A-Z OF JEWISH VALUES -

M FOR MESSIANISM

MASHIACH - THE VALUE OF MESSIANISM

This Shabbat is the 40th Anniversary of an important event in the history of world religions. In Sept 1965, the late Pope John Paul II issued a decree setting out the new attitude of the Roman Catholic Church to world religions, in a declaration called in Latin Nostra Aetate (Our Summer). Its 40th anniversary is being celebrated this weekend.

The Declaration affirms the common ground that Catholicism shares with all major faiths. It begins by stating all people are of one common origin, and all share the same destiny. All faiths wrestle with the same questions. It categorically states:

"The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men."

The statement is made that the Catholic Church regards the Muslims with esteem, the declaration describes some of the things Islam has in common with Christianity: the worship of the One God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, the All-Merciful and Omnipotent, who has spoken to men; the Muslims' respect for Abraham and Mary, and for Jesus, whom they consider to be a Prophet and not God.

It speaks of the bond that ties the people of the 'New Covenant' (i.e. Christians) to Abraham's stock (i.e. Jews). It states that even though some Jewish authorities and those who followed them called for Jesus' death, the blame for this cannot be laid at the door of all those Jews present at that time, nor can the Jews in our time be held as guilty; 'the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God'. The Declaration also denounces all incidents of anti-Semitism made at any time by anyone.

It states that all men are created in God's image, and that it is contrary to the teaching of the Church to discriminate against, show hatred towards or harass any person or people on the basis of colour, race, religion, way of life and so on.

This documents reverses centuries of dogma over which rivers of blood have been shed.

It prompts me to look at the question of dogma and in particular of the doctrine of the Messiah, and to examine how important a value it is for us.

There is no doubt that the concept of a Messiah, a Redeemer, is a Jewish one. It figures as one of the 13 Principles of faith enumerated by Maimonides. It is highly prized by the Talmud. It occurs throughout our prayer-books.

And yet some Jews value is more highly than others. Witness the huge billboard sign in North Manchester urging everyone to watch out for ‘Moshiach’. If you are not Jewish you wouldn’t have a clue what it means. You will remember the, for us bizarre, adoration of the late charismatic Menahem Mendel Schneerson who died in 1994, by the worldwide Lubavitch movement as being the mashiach incarnate. And many of them are expecting his return. They are not united in this. Some have maintained that the rebbe would soon rise from the dead to proclaim the messianic age which, in conformity with classic rabbinical belief will include a massive resurrection of the dead. Schneerson himself never owned the belief that he was the Messiah. To mainstream orthodoxy this is anathema.

To Reform Jews Messianic doctrine doesn’t appear high on the agenda. Why is that so? Is it our tendency towards rationalism, our scepticism, which makes us place religious beliefs very low on our list of priorities anyway? Is it, at least unconsciously part of our self-distancing from Fundamentalist Jewish orthodoxy on the one hand, especially given the political agenda of Jewish messianists for a Greater Israel worthy of a son of King David, and on the other hand a self-distancing from Christianity which we are often accused of resembling by some of our Orthodox detractors.

The latter is ironical given that the strong beliefs in the Messiah and the resurrection of the dead in Messianic times are what brings Jewish orthodoxy much closer to Christianity than we are or are ever likely to be.

Messianic references in our Reform services are very few. One reason why we don’t recite all the blessings after the Haftarah is that because of their strong Messianic content.

In particular the reference to Elijah the prophet herald of the Messiah and the kingdom of the House of David ‘Soon may he come and rejoice our hearts’, it says.

'Suffer not a stranger to sit on his throne, nor let any others inherit his glory; for by your holy name you swore to him that his light should never be extinguished. Blessed are you… Shield of David’

As a movement it would be true to say that we don’t promote the idea of a personal messiah.

And yet we never rejected messianic beliefs outright. We do uphold a hope in the coming of a Messianic Age, only we are somewhat vague as to what it entails.

The traditional belief is primarily redemption for the Jewish people and Israel. Ours is more global. It is a hope. Behind it is a sense of optimism, that we need to have goals however idealistic. We do have a belief so much needed in this vexed world that history is despite everything destined to approach at least the literal meaning of what the Greeks called Utopia which just literally translates as a ‘good place’.

Personally I love the view of the Ba’al Shem Tov that if you want to know who is the mashiach look in the mirror. The way Nachman of Chernobyl phrased it is as follows: "It is the duty of every individual Jew to perfect and prepare that part of the spiritual stature of Mashiach to which his soul is related." In other words every one has a potential to improve the world which is waiting to be actualized. When enough of us achieve this, the messianic age will dawn.

According to this view everyone has a yechidah – a special unique quality. The innermost essence of our soul. The yechidah which is hidden within every individual Jew is a spark of the soul of Mashiach, who is the all-embracing yechidah.

When a Jew arouses this spark within himself, so that it governs his thought, speech and action, this is an act of individual redemption. This hastens the advent of the all-embracing Redemption, with the coming of Mashiach.

A bit mystical for us perhaps and for some of just a tad chauvinistic - but behind it is a principle that Reform Jews can subscribe to, that we don’t rely on some superhuman individual to improve our human condition but look towards a collective effort in which we all have a role to play. That, in any case, is a good enough prelude to Rosh Hashanah.