Will Observance of the Shabbat Bring Moshiach?
There is an oft quoted statement
that if all Israel were to observe Shabbat once, this would result in the
coming of the Messiah. According to the
Chabad website, this is a rabbinic midrashic statement.
“Shemot Rabba 25:121; Yerushalmi,
Ta’anit 1:10 “Though I have set a limit to ‘the end,’ that it will happen
in its time regardless of whether they will do teshuvah or not… the
scion of David (Mashiach) will come if they keep just one Shabbat, because the
Shabbat is equivalent to all the mitzvot.”
Firstly, I am very sceptical of
any such midrashic statements, especially when they have no basis in the
Torah. Second, the statement is a
logical fallacy. There never has been a time when everybody will keep the Torah
in its entirety, or Shabbat for that matter.
Shortly after the 10 commandments were given, people started dancing
around a golden calf. The statement as
a prediction is something that is impossible
to test. If it fails, it can easily be
said that some person in Uruguay secretly smoked a cigar. Third, the idea that the fate of the entire
nation depends on every action of each individual is also fallacious. In the desert, individuals were punished for
their own crimes, e.g. Korach, and even Aaron.
This didn’t stop the people from entering Israel.
There are also questions about
what “Moshiach” or Messiah actually represents.
The word simply means anointed, which was done for Kings, as well as
Priests. Each king of Israel would be anointed, and was therefore a “Moshiach”. This even applies to the less than righteous
kings. The Prophecies about a Messiah
in the TNK are few and unclear –
although there is an idea of redemption, and one of restoration of the
Temple. So far, the ingathering of the
exiles of the past 2000 years has been going on for the last century, as part
of the secular Zionist enterprise. This
has not been associated with Shabbat observance. In fact, the people who
enabled the State of Israel, e.g.
Theodore Herzl , David Ben Gurion etc. were not Sabbath observant. They were also reviled by Ultra-Orthodox
Rabbis and their followers, and to this day, that hatred for Zionism
continues. A lone exception was the
genius Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, who actually implied that Herzl was the
Messiah son of Joseph (a rabbinic
concept, distinct from the scion of David).
However, one needs to be more
sceptical about precise formulae of how to bring about the Redemption of
Israel, through religious means. The
speaks of a general repentance:
Deut 30:
2 and shalt return unto the LORD
thy God, and hearken to His voice according to all that I command thee this
day, thou and thy children, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul;
3 that then the LORD thy God will
turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather
thee from all the peoples, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.
There are no specifications
though, of what this entails, and if it requires a majority, or absolutely
every Israelite to do so. Also, there may be millions of people who are
Israelites, who are not even known or recognised as Jews today.
Historically, there have been
righteous Kings, such as Hezekiah and Josiah, who compelled the public to
repent and observe the Torah. However,
even these figures were unable to turn the tide, and for failures of their own,
or accumulated sins of past generations, they were amongst the last Kings of
Israel, and after the Babylonian exile, there was no resumption of a Davidic
monarchy. It is also interesting to note
that the Deuteronomy passage does not speak of any king or Messianic figure.
The next question to ask is what
do we expect from the Messianic era? Of
course, the famous prophecy of Isaiah 11 speaks of the wolf coexisting with the
lamb – but these statements are allegorical, and could already have been
fulfilled, or simply mean an Arab-Israeli peace treaty.
The State of Israel has
fulfilled, or is in the process of fulfilling the prophecies of the
Tanakh. It is no coincidence, to me at
least, to note that characteristically, the majority of Ultra-Orthodox rabbis (with a few notable
exceptions) opposed Zionism and the modern State, based on their own Talmudic myth of 3 oaths. On
the other hand, the Karaites fully accepted the State of Israel. In fact the Karaite
call to return to Israel began a thousand years prior to the Zionist
movement. The author of the Kuzari
admits begrudgingly in his book, that the rabbanites have neglected this call.
So if and when the monarchy is
ultimately restored, we may see the Kings anointed again. But the time has already begin, and Jews
everywhere around the world should
return to Israel. Keeping Shabbat would be most appropriate.
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