Tree of Souls
Page 109
Sources:
Pesikta Rabbati 37:1-2.
660. THE TWO MESSIAHS
There are two Messiahs, as it is said, They are the two anointed dignitaries, who attend the Lord of all the earth (Zech. 4:14). The first Messiah is a son of Joseph, and the second a son of David. The son of Joseph, whom all will recognize as the Tzaddik of his generation, will sacrifice his life so that the footsteps of the Messiah might be heard, and the land shall mourn. The second Messiah, the son of David, makes his home in Paradise, in a heavenly palace, where he waits for signs that the time for the coming of the Messiah has arrived.
Each Messiah has a separate role. Messiah, the son of David, will redeem the Shekhinah, along with all the holy sparks that were scattered during the six days of Creation. Messiah, the son of Joseph, will redeem the souls of those who fell through sin and transgression, and were transmigrated into inanimate objects, vegetables, animals, and humans. He will free the souls of the righteous that were transmigrated into fish, and the souls of the righteous will be raised up.
There are two primary conceptions of the Messiah in Judaism: one, the earthly Messiah, a descendant of Joseph, who is the righteous one of his generation; the other, a descendant of David, who serves as an instrument of salvation. Eventually these two conceptions were combined in a single myth in which the first, earthly Messiah, paves the way for the divine one.
Sources:
B. Sukkah 52a; Midrash Tanhuma-Yelammedenu, Bereshit 1; Megillat Setarim.
Studies:
An Unknown Jewish Sect by Louis Ginzberg, pp. 209-256.
661. THE MESSIAH PETITIONS GOD
After Messiah the son of Joseph was slain, God said to his successor, Messiah the son of David, “Ask anything of Me and I will give it to you.”
Messiah the son of David, seeing that Messiah ben Joseph had been slain, said to God, “Master of the Universe, I ask of You only the gift of life.”
God replied, “Your father, David, has already prophesied this about you, as it is said, He asked You for life; You granted it, a long life, everlasting (Ps. 21:5).
The primary messianic tradition in Judaism describes two Messiahs, Messiah ben Joseph and Messiah ben David. It is the fate of Messiah ben Joseph to pave the way for the heavenly Messiah, but to die in the process. One of the traditions about Messiah ben David is that he will prove that he is the true Messiah by bringing the slain Messiah to life. Here the heavenly Messiah petitions God to do this (since the ultimate power to restore life belongs to God), and God assures him it will happen, as prophesied. For more on the roles of these two Messiahs, see the Introduction, pp. lxi-lxii.
Sources:
B. Sukkah 52a.
662. THE COMING OF THE MESSIAH
The Messiah will not come until he is no longer needed. He will not come until a day after his arrival. He will not come on the last day, but on the last of all.
Kafka’s paradoxical explanation of when the Messiah will come is so intriguing that it deserves a place in this collection of Jewish myths. It also reflects traditional Jewish teachings about the Messiah. The coming of the Messiah represents the initiation of the End of Days, the messianic era in which all of existence will be transformed, a return to a prelapsarian condition or a kind of heaven on earth. For this reason, the arrival of the Messiah is not important in itself; rather, it is the transformation that accompanies the arrival that matters. This is one way of understanding Kafka’s comment that “The Messiah will not come until he is no longer needed.”
Sources:
Parables and Paradoxes by Franz Kafka.
663. THE MESSIAH’S YESHIVAH
In the future the Messiah will have his own yeshivah, and those who walk on earth will come there, sit before him, and hear his teachings. And Elijah will stand beside him as his interpreter. And when the Messiah expounds the Torah, his voice will reach from one end of the world to the other.
That is when all the generations will rise up from their graves, filled with the Holy Spirit, and come sit in the Messiah’s yeshivah, to hear tales and teachings from his mouth. And whoever hears a midrash from the mouth of the Messiah will never forget it, for God will reveal Himself in that House of Study and pour out His Holy Spirit upon all those who walk in the world.
One of the highest honors among rabbis was to be the head of a yeshivah, a rabbinic academy. Here it is said that in the messianic era, the Messiah will have his own yeshivah, where he teaches both Halakhah (law) and Aggadah (non-legal teachings, often legends). (It is interesting to note that Aggadah is mentioned first, demonstrating its importance among the Yemenite Jews.) All Jews among the living will come to hear him, and the sound of his voice will resurrect the dead. This is a word-oriented form of initiating the messianic era, with the supernatural voice of the Messiah bringing about the resurrection. Note the central role given to Elijah, to interpret the teachings of the Messiah. This confirms the rabbis’ central concept of the importance of commentary
and interpretation, as well as the notion that the chain of tradition in transmitting the Torah goes from God to Moses, Moses to the prophets, and the prophets to the rabbis.
Of great interest is the way in which the Messiah, inspired by God’s Holy Spirit, the Ruah ha-Kodesh, reveals God’s essence, while God Himself is present in the yeshivah. It is also the Holy Spirit that brings the dead to life and brings its blessings to all of the living.
Rabbinic myth portrays the World to Come as containing yeshivahs for all of the principal rabbis and patriarchs. One story told by Shlomo Carlebach describes a heavenly journey to such academies.
Another interesting aspect of this myth is the assumption that the Messiah would be a master teacher of the Torah. It also reinforces the archetypal quality of the Torah, which is just as important in heaven as it is on earth.
Sources:
Midrashei Geulah.
664. THE DUAL MESSIAH
God said to Moses: “Moses, I swear to you, in the future to come, when I bring the prophet Elijah to herald the End of Days, the two of you will come as one. In that hour the Messiah will come and bring comfort to Israel.”
Thus the one known as the Messiah is actually two, for the Messiah is none other than Moses and Elijah come together as one. That is how God’s vow to Moses will be fulfilled.
Moses and Elijah are each models for the Messiah. For the Samaritans, Moses was virtually regarded as a messianic figure. Rabbinic concern that the role of Moses might come to transcend that of a prophet and take on messianic attributes may have been the reason that the role of Moses in the Exodus was almost entirely omitted from the Passover Seder. (Byron Sherwin suggests that this omission was triggered by the early Christian description of Jesus as the “new Moses.”) As for Elijah, his messianic role is explicit—it is said that he will herald the coming of the Messiah, and will blow the shofar (ram’s horn) from the ram that Abraham sacrificed on Mount Moriah in place of Isaac. (Moses is said to have blown the ram’s other horn at Mount Sinai.) Thus, together Moses and Elijah have all of the attributes of the Messiah, and this radical midrash from Deuteronomy Rabbah goes a step further, stating that the Messiah will be Moses and Elijah “come together as one,” suggesting that they will be reincarnated as a single figure.
Sources:
Deuteronomy Rabbah 3:17
665. THE INGATHERING OF THE EXILES
The day of the Ingathering of the Exiles will be as great as the day on which the Torah was given on Mount Sinai. All Israel will be clothed in splendor and radiance, and the Shekhinah will walk at their head, with the prophets at their sides, bearing the Ark and the Torah.
Jerusalem will not be rebuilt until all the exiles have been brought back. Then God will rebuild it and never destroy it again.
In that hour the hands of every warrior will grow weak, and there will not be any weapons that are not destroyed. So too will every idol be destroyed, and God will rule from one end of the world to the other.
Indeed, the day of the
Ingathering of the Exiles will be as important a day as the day when heaven and earth were created.
The Ingathering of the Exiles—thus the gathering of all the scattered Jewish communities in the world to the Holy Land—is one of the three requirements of the Messiah, along with rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem and the resurrection of the dead. Here it is portrayed as a great caravan, with the Shekhinah, God’s Presence, at the head. So too will Isaiah’s prophecy that they shall beat their swords into ploughshares (Isa. 4:2) be fulfilled, in that all weapons will be destroyed.
The idea of the Ingathering of the Exiles so permeated Jewish life that it can be found in a dream of Hayim Vital from Sefer ha-Hezyonot 2:34: “I saw in a dream that I was walking along a great river, and I saw a multitude of Israelites there in tents. I entered and I saw their king reclining in the tent. When he saw me, he said, ‘Know that I am the king of Israel, of the tribe of Ephraim, and we have come now because the time has come for the Ingathering of the Exiles.’”
Sources:
B. Pesahim 93a; Pesikta de-Rav Kahana 2:463-64; Midrash Tanhuma-Yelammedenu, Noah 11.
666. THE BIRTH OF ARMILUS
In Rome there is a marble sculpture of a beautiful woman that was not created by human hands. Some say it was brought into being during the six days of Creation. It is also said that Satan lusts after it, and one day he will descend to earth, go to Rome, and copulate with it. And the stone will become pregnant. After nine months it will burst open and a male child will emerge in the shape of a man with two heads, twelve cubits high, his eyes set a span apart, crooked and bloodshot, his hair red, his feet green, with six fingers on each hand. That is how Armilus, the tempter, will be born.
This is a grotesque myth about the birth of Armilus, who plays the role of the Anti-Christ in Jewish messianic mythology. Armilus is normally explained as a distortion of Romulus, who symbolizes Rome, which also symbolizes Christianity. This may suggest that Christianity is viewed in this myth as a monster born from Judaism. The alluring statue that Satan is predicted to copulate with is said, in some sources, to have been created during the six days of Creation. That adds a new dimension to the myth, as it indicates that God was the sculptor who created it, a fact that Satan surely knows. His copulation with the statue, from this perspective, is not an act of lust so much as an act of hostility toward God. And the product is a virtual Anti-Christ, Armilus, who, it is said, will conquer Israel before finally being defeated by the Messiah.
This must also be seen as an allegory about the worship of idols, which, no matter how alluring, are made of stone.
In some versions of this myth it is Satan who copulates with the statue, while in others her lovers are described as the “sons of Belial” (a biblical term for “worthless people”), who also succeed in impregnating her. In both cases, a grotesque male in the form of a grown man with two heads will emerge. This mythic origin of Armilus explains his supernaturally evil powers, especially in the version in which Satan is his father.
The statue of the woman in this myth echoes the Greek myth of Niobe, whom Zeus turned into a statue. It is said that statue can be seen weeping copiously, while it is said of the statue in the myth of Armilus that it will become pregnant and will give birth. See Greek Myths by Robert Graves, 77c.
Sources:
Midrash Aseret ha-Shvatim in Otzar Midrashim, 466; Tefillat Rabbi Shim’on ben Yohai in Beit ha-Midrash 4:124-26; Pirkei Hekhalot Rabbati.
Studies:
“Three Typological Themes in Early Jewish Messianism: Messiah Son of Joseph, Rabbinic Calculations, and the Figure of Armilus” by David Berger.
“Armilus: The Jewish Antichrist and the Origin and Dating of the ‘Sefer Zerubbavel’” by Joseph Dan.
667. SATAN AND THE MESSIAH
The Messiah existed in God’s thought even before the world was created. After the creation, God hid the Messiah under His Throne of Glory until the time was right for him to appear.
Satan asked God, “Master of the Universe, for whom is the light hidden under Your Throne of Glory intended?”
God replied, “For him who will turn you back and put you to shame.”
Satan said, “Master of the Universe, let me see him.”
God said, “Come and see him.”
And when he saw him, Satan was shaken and fell upon his face and said, “Surely this is the Messiah who will cause me to be swallowed up in Gehenna.”
Then, on the last day, Satan will endeavor to renew his rebellion against God. He will proclaim that he is God’s equal, as well as God’s partner in Creation, for while God created the earth, Satan created hell. Then the fire of hell will rise up and destroy Satan, and put an end to his talk.
Here God reveals the Messiah to Satan. The dialogue between God and Satan may be contrasted with that in the prologue to Job. In Job there is no hostility between God and Satan; here it is quite apparent. In its structure, this myth is similar to that of Moses standing before the Throne of Glory and asking to see Rabbi Akiba, a thousand years in the future (B. Shabbat 88b-89a and B. Menahot 29b). In both cases, God has no difficulty in revealing these mysteries. The fate that Satan describes, of being swallowed up in Gehenna, derives from the verse He will destroy death forever (Isa. 25:8).
While some sources describe Satan as having been created out of the fires of hell, here it is those fires that rise up and destroy him when, on the last day, Satan tries to renew his rebellion against God. See “The Fall of Lucifer,” p. 108 and “Satan Cast Out of Heaven,” p. 109.
Sources:
Pesikta Rabbati 33:6, 36:1; Alphabetot 93-94.
668. THE ARRIVAL OF THE MESSIAH
At that time all the nations of the earth will be in utter darkness. When the Messiah appears, he will stand on the roof of the Temple, and he will make a proclamation to Israel, saying, “Behold my light as it rises upon you.” Then God will brighten the light of King Messiah and all of Israel will be illumined by it, as well as all the other nations of the earth.
The Messiah is able to stand on the roof of the Temple, because one of the requirements of the time of the coming of the Messiah is the supernatural rebuilding of the Temple. This rebuilding precedes the actual coming of the Messiah, thus making it possible for him to stand on the roof to announce his arrival. The light of which the Messiah speaks is that from the verse Wherefore the light is come, and the glory of Yahweh is risen upon you (Isa. 60:1). Here the Messiah is mythically identified with the rising sun. The notion that all of the nations of the earth will walk in the light of the Messiah is found in the verse And nations shall walk by your light, kings, by your shining radiance (Isa. 60:3).
Sources:
Pesikta Rabbati 36:2.
669. GOD REPRIMANDS THE UNIVERSE
In the time to come God will sit on His Throne of Justice and summon heaven and earth and say to them, “In the beginning of everything, I created you. How then could you look upon My Shekhinah removing Herself, My Temple being destroyed, and My children being banished among the nations of the world, and not entreat mercy on their behalf?” Then He will reprimand heaven and earth. After that God will summon the sun and moon and reprimand them as well, along with the stars and planets.
Then God will summon Metatron and say, “I gave you a name to be equal to Mine, as it is said, ‘For My name is in him’ (Exod. 25:21). How, then, could you look upon My Shekhinah removing Herself, My Temple being destroyed, and My children being banished among the nations of the world, and not entreat mercy on their behalf?”
After that God will summon the fathers of the world, to whom He will say, “I issued harsh decrees against your children, yet you asked for no mercy on their behalf. I made it plain to you from the very beginning that your children were to be banished, as it is said, ‘Know well that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs’” (Gen. 15:13). So God will reproach the Fathers of the world.
After that God will abolish the present order of the world, and then He will renew the heaven
and the earth, as it is said, For behold! I am creating a new heaven and a new earth (Isa. 65:17).
Here God expresses anger that the other forces in the universe—heaven and earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, and the planets, Metatron and the patriarchs—did not strongly protest when God destroyed the Temple and sent the children of Israel into exile. This myth follows the tradition of God’s regret for His actions. See, for example, “God Weeps Over the Destruction of the Temple,” p. 38 and “God’s Lament at the Western Wall,” p. 39. Abraham bargained with God over the destruction of Sodom, here God reprimands those who might have similarly protested His actions concerning the Temple.
This myth contradicts others in which the patriarchs do attempt to intervene with God. See “The Pleading of the Fathers,” p. 515.
Following these reprimands, God abolishes the present order of the world, and creates a new world, as is predicted to occur at the End of Days.
Sources:
Eliyahu Zuta 20:31.
670. A NEW TORAH
God is destined to give a new Torah to Israel at the hands of the Messiah, as it is said, “A new Torah shall come forth from Me” (Isa. 51:4). That new Torah will be written with 23 letters in the alphabet. That extra letter had accompanied the other 22 from the first, but it had been invisible. With the addition of that letter, the letters of the Torah will combine in a different way, and new meanings will emerge.