Jeremy Rosen
Failed and False Messiahs
Summary
Where does the idea of a Messiah come from ? What does it mean, and does it have any relevance today?
Jeremy Rosen
Manchester-born Jeremy Rosen was educated at Cambridge University England and Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He has practiced as an orthodox rabbi, as principal of Carmel College in the UK, and as professor at the Faculty for Comparative Religion in Antwerp, Belgium. He has written and lectured extensively in the UK and the US, where he now resides and was the rabbi of the Persian-Jewish community in Manhattan.
Well first of all I don’t believe in reincarnation. I know reincarnation is mentioned in the Zohar and it’s something that some Jews believe in. I don’t, it doesn’t make sense to me. It’s not mentioned, reincarnation isn’t mentioned in the Talmud or in the Midrash, so it’s not for me. So, don’t ask me about reincarnation. You’re going to have to ask somebody who does believe in it. Sorry.
Well, divine Messiah is a concept of God intervening, God intervening. And I can find no evidence in the Bible where it says God intervenes in creating a Messiah. We do have leaders who emerge. A divine Messiah, I don’t know what that means. It sounds to me like a Christian idea that maybe Jesus is divine because according to Christians, he’s the son of God or part of God or what of God. Within us, we talk about people like Eliyahu, Elijah, coming and making things better, but he’s not divine. We thoughts talk about the son of David coming to make things better, but he’s not divine. So, I don’t think divine Messiah is a term that we can usefully use in Judaism.