“Ha’Nachash Ha’Mashiach.” ~ D² av Tzfat
יהודה הכהן: The Moshiakh, in my mind at least, is not some Superhero who comes to do things for us. There are no commandments demanded of him that are not demanded from the rest of us. Everything that the prophets teach us that the Moshaikh will do is, in fact, a requirement for every Jew. All the things that he is supposed to accomplish, we’re all supposed to be working towards. Therefore, it’s really a collective effort. We have to look at the Messianic effort as a collective effort and he hu cares the most will, ultimately, rise to the position of leadership and plant the flag.
We’re not supposed to check his I.D. card.
Maimonides basically says Moshiakh is not some Superhero, but rises from the people, who fights the wars to liberate our country, restores justice to our society, ingathers our people back to their homeland, and rebuilds the temple. Therefore, if you see somebody competent realistically capable of accomplishing those goals in our generation ~ really caring and working towards those goals ~ our obligation is to support him. Whatever talents we have been blessed with, our talents should be directed towards achieving those goals that are essentially shared by him.
Tamar Yonah: The sages say: "in every generation, there are potentials that can be Moshiakh." We always have a chance to usher in Moshiakh. We also have to realize that this is not the concept that other religions have that the Messiah is going to be a Perfect Supernatural Being; he doesn’t necessarily even have to be religious. Do you see anybody, Today, that could be a potential?
יהודה הכהן: The concept you’re referring to, Tamar, is the concept of Nefesh K’lali. There’s an idea in the mystical Hebrew literature that the Israeli nation shares one giant soul; that K’lal Yisroyal ~ the collective of Israel ~ is one giant spiritual organism that manifests itself in this world in millions of bodies in space in time called the Jewish people: in fact, we’re all sharing one giant soul. And there’s supposed to be, in every generation, one person who possesses what’s called the Nefesh K’lali: this ‘collective seoul’ which means that that person is the personal embodiment of the entire nation of Israel in one. That’s what Moshe had. That’s what King Dovid had. These giants put themselves and their personal needs aside, for the benefit of teaching what is good to the Hebrew nation and to show his people how to achieve Hebrew kingdom aspirations, who are then each transformed into conduits to transmit knowledge of Hashem to mankind.
Not through speeches at the U.N. Not through articles or op-eds.
Rather, through the life of Israel is mankind brought to the awareness of this infinite whole that we are a part of, so there is this concept of one man in every generation who has this Nefesh K’lali. I can’t at all Begin to guess or suggest who that may be. I’m a Kohain from the tribe of Levi, but I know for sure I’m definitely not the one, but I would definitely like to be on his team. Knowing I’m not the guy does not at all leave me from the responsibility to accomplish that which he is prophecied to accomplish. Therefore, I’d like to be on his team; you should be on his team; we should all try to be on this guy’s team; and not get on his bad side.
We don’t have to know, for sure, who this guy is.
The Rambam is very clear that there’s no obligation to know hu the Moshiakh is. Nevertheless, anybody you see trying to accomplish these goals is someone we should be supporting. If he almost succeeds and is assassinated, then, retroactively, he wasn’t Moshiakh (although he participated in the collective process) and somebody else comes. Once we see somebody succeed in achieving the specific aspirations of Israel, he is Moshiakh. Our job, our function, our purpose in life is to fully participate in the process. Ultimately, somebody will rise to the occasion and lead the Jewish people to victory.
Well, I’m going to get extremely practical. I think that, quite Frankly, the problem is a lot of us are living in different movies. You know, I believe very strongly that a person’s perception of reality very much impacts the way they experience reality. What’s necessary is to understand the movie the other person is living in and try to bridge the gaps between their movie and your movie. I think we need to transcend our earthly perspective on world events into a heavenly one:
