a
great king, others believed.
Still others said the Mes-
siah would raise the dead,
prompting Jews every-
where to vie for burial out-
side the Golden Gate in
Jerusalem, where
Mashiach reportedly would
begin his work.
Belief in the coming of
the Mashiach is central to
Judaism, according to the
Rambam (Maimonides),
who listed it among his
Thirteen Principles of the
Faith. Those who do not
anxiously await the Mes-
siah's arrival are said to
deny the Torah itself.
But exactly who, or what,
the Messiah is continues to
be the subject of debate to
this day.
For centuries, rabbis
have maintained that the
Jewish people do not wait
for Mashiach, but that he
waits for them. He waits
for them to perform all the
mitzvot, the command-
ments, given in the Torah.
The Talmud expresses
this view in the Tractate
Shabbat, where it states,
"Mashiach will come when
the whole Jewish people
will observe and remember
Shabbat two consecutive
times."
This opinion has found
its way into a story told of
the third-century Palestin-
ian rabbi, Yehoshua ben
Levi, who once beheld a vi-
sion of Elijah the Prophet,
harbinger of the Messiah.
When Yehoshua asked
Elijah when Mashiach
would appear, the prophet
directed the rabbi to the
gates of Rome. Elijah said
Mashiach sits among the
poor, the beggars, the
homeless, the afflicted.
His body is covered with

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w
he will be able to do (
miraculous things. But/
that's not his role. His role
is to influence people, to br-
ing people righteousness
and to do the laws of the
Torah."
Predicting when the
Messiah will come is
difficult, Rabbi Bergstein
said. Maimonides stressed
that one should not look to
a specific date for
Mashiach to appear, but
rather believe his arrival is
always imminent.
When Mashiach does
come, Maimonides said,
"I think -1
Jews will return to
Jerusalem, spiritual
Mashiach u ► ill
knowledge will increase
be very nice
and Jews will understand
their primary goal is to get
and big. He'll
closer to God. The Messiah
will rebuild the Temple,
know CI lot of
Jews will no longer be
Torah, and
under gentile rule and the
dead will be revived. But
he'll come in
the nature of the world
itself will not alter dra-
about 2
matically.

).;

Other sages have said
that when the Messiah
comes, the world will see
great miracles: illnesses

million years.
•

Kip ka Huffthitter.
age 10

"When
Mashiach
comes then
etteryo 11 e will
want to lean
I think he's
coming soon
but he's not
*ust around t
corner''

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

23

