Pesach, RaMBaM's Principles of Faith, and Mashiach

Pesach is a time of redemption, and the coming of the Messiah is the ultimate redemption.
The 8th day of Pesach only occurs in the Diaspora. We eat a special meal that day, called Seudat Mashiach, the feast of Messiah, which was instituted by the Baal Shem Tov.

This meal is an actualization of our longing for the Messiah, in that we are not just thinking about it, we are doing something proactive about it, we are actually having a meal in his honor.

In the end of my second year of seminary, I wrote a research paper on the RaMBaM's 12th Principle of Faith, about yearning for the coming of the Messiah. I feel it is fitting to share it with you now:

The Thirteen Principles of Faith, by Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon, are the fundamental cornerstones of our Jewish belief. The act of believing in these principles provides us with the capacity to bear the hardships and trials that have plagued us since the beginning of time.¹
We must believe that there is a “One God,” a supreme higher being, which is not physical or dependent on any person, situation or event in any way. He is the only supreme ‘being’ to whom we can pray, and the only one with the power to answer those prayers, run the world, and do all that a higher supreme being does. The Torah we received through Moses was given by God and we cannot change or add to it; it is unchangeable and eternal, authored solely by God and given only through Moses.

Moses was the epitome of righteousness, and the “father of all Prophets,” chosen by God to lead the Jewish people out of Egypt, and to be the messenger of His written and oral word. Given that he was chosen by God, it must be that what he prophesied was true, and what he wrote in God’s word was true as well. This is clearly shown through the seventh principle: “I believe with perfect faith that the prophecy of Moses is absolutely true. He was the chief of all prophets, both before and after Him”² Maimonides contended that if this first Prophet was credible, then all Prophets after him, said to be so by him and the following ones, are true and their prophecies are true as well.

The twelfth Principle, however, focuses on the belief that our savior will come and that we will always wait for him. This seems to differ from the previous principles, but in reality it is well placed. Once we have established that God is as absolute and unchanging as the Torah He gave us, and that his conduit for our reception of the Torah was credible, as were the subsequent Prophets by association, then we must believe that our savior is coming. If the Prophets are true, based on the previous line of thought, then we must believe what they have predicted; that the Messiah will come, and we must await his arrival.

This Principle says that even if the savior will delay we must wait for him, because he will come some day. We must wait for him every day, because he could come any day. He can come at any time of the day, to which there is an allusion in the verse “We hope for Your salvation all the day,” All the day meaning not just at one specific time, but any time during the day.³

Having a belief that a savior will come bring redemption, and bring us back to our promised land, is not only a way of following the Prophets’ words but also a way of showing our faith and belief. Due to the significance of this Principle, the sages have even added phrases that speak of this faith in his coming into our prayers, so that we can remind ourselves everyday to have faith in his coming. Though we are in exile, we must always have hope that a day will come when we will be freed from the shackles of the Diaspora and taken into our homeland, brought from all the corners of the Earth together under one leader.

A person who does not believe in the Messiah, or does not anticipate his coming, rejects the most vital tradition of the Prophets. Also, he denies the teachings of both Moses and the Torah. RaMBaM also says: “Whoever does not yearn for his coming is a heretic.”⁴ Jacob, our forefather, is the first to mention the Messiah in the Torah, as it says: “The staff shall not depart from Judah, nor the scepter from between his feet until Shiloh comes and to him shall be the obedience of the people.”⁵ The second person to allude to the Messiah was Bilaam, who prophesied: “I behold it is not near; there shall come a star from Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel…”⁶ The third mention in the Torah of the Messiah is in Deuteronomy. “God will restore your fortunes, have mercy on you, and gather you [again from all the countries where He has scattered you]. If He were to banish you to the ends of the heavens [the Lord your God will gather you, and bring you from there]. The Lord your God will bring you [to the land that your fathers occupied. You will occupy it again and He will make you even more prosperous and numerous than your fathers].”⁷ The Messiah’s coming is also mentioned in the book of Isaiah: “A rod shall come forth from the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots.”⁸ Thus we are right to believe in the coming of the Messiah, because our credible prophets have prophesied the savior’s coming in many places throughout the Torah.

There are events that can prevent us from or hinder our believing in the coming of the Messiah and the things he will do. We may find it hard to believe in the Messiah and recognize that his control will be total and uncontested. This is because the nations of the world appear to be so strong and great that it hardly seems possible for the Messiah to rule over them all. All the more so since the collective nuclear stores of the nations could destroy the entire world. However, it is still our obligation to trust that God will be able to overthrow them from power as He wishes, thus leaving the Messiah in total control of the world. We can see an example of this in the story of the Jews as slaves in Egypt. Despite the fact that Egypt was a powerful empire, and able to overpower millions through its witchcraft, God crushed the Egyptians and, after subjecting them to tremendous castigation, led the Israelites away from that land. This is just as the Prophet Micah said, “Like the days when you went forth from Egypt I shall show you miracles.”⁹ This powerful event in our history proves that God will protect His people, despite any doubts they might have displayed in his power. Furthermore, the Gemara says in tractate Shabbat 31a: “Raba said, When man is led in for Judgment he is asked, Did you deal faithfully, did you fix times for learning, did you engage in procreation, did you hope for salvation, did you engage in the dialectics of wisdom, did you understand one thing from another.”¹⁰ Therefore, if such importance is placed on this principle at death, should it not then be addressed in life as well? It’s all the more important to come to this realization of the significance of yearning for the Messiah in our lifetime.

It is also imperative to hope for the coming of the Messiah because even if we as a people do not deserve his coming, and have not merited it through our deeds, we still have a merit from the fact that we have yearned for it. In the merit of this expectation, God will redeem us with the Messiah.¹¹ The Prophets longed for his arrival because it would lead to all Jews performing all the commandments of the Torah without disregard or idleness.¹²

Christianity, however, has a completely distorted view of the Messiah. The Christian belief is based upon the idea that the Messiah has already come and has died for our sins. The Christian sages wrongly interpreted the allusions to the Messiah throughout the bible as pointing to the coming of Jesus of Nazareth, the false Messiah. Had Jesus been the real Messiah, then all the prophecies, and not seemingly a few, would have come to fruition. He caused the Jews to be killed, their remnants to be spread across the Earth, dishonored, the Torah to be altered, and the greater part of the world to be led off course into serving an entity other than the One True God. Had Jesus been the real Messiah, he would have been a true redeemer of Israel and its savior, who would have gathered the dispersed from all corners of the Earth, and strengthened their observance of God’s commandments.

A main factor to Jesus not being the Messiah was that the Messiah must come from the house of David, the Davidic dynasty of kings. In order to believe that Jesus was part of this lineage, the idea of immaculate conception would have to be false, and his father Joseph would have had to be from the Davidic line. However, true believing Christians believe in the concept of immaculate conception,¹³ and that Jesus was the Messiah. Thus being the case, there is no way that Jesus could have been from the house of David if Joseph was not his true father, therefore making it impossible for him to be the Messiah; all the prophecies about the savior must be fulfilled in order for a person to be established as the Messiah. Those who followed in Jesus’ path perverted the Torah and interpreted many previous statements in a misguided way.

Not only did the Christian sages misinterpret the Torah, but they also added on to it, and created a new Torah, the New Testament, thus defying one of the basic principles of Judaism, that the Torah is unchanging and absolute, just like God. Also, it does not say anywhere in the Jewish bible that the Messiah should be a god or Godlike. The very idea that God would undertake a human figure denies our concept of God as being beyond the restrictions of the human body. We must believe that God alone is to be worshipped, not a being who is His construction, even if he is an angel, saint, or the Messiah himself. Another example of the falsity of Jesus was that the real Messiah is supposed to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, but Jesus lived during a time when the Temple was still standing. Furthermore, in the time of the Messiah, there is supposed to be peace across the entire land, between all nations. However, after Jesus’ death, up until and including today, the world is constantly at war.

Nowhere does the Jewish Bible say that the Messiah would come once, be killed, and return again in a “second coming.” The idea of a second coming is a pure rationalization of Jesus’ failure to function in any way as a Messiah, or to fulfill any of the prophecies of the Torah or the Prophets. The idea is purely a Christian invention, with no foundation in the Bible. There are countless more examples voiding Jesus’ claim to being the Messiah and Christian faith from being correct in their views on the Messiah. Thus we can see that society at large opposes our view of awaiting the Messiah, for they believe he has already come. Their view is wrong, and they are not following this basic principle of faith.

In the secular world, where the focus is not on the commandments or this belief system, this concept of the Messiah is mostly overlooked, or underrated. Most people in this situation do not know much, if anything, about Judaism, its laws and customs, or its basic principles. Most do not believe in God, or his Torah, and discredit the writings as being man made and given, and misconstrued by the rabbis over the ages. Even those who deem themselves traditional Jews, but are not in fact Orthodox, may say they believe in God, and follow the commandments in some way, but not very many will believe that there is a Messiah that will come, and if they do, it is only that He is coming, not that it will be any time in the near future.

From my experience, I can say that I grew up knowing the basic facts of Judaism, but the idea of a Messiah was never reinforced in any way, shape, or form. Neither were the basic principles of faith; Judaism was looked at as a culture or identity, not a way of thinking, and certainly not as a way of religious life. I always knew there was a God, but never understood that He is something that should be believed in or that His power was eternal and that His Prophets’ words should be followed. The words of the Prophets were merely stories, and the prophecies given by them were nothing more than allegories. This is quite the opposite of the basic principles of our religion.

However, having now learned about the basic principles of faith and Judaism, I can happily say that my belief in God and the Torah has a better foundation, and that I truly believe that the Torah is God made and given, and that the words of His prophets are true, even if it may be difficult for me at times. My life is more fulfilled with these beliefs as a part of my basic foundation in Judaism. Without this foundation, Judaism is nothing, merely a surface reality without deeper meaning. The Thirteen Principles of Faith give deeper meaning to life, and help put Judaism into the proper perspective as a religion, rather than as a culture or identity. I feel that life as a Jew is enhanced when one has a strong belief in God, the Torah, words of the Prophets, and the coming of the Messiah. We all need something to latch on to, faith in something, and faith in God and these other principles are exactly what we as a people need and exactly what will improve our lives.¹⁴


Bibliography and Works Cited

Portals of Faith, Rabbi D. Danin
Fundamentals of the RaMBaM, translated and annotated by Avraham Yaakov Finkel
The Aryeh Kaplan Anthology I., Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan
Gemara, tractate Shabbat 31a
Genesis
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Isaiah
Micah

1 Rav Yisrael Meir Kagan, essay on faith and the Messiah (Portals of Faith, Rabbi D. Danin p. 270)
2 RaMBaM, 13 Principles of Faith, #7
3 Torat Ze’ev, quoted in Haggadah Bet HaLevy p.120 (Portals of Faith, Rabbi D. Danin p. 252)
4 Hilchot Melachim 11:1
5 Genesis 49:10
6 Numbers 24:17
7 Deuteronomy 30:3-5
8 Isaiah 11:1
9 Micah 7:15
10 Tractate Shabbat 31a
11 Hida, in Midbar Kedumot, about the Yalkut on Psalms 73:6 (Portals of Faith, Rabbi D. Danin p. 269, 270)
12 Fundamentals of the RaMBaM, p.338; The Aryeh Kaplan Anthology I., p.92
13 Immaculate conception: The concept that Mary was pregnant with Jesus without having had relations with Joseph, and that it was in fact God who planted the seed in her womb directly.
14 This is all merely my own opinion, and nothing said here is actually the established view of the non-religious Jewish population.

After Pesach

This should have been up last week, but I totally forgot about it. It was written up a day or so after Pesach, and then stayed as a forgotten file on my desktop for a few days. Here you go!
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Pesach is a holiday all about emunah, and internalizing the memory of the splitting of the red sea. But, what happens when Pesach is gone?

Pesach is about looking at all the open miracles Hashem did for us in Egypt and during the exodus. But, what happens after Pesach?

We must still hold on to that emunah we so firmly established, and there is such an easy way to do so!

Hashgacha Pratit – Divine Providence. Hashgacha Pratit is seeing Hashem’s guiding hand in our lives, in everything we do, and everything that happens to us. It’s looking deeper into the big picture, and seeing how everything is connected, and that it’s all from Hashem; just like the open miracles from the time of our slavery in Egypt!

Hashem has a hand in every occurrence in our lives. In the crazy ‘chance’ stories we hear about, of how someone missed their plane, and then later on heard that it had crashed. In the less crazy stories, but still not everyday occurrences, like going to the phone to call someone, and then the phone rings with that person on the line.

Hashem is also in the routine, but that’s the hardest of all to see. We might think: ‘oh it’s so boring, nothing happened today out of the ordinary’ …But, wait! You woke up today! You’re breathing! You have clothes to wear! You have food to eat! You have a job and/or school to go to! You have a family and friends!

We should also realize that Hashem has a hand in all the little things which we tend to overlook. We should thank Him for the fact that we can breathe, that our bodies function the way they’re supposed to. We should thank Him for the fact that we crossed the street and didn’t G-d forbid get hit by a truck. We should thank Hashem that we can even walk at all!

Once we can realize that, that’s how we know Pesach was celebrated properly. If you can still feel the emunah even after the last Pesachdik dish has been put away, then Pesach has done its job, and we’ve done our part of celebrating it the right way.

I give you all a bracha that we should be able to see Hashem’s guiding hand in every aspect of our lives, to keep the emunah that Pesach brought us and bring that feeling into the rest of the year. If we all truly believe in Hashem, Torah, Mitzvot, etc, then we should all believe that Mashiach is coming; that redemption is on the way!

Good or Bad?

Everything happens for a reason. Just because we might not see the big picture right in that moment doesn’t mean that what’s going on is bad.

Nothing in this world is bad, because everything comes from Hashem. Hashem is a being of kindness, and thus everything he created is of kindness. There is no such thing as bad, because everything is good in the eyes of Hashem.

We might think we know what is best for us, what we should do or have, and what situation best fits us… but we don’t really know. We don’t know as well as Hashem. He created us, he knows us inside-out and much better than any other being could.

So, if this is the case, then when something seemingly bad happens to us, when we’re sad or upset, or have reason to be, we should really rejoice because Hashem has just done kindness for us.

Knowing all this, I feel like I finally know how much I’ve changed over the past two years. I should be curled up in my bed crying my eyes out right now this very minute, but I’m not.

Instead, I’m sitting here at my computer, marveling at how lucky I am to have Hashem in my life, and to have His guidance and kindness watching over me. I’m grateful that Hashem has been kind to me thus far, and I’m really alright. I know that everything is going to be alright because He’s there, and He only wants what’s best for me…

…Even if I may not be able see it clearly at the moment.

News

I’m sure we’ve all heard about Thursday’s events in Yerushalayim’s Merkaz Harav Yeshiva. It was a truly sad day and I know we’ll feel the repercussions of this for weeks to come.

There is a Montreal initiative to raise money in the deceased ones’ honor and I hope you’ll all check out this site and donate at least 1$ for a worthy cause.

Fundraiser for a Memorial Book in Memory of the Victims of the Merkaz Harav Attack
http://www.merkazmemorial.com

Thank you.

News, and Parshat Yitro

There is a new Blog on the internet, Tzipiyah - http://www.tzipiyah.com.
It is a Religious Zionist Blog where 15 people with different views share their thoughts and learnings. I did a guest post the other day, about the group Jews for Judaism and will hopefully do more posts there, in the future.

It would mean a lot to me, and to the people over there, if you would check out Tzipiyah.com and read what everyone has to say and comment with your own thoughts and opinions.

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Last year, I posted a dvar Torah on this week's Torah portion, Parshat Yitro.
I unfortunately don't have anything new to say on the topic, but I love what I had from last year.
Here's a link for those who haven't read it - http://torahtopics.blogspot.com/2007/02/parshas-yisro-and-baalei-teshuva.html

After Chanukah - What Now?

Chanukah is a holiday that shows us a big miracle, a public miracle, that should remind us that there is a G-d and that He's there for us. To see all the good in the world, and the goodness of Hashem.

Through lighting the Chanukah candles, we are reminded of the miracle of the oil, and through that we find light in an other wise dark time (winter).

But what happens after Chanukah? We don't have that daily reminder of the big miracle, true, but we do have other things to look at.

Chanukah was a reminder that Hashem does do miracles and good things for us. Every other day of the year, we DO have miracles, and Hashem DOES show us kindness.
How? Simply put, we're alive!We can breathe, we can think, we can speak, we can pray, we can sing, we can dance, we can smile!

These are all little miracles all on their own, and how often do we even think of them as such? Not so often, surely.

That's why Chanukah is important - It takes a big miracles to remind us about the other small ones in our lives.


So, we should thank Hashem everyday for the fact that we're alive and breathing, and able to do so many wonderful things :)

Chanukah - Holiday of Lights

We all know the story of Chanukah, right?
The Greeks attacked spiritually, not physically. At least, in the beginning, of course. It escalated when Antiochus realized that most of the Jews, led by the Maccabees, were not going to give in and live a Greek life. The Greeks attacked with a huge army, against this tiny group of Jews, and were defeated.

During that battle, the Greeks defiled the Beit HaMikdash, bringing in Avodah Zara (Idolatry), and sacrificing pigs on the altar there. Disgusting, no?

So, after the Maccabees defeated the Greeks, they were cleaning up the Beit HaMikdash and were looking for a jar of oil to light the menorah. One man found a small jar of oil, which should have lasted only one day. It lasted 8 days straight. Amazing!

What can we learn from this, aside the fact that HaShem loves us and gave us a miracle?
- Even in a pile of rubble, a small jar of oil can be found.

We can learn that even in the darkest of times, there is a light that will shine through. Even in a bad situation, something good can surface.

Also, we can learn that even deep down in the darkest of our depths, there is a spark. A spark, in our soul, that can ignite and draw close to HaShem and to Judaism

This is precisely why Chanukah takes place when it does on the Jewish calendar.
It happens during winter, a dark and bleak time, where emotions are low and feelings of despair may find their way into our hearts.

Chanukah thus serves as a reminder, or as a wake up call – to show us the light within the darkness. To call out to our little sparks inside us.

Also, this light signifies the Torah, which is the light of our lives. During the time this battle of Chanukah took place, the Greeks were trying to take away all the things that pointed toward a Torah way of life for us. We fought for the Torah’s honour, and in the end we won. The lighting of the Chanukah candles signifies this victory, and reminds us of the light of the Torah.

So, when you’re lighting your Chanukah candles, and saying the blessings, remember this: HaShem is lighting up our lives, in an attempt to wake up our souls, or our inner sparks. To remind us of the Torah and the way of life that comes along with it.

Will you answer the call?