Sagesse, Ou es tu?

LE MESSIAH

And here I am, driving to a friend's house for tea on Saturday afternoon, which is not a good thing to do during this period of COVID 19.

The radio plays a song: MASHIAH. I listen to the song for the nth time and ask myself the same question:
How long are we going to repeat these same words without ever seeing any results?

The meaning of this song is to sing, to pray, to shout and to ask this Messiah to come because we have been waiting for him for so long.
This supplication is centuries old. It is true that our people have suffered through the ages and never stop asking God to come and save them.
And this savior according to this tradition that we have invented for ourselves is none other than the Messiah.

And what is a Messiah?
The dictionary will tell us that it is a liberator, a redeemer of sins, divinely appointed King and sent by God to re-establish His kingdom on Earth promised to men in the Old Testament, and that Christians recognize in Jesus Christ.

It remains that this messianic expectation is a permanent feature of Judaism. The prophets have maintained this popular hope of a 'son of David' who will come to relieve the world of its miseries. And the Jewish world as a whole believes in it.

1

During the last two thousand years, many messiahs have appeared, each one claiming to be God's chosen one. The only one who had a unique fate was Jesus of Nazareth.

Among the Jews, the two most famous are: David Reubeni (around 1500) and Chabetaye Tsevi (1650) Several others were recognized as such.
Starting with Simon Bar Kokhba (around 125) who founded a very brief Jewish state before being defeated in the second Judeo-Roman war. He was followed by Moses of Crete (460), Moses Betarel (1470), Asher Lammlein (1500), Jacob Querido (1670), Miguel Cardoso (1700) and more up to the 7th Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994), of the Chabad Lubavitch, whose disciples, followers and supporters claim that he is the Messiah.

Where am I in all this and what am I doing?
Nothing
I don't believe in it...that an ordinary or brilliant man would claim to come and save mankind. Yes, we had a Gandhi at one time, even Martin Luther King Jr but ....
So many have claimed to be the Messiah only to be seen as liars. The Jewish world believed it for a while, so eager was it to be rescued.

2

And today, once again, there is this anxiety bordering on madness to want to see and receive this individual. All over the world Orthodox members of various factions of Judaism, including the Chabad in particular, are stirring up the masses and going into a trance, losing control of themselves, under the effect of overexcitement or intense emotion.

This situation saddens me and my problem is this: if I believed in it during the first years, I have to admit that today I don't believe in it anymore and I know that it goes against our belief. Big words I just threw out there. And that is why I am doing this exercise to rationalize, justify and see how I can get out of this mess I'm in.

I know for a fact that many people near and far will be angry to hear me talk like this because I am taking away the hope and expectation they have kept all these years that this Messiah will come and save them.
I am sorry for this and simply ask them to stop and think about this rumor that they have been taught without ever getting any results.

I have read Maimonides and the thirteen principles he proposes. Reading them one after the other, I agreed with him, but the moment he says we must believe in the coming of the Messiah, I put the book down.
And what a book: The Guide to the Misguided is a well of philosophy that addresses the perplexed of his time. Written in Arabic, because it was the language of the majority of the Jews in Spain and in Arab lands. I must admit, however, that it is a bit hard to read, as it requires some knowledge, although the author goes out of his way to clarify it for us.

And I say that I do not agree with him when he insists that we must wait for the Messiah. Maimonides left us more than eight hundred years ago and many others before him also waited for this famous coming. Should I also give in to this whim?

I claim that we have an imaginary character. Our religion has misled us all these years, making us believe such nonsense. And we have always believed, so gullible are we. If not, respectful of what our so-called superiors encourage us to respect.

No, I don't believe and this is my personal opinion. This does not prevent me from remaining a Jew. Even if it is said that the one who does not believe in the coming of the Messiah will not have the chance to meet him.