Messiah

In our Jewish Literature class this afternoon, we watched a film called "The Disputation", which depicts a debate (held at the palace of King James of Aragon in 1263) between friar Pablo Christiani, a convert from Judaism to Christianity, and Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, also known as the Ramban. While intellectually intriguing, the film also struck a personal note with me as it reminded me a little bit of how some of my conversations nowadays with friends and family tend to go. It's pretty irritating, actually, to have to constantly repeat the same arguments over and over, when really, all you want to do is stop arguing. I can only give thanks that my safety and quality of life don't hinge directly upon how my Christian friends feel about my beliefs; the Ramban and the Jews of his time didn't have that privilege.

Anyway, to tie together a bit of the Ramban with a bit of the Rambam (see how I did that?), I'm going to just go over a couple of the proofs found both in the film and in the twelfth principle of Maimonides (perhaps if the post turns out well I can just refer those antagonistic relatives to this page once and for all). I'm not going to make this a debate, and for the most part, I'm not going to try and shoot down Christian beliefs unless I can't explain the Jewish perspective without doing so.

Here's some of what the רמב׳׳ם and the רמב׳׳ן have to say about Mashiach:

- A descendant of Dovid (through his son Shlomo), the Messiah is going to be greater than any king or ruler ever. Although some people think that there have been multiple messiahs down throughout different periods of Jewish history (and indeed, the Ramban discusses this viewpoint in the film), we're still waiting for this special one, this Messiah that is going to bring all the dispersed Jews back to Israel. The Jews aren't all in Israel living peacefully, so this Messiah hasn't come yet.

- In the film, the Ramban talked about what the world will be like once this Messiah comes; he insists that the world will be full of peace, that people will be good people, there will not be violence and war and aggression, and the Jews will not be oppressed or under the subjugation of foreign governments. I feel that this interpretation of the Messianic Age is similar to how Christians view what the second coming of Jesus will be like. However, the Rambam seems to have a differing opinion when he says that not much will change in the Messianic Age, save for the Jews' independence. I like to think that the Nachmanides is on the right track here, but maybe that's just the former Christian in me coming out to play.

- Nevertheless, even though the Rambam doesn't make the Messianic Age out to be a utopia, he does say that man's lifetimes will be prolonged and that the Messiah's kingdom will last for a long, long time. In fact, the Messiah (according to the Rambam) is not going to die until he's set the world right (here he quotes Isaiah 42:4).

- The reason that we Jews long for the Messianic Age is not because we long for wealth and excess and indulgence, but because righteousness will abound and we will have the freedom to observe Torah freely and without oppression. This observance of Torah is, to my understanding, what will ultimately usher us into the World to Come.

- Something I find very interesting is that the Rambam writes that the Messiah isn't going to have to prove to us that he's the Messiah by doing miracles. He's not going to be making people clean or unclean, and he's not going to be legitimizing some people and deeming others illegitimate. He's just going to be bringing peace to the world, and seriously folks, that is a miracle if I ever heard one.