Let's explain the Messiah a little. I write it with a capital letter out of respect.
It would be an individual with extraordinary qualities who would come to save his people who have known and still know a lot of misery. This person, for it is one like you and me, would be sent by the God of the Jews to change things, like making the wolf and the lamb live in harmony, like converting spears into flutes and swords into ploughshares.
These examples can be found in the prophets section of the Jewish Bible.
This Messiah has been awaited for thousands of years and every generation believes that he will come in it's own time because he is needed now.
It must be understood that this belief has been and still is part of the daily life of almost every Jew. What is it?
I must say that it is indeed unfortunate that this Messiah never came. And yet, we still believe that he will come. And this is the primary position of the Orthodox Jews. They will not be made to change their minds because everyone, from the first to the last, regardless of age, regardless of position, believes that the Messiah will come.
Their reasoning is that when he arrives, the world will change, everyone will love each other, there will be no more wars, hatred will disappear. The Jews will all be in their country Israel and will live according to the will of their God, the one who brought them out of Egypt. Life will be happy for everyone, although I must admit I am not sure what will happen to the non-Jews.
It is understood that the preceding paragraphs refer to the CHABADs which can be found all over the world and which daily encourage every Jew to return to his past, his origin and to observe the rules of conduct which the Torah has lavished upon us.
I insist that there is nothing wrong with this and that everyone has the right to his or her own opinion and belief. However, from there to insisting on convincing others, we must stop and think.
Let us now look at the other group which I call the conservatives. They are as Jewish as the Orthodox, but they do not practice religion as they do. If you want to be religious, good for you, but don't force me to believe in something that bothers me. This group, of which I am a part, respects others and wants to be respected as well.
We learned our religion at a young age, but with time, studies, and circumstances, we have changed. We are not more intelligent than them but we have our own way of thinking and seeing things.
If the orthodox believe in the Messiah, we don't believe in it so much. He was supposed to come a long time ago and he didn't come.
I have to say that my people have suffered a lot for more than 2,500 years.
And the Messiah has never come to help them. History is full of painful and distressing moments that have cost the lives of millions of us. It would be too long to list them and it is why I will raise only two examples.
The first was the Inquisition in Spain in 1492. We don't have precise figures about the number of people who disappeared, but we know how much they suffered because they refused to renounce their religion and embrace Christianity. Books have been written giving all the details and reading them, one has the right to say: "But where was this Messiah who was supposed to save othem?
The second is more recent, the Second World War. Here we have numbers. Six million of our co-religionists were brutally eliminated because they were Jews. And here too, the Messiah did not show up. Where is he?
Any sensible person, realizing the evil that has been done to us and that this famous Messiah has done nothing, must ask himself the question as to his existence.
Hence the question: Who is right, CHABAD or me?
