“12 When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. 15 But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.' "
This expresses how they are unaware of the time of which this person, the Messiah, would arrive but the bible passage gives many Jews the idea that the Messiah would be sent from god to serve for him ‘I will be his father, and he will be my son’ as well it shows that no matter what the Messiah would be a future relation to David. As well it can be considered that the messiah search is still a main strength in Judaism because the Messiah is symbolised in the Hebrew bible. There are many aspects within the Hebrew bible which enable an insight into the Messiah and how he will descend from King David’s family and that they the chosen people of Gods are waiting for the Messiah. An example is Isaiah 25 versus 9
‘9 In that day they will say,
"Surely this is our God;
we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the LORD, we trusted in him;
let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.’
This shows that the Jews are waiting to show their contentment when the Messiah arrives. Therefore this illustrates that the Messiah is a big aspect in Judaism as the Hebrew bible lays down the areas of which the Jews believe and teach from this enables to show that they are able to still believe in the idea that the Messiah is still coming and how much of a strong element he is in the Jewish.
As we are aware the background of who the Messiah is and how the divisions in Judaism feel about him, there is also what they believe the messiah would do for them. The main values that they hope the Messiah would achieve are in Moses Maimonidies thirteen principles of faith. Maimonidies in the 12th century wrote the principles which were based on the teachings of the Torah; there forth these principles were placed in the prayer book. Maimonidies 12th principle ‘god will send his Messiah to usher in a new and better world’. With in this Maimonidies put down six things which the Messiah would do when he arrived. The first is that the Messiah would bring peace and harmony to everyone, no matter what there religion is, therefore it is universal.
The second motion was that the Messiah would gather all of the exile Jews and place them back into Israel, therefore the Messiah would re create the holy land with all the Jews within it. On the fact of re-building the third notion was to re – build the temple for the third time, however today this would prove to be difficult because of the ‘dome of the rock’ being placed on the top of the temples foundation.
The forth motion would be to resurrection of the dead, this motion having the possibility of two ways, one being literally bodily which many orthodox Jews believe in or opposite and resurrecting them spiritually.
The fifth motion of the Messiah would be the judgement of mankind where the messiah is either showing the last judgement before the end of the world or a new era of the world beginning or the idea of the Messiah judging them reflects the idea that god is judging them and selecting the righteous.
The final motion in Maimonidies 12th principle is that the Messiah would come in the form of a person and would be a descendent from the house of King David. Therefore this explains what many Jews believe the Messiah would do for them when he comes. But it also opens a lot of interpretation and evaluating areas for them selves for example, how would he re build the temple? And how can he resurrect the dead? This then suggests that the search for the Messiah would be enabled by Maimonidies because they are aware that Messiah will have the spiritual powers to do and how the Jews are able to recognise him by the principles which Maimonidies believe from ancient text such as the torah. Therefore the Messiah’s actions were well presented by God.
On the other hand non orthodox Jews belief is held in some of Maimonidies 12th principle but they also hold there own belief which they feel will help end the search for the Jewish Messiah. The non orthodox ideas are that it is going to be a Messianic age rather than having a Messiah in the form of flesh and blood, therefore this Messianic age would still bring peace and harmony referring to Maimonidies. As well the non orthodox also believes that the resurrection of the dead which Maimonidies suggests is going to spiritual thus their souls will raise but nothing else. Furthermore the principle which explains that Jews are going to be united is interpreted by non orthodox to be mainly in belief and not physically, therefore to them their will not be an gathering of all the Jews in Israel, one reason is because of the idea of Diaspora, which is the idea of small counties scattered around the world. As well the non orthodox Jews hold the idea that there is no need to rebuild the temple and reintroduce scarifies, furthermore they also encourage interfaith dialogue, this is where Jews talk to Christians, Christians talk to Muslims, Muslims talk to Jews, and the other ways round so it would be a world where every faith talks to one each other.
Throughout Judaism and Christianity there are arguments of whether or not the Messiah has come. For example many Christians believe that Jesus was the Messiah but Jews do not this is because he did not originate from the house of David. However Jews are very sure that the Messiah has not come and that they are still going to wait for him to arrive no matter how long it takes. Therefore we are aware that the Jews await the Messiah coming, but do they show there waiting? It can be considered the idea of there being two responses as to how Jews show their waiting; this is because of the main divisions within Judaism. The first division being orthodox and the being second non orthodox. Firstly looking at orthodox the way in which they so there hope for the messiah coming and for the accompanying of the restoration of the temple is though a daily prayer. This pray is known as "ess tzemach avdesha" or the amidah. This pray is said so many times in one day that the Jews ask for Messiah’s coming approx 60 times. This pray shows how keen the orthodox Jews are for the Messiah to come and re-build there temple as well as bring peace and harmony to mankind. Other prayers which the Messiah is made aware of are the ‘vetechzenah eineinu’ which is said it self three times a day. There is also other awareness made before and after meals during the day. Looking at the other division within Judaism being the non orthodox Jews, their thought of waiting for the Messiah is within faith and belief, but they do not use solid symbols to show worship to the coming of the Messianic age, but in everyday life they believe in him and show faith from their day to day activities and obeying God.
Throughout the years Judaism have seen many ‘false’ Messiahs come and go, this can add effect to the idea of searching for the Messiah as the Jews have a basis of what they believe the Messiah to achieve and how they should perceive him. Even though many of the Jews are still waiting for the Messiah, it shows that they are truly respecting the idea that the Messiah is extremely special and they are not just going to let any one fulfil the idea of the Messiah. This is essentially saying that those who say they represent the Messiah have to go though tests and a difficult time to pursue it therefore if the Messiah was to arrive then the Jews would be able to tell him apart even though he is said to be normal and mix in.
Though many Jewish scriptures you can gather an idea of what they really think will occur and happen when the Messiah will arrive. First looking at Pilkington he holds this view that ‘the Messianic age has clearly not dawned’ which gives any reader the impression that many Jews believe more to the idea off a Messianic age, however within the Hebrew Bible it is noted that the Messiah would come as a person and as well bring an Messianic age with them. The ‘prophet today’ in June 1991, gives several accountants of what different rabbis think and when they feel the Messiah will come. Even though it was written in 1991 much of the information can be related to now a day’s. For example Rabbi Schneerson discussed the events of the gulf war and the preparations for the Messiah arriving. ‘the events in the Gulf do not have to disturb the spiritual peace of a single Jew, because they are a preparation for the Messiah’ this shows that no matter what is occurring in their following neighbours they are still able to prepare for the great arrival of the Messiah. This add to the depth of the idea of searching for the Messiah because even though they are own interpretations they give us the interpretations that no matter what the occurrences are in the world the Jews are still determined to work hard and enable the search for the Messiah to be completed with his arrival.
Even though many of the prayers and actions play apart in the Messiah arrival but many orthodox Jews believe there is more which they can do to hasten his arrival. For orthodox Jews to fulfil the search then they feel their every day actions are judged by god and they feel that completing actions, for example; Torah and Mitzvos, as well completing circumcision and Niddah and obey Koser. These actions are then judged by God to see if they are capable of keeping his laws then its God choice to send the descendent of Kings David’s family to lead them further in to peace and harmony.
To conclude the search for the Messiah cannot have a strong particular answer to it as there are many interpretations in to many aspects as to what the main purpose to hasten his arrival is but it is not necessarily to find the Messiah. For orthodox Jews their search for the Messiah is extended to the idea that they believe he is coming and if they fulfil their daily purposes then it will hasten his arrive and therefore they will enter an age of peace and have their temple re built for them. On the other hand the non orthodox search for the messiah has a better influence on the idea of a Messianic age which they are waiting for. Finally most of the Jewish search for the Messiah is based upon the idea of waiting for him and being faithful to God so god can determine when the Messiah will arrive.
