The Basics of Judaism: Messiah and the Next World (including Reward & Punishment): The Messiah's Purpose:
What will the Messiah achieve, and how will we know that he has arrived?
The Basics of Judaism:Messiah and the Next World (including Reward & Punishment):
What will the Messiah achieve, and how will we know that he has arrived?
According to Jewish Tradition (see Rambam: Mishna Torah: Book of Judges: Laws of Kings: Chapter 11), there will come a
time when a descendant of King David will be appointed as leader of the Jews in the Land of Israel; he will be wiser than
King Solomon, and will possess a power of prophecy almost equal to Moses; he will successfully defeat all his enemies and
opposition, politically and militarily; he will rebuild the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and will coordinate the return of Jews
from all over the world to the Land of Israel; he will teach the world truth and wisdom, and will unite all of Humanity in the
service of G- d. His efforts will eventually lead to the development of a world without famine, war, jealousy or competition; a
world in which there will be an unlimited supply of resources available to fulfill every human being's physical needs and
desires, leaving people free to focus all their energy on knowing and understanding G-d.
How will we know that a particular king from the House of David is actually the Messiah? Only if he successfully
accomplishes all of the above; in other words, he will not have to perform any miracles to prove that he is the Messiah and
we will not ask him to do so - he simply has to be a G-d fearing person from the House of David who understands and
carries out all the laws of the Torah; when he achieves everything mentioned in the previous paragraph we will know that he
is the Messiah.
The word 'Messiah' is the English version of the Hebrew word 'Moshiach' which literally means 'anointed one'. We refer to
this future leader as the Messiah because in order for him to become a king of Israel, he must first be anointed with olive oil
(as was the required procedure for all previous kings of Israel).
lobel@torah.org
