BOOK TEN
MYTHS OF THE MESSIAH

On New Moons and holy days and Sabbaths, the Messiah enters those halls of longing, lifts up his voice, and weeps. Then the Garden of Eden trembles and the firmament shakes until his voice ascends all the way to God’s throne. And when God hears his voice, God beckons the enchanted bird, and it flies from the Garden of Eden and enters its nest and begins to sing.

Zohar 2:8a-9 a

608. THE CREATION OF THE MESSIAH

Some say that even before the world was created, King Messiah had already come into being, for he existed in God’s thought even before the creation of the sun and the moon and the stars, as it is said, His name bursts forth before the sun (Ps. 72:17). At the time of the Messiah’s creation, God told him in detail of the suffering that would befall him in the future, for he would be bent down by the sins of souls as yet unborn, which were kept beneath God’s throne. God asked him if he was willing to endure such things.

The Messiah asked God, “Will my suffering last many years?”

God replied, “I have decreed it will last for seven years.”

The Messiah answered, “Master of the Universe, I take this suffering upon myself as long as not one person in Israel shall perish. And if not only those who are alive will be saved in my days, but also those who have died from the days of Adam until the time of the Redemption. These things I am ready to take upon myself.”

God replied, “Not one breathing creature of your generation shall I cause to perish. So too will the dead among the righteous rise from their graves to greet you.” Then God appointed the four creatures who would carry the Messiah’s Throne of Glory at the End of Days. Thus was the covenant completed between God and the Messiah.

Others say that the Messiah is subjected to suffering in every generation, according to the sins of that generation. About this God said, “In the hour of the Redemption, I shall create the Messiah anew and he will no longer suffer.”

Jewish tradition holds that the coming of the Messiah was always part of God’s plan. This is emphasized here by asserting that the Messiah was brought into being before the creation of the world. The proof of the Messiah’s pre-existence is said to be found in the verse, And the spirit of God moved (Gen. 1:2), words that are linked to the Messiah, of whom it is said, The spirit of Yahweh shall alight upon him (Isa. 11:2). Indeed, the Messiah is included in the lists of things that were created before the rest of creation, where it is said that the Messiah’s name was engraved on a precious stone on the altar of the heavenly Temple. See “Seven Things Created before the Creation of the World,” p. 74.

This myth describes a strange covenant of suffering between God and the heavenly Messiah. The Messiah agrees to take on terrible suffering for seven years as a sacrifice for the people of Israel. This has a distinct echo of the Christian belief that Jesus suffered for human sins. But more than that, it mirrors the suffering the Jewish people were undergoing, and their hope that somehow they would be credited for all that suffering and be rewarded by God in the future. This suffering and these hopes are then projected onto the heavenly Messiah in this myth.

The covenant has two parts, the suffering of the Messiah and the reward for all that suffering. In making this covenant, God appoints four creatures to carry the Messiah’s throne, thus clearly indicating God’s certainty that the Messiah will survive his time of suffering and receive the promised reward. That the Messiah is destined to sit on a throne makes this an enthronement myth about the Messiah. For another such myth, see “The Enthronement of the Messiah,” p. 487.

Note that this myth not only mentions the creation of the Messiah, but also the recreation of the Messiah. This remarkable re-creation, it is said, will take place at the time of the Messianic era. It may refer to the existence of myths about multiple Messiahs, especially the tradition of Messiah ben Joseph, the suffering human Messiah, and Messiah ben David, the celestial Messiah, where the former prepares the way for the latter. Here “re-creation” may be viewed as a way of establishing a direct link between these two Messiahs, one having been re-created out of the other. See “The Two Messiahs,” p. 517 .

Note that God creates a chariot for the Messiah not unlike God’s own Chariot, the Merkavah in the vision of Ezekiel. This strongly implies that the Messiah is a divine figure of the utmost importance and power, not unlike the angel Metatron, who is sometimes identified as the “Lesser Yahweh.”

Sources :

Pesikta Rabbati 31:10, 33:6, 36:1; 1 Enoch 48:2-3, 48:6, 62:7.

Studies :

“Messianism in the Pseudepigrapha in the Light of the Scrolls” by M. A. Knibb. In Dead Sea Discoveries 2 (1995), 165-184.

The Messianic Idea in Judaism and Other Essays on Jewish Spirituality by Gershom Scholem.

609. THE BIRTH OF THE MESSIAH

The Messiah emerged in the thought of God even before the world was created, and the Messiah was born at the beginning of the creation of the world. His name was one of the seven things created before the sun was created, before the stars of heaven were made. Indeed, he was the firstborn of God. Some say that his name is Menahem, others that it is David.

At that time God appointed four animals to carry the throne of the Messiah. And while the sons of Jacob were busy with the selling of Joseph, while Jacob was busy mourning over Joseph, while Judah was busy taking a wife, God was creating the light of the Messiah, which will be revealed at the End of Days.

These myths point to a heavenly Messiah, while others refer to an earthly one. There are various names attributed to the Messiah, including Menahem and David. Midrash Mishlei (p. 87) gives seven names for the Messiah: Yinnon, Tzidkenu, Tzemah, Menahem, David, Shiloh, and Elijah. These seven names are associated with the verse We will set up over it seven shepherds (Micah 5:4). Two primary messianic figures evolved in Jewish myth, Messiah ben David and Messiah ben Joseph. The former was said to be descended from David, the latter from Joseph. Messiah ben Joseph was generally understood as a forerunner Messiah who would prepare the way for Messiah ben David.

There is another tradition that on the day the Temple was destroyed, the Messiah was born. It is found in Lamentations Rabbah 1:51.

Sources :

Pesikta Rabbati 33:6, 34:2, 36:1; 1 Enoch 48:2-3, 62:7-9; B. Pesahim 54a; B. Nedarim 39a; B. Sanhedrin 98b-99a; Y. Berakhot 5a; Genesis Rabbah 85:1; Lamentations Rabbah 1:51.

610. THE SCALES OF THE MESSIAH

The Messiah was created when the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. At that time God commanded Elijah the Prophet to bring scales to him. On one side of the scales Elijah would place the captive Messiah, along with the souls of the dead, and Elijah would fill the other scales with tears, torture, and the souls of the Tzaddikim . And when this had been done, God announced that the face of the Messiah would be seen when the scales were balanced.

This orally collected myth portrays the conditions that would enable the coming of the Messiah—a balancing of heavenly scales with the Messiah on one side with the souls of the dead, and the suffering of Israel with the souls of the Tzaddikim on the other. The idea is that God is well aware of the suffering of Israel, and when the time is right, He will send the Messiah to ease that suffering. This suggests a kind of heavenly mechanism to trigger the messianic era and the End of Days.

Sources :

IFA 6929.

611. THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE MESSIAH

King Messiah will arise and restore the kingdom of David to its former glory. He will rebuild the Temple and gather all the exiles of Israel. All ancient laws will be reinstituted in his days; sacrifices will again be offered; the Sabbatical and Jubilee years will again be observed according to the commandments set forth in the Law.

This statement by Maimonides is quite definitive, except that it does not include the resurrection of the dead, normally one of the three primary requirements of the Messiah. Indeed, in Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Melakhim 11:3, Maimonides denies that the Messiah will bring the dead to life: “Do not think that King Messiah will have to perform signs and wonders, bring anything new into being, revive the dead, or do similar things.”

The two other major requirements of the Messiah are listed here by Maimonides: the rebuilding of the Temple and the Ingathering of the Exiles. Thus Maimonides downplays the supernatural elements in the messianic tradition, viewing the messianic era in practical terms that could be accomplished without overthrowing the laws of nature. Indeed, in 12:1, he states this explicitly: “Let no one think that in the days of the Messiah any of the laws of nature will be set aside, or any innovation be introduced into creation. The world will follow its normal course.”

Sources :

Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Melakhim 11:1.

Studies :

“Jewish Messianism in Comparative Perspective” by R. J. Zwi Werblowsky.

Moses Maimonides’ Treatise on Resurrection , edited by Fred Rosner.

612. THE SOUL OF THE MESSIAH

Like Adam’s soul, the soul of the Messiah is comprised of all other souls. Indeed, the soul of the Messiah contains the souls of all generations. For one who encompasses all generations in his soul possesses the powers of the entire world. And when he repents, he can arouse repentance in everyone.

Some say that the soul of the Messiah has been exiled to a place of desert and desolation where no one walks. A storm wind rose up and created such confusion that the Messiah lost all the signs that were given to him, with which he was to identify himself before the people of Israel. As a result, it became impossible to recognize him, for he had no way of revealing himself. Furthermore, some of the lost signs and marvels of the Messiah were found by false prophets who began to appear, calling themselves by the name Messiah. But once their lies and wantonness were exposed, their false teachings were revealed for all the world to see.

Others say that the soul of the Messiah has been chained and is being held captive by the forces of evil. Not until the chains of the Messiah are broken will the captive soul of the Messiah be set free .

Still others believe that after the Shattering of the Vessels and the Gathering of the Sparks, the soul of the Messiah, which was sunk among the broken vessels, sent forth sparks in every generation. If a generation is worthy, that spark might become the Messiah, and the footsteps of the Messiah would be heard throughout the world.

The soul of the Messiah is described in terms that make it all-inclusive. Like the traditions about Adam’s soul, the Messiah’s soul is said to contain all souls, even all generations of souls. See “Adam’s Soul,” p. 162.

There are various myths portraying the Messiah’s soul as being exiled or imprisoned. One such myth describes it as being held captive in chains. Others describe the soul as being lost in a desert. From the time of Moses there was the tradition that the Redeemer could be identified by a sign. In the case of Moses, the words were I have taken note of you (Exod. 3:16). In the Midrash, Serah bat Asher, who lived from the time of Jacob until the time of Moses, is said to have identified Moses as the Redeemer. Likewise, there are certain signs that are said to accompany the Messiah, and here even these signs are said to have become lost, suggesting a time so chaotic that even if the Messiah appeared, no one would recognize him.

These accounts of exile and imprisonment are meant to explain why the Messiah has not yet come. As long as the Messiah’s soul is being held captive, it cannot descend into the body of the Messiah, and therefore prevents the birth and coming of the Messiah.

One of the myths about the Messiah’s soul derives from a Shabbatean source, the writings of Nathan of Gaza, primary apostle of Shabbatai Zevi, the false Messiah of the seventeenth century. This is a kabbalistic myth, based on the Ari’s myth of the Shattering of the Vessels and the Gathering of the Sparks. For more on the myth of the Ari see p. 122. In this Shabbatean myth, a spark of the Messiah’s soul descends in each generation, and if the generation is worthy, the spark will become the Messiah. This places the onus for the coming of the Messiah on the piety of each generation, and means that the coming of the Messiah will not take place until there is a worthy generation. See “The Chains of the Messiah,” p. 492 and “The Captive Messiah,” p. 498.

Sources :

Sippurei Ma’asiyot , 1973 ed., pp. 276-277; Tzidkat ha-Tzaddik 159; Be-Ikvot Mashiah pp. 17-22.

Studies :

Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah by Gershom Scholem.

613. THE DESCENT OF THE MESSIAH’S SOUL

The soul of the Messiah lives in a palace in heaven. There is a potential Messiah born on earth in every generation. That person, known as the Tzaddik ha-Dor , the most righteous of his generation, has both an earthly soul and a heavenly soul. If the time is right for the Messiah to come, then the heavenly soul will descend and fuse with the earthly soul, and the days of the Messiah will have arrived.

In recent times some members of the Lubavitch Hasidim came to believe strongly that their Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, was the Messiah. In addition to a public campaign for “Messiah Now,” Lubavitch theologians searched the existing messianic traditions for evidence that the Rebbe, as he was universally known, was the Messiah. Here they encountered two apparently contradictory traditions. One holds that the Messiah is a divine figure, who makes his home in a heavenly palace. The other tradition holds that the Messiah will be the Tzaddik ha-Dor , the greatest sage of his generation—a human being. These were originally two separate messianic traditions in Judaism, but they were eventually linked. The earthly, human Messiah was identified as Messiah ben Joseph, who was said to pave the way for the heavenly Messiah, known as Messiah ben David. However, this myth held that Messiah ben Joseph would lose his life in the process. Before the death of the Rebbe, Jacob Immanuel Schochet, a prominent Lubavitch scholar, often lectured on the subject of the Messiah. There was no doubt that his descriptions of the qualities of the Messiah were intended to refer to the Rebbe. In these lectures, Schochet presented a new messianic theory, combining the myths of Messiah ben Joseph and Messiah ben David into a single myth. Here, rather than having one Messiah prepare the way for the other, the figure of the Messiah was simultaneously human and divine. This was made possible by the descent of the soul of the heavenly Messiah into the body of the human one. Thus, in the Lubavitch view, the heavenly Messiah himself will not descend, but merely his soul, which will fuse with the soul of the human Messiah. This made it possible to explain how a human, such as the Rebbe, could fulfill the role of Messiah ben David, the heavenly Messiah.

Sources :

4 Ezra 12:32, 13:25-26, 51-52; Lubavitch, oral tradition related by Jacob Immanuel Schochet.

614. THE ENTHRONEMENT OF THE MESSIAH

In the future, God will dress the Messiah in garb whose splendor will radiate from one end of the world to the other, and place the Messiah at His right hand. And Abraham will be at His left. Abraham’s face will turn pale, and he will say to God: “Is my son’s son to sit at Your right and I at Your left?” And God will reply, “Your son’s son is on your right, and I am on your right, as it is said, Yahweh at your right hand ” (Ps. 110:5).

What role will the Messiah play after he initiates the messianic era? In this myth, the Messiah comes to sit at the right hand of God. Thus the Messiah receives the kind of enthronement found in other myths about Adam, Enoch, Jacob, Moses, and King David. What is unusual is not only that Abraham sits at God’s left hand, but that the arrival of the Messiah means that the figure who receives enthronement will be one of a trinity rather than a duality. This is surely significant and might indicate the influence of the Christian concept of the Trinity.

Sources :

Yalkut Shemuel 162; Midrash Tehillim 18:29.

615. THE MESSIAH WILL DESCEND FROM THE SIDE OF EVIL

For reasons known only to Him, God caused events to occur whereby the Messiah will be born from the realm of evil, for the Messiah will descend from the House of David. And King David was descended from Ruth the Moabite, and Moab was the son of one of the two daughters of Lot. After the destruction of Sodom, Lot, who was intoxicated, committed incest with his daughters. Thus when God said, “I have found David” (Ps. 89:21), where did He find him? In Sodom. Thus the soul of the Messiah is descended from such a place.

If the Messiah were to descend from a righteous person rather than the incestuous Lot, no enemy would have been able to prevail against Israel, or cause them to be forced into exile. God ordained things to happen this way, although no one knows why. David wanted to banish the evil side from which he had been born, eliminating it from the world, but he was unable to do so, for he had no power over the side of evil, since he had been born from it .

In the Zohar and later kabbalistic and Hasidic commentaries, the incestuous union of Lot and his daughters (Gen. 19:30-38) is identified as the source of the power of the Yetzer ha-Ra , the Evil Impulse. This leads to the mysterious conclusion that the Messiah will descend from the side of evil. The key concept here is that the Messiah’s soul is closest to evil, possessing great intensity. But in the messianic era the evil soul will be transformed, by a process of tikkun —repair or restoration—into the good.

Sources :

Genesis Rabbah 41:5; Zohar 1:109a-112a; No’am Elimelekh, Likutei Shoshanah , p. 101a; Tzidkat ha-Tzaddik , no. 111.

616. A WAR IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH

Near the time of redemption, a great and boundless war will break out in heaven, and there will be a corresponding war on earth. Eternal beings and mortal beings will battle one another. Destructive angels will attack the Jews, and seek to destroy and eradicate them. Evil will expand its dominion and strive to intensify the exile. It will be a time of great confusion, and some will be tempted to abandon their faith. But the people of Israel must persevere and hold fast to their faith. Only then will the time of redemption be fulfilled and there will be peace and tranquility, rest and calm.

This is an apocalyptic vision describing a war in heaven as well as on earth. It is clearly intended to refer to the war of Gog and Magog, which, it is said, will precede the coming of the Messiah. However, while the war of Gog and Magog is usually described as an earthly conflict, this myth presents it as one that will take place above and below.

Sources :

B’rit Menuhah 21b, attributed to Abraham of Granada.

617. THE PALACE OF THE MESSIAH

From the beginning the Messiah was hidden in a heavenly palace known as the Bird’s Nest. That is a secret place containing a thousand halls of yearning, where none may enter except for the Messiah. It is there that the Messiah waits for the sign to be given that his time has come at last.

The palace is known as the Bird’s Nest because of the wonderful bird of the Messiah, which has its nest in a tree near his palace.

On New Moons and holy days and Sabbaths, the Messiah enters those halls of longing, lifts up his voice, and weeps. Then the Garden of Eden trembles and the firmament shakes until his voice ascends all the way to God’s throne. And when God hears his voice, God beckons the enchanted bird, and it flies from the Garden of Eden and enters its nest and begins to sing.

Now the song of that bird is indescribably beautiful; no one has ever heard a music so sublime. Three times the bird repeats its song, and then the bird and the Messiah ascend on high, to the very Throne of Glory. There God swears to them that He will destroy the wicked kingdom of Rome and will give His children all the blessings that are destined for them. After that the bird returns to its nest and the Messiah returns to his palace, and once again he remains hidden there, waiting .

The longing and weeping of the Messiah are common images in Jewish lore. The Messiah weeps out of his own frustration, as well as out of his awareness of the frustration of the Jewish people that the messianic era still has not come. This mutual waiting is portrayed in a legend about Rabbi Joshua ben Levi, who is said to have had an encounter with the Messiah (Ma’aseh de-Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi in Beit ha-Midrash 2:50). The Messiah said to him: “What is Israel doing in the world from which you came?” He replied, “They are waiting for you every day.” As soon as he heard this, the Messiah lifted up his voice and cried.

Sources :

Zohar 2:8a-9a.

618. A THOUSAND PALACES OF LONGING

There is a secret and unknown place in the Garden of Eden where there are concealed a thousand palaces of longing. No one can enter there except for the Messiah, who dwells in the Garden of Eden. On new moons, feasts, and Sabbaths, the Messiah enters there to find solace in those palaces. On the night of Rosh Hodesh , when there is a new moon, the Messiah wanders through those palaces lifting up his voice and weeping. For the Messiah longs for the days of redemption as much as the children of Israel. Only then will his waiting come to an end.

In those palaces of longing the Messiah can see the patriarchs visiting the ruins of the House of God. When he sees Rachel with tears on her face, and God trying to comfort her, but Rachel refusing to be comforted, the Messiah too lifts up his voice and cries. Then the whole Garden of Eden quakes, and all the righteous who make their home there cry and lament with him. So too are the supernal hosts seized by trembling, until it reaches the Throne of Glory. Then God proclaims that He will avenge Israel through the hands of the Messiah. And only then does the Messiah return to his place.

This is a beautiful, melancholic myth about the immense longing of the Messiah to fulfill his destiny and initiate the End of Days. The Messiah is described as living in the Garden of Eden, in a palace hidden in a thousand palaces of longing. He retreats to this secret palace on holy days, when his longing becomes most intense. Nor is the Messiah passive in this view, but petitions God with his tears, until God reaffirms His vow to bring the messianic era. For a variant myth, see “The Palace of the Messiah,” p. 488.

The portrait of the heavenly Messiah that emerges here is of a deeply emotional figure whose relationship with God is as close as that of a child to his parent. And all of the righteous souls of Israel are described as supporting the plea of the Messiah to hasten his coming. Thus, above all, this myth mirrors the intense longing for the coming of the Messiah among the Jewish people, which was often in such an expectant state that pious men often kept a white robe and staff ready, to take up the moment the coming of the Messiah was announced.

Sources :

Zohar 2:8a.

619. THE SUFFERING MESSIAH

God decreed that the Messiah would suffer for seven years before the time of the Redemption. During that time, iron beams will be brought and loaded upon his neck until his body is bent low. Then he will cry out, his voice rising to the highest heavens, saying to God, “How much can my spirit endure? How long before my breath ceases? How much more can my limbs suffer? ”

God will reply, “My Messiah, long ago you took this ordeal upon yourself. At this moment, your pain is like My pain. You, like Me, suffer for the sake of Israel. This I swear to you—ever since My Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, I have not been able to bring myself to sit on My throne.”

At these words the Messiah will say, “Now I am reconciled. The servant is content to be like his Master.”

After that Elijah will comfort the Messiah in one of the halls of Paradise. He will hold the Messiah’s hands against his chest and say, “Bear the suffering God has imposed upon you because of the sins of the Jewish people until the End of Days. Have courage—the end is near.” And when he hears this, the Messiah will be comforted.

The Messiah suffers pains over the sins of Israel, and here, in the seven years before the initiation of the messianic era, God decrees great suffering for the Messiah, who accepts it as part of his burden. The theme of the suffering Messiah obviously recalls the passion of Jesus, and Jewish tradition may in this case have been influenced by Christian tradition. See “The Creation of the Messiah,” p. 483.

Sources :

Pesikta Rabbati 36:1-2; Rashi on B. Sanhedrin 98b; Midrashei Geulah 307-308; Tzidkat ha-Tzaddik 153; Likutei Moharan 1:118.

Studies :

“Midrashic Theologies of Messianic Suffering” in The Exegetical Imagination: On Jewish Thought and Theology by Michael Fishbane, pp. 73-85.

620. THE LADDER OF PRAYERS

The Ba’al Shem Tov was once praying with his Hasidim. That day he prayed with great concentration, not only word by word, but letter by letter, so that the others finished long before he did. At first they waited for him, but before long they lost patience, and one by one they left.

Later the Ba’al Shem Tov came to them and said: “While I was praying, I ascended the ladder of your prayers all the way into Paradise. As I ascended, I heard a song of indescribable beauty. At last I reached the palace of the Messiah, in the highest heavens, known as the Bird’s Nest. The Messiah was standing by his window, peering out at a tree of great beauty. I followed his gaze and saw that his eyes were fixed on a golden dove, whose nest was in the top branches of that tree. That is when I realized that the song pervading all of Paradise was coming from that golden dove. And I understood that the Messiah could not bear to be without that dove and its song for as much as a moment. Then it occurred to me that if I could capture the dove, and bring it back to this world, the Messiah would be sure to follow.

“So I ascended higher, until I was within arm’s reach of the golden dove. But just as I reached for it, the ladder of prayers collapsed.”

In this Hasidic tale, “The Ladder of Prayers,” the Ba’al Shem Tov ascends into Paradise on a quest to capture the golden dove of the Messiah, certain that this will cause the Messiah to follow, initiating the messianic era. The failure of the Ba’al Shem Tov’s Hasidim to provide the support needed for this great endeavor, as symbolized by the collapse of the ladder of prayers, causes him to lose the opportunity to bring the Messiah. That makes this one more tale about why the Messiah has not come. Dozens of other such tales record lost opportunities to bring about the messianic era, or attempts to force the Messiah’s hand, and hasten the End of Days .

This tale, and virtually the entire body of rabbinic, kabbalistic, folk, and Hasidic lore, exists in a mythological framework. The ladder of prayers the Ba’al Shem Tov ascends was surely inspired by the heavenly ladder in Jacob’s dream. He climbs this ladder of prayers into Paradise, a mythological realm with its own order, its own geography, its own history, and its own inhabitants—not only God and the angels, but the Bride of God and the Messiah as well. It is understood that the Messiah is waiting for the sign to be given that the time has come for the messianic era. All the same, Jewish mysticism contains the secret of how to hasten the coming of the Messiah, secrets that the Ba’al Shem Tov has at his command.

In addition, this tale draws on a rich tradition of tales about heavenly ascent, from the ascent of Elijah in a fiery chariot to the famous tale of the four who entered Paradise. Indeed, “The Ladder of Prayers,” a Hasidic tale of eighteenth century origin, is a direct descendant of the legend of the four sages, which dates from the second century. As did the four sages, the Ba’al Shem Tov ascends to heaven because he seeks greater knowledge of the divine realm.

The Zohar tells of a dove that makes its nest outside the palace of the Messiah in Paradise. That is why the palace of the Messiah is also known as the “Bird’s Nest.” “The Ladder of Prayers” builds on the earlier legendary accounts of the golden dove, reporting an attempt by the Ba’al Shem Tov to ascend on the ladder of prayers of his Hasidim into Paradise to capture the dove. The failure of the Ba’al Shem’s Hasidim to provide the spiritual support needed for this great endeavor, as symbolized by the collapse of their ladder of prayers, is offered as the reason for the failure to bring the Messiah in their generation. Thus the tale illustrates the interdependency of the Tzaddik and his Hasidim. This attempt to capture the golden dove and its failure marks one of the basic types of mystical tales, those concerning an attempt to hasten the coming of the Messiah. Several such tales are found in the Talmud. See, in particular, “Forcing the End,” p. 496. Subsequently such tales are found in virtually every generation, explaining that there is a potential Messiah who, had all gone well, would have served as Messiah ben Joseph, preparing the way for Messiah ben David. In this tale of the Ba’al Shem, however, he ascends directly to the palace of Messiah ben David, determined to initiate the End of Days. For a variant of this tale, see “The Messiah and the Ba’al Shem Tov,” following.

Sources :

Midrash Ribesh Tov; Or ha-Hokhmah, Parashat Beha’alotekha .

621. THE MESSIAH AND THE BA’AL SHEM TOV

The Messiah once came to the Ba’al Shem Tov and said: “I make my home in a heavenly palace known as the Bird’s Nest. Except for me, no one has ever entered there. If only you were to travel there and open that gate, redemption would surely come to Israel. I don’t know whether or not you will succeed in opening the gate, but I heard God’s voice saying to me, ‘What can I do for you, since I must fulfill your wish.’”

This brief account about the Messiah speaking to the Ba’al Shem Tov is attributed to Rabbi Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl (1730-1797). Here the Messiah strongly hints to the Ba’al Shem Tov that he can bring about the messianic era—and set the Messiah free from his waiting—by making his way to the heavenly Garden of Eden and opening the gate to the secret abode of the Messiah, known as the Bird’s Nest. Further, the Messiah suggests that God will look favorably on the efforts of the Ba’al Shem Tov, because God feels that he must fulfill the Messiah’s wish—which is to initiate the messianic era. Thus, in this brief tale, the Messiah not only gives the Ba’al Shem Tov the key hint of how this can be done, but strongly suggests that the time is right. This fragmentary tale does not inform us of what happened next, which would be a heavenly journey by the Ba’al Shem Tov to fulfill the quest. But the fact that the Messiah has not yet come speaks for itself .

In a variant of this mythic tale, “The Ladder of Prayers,” p. 490, the Ba’al Shem Tov ascends to Paradise and tries to capture the golden dove of the Messiah, which the Messiah cannot bear to be without, and in this way force the coming of the Messiah, a process known as “Forcing the End.” Here, too, the quest ultimately fails. Although this is considered a sin, it is the one sin the rabbis had tremendous sympathy toward, since they longed, above all, for the coming of the Messiah.

In both of these tales, the Ba’al Shem Tov is portrayed as the only figure in his generation capable of bringing the Messiah. This follows the pattern of Messiah ben Joseph, the earthly Messiah, who, it is said, will pave the way for the coming of the heavenly Messiah, Messiah ben David. Thus the Ba’al Shem Tov is identified in these tales with Messiah ben Joseph. In each generation the Tzaddik ha-Dor , the greatest sage of his generation, exists as a potential Messiah. If the time is ripe and the sage is able to fulfill his role, he will serve as the earthly Messiah who sets in motion the coming of the heavenly Messiah.

Sources :

Shivhei-ha Besht , story no. 42; Zohar 2:7b-9a, 3:196b.

622. THE MESSIAH AT THE GATES OF ROME

The Messiah sits at the entrance of the gates of Rome. Around him sit the poor, wrapped in bandages, suffering from disease. Like them, the Messiah is bandaged from head to toe. When the beggars are ready to change their bandages, they unwind them all at the same time. But the Messiah changes them one by one, in case he should be summoned, so that he will be ready.

Like the beggars and lepers around him, the Messiah is wrapped in bandages, suffering from some unstated disease, presumably leprosy. The story also suggests how close the Messiah is to coming—he’s already at the gates, waiting for the signal from heaven that the messianic era has finally arrived. This is one of the myths about a suffering Messiah. “The Captive Messiah,” p. 498, is another example of this type.

This myth about the Messiah emerges out of an unusual dialogue between Elijah the Prophet and Rabbi Joshua ben Levi. Rabbi Joshua is said to have once found Elijah standing at the entrance of the cave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai. Rabbi Joshua asked him, “When will the Messiah come?” Elijah replied, “Go ask him yourself.” Joshua ben Levi asked where the Messiah could be found, and Elijah answered that he sits among the beggars at the gates of Rome. The story goes on to relate that Rabbi Joshua sought out the Messiah there and asked when he would come. The Messiah’s enigmatic answer was, “Today.” Rabbi Joshua returned to Elijah and said that the Messiah had lied to him, because he had said he was coming that day and he did not. Elijah replied, “What he told you was that he would come, if you would but heed his charge this day” (Ps. 95:7). Thus, the Messiah is ready to come, but we are not ready for him. See by way of contrast, Franz Kafka’s “The Coming of the Messiah,” p. 518.

Sources :

B. Sanhedrin 98a.

623. THE CHAINS OF THE MESSIAH

Long ago, in the city of Hebron, there lived a man named Joseph della Reina whose longing for the Messiah was so great that he spent his life in mystical study and prayer, seeking to learn how the coming of the Messiah might be hastened. It was in those days that the holy book of the Zohar was discovered, and Joseph della Reina saw this as a sign .

Surely the gate of the Messiah’s palace was open, and the time had come for the Messiah to pass through that gate, so that his footsteps could be heard in the world.

Thus della Reina sought out ten other scholars who also devoted themselves to mystical meditation. Together they fasted and mortified themselves, so that they might purify their souls, Joseph della Reina more so than any of the others. They studied the kabbalah day and night, immersing themselves in its mysteries. And they scattered ashes on their heads, crying and mourning over the destruction of the Temple.

At last Joseph della Reina so purified his soul that the Prophet Elijah descended from on high and taught him mysteries that had never been revealed outside of heaven. In this way he learned that the soul of the Messiah was being held captive by the forces of evil, and not until those forces had been defeated could the chains of the Messiah be broken. Most of all, Joseph della Reina wished to know how to set free the captive soul of the Messiah. But Elijah was reluctant to tell him any more, for it was forbidden to reveal this mystery. Then Joseph della Reina said to Elijah: “If you yourself cannot reveal this secret, can you give me the name of an angel I might invoke?” And at last Elijah relented and revealed the holy names that invoke the angel Metatron, who once had been Enoch before being transported to heaven in a chariot and transformed into the fiery angel Metatron, the Prince of the Presence.

Then Joseph della Reina and his followers began to fast from the end of one Sabbath to the beginning of the next. And, as Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai had done, they ate only carobs and drank only water. Now it is said that at midnight on the eve of Shavuot the heavens split open, and any prayer said at that time reaches to the highest heavens. So Joseph della Reina and his followers waited until that moment, and then he pronounced the holy names that Elijah had given him to invoke the angel Metatron. Thunder rang out all around them and lightning split the sky, and the heavens parted and a great light shone from on high that so blinded them they fell on their faces in fear. And the voice of Metatron rang out so loudly that the earth shook beneath their feet. “What is it you want?” the voice demanded. At first Joseph della Reina was speechless, but he finally found the strength to prostrate himself before the Prince of the Presence and he said: “Surely the time has come for the Messiah to be set free from his chains. Tell us how this can be done, and we will set out to accomplish this quest, no matter how difficult.”

“The victory that you seek over evil would bring you into the gravest danger. Now is the time to turn back,” said Metatron. But Joseph della Reina refused to give up and begged the angel to assist them. And at last Metatron revealed this fateful secret: that the rulers of the forces of evil, Ashmedai, the King of Demons, and Lilith, his Queen, could be found in the form of black dogs living on Mount Seir. And if they could be captured and put in chains and led away from that mountain, which was their home and the source of their strength, they could be defeated. Then the chains holding back the Messiah would break, and the time of his coming would be at hand. But, Metatron warned him, those demons were very powerful, and the only way to weaken them was to deny them every kind of sustenance. They must be given nothing, neither food nor water, until they were led away from the mountain, or all would be in vain. So too did Metatron reveal the holy names that would transport della Reina and his followers to Mount Seir and permit them to capture the demons who reigned there.

When Joseph della Reina heard this, his soul exulted, for now the quest he had sought for so long lay open before him. And he thanked Metatron from the depths of his soul and vowed that he would do everything in his power to fulfill that quest. But before departing, Metatron warned him not to take on such a great responsibility unless he was certain he would not fail, for if he did, the time of the coming of the Messiah would be delayed much longer. And at that moment the heavens closed and the vision came to an end, but Joseph della Reina and his followers felt they had been reborn, for now the path of their destiny had opened before them.

Once again they fasted and prayed and prepared themselves for the day of reckoning. So too did they prepare many links of chain with which to restrain the demons. At last Joseph della Reina, surrounded by his ten disciples, pronounced the holy names in the proper combination, and an instant later they found themselves at the foot of Mount Seir. There they heard an unearthly howling, and certain that this must be a sign, they set out in that direction.

At last they caught sight of two great black dogs howling at the moon. That howling was so terrible it filled them with dread, but still they crept closer until they were right behind them. And just as they threw the chains around the dogs, Joseph della Reina pronounced the holy names that made them his prisoners. As soon as he did, Ashmedai and Lilith were restored to their true forms and tried to break free. But when the demons realized they could not, they no longer struggled but began to beg for something to eat or drink. Their pleas were piteous indeed, but Joseph della Reina spurned them, and he and his followers led them in chains down the mountain.

Now when they had almost descended the mountain, Ashmedai and Lilith became so weak that they had to be dragged, and their pleas for sustenance grew more urgent. But when they saw that della Reina would show them no mercy, they begged instead for a single whiff of incense to revive them. Then della Reina took pity on them, for he did not see any danger in that, and he lit the incense and let them each take a whiff of it. But at that instant Ashmedai shot up many times his size and the chains that held him shattered, as did Lilith’s. Ashmedai was filled with rage, and he picked up the ten followers of Joseph della Reina and cast them a great distance, so that all of them lost their lives. And when he found Joseph della Reina cowering behind a rock, he picked him up and cast him a distance of hundreds of miles, where he landed with a great crash.

The next thing Joseph della Reina knew, he found himself transformed into a large, black dog, wandering through the streets of a city. And the soul of Joseph della Reina, which was trapped in the body of that black dog, recognized that city at once as Safed. Now della Reina was horrified to discover himself in the body of that dog, and he suffered the pangs of hell. Now, too, all hope he had once held for the coming of the Messiah was shattered, and his singular longing was simply for his own soul to be set free.

So it was that the black dog that bore the soul of Joseph della Reina hid near the windows of the yeshivahs of Safed and listened to the teachings of the sages and learned, in this way, that there was a righteous man living in the city of Safed at that time who was known as the Ari, and that he alone possessed the mystical powers to set della Reina’s soul free.

Soon the Ari found that a black dog followed him everywhere. There was nothing he could do to get rid of it. At last the Ari’s disciples asked him about the dog that pursued him like a shadow, and the Ari replied: “That dog was once the holy sage Joseph della Reina, who sought to shake the heavens so that the footsteps of the Messiah might be heard. Instead he failed in his task and brought the wrath of heaven upon himself, and now he has been reborn as this black dog. He wants me to set him free, but that is not his fate. This is just the first of a thousand rebirths he will have to suffer through before his soul can be freed of the taint of his sin.” And when the black dog, who had listened carefully to every word, learned of his fate, he lost his mind and ran howling into the wilderness and was never seen again.

After the talmudic legend of the four who entered Paradise, this is probably the best-known kabbalistic tale of all. It exists in a number of versions and has been reprinted many times. The two primary versions are those of Eliezer ha-Levi and Shlomo Navarro. Ha-Levi’s earlier account presents Joseph della Reina as a sincere, if over-ambitious, prophet who is willing to take great risks to hasten the coming of the Messiah and suffers a terrible failure. Navarro’s version transforms the character of della Reina, emphasizing his hubris and adding a coda in which, having failed in his messianic quest, he becomes a student of black magic, taught by none other than Lilith, the demoness he originally sought to capture. His later exploits, in the version of Navarro, include using his powers to bring Queen Dolphina of France to his bed and attempting to bring Helen of Troy back from the dead for himself. The present version of this tale is based primarily on the earlier version. For a version based primarily on that of Navarro, see “Helen of Troy” in Lilith’s Cave , pp. 42-52, and the accompanying note. Eli Wiesel’s novel The Gates of the Forest also includes a retelling of the story of Joseph della Reina, p. 18.

Just as the myth of the four who entered Paradise (p. 445) served as a warning tale about the dangers of kabbalah, so did the story of Joseph della Reina, and he became an archetype of the holy man driven mad by immersion in kabbalistic mysteries. The story of Joseph della Reina being reborn as a black dog, so full of poetic justice because of its echo of the forms taken by Ashmedai and Lilith when he sought to capture them, is associated with the legend of the Ari. It demonstrates that as early as the sixteenth century, della Reina became a despised figure even by those who themselves still sought to hasten the coming of the Messiah. See “The Captive Messiah,” p. 498.

Sources :

Iggeret Sod ha-Geulah; Sippur Rabbi Yosef della Reina; Eder ha-Yekar ; IFA 14418.

Studies :

Between Worlds: Dybbuks, Exorcists and Early Modern Judaism by J. H. Chajes.

624. THE MESSIAH COMES FORTH FROM PRISON

At the end of the wars of Gog and Magog, the Messiah shall come forth from prison with nothing except for his staff and his sack. Then the Messiah will wrap himself in prayer and gird himself as a hero before God. The Messiah will say before Him: “Master of the Universe, remember on my behalf the suffering and grief and darkness and obscurity into which I was cast. My eyes have beheld no light and my ears have heard great reviling, and my heart broke with pain and grief. You know that I have not acted for my own glory, nor for the glory of my father’s house, but for Your glory have I acted, and for Your children who dwell in sorrow among the peoples of the world.”

Then the Messiah will say to the children of Israel: “Go and assemble all your brethren from all the nations.” And they will go and assemble all Israel and bring them to stand before the Messiah, as it is said, And they shall bring all your brethren out of all the nations as an offering to Yahweh (Isa. 66:20).

This myth describes the emergence of the Messiah at the End of Days. The Messiah has been imprisoned, but the time finally comes when he is set free. Then the first thing he does is remind God of his suffering and that of the people of Israel, and he sets out to accomplish the first of the messianic requirements—the Ingathering of the Exiles. See “The Suffering Messiah,” p. 489 and “The Chains of the Messiah,” p. 492 for myths about the suffering of the Messiah.

Sources :

Hekhalot Rabbati 6.

625. UNTIL THE REDEMPTION

Before his death, the Rabbi of Riminov let it be known that he would not set foot in the Garden of Eden until the time of the Messiah had come. After his death, the angels sought to convince him to enter, for he had long been awaited, but he refused. They sought to lure him into the Garden by showing him many wonderful things, but their efforts were in vain. Still, it was not yet time for the Messiah to come. So they asked King David to play on his harp, and when that haunting music drifted out of the Garden and reached the Rabbi of Riminov, he followed after it as if in a trance, and in this way he was lured inside at last.

Likewise, Rabbi Shalom Rokeach, the Belzer Rebbe, once said, “One time I dreamt that I was brought to Gan Eden and shown the walls of Jerusalem. The walls were in ruins and a man was walking on them. I asked, ‘Who is that man?’ I was told that this is Rabbi Israel Ba’al Shem Tov. He has sworn not to come down from there until the Temple is rebuilt.”

There are quite a few stories about rabbis who vowed not to enter Gan Eden until the Messiah had come, but were somehow seduced into entering the Garden. The Rabbi of Riminov and the Belzer Rebbe (1779-1855) are both great Hasidic masters, and, of course, the Ba’al Shem Tov is the founder of Hasidism. Their links to this tale of the refusal of the heavenly reward were intended to emphasize their great hope in the coming era of the Messiah, which would have to include the rebuilding of the Temple.

Among others who refused to enter the Garden of Eden was the Rabbi of Ujhely, who was finally lured into the Garden by an invitation to give a d’var Torah , a sermon. Because awareness of time doesn’t exist in the Garden, he is said still to be speaking. See also “The Pact” in Gabriel’s Palace , pp. 256-257, about three rabbis who make a vow to force the coming of the Messiah.

Sources :

Pe’er ve-Kavod 16a-b; Rabbi Yisrael Ba’al Shem Tov by Menashe Unger.

626. THE CONCEALMENT OF ELIJAH

Elijah has gone into hiding and will reappear only at the advent of the Messiah.

Elijah is often identified as the herald and precursor of the Messiah. Here Elijah is said to have gone into hiding until the advent of the messianic era. The point is that just as the Messiah is hidden, waiting for the time when his footsteps will be heard, so too is Elijah concealed until it is time for him to fulfill his role in the messianic drama.

This myth runs contrary to the widespread appearance of Elijah in the rabbinic, folk, kabbalistic, and Hasidic lore.

Sources :

Seder Olam Rabbah 17; B. Eruvin 43b;

627. FORCING THE END

In every generation there are three sages who together possess the power to force the coming of the Messiah. In the time of the ancient sages, it was Rabbi Hiyya and his sons. Elijah the Prophet was a regular visitor to the synagogue of Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi, but one day he was late. When they asked him why, he said, “I had to waken Abraham, wash his hands, let him pray, and return him to sleep; likewise with Isaac and with Jacob.”

They asked him, “Why couldn’t you waken them together?” Elijah answered, “If they were to pray together, their power could bring the Messiah before his time.” They asked, “Are there any like them in this world?” Elijah replied, “Only Rabbi Hiyya and his sons. ”

That day Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi decreed a fast and let Rabbi Hiyya and his sons lead the prayers. When Rabbi Hiyya said, “He causes the wind to blow,” the wind began to blow. When he said, “He causes the rain to fall,” rain began to fall.

As he was about to say the line, “He resurrects the dead,” they said in heaven, “Who has disclosed this secret?” and the angels replied, “Elijah.” They brought Elijah before the heavenly court and gave him sixty lashes of fire. After that Elijah appeared in Rabbi Judah’s synagogue as a fiery bear, and chased everyone out.

Over the generations these three sages existed, but rarely did they live near each other, nor did they know that this great power could be theirs if they joined together. But the Seer of Lublin uncovered this secret and revealed it to the other two sages. All of them were filled with a terrible longing for the Messiah. So they made a pact to force the Messiah to come on Simhat Torah of that year.

Now it happened that just before Rosh ha-Shanah, Baruch of Medzibozh took sick and died. Twenty-two days later, on Simhat Torah, the news of Rabbi Baruch’s death had reached the Riminov Rabbi, but not the Seer of Lublin. The Riminov Rabbi recognized at once that he must not proceed in the plan to force the End of Days. But the Seer of Lublin knew nothing about it, so on Simhat Torah he danced with the Torah in his arms, and then he went to the second floor and prayed alone there for several hours.

Just as he reached the conclusion of his prayers, the Seer of Lublin suddenly felt a great force from behind push him out the open window. He would have met a certain death, but just before he struck the ground he felt as if a net had caught him. Looking up, he saw Baruch of Medzibozh standing there, and found that he had landed on his tallit , which Rabbi Baruch had spread out below. Then the Seer understood that Rabbi Baruch must have died, and that he had come back from the Other World to save him. And he understood as well that the time had not come for the footsteps of the Messiah to be heard in this world.

Not long afterward the Seer of Lublin also took sick, and he died on the Ninth of Av of that year, the day the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed.

Both of these accounts, one talmudic and one Hasidic, describe how three rabbis, the greatest of their generation, attempted to force the coming of the Messiah. In the first, Elijah inadvertently reveals one of the key secrets of heaven—that Rabbi Hiyya and his sons have the righteousness and purity of the patriarchs, and therefore have the power to force the coming of the Messiah. This they attempt to do by reading prayers that cause the actions they describe to take place. This causes consternation in heaven, for they are on the verge of forcing the coming of the Messiah. So Elijah is sent to earth as a fiery bear, chasing them out of the synagogue before they can complete their invocation.

The second tale identifies three great Hasidic rabbis, the Seer of Lublin, Reb Menachem Mendel of Riminov, and Baruch of Medzibozh, as the ones in their generation with such great power.

These three rabbis agree to use a mystical secret to force the coming of the Messiah on Simhat Torah, but the death of Baruch of Medzibozh ends their plan. When the rabbi of Riminov learns of this, he does not attempt to bring the Messiah. But because the Seer of Lublin does not receive word of Baruch’s death in time, he does make the attempt, which almost costs him his life, when he is pushed out of a window. This clearly demonstrates the anger in heaven at this attempt. However, the Seer’s life is saved by the spirit of Baruch of Medzibozh, who sees to it that the Seer lands on his tallit . And the Seer of Lublin understands at that moment that Baruch must have died, and that his spirit had come back from the World to Come to save him. Both tales demonstrate the dangers of attempting to hasten the coming of the Messiah, as well as the strong impulse to do so among the rabbis. Both also explain why the Messiah has not yet come .

An interesting parallel to this tale is found in Sefer Eliyahu in Beit ha-Midrash 3:68-78. Here the prophet Elijah comes to Rabbi Yose’s House of Study, and tells Rabbi Yose of hearing God and the Messiah discussing the messianic prophecies of the prophet Isaiah. Just then Samael, the Accuser, came and accused the Israelites of being guilty. This caused Elijah to be dejected, but Rabbi Yose grows angry at Elijah, for he sees it differently, perceiving a hint of the coming of the Messiah in the discussion of God and the Messiah. Then Rabbi Yose reinterprets Isaiah’s words, I will tell of your righteous deeds and all his works, but they will not help at all (Isa. 57:12), to mean, I will tell of the righteous deeds of Israel and all the works of Samael will not help at all . This transforms Isaiah’s expression of grief and hopelessness into a prophecy of messianic hope.

Sources :

B. Bava Metzia 85b; Pesikta Rabbati 36:1-2; Rashi on B. Sanhedrin 98b; Midrashei Geulah 307-308; Tzidkat ha-Tzaddik 153; Likutei Moharan 1:118.

Studies :

“Not All is in the Hands of Heaven: Eschatology and Kabbalah” by Rachel Elior.

628. THE CAPTIVE MESSIAH

For many generations the Messiah has sat captive, chained with golden chains before the Throne of Glory. Elijah has tried to release him many times, but he has never succeeded. So Elijah descends to earth and explains that in order to break the chains of the Messiah, he needs a magic saw whose teeth are the deeds of Israel. Every deed adds a tooth to this saw, but every sin takes one away. When there are twice as many good deeds as there are sins, then the saw can be used. That is why it is said that the Messiah will not come until we bring him.

A number of texts describe the Messiah as bound in chains. According to Pirkei Hekhalot Rabbati , for example, God will tie up the Messiah hand and foot for eight years, and during the years that the Messiah is fettered, God will hide His face from him. This is a reminder that the decision of bringing the End of Days, which the Messiah will herald, does not belong to the Messiah, but to God, or to the people Israel, whose good deeds will make it possible. Adding to the complexity, there are even myths in which God Himself is in chains. See “Mourning over the Shekhinah ,” p. 58.

Sources :

IFA 6928.

629. THE SLEEPING MESSIAH

Eighty years ago, in a Polish yeshiva, there were two students who were filled with a longing for redemption. Both of them were eager to travel to the Holy Land, and they especially wanted to see King David’s tomb. They dreamed about it day and night, and at last they decided to set out on the journey, even though they didn’t have any money. On the way they met with many obstacles, but at last they arrived at the Holy City of Jerusalem. They were thrilled to have arrived there safe and sound, but they did not know how to find King David’s tomb. While they were wondering where it was, Elijah the Prophet appeared before them in the form of an old man and showed them the way. And when they reached the foot of Mount Zion, Elijah said:

“Now my sons, ascend Mount Zion until you reach the entrance of King David’s tomb, and enter there and go down the steps, until you reach the bottom of the tomb. There you will be blinded by visions of gold, silver, and diamonds. These are only illusions, set to tempt you from your purpose. Ignore them and search for the jug of water at the head of King David. That jug contains water from the Garden of Eden. Pour the water from that jug over the hands of King David as he stretches his hands toward you. Pour the water three times over each hand, and then King David will rise up and the footsteps of the Messiah will be heard in the world. For King David is not dead, he lives and exists. He is only asleep and dreaming, and he will arise when we are worthy of it. By your virtue and merit, he will arise and redeem us. Amen, and may this come to pass.”

When Elijah finished these words, he disappeared. The young men then ascended Mount Zion, and went down into the depths of King David’s tomb. Everything was just as Elijah had said it would be. They saw King David stretched out on a couch, with a jug of water at his head. And when they reached King David, he stretched out his hands to them. But just then the young men were blinded by all the riches they saw in that tomb, and they forgot to pour water onto the king’s outstretched hands. In anguish his hands fell back and immediately the king’s image disappeared.

The young men were startled when they realized that they had let the opportunity for redemption slip through their fingers, and now it was too late.

This is one of many tales about King David being alive. All of them grow out of the saying, David Melekh Yisrael, hai ve-kayyam —“David, King of Israel, lives and exists”—taken from the Talmud (B. RH 25a) into a song that remains very popular among Jews to this day. Here King David’s role as a great king and founder of Jerusalem is blended with messianic prophecy, and it is King David himself who is identified as the sleeping Messiah, waiting for someone righteous enough to pour water from the Garden of Eden over his hands so that he will wake up. This tale, like so many others concerning the Messiah, explains why the Messiah has not yet come. For another example of such a tale, see “The Ladder of Prayers,” p. 490.

Sources :

IFA 966.

630. THE PANGS OF THE MESSIAH

When the time has come for the Messiah to arrive, all the kings of the nations of the earth will be at war with one another. All the nations of the world will be agitated and frightened. The wisdom of the scribes will become foolish, and those who shun sin will be despised. The meeting place of scholars will be laid to waste and given over to harlotry. Pious men and saints will be few, and the Law will be forgotten by its students. The young will insult their elders, and the elders will wait upon the young. Arrows of hunger will be sent forth, and a great famine will arrive, as it is said, “A time is coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will send a famine upon the land: not a hunger for bread or a thirst for water, but for hearing the words of the Lord” (Amos 8:11). Then, all at once, they will all be seized with pangs like the pangs of a woman in labor. At that time Israel will cry out in fear, and God will reply, “My children, be not afraid. The time of your redemption has come.”

The struggles that will take place before the advent of the Messiah are known as the “Pangs of the Messiah.” These pangs are said to include a great war to be known as the War of Gog and Magog. For Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, who experienced great upheaval firsthand in the Warsaw Ghetto, the purpose of the Pangs of the Messiah is to cleanse sins before the Messiah’s arrival. For him, these pangs make it possible for Israel to give birth to the Messiah. He links these pangs to God’s words to Eve, “In pain shall you bear children” (Gen. 3:16), and he observes that before a seed can bring forth a new creation, the seed must be annihilated. In the same way, the “Pangs of the Messiah” refers to the annihilation that must take place before the birth of a new creation. Israel must suffer birth pangs in order to give birth to the light of the Messiah.

Sources :

B. Sanhedrin 97a; B. Shabbat 138b; Pesikta Rabbati 26:2; Esh Kadosh pp. 106-107.

631. THE RAINBOW OF THE MESSIAH

Do not expect the Messiah until a rainbow appears radiating splendid colors throughout the world. At present, the colors of the rainbow are dull, serving merely as a reminder that there will not be another Deluge. But the rainbow that announces the Messiah will have brilliant colors and be adorned like a bride for her bridegroom. When this rainbow appears, it will be a sign that God has remembered His covenant with Israel, and that the footsteps of the Messiah will soon be heard.

In Genesis 9:12-13, God says about the rainbow: “This is the sign that I set for the covenant between Me and you, and every living creature with you, for all ages to come. I have set My bow in the clouds, and it shall serve as a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.” The rainbow serves as a covenant between God and all living creatures that God will not bring on another Deluge, as in the time of Noah. The present myth of the rainbow of the Messiah identifies the rainbow as another kind of covenant, that of bringing Israel out of exile. This Ingathering of the Exiles is one of the requirements of the coming of the Messiah. Here the transformed rainbow, its colors restored to their heavenly perfection, becomes a sign of the impending arrival of the messianic era.

Sources :

Zohar 1:72b.

632. CALCULATING THE END OF DAYS

When there are signs that the Messiah is ready to come, many righteous individuals will raise their voices. They will scream until their throats become hoarse—and it will do no good. For whenever it is predicted that the Messiah will come at a certain time, it can be certain that he will not come in any manner whatsoever at that time. Furthermore, anyone who tries to calculate the End of Days will be severely cursed. For the Messiah will come only when the minds of men are distracted from thinking of him.

For many centuries, predictions were rampant about when the Messiah would arrive. Pious Jews always hoped it would be in their lifetimes. Of course, all of these predictions fell through. Here Rabbi Nachman suggests that it is time to give up making such predictions, for they inevitably fail. He even suggests that it is the prediction itself that causes the failure. This seems to be the application of the general belief that if we want something too much, we will never get it. It is remarkably parallel to Franz Kafka’s paradox that “The Messiah will not come until he is no longer needed.” In Rabbi Nachman’s version, the Messiah will not come until the people give up on waiting for him and instead live a pious life without constant thought of their reward. See “The Coming of the Messiah,” p. 518.

Sources :

B. Sanhedrin 97a; Sihot ha-Ran 126; Sihot Moharan, Avodat ha-Shem 81 (31a) .

633. THE END OF DAYS

In the world we know, men walk in the light of the sun by day and in the light of the moon at night. But in the End of Days, No longer shall you need the sun for light by day, nor the shining of the moon for radiance by night (Isa. 60:19). In what light, then, will men walk? Yahweh shall be your light everlasting (Isa. 60:19).

In the coming era there will not be any eating or drinking, or procreation, or trade, nor will there be jealousy or hatred. Instead, the righteous will sit with crowns on their head, and feed on the splendor of the Shekhinah .

The messianic era, known as the End of Days, is described as a kind of heaven on earth. Or it might be viewed as a return to the Garden of Eden. Indeed, all of Jewish history can be encapsulated between the exile from Eden and the messianic era with its return to a prelapsarian era like that of the Garden of Eden. Or the messianic era might be seen as a kind of eternal Sabbath, a permanent state of rest.

Sources :

B. Berakhot 17a; Pesikta de-Rav Kahana 21:5; Gan Eden ve-Gehinnom in Beit ha-Midrash 5:42-48.

634. THE END OF THE WORLD

In the generation when the Messiah comes, fiery seraphim will be sent into the Temple, and stars will appear like fire in every place. The glory of the Shekhinah will fill the Temple, and God will bring down His throne and set it in the Valley of Jehoshaphat. At that time God will clothe the Messiah with a diadem, and He will place a helmet of salvation on his head, and gird him with brilliance and splendor. He will also adorn him with glorious garments and place him on a high mountain, and the Messiah will announce, “Salvation is near!” Then the Messiah will proclaim the news to the patriarchs and to Adam, who sleeps in the cave of Machpelah. And Adam will immediately stand up along with his generation, as well as the patriarchs and all the generations from the beginning of time to the last day.

The age of the Messiah will last 400 years, and after that the Messiah shall die, along with all in whom there is human breath. Then the world will be turned back to primeval silence for seven days, as it was at the beginning of Creation, as it is said, The heavens shall melt away like smoke, and the earth shall wear out like a garment (Isa. 51:6).

This is a supernatural portrayal of the End of Days, where the transformation of the world will be evident to everyone and the presence of divine figures, including God, the Messiah, and angels (in the form of fiery seraphim), will be experienced in this world. It includes the rebirth of the great figures of the past, such as Adam and the patriarchs, which is one of the requirements of the Messiah. This, then, is an ultimate fantasy of redemption, when the messianic era that was awaited so long finally arrives.

Of interest, however, is the 400-year time limit associated with this description of the messianic age. After that, it is said that the world will come to an end, to be followed by resurrection and judgment.

Sources :

4 Ezra 7:27-30; Sefer Eliyahu in Beit ha-Midrash 3:68-78.

Studies :

“The Place of the End of Days: Eschatological Geography in Jerusalem” by Ora Limor .

635. HOW THE END OF THE WORLD WILL COME

On the day of the end of the world, happy and joyous people will come out of the earth. They will beat drums and play flutes and all other musical instruments. They will travel from east to west, toward the Holy Land. The mountains before them will turn into a blooming garden. Every tree will bear fruit, and the stones will turn to meat and rice, and the people will eat to their hearts’ content. After this the Messiah will come, and he will separate those who are believers from those who are not. The nonbelievers will go to Gehenna, and the believers will journey with the Messiah to Jerusalem. That is how the end of the world will come.

This a folk version of the onset of the messianic era. It follows the essential mythic pattern in which the dead are restored to life—these are the people who climb out of the earth, the righteous are gathered to the Holy Land, and the arrival of the Messiah takes place. The details about every tree bearing fruit and stones turning into food demonstrate that the folk understanding of the messianic era is one in which people will still retain the desire to eat, and there will not be any shortages of food.

Sources :

IFA 10919.

636. THE VISION OF THE VALLEY OF DRY BONES

The hand of the Lord came upon me. He took me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the valley. It was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many of them spread over the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, “O mortal, can these bones live again?” I replied, “O Lord God, only You know.” And He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! Thus said the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live again. I will lay sinews upon you, and cover you with flesh, and form skin over you. And I will put breath into you, and you shall live again. And you shall know that I am the Lord!”

I prophesied as I had been commanded. And while I was prophesying, suddenly there was a sound of rattling, and the bones came together, bone to matching bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had grown, and skin had formed over them; but there was no breath in them. Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, O mortal! Say to the breath: Thus said the Lord God: Come, O breath, from the four winds, and breathe into these slain, that they may live again.” I prophesied as He commanded me. The breath entered them, and they came to life and stood up on their feet, a vast multitude.

And He said to me, “O mortal, these bones are the whole House of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone; we are doomed.’ Prophesy, therefore, and say to them: Thus said the Lord God: I am going to open your graves and lift you out of the graves, O My people, and bring you to the Land of Israel. You shall know, O My people, that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves and lifted you out of your graves. I will put My breath into you and you shall live again, and I will set you upon your own soil. Then you shall know that I the Lord have spoken and have acted”—declares the Lord.

The belief in the bodily resurrection of the dead can be traced to this powerful biblical myth of Ezekiel, in which God compels him to resurrect, with his prophesying, the bones in the valley of the dry bones. Here God’s intention to bring the people of Israel back to life is presented as an explicit promise, with a powerful demonstration of God’s ability to fulfill it. In messianic myth, the resurrection of the dead becomes one of the three primary requirements that must be fulfilled to initiate the messianic era. The others are the Ingathering of the Exiles and the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem.

Ezekiel’s vision of resurrection was taken by later Jewish sources as a scriptural basis for a literal belief in resurrection. In the Talmud, for example, it is stated that “in the future the pious will sprout up and emerge in Jerusalem, and they will rise up in their garments” (B. Ketubot 111b). And chapter 34 of Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer , an important midrashic text, states that “God opens the graves and opens the storehouses of the souls and puts back each soul into its own body.”

Still another version of the resurrection of the dead is found in the Responsum of Hai Gaon 60a-b: “And God will stretch sinews upon them and cover them with flesh and envelop them with skin, but there will be no spirit in them. And then God will cause the dew of life to descend from heaven, in which there is the light of the life of the soul. And they will recognize that they had lived and died and then risen to life.”

There is a debate in B. Sanhedrin 92b as to whether the resurrection of the dead as described in Ezekiel should be understood literally or taken as a parable: “Rabbi Eliezer said, ‘The dead who were resurrected by Ezekiel stood up and sang songs of praise to God and immediately died.’ Rabbi Judah said the story is a true event that served as a parable. Rabbi Eliezer ben Yose said, ‘The dead who were resurrected by Ezekiel went up to the Land of Israel, married and begat sons and daughters.’ Hearing this, Rabbi Judah stood up and said, ‘I am one of their descendants. You see these tefillin ? They were given to me by my grandfather and once belonged to them!’” It seems likely that we are to understand Rabbi Judah’s comments as a sarcastic response to Rabbi Eliezer ben Yose’s literalism. However, this debate also serves as evidence of belief in the resurrection in Judaism, where it is listed as the last of the Thirteen Principles of Maimonides.

Sources :

Ezekiel 37:1-14.

637. HOW THE DEAD WILL COME TO LIFE

How will the dead come to life? God will take the Great Shofar in His hand and blow on it seven times, and its sound will go forth from one end of the world to the other.

At the first blast, the whole world will shake and suffer the pangs of the Messiah.

At the second blast, dust will be scattered over the face of the earth and the graves will open.

At the third, the bones will gather together.

At the fourth, the limbs will stretch out.

At the fifth, skin will be stretched over them.

At the sixth, spirits and souls will enter the bodies.

At the seventh, God Himself will raise and resuscitate them and make them stand on their feet.

The Great Shofar is the second horn of the ram that Abraham slew at Mount Moriah. The first ram’s horn was blown by Moses at Mount Sinai. In most messianic traditions, it is said that Elijah will blow the second horn. Here, however, it is God who blows on it to initiate the End of Days. It is also said that God will blow this shofar when He leads the exiles of Israel into their land. See Isaiah 27:13.

The portrayal of the stage-by-stage resurrection of the dead is strongly influenced by Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones (Ezek. 37:1-14). Both take place in stages, but in the present myth these stages, delineated by the blast of the Great Shofar, are similar to the creation of Adam in Genesis .

An alternate version of the resurrection in Pesikta Hadta states that “God will bring dust of the earth and dust of the dead, and mix them together, and put into it skin and flesh and sinews and bones. And the angel in charge of souls will come and infuse souls into the bodies. Then they will enter the House of Study where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sit before God, the kings of Israel and Judah sit behind Him, and David sits at the head.”

Sources :

Pesikta Hadta in Beit ha-Midrash 6:47, 6:58; Midrash Alpha Beta de-Rabbi Akiva in Beit ha-Midrash 3:31; Tanna de-vei Eliyahu Zuta 22.

Studies :

“Some Aspects of After Life in Early Rabbinic Literature” by Saul Lieberman.

638. THE DEW OF RESURRECTION

From where does the dew of resurrection descend? From the head of God, as it is said, “For My head is drenched with dew, My locks with the damp of night” (S. of S. 5:2). When the time comes to resurrect the dead, God will shake His locks and bring down the dew of resurrection, and by means of that dew, all the righteous dead will rise from the dust.

Others say that after the reviving dew descends, God will seat each person between His knees, and embrace them and kiss them and bring them to life in the World to Come.

This myth finds its source in the verse For your dew is like the dew on fresh growth (Isa. 26:19). In these myths, God takes a most active role in the resurrection. In other myths, the resurrection happens as the final stage of a process, or there is an angel who is charged with raising the dead. But here God is the source of the dew that brings about the resurrection. He even takes each person, one by one, to Himself, and brings him or her back to life.

Note that the World to Come is identified here with the messianic era, although they usually refer to separate traditions, where the World to Come is the world of rewards for the souls of the righteous when they leave this world, and the messianic era refers to this world after its transformation at the End of Days. Maimonides defines the World to Come as follows: “The life after which there is no death is the life of the World to Come, in which there is no body, for the World to Come consists of souls with no bodies, like the angels” (Maimonides, Ma’amar Tehiyat ha-Metim ). As for the messianic era, it will bring about a great transformation in which this world will become a paradise on earth. In effect, it will restore the whole world to the kind of pristine purity found in the Garden of Eden before the Fall.

What is the dew of God? In Zohar 3:128a, Idra Rabbah , this dew is described as “the light of the pale glow of the Ancient One. And from that dew exist the supernal saints, and it is the manna which they grind for the righteous in the World to Come.”

Sources :

Yalkut Shim’oni, Shir ha-Shirim no. 988; Zohar 1:130b, 3:128a, Idra Rabbah; Seder Eliyahu Rabbah 5:22; Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 34; Midrash Tehillim 68:5.

639. THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD

God keeps the souls of the dead alive, and the dead wait, their eyes fixed upon the resurrection.

The patriarchs sought to be buried in the Land of Israel, because the dead in the Land of Israel will be the first to come to life. Not only Abraham and Sarah are buried there, but also Isaac and Rebecca and Jacob and Leah. So too are Adam and Eve said to be buried nearby .

In the days preceding the coming of the Messiah, great events will befall the world. Ten territories will be swallowed up, ten territories will be overturned, and ten territories will have their inhabitants put to death.

When the Messiah comes, all mankind, the quick and those who were dead, will be one in the worship of God. In those days the dead of the Land of Israel will be the first to come back to life. The angel Michael will blow a great blast on the shofar, and the tombs of the dead will burst open in Jerusalem, and God will revive them. When the resurrection comes, those who arise from the dead will see the Eternal Spirit returning to Zion through the Gate of Mercy. This gate has been blocked for many generations. Therefore it is said of this gate that it will not be opened until the eyes of Israel are opened at the End of Days.

In the days of the Messiah, God will rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem and Israel will go up in pilgrimage not three times a year, but on every New Moon and Sabbath. How will it be possible for all flesh to come to Jerusalem? In those days Jerusalem is destined to be as large as the Land of Israel, and the Land of Israel as large as the whole world. And how can they come from the ends of the earth? Clouds will carry the children of Israel to Jerusalem, where they will say their prayers, and then the clouds will carry them back to their homes, as it is said, Who are these that float like a cloud? (Isa. 60:8).

Then the walls of Jerusalem will disappear, and the Messiah will rebuild them with precious stones and pearls. The resurrected dead will inhabit this new Jerusalem, and they will be like Adam before he sinned.

After that, the bones of the righteous outside the Land will roll through underground caves until they reach the Mount of Olives in the city of Jerusalem. There God will restore their souls to them, and they will arise and enjoy the days of the Messiah along with those who have already come alive in the Land. And those who are resurrected will not die again and return to dust. But just as God endures forever, so they will live forever. God will give them wings and they will float in the air and fly like angels to the Garden of Eden, where they will learn Torah from God.

Based on Isaiah 26:19: Oh, let Your dead revive! Let corpses arise! Awake and shout for joy, you who dwell in the dust!—For Your dew is like the dew on fresh growth; You make the land of the shades come to life . Belief in the resurrection of the dead is the thirteenth of Maimonides’ Thirteen Principles. One of the key requirements of the messianic era is the Ingathering of the Exiles, while another is the resurrection of the dead. This key myth describes how that resurrection will take place in the End of Days, along with the ingathering of the righteous dead from where they are buried around the world.

Here it is understood that in the days of the Messiah the dead of the Land of Israel will rejoin the living, and the righteous dead outside the Land will return to the Land and come to life again.

The three patriarchs and their wives are believed to be buried in the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron. Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 20 reports that Adam and Eve are also buried there.

In the days of the Temple, there were three pilgrimages a year, at the time of the agricultural festivals of Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot. Here it is imagined that in the messianic era these pilgrimages will take place much more often, on every new moon and Sabbath, with the people being carried to Jerusalem on clouds. This last detail demonstrates that although the dead will be brought to life, the nature of existence in the messianic era will be markedly different from what it was before the End of Days.

The question of whether the dead can be resurrected at all is raised and answered in Pesikta Rabbati 48:2: “Successive generations have asked: ‘Can we believe that a dead man can be brought back to life?’ God replied: ‘Why do you have doubts as to whether I shall be able to quicken the dead? Have I not already quickened the dead by the hand of Elijah, by the hand of Elisha, and by the hand of Ezekiel? That which is to be in the time to come has already been in this world.’” This demonstrates that even among believers, there was some doubt about the resurrection of the dead. But it also provides a convincing reply from God, who points out that such resurrection is reported three times in the Bible.

Sources :

Genesis Rabbah 96:5; Pesikta Rabbati 1:1, 1:4, 1:6, 1:7, 48:2; Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:1; B . Sanhedrin 92a-b; Midrash Tehillim 104:23; Zohar 1:12b; Otot ha-Mashiah in Beit ha-Midrash 2:58-63; Otzar ha-Ma’asiyot; Hilkhot Melakhim 11:1; Hilkhot Teshuvah 8:1; Ma’amar Tehiyat ha-Metim; Hesed le-Avraham 33b; Sefer ha-Hezyonot 2:5; Sefer Eliyahu in Beit ha-Midrash 3:68-78.

Studies :

“Maimonides’ Fiction of Resurrection” by Robert S. Kirschner.

“Resurrection as Giving Back the Dead: A Traditional Image of Resurrection in the Pseudepigrapha and the Apocalypse of John” by Richard Bauckham.

640. HOW THE RESURRECTION WILL TAKE PLACE

On the day that God brings the dead back to life, He will take dust of the earth and dust of the dead and knead them together, and out of the two kinds of dust He will draw bones and sinews. Then God will give the word to the angels in charge of the Treasury of Souls, and out of the treasuries they will take every single soul, thrust each one into a body, and instantly all humankind will stand up.

This is a description of the resurrection of the dead that closely parallels the original creation of Adam. Just as God took the dust of the earth to make Adam, here God combines the dust of the earth and the dust of the dead and re-creates human beings, giving them souls from the Treasury of Souls. In this view of the resurrection at the End of Days, those who have died will not receive their original bodies, but new ones. See “The Treasury of Souls,” p. 166.

Sources :

Eliyahu Zuta 20:31-31.

641. THE WORLD TO COME

There are no bodies in the World to Come, only the souls of the righteous, who are bodiless, like the ministering angels. Since there are no bodies, there is no eating or drinking, nor anything that human bodies require in this world. So too there is no sleep or death, sadness or mirth. That is why the sages said, “The World to Come has neither eating, nor drinking, nor sex in it, but the righteous sit with their crowns on their heads and enjoy the splendor of the Shekhinah .” Thus the souls of the righteous exist there without toil, but the knowledge they acquired in their lifetimes remains with them. Indeed, because of it they merited the life of the World to Come. Thus the crowns that they wear are the crowns of knowledge. And there, in the World to Come, they enjoy the splendor of the Shekhinah , for now they can grasp the truth of God that they did not know when they were burdened with a body.

Whoever believes in the two worlds—this world and the World to Come—will be considered a descendant of Abraham. But whoever does not, will not be considered his seed.

This myth is a reminder that life in the World to Come will be radically different from life in this world, and, in fact, will lack many of the pleasures associated with the living, such as the enjoyment of eating, drinking, and sex. Even the crowns that rabbinic literature describes as being worn by the righteous in heaven are here presented in metaphorical terms—as crowns of knowledge. It seems clear that this more naturalistic description of the World to Come was intended to counter rabbinic and folk traditions of heavenly rewards that consist of gold and other precious items, such as the golden tables said to be awaiting the righteous in Paradise, as described in B. Ta’anit 24b-25a.

Sources :

B. Berakhot 17a; Midrash Rabbah 53:16; Hilkhot Teshuvah 8.

642. THE GREAT AGE

When the whole of creation, visible and invisible, comes to an end, each person will go to the Lord’s judgment. And all who are judged righteous will be gathered together into the great age, and it will be eternal. For all time will perish, and afterward there will be neither years nor months nor days, and hours will no longer be counted. There will be instead a timeless, single age. Then those who have been judged righteous will have the great indestructible light of Paradise, and it will serve as the shelter of their eternal residence. And the faces of the righteous will shine forth like the sun.

Even after existence ends, the righteous will be sheltered eternally by the light of Paradise. Thus Paradise, with its attendant rewards, will continue to exist when everything else is gone.

Sources :

2 Enoch 65:6-11.

643. LIFE IN THE WORLD TO COME

What will life be like in the World to Come? God will be seated in His great academy, and seated in His presence will be the righteous of the world, along with their wives, their sons, their daughters, their manservants, and their maidservants. The needs of their households will all be provided for them. There will be no hunger or thirst or sexual desire, but the righteous will feast on the splendor of the Shekhinah .

Here the righteous not only have God as their teacher, but this myth portrays a vision of the afterlife as a continuation of life among the living, where they will be surrounded by their families, servants, and all that they required when they were alive, except for food and drink. The study of Torah, in classes led by God or one of the great patriarchs or sages, is a standard feature in descriptions of the World to Come. But in Eliyahu Rabbah other, more elemental rewards of the World to Come are described, where the righteous continue to be surrounded by their families in the afterlife.

Sources :

Eliyahu Rabbah 4:19.

644. THE CHORUS OF THE RIGHTEOUS

In the days to come, God Himself will lead the chorus of the righteous. He will sit in their midst in Paradise, and they will dance around Him like young maidens, and point to Him with a finger, saying: “For God—He is our God forever; He will lead us evermore” (Ps. 48:15).

But there are those who say that this dance will take place in Gehenna, where there is a great deal of space. How can the righteous live in the habitation of the wicked? The righteous will implore mercy for the wicked, and their sins will be pardoned .

This is a portrait of the afterlife that presents it as a place of great rejoicing, where the righteous will dance around God and celebrate His glory. This, then, is the reward of the righteous for occupying themselves with Torah study in this world.

The surprising alternate version, where the righteous dance in Gehenna instead of in Paradise in order to implore mercy for the wicked, adds a merciful purpose to their dance that provides them with a mission in the World to Come. The implication is that even in Paradise the righteous have a duty to assist others, as they did in this world.

Sources :

B. Hagigah 12b; B. Ta’anit 31b; Leviticus Rabbah 11:9; Makhon Siftei Tzaddikim on Genesis 7:7.

Studies :

“Some Aspects of Afterlife in Early Rabbinic Literature” by Saul Lieberman.

645. FAT GEESE FOR THE WORLD TO COME

In one of his travels Rabbah bar Bar Hannah came across two geese. Because of their fatness, their feathers had fallen out. Rivers of oil flowed from under them. Rabbah asked one of the geese if he would deserve to eat from it in the World to Come. One of the geese raised a foot, as if to say, this will be your portion. The other goose raised a wing, as if to say, this is your portion from me.

A feast for the righteous is one of the rewards for the righteous in the World to Come. One of these rewards is a great banquet, for which these geese are being saved. They are so fat and succulent that rivers of oil flow from under them. See the following myth, “The Messianic Banquet.”

Sources :

B. Bava Batra 73b.

646. THE MESSIANIC BANQUET

In the time to come God will prepare a banquet for the righteous from the flesh of Behemoth, Leviathan, and the Ziz, as it is said, He prepared a lavish feast for them (2 Kings 6:23). God will say to them, “Do you want cider or citrus or grape wine?” Then God will leave His glorious throne, and sit with them. Who will be seated at the table? The Patriarch Jacob along with scholars and distinguished students. The rest of Leviathan will be spread on the walls of Jerusalem, and its radiance will shine from one end of the world to the other. So too will God make a sukkah for the righteous with the skin of Leviathan.

Others say that God will serve the Messiah-ox and messianic wine at the banquet. The Messiah-ox makes its home in Paradise, where it waits to fulfill its destiny when the Messiah comes. Then it will be slaughtered and served at the messianic banquet. Then God will bring the righteous wine that had been preserved from grapes from the six days of Creation. Only once before has it been served: when Jacob served wine to his father, Isaac, at the time he brought the food that Rebecca had prepared. Since Jacob had no wine with him, an angel provided some for him, and the angel brought that messianic wine. And he gave it into Jacob’s hand, and Jacob handed it to his father, and he drank.

Of all the patriarchs, why is it that it will be Jacob who will join them at the feast? When the children of Israel sin, only Jacob in the Cave of Machpelah feels defiled. So when the gladness of redemption comes, Jacob will rejoice in it more than any of the other patriarchs, for he alone will be called to the feast .

This myth describes a great feast, prepared by God, that will take place after the coming of the Messiah. It finds its origin in this messianic prophecy in Isaiah 25:6: The Lord of Hosts will make on this mountain for all the peoples a banquet of rich viands, a banquet of choice wines—of rich viands seasoned with marrow, of choice wines well refined . Those most deserving will taste the flesh of Leviathan. Here the righteous are described as scholars and distinguished students, reinforcing the notion that study of the Torah is the most important occupation of all. In addition, they will be joined by the Patriarch Jacob. The inclusion of Jacob alone suggests the tendency to elevate Jacob to great heights because of the identification of Jacob and Israel. See “Jacob the Angel,” p. 364 and “Jacob the Divine,” p. 366.

The Book of Paradise , a midrashic satire by Itzik Manger, has the blind Isaac, living in heaven, mark his portion on the Messiah-ox, which will be slaughtered when the Messiah comes. This satirizes Isaac’s apparent love of the taste of venison. In one episode, someone plays a trick on the Messiah-ox by telling it that the Messiah has come—and therefore it is about to be slaughtered. In terror the ox runs out of Jewish heaven into Christian heaven—heaven consists of three parts, according to Manger, the third being Muslim heaven—and the Christians refuse to give him back. This requires a series of messages between King Solomon and Saint Paul, who rule Jewish and Christian heaven respectively. Eventually, the Messiah-ox is returned in Manger’s novel, but it is badly underfed, and there is some question about whether it is fit to be served at the messianic banquet.

In the frame story of Manger’s satire, the angel Shmuel Abba is commanded to be reborn, and he manages to get the angel who is to deliver him to earth drunk by giving him messianic wine. On the day the angel is born, he sits up in the cradle and he tells the history of his life in Paradise to his astounded parents and all those who assemble to hear him.

Sources :

Targum Pseudo-Yonathan 27:25; B. Bava Batra 75a; Midrash Tehillim 14:7; Seder Gan Eden (version B) in Beit ha-Midrash 3:131-140.

647. THE MESSIANIC TORAH

The Torah of the mundane world is worthless compared to the Messianic Torah of the World to Come. This Torah will taught by the Messiah, or, some say, even by God Himself. This is the Torah that God delights in, which is studied by the righteous in the World to Come. It begins with aleph , the first letter of the alphabet, while the earthly Torah begins with bet , the second letter.

Study of the Torah will continue in the World to Come, but the Torah that will be taught there will be far more profound than the Torah of this world. This is the Torah that God delights in, and from which the righteous learn in the heavenly Garden of Eden. This notion of a transformed text is also found in the traditions concerning the first tablets of the Law that were given to Moses on Mount Sinai. See “The First Tablets,” p. 266.

For the kabbalists, such as Hayim Vital of Safed in the sixteenth century, the true meaning of the Torah was not in its literal meaning, but in the secret, inner meanings. Further, redemption—i.e., the messianic era—could only be achieved by means of kabbalah. Hayim Vital’s description of the Torah of this world as relatively “worthless” might seem shocking, but since the mundane dimension of the Torah concerns rules relevant to human beings, it has no relevance in the World to Come. In fact, in one midrash Moses convinces the angels that they have no need for the Torah, since it is relevant only to humans. However, kabbalists are discarding only the literal level of the Torah; the higher levels of interpretation are considered to contain infinite mysteries .

The notion of a Messianic Torah grows out of the tradition that there are two Torahs in Judaism, an Oral Torah and a Written Torah. See “The Two Torahs,” p. 277. For more on the tradition that the Messiah will teach Torah in the World to Come, see “The Messiah’s Yeshivah,” p. 518.

Sources :

Etz Hayim, Introduction to Sha’ar ha-Hakdamot 4a-b; Likutei Torah .

Studies :

“Not All is in the Hands of Heaven: Eschatology and Kabbalah” by Rachel Elior. “Good and Evil in the Kabbalah” in The Mystical Shape of the Godhead by Gershom Scholem, pp. 56-88.

The Messianic Idea in Judaism by Gershom Scholem, pp. 59-81.

“From Theosophy to Midrash: Lurianic Exegesis and the Garden of Eden” by Shaul Magid.

648. A TABERNACLE FOR THE RIGHTEOUS

In the time to come God will bring the skin of Leviathan and make a tabernacle for the righteous, as it is said, Can you fill his skin with tabernacles? (Job 40:31). If a man is worthy, a tabernacle will be made for him. If he is not worthy, a mere cover of fish skin will be made for him, as it is said, And his head with a fish covering (Job 41:7). The rest of the skin of Leviathan will be spread by God on the walls of Jerusalem and the roof of the sanctuary, and its splendor will shine from one end of the world to the other. Then the righteous of Israel will sit, eat, drink, be fruitful, multiply, and enjoy the splendor of the Shekhinah .

This myth is obviously a companion to “The Messianic Banquet.” Just as “The Messianic Banquet” describes the extravagant banquet God will provide to the righteous in the World to Come, so this myth describes the kind of shelter they will receive, as food and shelter are a person’s most essential concerns. The implication is that each person will have an individual shelter, a sukkah made of the skin of Levia-than, or, if one is not worthy of that, made of fish skin.

A further example found in Talmud says that God will provide a necklace for the righteous in the World to Come, but if they are not worthy of it, they will receive an amulet instead.

These related myths not only describe the kind of rewards expected in the messianic era, but also imply that people can expect to retain their individuality as well as their desire for privacy in the World to Come, and that God will fulfill these needs. Even the need to be fruitful and multiply will be fulfilled. As Seder Gan Eden puts it, “Every woman among the Israelites will give birth to children every day.”

Sources :

B. Bava Batra 75a; Seder Gan Eden (version B) in Beit ha-Midrash 3:131-140.

649. THE NEW JERUSALEM

It is stated that “New moon after new moon, and Sabbath after Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship Me” (Isa. 66:23). How is it possible that “all flesh” shall fit into Jerusalem every new moon and every Sabbath? Because in the End of Days, when there is a new heaven and a new earth (Isa. 66:22), Jerusalem is destined to expand its length and breadth, and become as large as the whole of the Land of Israel, and the Land of Israel as large as the world .

The mystical transformation of Jerusalem so that there will be room for “all flesh” to enter there from one new moon to the next as well as from one Sabbath to the next is linked with the myth of the transformation that will take place in the messianic era, so that all the righteous, including those living outside the Land of Israel, will come to Jerusalem, and there will be room for all of them. That will be the initiation of messianic Jerusalem.

Sources :

Pesikta Rabbati 1; Yalkut Shim’oni , Isaiah 472, 503; Pesikta de-Rav Kahana 143b; Song of Songs Rabbah 7:4; Yalkut ha-Makhiri , Isaiah 49:19; Arugat ha-Bosem by Abraham ben Rabbi Azriel.

Studies :

Midrash Yerushalem: A Metaphysical History of Jerusalem by Daniel Sperber, pp. 111-117.

650. MESSIANIC JERUSALEM

When all the population is resurrected and gathered together in the messianic era, where will they all stand? They will all say, The place is too crowded for me; make room for me to settle (Isa. 49:20). So God will add to Jerusalem a thousand gardens, a thousand palaces, and a thousand mansions, until the future Jerusalem is three times the size of the present one. Then God will enlarge Jerusalem until it rises to the heavens. God will raise it from one heaven to another, until it reaches the seventh. Some say: until it reaches the Throne of Glory.

How does it rise? With clouds sent by God, while each of the righteous has a canopy of his own, as it is said, Over all the glory shall hang a canopy (Isa. 4:5). As soon as Jerusalem reaches the Throne of Glory, God will say, “You and I will walk together through the universe.”

Others say that Jerusalem will expand on earth until it reaches Damascus, for Jerusalem is destined to widen on all sides, and the exiles will come and repose beneath it as they would beneath a fig tree.

This myth wrestles with the problem of where to fit all the righteous who are resurrected at the End of Days. Jerusalem just isn’t big enough to hold everyone, so it is proposed that God will raise Jerusalem to heaven. An alternate version suggests that the boundaries of the city will simply be expanded, something that has already happened with the modern state of Israel, though not all the way to Damascus. See “The New Jerusalem,” p. 510.

Some versions say that God will provide seven canopies for every righteous person, or that God will make a canopy for every one according to his status.

Sources :

Song of Songs Rabbah 7:5; Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 31; B. Bava Batra 75a; Sefer Eliyahu in Beit ha-Midrash 3:68-78.

651. THE GOLDEN GATE OF THE MESSIAH

At the End of Days, God shall lower the heavenly Jerusalem to take the place of the earthly Jerusalem that was destroyed. The Temple will be established, and a pillar of fire shall burst forth from inside the Temple as a sign to all who witness it.

Then, at God’s command, two angels shall recover the Golden Gate of Jerusalem from where it is hidden under the earth, and they shall raise it back to its original place. Abraham shall stand to its right and Moses and the Messiah shall stand to its left, and all Israel shall come forward through the gate .

The Golden Gate is another name for the Gate of Mercy in Jerusalem, which has long been covered over. Here God restores it to its original place, and it becomes the gate that Israel passes through to enter the new world created at the End of Days. The Gate of Mercy is also linked to the Shekhinah , who is said to have left Jerusalem through this gate after the Temple was destroyed, and who will one day return to Jerusalem through that same gate. See “The Wandering of the Shekhinah ,” p. 55.

Sources :

Ma’aseh Daniel in Beit ha-Midrash 5:128.

Studies :

“The Gates of Righteousness” by Julian Morgenstern.

652. THE DESCENT OF THE HEAVENLY TEMPLE

In the End of Days the celestial Temple will descend from on high and come to rest on four golden mountains, as it is said, In the days to come, the Mount of Yahweh’s house shall stand firm above the mountains (Isa. 2:2). Its height will reach to heaven, to the stars and to the wheels of the Chariot. And the Bride of God will fill it, and God’s glory will fill its hall, and inside each angel will be busy with his work, Gabriel and Michael and their myriads. And at Zion’s restoration, the very mountains will burst into song. The mountain of the Lord’s house will lead in the singing, and the lesser mountains will answer.

The Holy of Holies of the future Temple will be built of twelve onyx stones. The radiance of the Holy of Holies will illuminate the entire world and ascend to the Throne of Glory.

How will people go there? They will fly like clouds and like doves. In this way great multitudes will enter the Temple to be blessed with eternal life.

In some myths all of the heavenly Jerusalem descends to earth, coming to rest on three or four mountains. In others, such as this myth, it is the Temple alone that descends upon the mountains. Here the image of the Temple dominates the upper world, while the Temple itself is filled with God’s presence, both His Bride, the Shekhinah , and His glory.

In Pesikta de-Rav Kahana 21:4 it is said that God will bring three mountains, Sinai, Tabor, and Carmel, together and build the Temple on top of them.

In 1860, Tzvi Hirsch Kalischer, an early Zionist, defined his anti-mythological view in Derishat Zion : “God will not suddenly descend from on high and command his people to go forth. Neither will he send the Messiah from heaven in a twinkling of an eye, to sound the great trumpet for the exiles of Israel and gather them into Jerusalem. He will not surround the holy city with a wall of fire or cause the holy Temple to descend from heaven.” Here we find a list of supernatural events that were traditionally expected to occur in the time of the Messiah, including the descent of the heavenly Temple. But Kalischer dismisses all of these, writing instead that “the redemption will come through natural causes by human effort . . . to gather the scattered of Israel into the Holy Land.”

Sources :

Pirkei Mashiah in Beit ha-Midrash 3:69; Pesikta de-Rav Kahana 21:4.

653. THE CREATION OF THE THIRD TEMPLE

At the End of Days, the Ingathering of the Exiles will take place, the Temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt, and the footsteps of the Messiah will be heard. Even now, God is secretly building the third Temple far under the earth. When the days of the Messiah are upon us, the third Temple will rise up from below, with the Dome of the Rock balanced on top of it .

One of the primary requirements that the Messiah must fulfill in order to demonstrate that he is indeed the true Messiah is to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. This requirement appears impossible at this time, since the Dome of the Rock has been built on the Temple Mount, on what is commonly regarded as the place where the Temple once stood. Indeed, some messianic groups in Israel have plotted to blow up the Dome to pave the way for the Temple to be rebuilt. But such a reckless act could inflict a disaster on Israel.

Under these circumstances, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (1924-) has offered this ingenious myth, which resolves the problem of how the third Temple can be built on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. It is a peaceful solution to an otherwise unresolvable dilemma.

Sources :

Oral teaching of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, collected by Howard Schwartz.

654. REBUILDING THE TEMPLE

In the hour of the Redemption, when God remembers His covenant with Israel, the Temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt. God will say to the Shekhinah , “Rise from the dust,” and she will answer, “Where should I go, since My house is destroyed and My Sanctuary is burnt to the ground?” Then God will say, “Do not grieve, for I Myself shall rebuild it, a perfect structure.”

Some say that God will then bring the mountains of Sinai, Tabor, and Carmel together and rebuild the Temple upon their peak. That is the meaning of the verse And nations shall walk by your light, kings, by your shining radiance (Isa. 60:3). Then the Temple will sing aloud, and the mountains will answer the song. So too will Jerusalem serve as a beacon to all of the nations, and they will walk in her light.

Others say that God will raise up the Temple from the dust and renew it, and its gates, which are buried in the earth, will rise up, every one in its place. And God will reestablish the Sanctuary, and rebuild the city of Jerusalem. Then the Shekhinah shall arise and shake off the dust and the Ingathering of the Exiles shall begin.

One of the key events of the messianic era will be the rebuilding of the Temple. This is one of the requirements that must be fulfilled prior to the return of the Shekhinah from exile. It is understood that this Third Temple, of divine origin, will be eternal, and will never be destroyed. An extensive description of the future Temple is found at the end of the Book of Ezekiel, chapters 40-48, beginning with a vision: The hand of Yahweh came upon me, and He brought me there. He brought me, in visions of God, to the Land of Israel, and He set me down on a very high mountain (Ezek. 40: 1-2).

In one version of this myth from Pesikta de-Rav Kahana , it is said that God will bring three mountains together and build the future Temple there. In most other sources, the rebuilding of the Third Temple takes place in Jerusalem. And as soon as the Temple is rebuilt, the Shekhinah will return from Her exile at the time the Temple, Her home in the world, was destroyed.

In Pesikta Rabbati 31:5, God describes the covenant between Himself and Israel, where both are responsible for bringing about the End of Days: “My Torah is in your hands, and the End of Days in Mine. Each of us has need of the other. If you need Me to bring the time of redemption, I need you to keep My Torah so as to hasten the building of My Temple and Jerusalem. And just as it is impossible for Me to forget the time of redemption, so you must never forget the Torah.”

Sources :

Pesikta Rabbati 20:3, 28:1; Pesikta de-Rabbi Eliezer 51; Pesikta de-Rav Kahana 21:4; Zohar 1:134a, 2:7a .

655. THE MESSIANIC SPRING

In the future, when the voice of the Messiah proclaims salvation from a high mountain, waters will rise up from under the threshold of the Temple, as it is said, A spring from the house of Yahweh will go forth and water all the valley (Joel 4:18). Every field and vineyard watered by those streams will yield fruit, even those that had never yielded fruit before. And everyone who is ill who bathes in those waters will be healed, as it is said, The water will become wholesome (Ezek. 47:8). Those waters will generate all kinds of fish, and those fish will ascend in that stream as far as Jerusalem, where they will leap into the nets of fishermen. And those fish will be as sweet as manna. Floating above that spring, the Temple court will appear to be a small vessel, as it is said, Behold water from a vessel (Ezek. 47:2).

Some say that spring will branch into twelve streams, one for each of the twelve tribes. Others say that it will form a river that will cleanse every impurity, uncovering treasures that have been hidden for centuries. Even the Angel of Death will not be able to cross it.

Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer identifies the Dead Sea as the place where the waters will heal, and gives the prooftext from Ezekiel 47:8.

There is a parallel tradition about a river that cannot be crossed—the River Sambatyon, which is said to flow wildly six days a week, trapping the Ten Lost Tribes on one side of it, and only ceasing to flow on the Sabbath, when they are not permitted to cross. There is also a parallel tradition about a place where the Angel of Death cannot enter—the city of Luz. Therefore all the inhabitants of that city are immortal, as long as they do not leave the city. See “The City of Luz,” p. 476. For another account of a miraculous spring, see “The Healing Spring,” a Hasidic tale about the Ba’al Shem Tov, in Gabriel’s Palace , pp. 207-298.

Sources :

Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 51; Sefer Eliyahu in Beit ha-Midrash 3:68-78.

656. A MAGICAL TREE IN JERUSALEM

When the third holy Temple is built, a magical tree will grow in Jerusalem. Some say that the leaves of that tree will cause the dumb to speak. Others say that the leaves of that tree will cause barren women to bear children.

The image of the magical tree is well known in Jewish folk and rabbinic texts, although it is usually associated with the Garden of Eden, especially with the two trees in the center of the garden, the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge. The image of the tree is also closely associated with that of the Torah, because of the verse She is a tree of life to those who grasp her (Prov. 3:18).

Here the tree is associated with the building of the Third Temple, which will only take place at the time of the coming of the Messiah. This demonstrates an important parallel between the story of the Garden of Eden and the messianic era—in both enchanted trees can be found. Indeed, there is a direct parallel in Jewish myth between the prelapsarian world and the messianic era. Thus one function of the coming of the Messiah is to restore the world to its pre-fallen state. This parallel is an implicit part of the myth of the Ari. See “The Shattering of the Vessels and the Gathering of the Sparks,” p. 122.

The theme of healing leaves is found in world folklore. See, for example, “The Wonderful Healing Leaves,” a universal fairy tale of Jewish origin, in Elijah’s Violin , pp. 163-168. This theme is found in Jewish lore as well. Abraham is said to have collected leaves from the Garden of Eden and Sarah to have crushed them on the eve of the Sabbath and scattered their powder into the air, creating the spice of the Sabbath. See “The Spice of the Sabbath,” p. 316. For a Hasidic tale on this theme, see “Leaves from the Garden of Eden” in Gabriel’s Palace , pp. 134-135, where a man finds enchanted leaves on his bed when he awakes after a dream in which a stable boy who has died brings him leaves from the Garden of Eden to heal the man’s sick daughter. Her mourning over the boy’s death provoked her illness, and his miraculous assistance heals her.

Sources :

B. Sanhedrin 100a; Likutei Moharan 1:60.

657. THE PLEADING OF THE FATHERS

In the hour that Israel was exiled, the fathers of the world, along with the mothers, were raised from their graves in the Cave of Machpelah and brought up to the firmament and began a great mourning before God.

God joined them from the highest heaven and said, “Why are you mourning?”

They replied: “Master of the Universe, what sins did our children commit that You did this to them? Are You not going to have mercy on them? Are You not going to show compassion?”

God replied, “Because of their wickedness, they were punished by exile.”

The Fathers said, “But will You remember them in their exile among the nations of the world, or will You become oblivious to them?”

God answered, “I cannot now save them from their exile, but I swear by My name that I shall never forget them, and one day their exile shall come to an end.”

These words of God greatly comforted the fathers and mothers, and they returned and lay down in their tombs. That is why, when the Messiah comes, he will go to the Cave of Machpelah to wake them first.

Here the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their wives gather before God to plead for their children, Israel, who have been sent into exile. Because of their elevated roles, the patriarchs are able to speak their mind to God. In effect, they give voice to the sense of injustice felt among Jews in the Diaspora. The plea of the patriarchs and matriarchs moves God, who assures them that one day—the day the Messiah comes—their exile will come to an end.

This myth finds its source in Jeremiah’s vision or imagining of Rachel haunting her tomb and weeping for her exiled children: A cry is heard in Ramah—wailing, bitter weeping—Rachel weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children, who are gone (Jer. 31:15). (According to 1 Sam. 10:2, Rachel’s tomb was located near Ramah.) Indeed, Jeremiah’s account of Rachel weeping is the biblical source for all subsequent myths about biblical figures reappearing to comfort Israel.

This myth is also parallel to those found in the Zohar in which the Shekhinah , the Bride of God, confronts God over the destruction of the Temple and the exile of Israel. This myth also explains why the patriarchs and matriarchs will be the first to be resurrected in the messianic era.

In the version of this myth in Seder Gan Eden , there is a less consoling ending. The angel Michael, the prince of Israel, weeps in a loud voice, “Why, O Lord, do you stand aloof” (Ps. 10:1). See the following myth, “Waking the Fathers,” as well as “The Patriarchs Seek to Comfort Jerusalem,” p. 420.

Sources :

Pesikta de-Rav Kahana p. 464; Seder Gan Eden (version B) in Beit ha-Midrash 3:131-140 .

658. WAKING THE FATHERS

Why were the patriarchs buried in the Land of Israel? Because the dead of the Land will be the first to come to life in the days of the Messiah.

In the hour that God crowns the Messiah, Israel will say to him: “Go and bring the glad tidings to those who sleep in the Cave of Machpelah, so that they shall be the first to arise.”

Then the Messiah will go to the Cave of Machpelah and say to the Fathers: “Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, arise! You have slept long enough.” And they will reply and say, “Who is it who uncovers the dust from our eyes?” And he will reply, “I am the Messiah of the Lord. The hour of salvation is near.” And they will answer, “If that is really so, then go to Adam, the first man, and bring the tidings to him, so that he should be the first to arise.”

Then the Messiah will go to Adam and say, “Arise, you have slept enough!” And Adam will reply, “Who is this who drives the sleep from my eyes?” And he will reply, “I am the Messiah of the Lord, one of your descendants.”

At that instant Adam will stand up, along with his generation, and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the righteous and all the tribes and all generations from the beginning of time will arise and chant psalms and songs of jubilation.

Tradition holds that the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, known as the Avot or Fathers, and their wives, are buried in the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron. Midrashic legend also recounts that Adam and Eve are buried there. The initiation of the messianic era will herald the resurrection of the dead, beginning with Adam, the first man, and the patriarchs.

This myth is almost certainly based on a talmudic one (B. BM 85b) about the visits of Elijah to the synagogue of Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi. Elijah is the key figure in heralding the Messiah, as it is said that he will blow the great shofar that announces his coming. This talmudic tale sets the pattern for the waking of the patriarchs at the time of the coming of the Messiah. See “Forcing the End,” p. 496.

The previous myth, “The Pleading of the Fathers,” also explains why the patriarchs will be the first to be awakened when the Messiah comes.

Sources :

Pirkei Mashiah in Beit ha-Midrash 3:73-74; Sefer Eliyahu in Beit ha-Midrash 3:68-78.

659. THE FATHERS ADDRESS THE MESSIAH

In the month of Nisan the patriarchs will arise and say to the Messiah: “Our true Messiah, even though we came before you, you are greater than we because of all the suffering you have endured for the iniquities of our children. You were shut up in prison, sitting in thick darkness, your skin cleaved to your bones, your body as dry as a piece of wood, and your eyes dim from fasting. Your strength was dried up like a potsherd, all because of the sins of our children. Now the time has come for you to come forth out of prison.”

The Messiah will reply: “O Fathers, all that I have done is only for your sake and that of your children, for your glory and for theirs, so that God will bestow abundance upon Israel.”

Then God will make seven canopies of precious stones and pearls for the Messiah. Out of each canopy will flow four rivers, one of wine, one of honey, one of milk, and one of pure balsam. And God will put a garment upon the Messiah whose splendor will stream forth from one end of the world to the other. And God will summon the north wind and the south wind and say to them: “Come, sprinkle all kinds of spices from the Garden of Eden before My true Messiah.” Then God will embrace the Messiah in the sight of the righteous and bring him within the canopy where all the righteous ones, the mighty men of the Torah of every generation, will gaze upon him.

After that God will lift the Messiah up to the heaven of heavens, and cloak him in His own glory.

This myth, taking place in Paradise, portrays the Messiah as a divine figure whose time has finally come to fulfill his destiny and initiate the messianic era. Here the patriarchs address him as an equal, and speak to him with great gratitude and affection for his long suffering. God then provides great rewards for the Messiah, embracing him in the presence of the righteous. The purpose of this myth is to reaffirm the centrality of messianic belief in Judaism and to demonstrate that the role of the Messiah is to be regarded as equally important as that of the beloved patriarchs. For more on the Messiah’s suffering, see “The Suffering Messiah,” p. 489.

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 .

Some say that the Messiah will clarify the words of that new Torah. Others say that Israel will not need the instructions of the Messiah in the days to come. Instead, they will receive instruction directly from God Himself.

For God is destined to sit in the Garden of Eden and interpret the new Torah. All the righteous of the world will sit before Him, and all the household of heaven will stand on their feet. The sun, the planets, and the moon will be at God’s right hand, and all the stars at His left.

When God finishes teaching, everyone in the world will say, “Amen!” Even the wicked of Israel in Gehenna will all answer and say “Amen!” The sound of their words will be heard by God, and He will say, “What is that noise that I heard?” The angels will reply, “Those are the wicked of Israel in Gehenna.”

At that time God will take the keys to Gehenna and give them to Gabriel and Michael and say, “Go and open the gates of Gehenna and bring them up from there, as it is said, Open the gates ” (Isa. 26:2).

Then Gabriel and Michael will go at once and open the 40,000 gates of Gehenna and bring them up from Gehenna. They will take each one by the hand and raise him up as a man raises his fellow from a deep pit with a rope.

Gabriel and Michael will then wash and care for and heal them from the wounds of Gehenna. They will dress them in beautiful garments, take them by the hand, and bring them before God.

When they reach the gate of the Garden of Eden, Gabriel and Michael will enter first and God will say to them, “Permit them to come and see My glory!” And when they enter, wicked no longer, they will fall on their faces and prostrate themselves before God and bless and praise His holy name.

So great is the transformation that will take place at the End of Days, that there will even be a new Torah—so suggests Alpha Beta de-Rabbi Akiva . It is not clear whether the “days to come” refers to the messianic era, when the resurrection of the dead will take place, or to the time after that. These are the two primary stages of the messianic era. The idea of the abrogation of the law at the time of the resurrection and the giving of the New Torah is found in the Talmud (B. Nid . 61b). Louis Ginzberg dismisses any suggestion of Christian influence on this idea (An Unknown Jewish Sect , p. 213-214).

The motif of the twenty-third letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which will remain invisible until the messianic era, recalls that which says the Torah was written with black fire on white fire, or that which speaks about the black letters and the white letters, in which the white spaces between the letters are also said to be an essential part of the text. An alternate version of this myth proposes that not a single letter will be added to the Torah or taken away; instead, the letters of the Torah will combine in a different way. For related myths about the new Torah that God will give to the Messiah, see “God Expounds the Torah,” p. 36 and “The Messianic Torah,” p. 509. See also “Creating New Heavens and a New Earth,” p. 255.

Sources :

Midrash Tehillim 146, p. 535; Genesis Rabbah 98:9; Alpha Beta de-Rabbi Akiva in Beit ha-Midrash 3:27; Zohar 1:4b-5a; Battei Midrashot 2:367-369; Sha’arei Gan Eden 12c; Sefer ha-Temunah 62a; Se’udat Gan Eden in Otzar Midrashim p. 90.

Studies :

On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism by Gershom Scholem, pp. 77-86 .