The False Messiahs Who Mislead The Jewish People!
Part 1.
משיחי- השקר- שלהטעות- את- העם היהודי.
Moshiach'i Ha'Shaker Shala'hata'ot Et Ha'Am Ha'Yehudi.
האמונה במשיח שתופס את מקומו של הרה |
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“The great False Messiahs.” were Jesus Christ (Yeshu, Yashke, Yeshua, Yeshu Toledot),
David Reubeni, Solomon Molchol, Sabbatai Zevi,
Benjamin the Egyptian, Menachem, Simon Bar Kochba,
Theudas,Moses from Crete,David Alroy,Abraham Abulafia,
Nissim Ben Abraham,Asher Lammlein.
There were 40 + other false messiahs throughout history....
There stories from: The Book of Jewish Knowledge by Nathan Ausubel.
By Rabino Aminadav Hinton. “Posekim Pesher”
הרב עמינדב הינטון. פוסקי פשר
Vnishmartiem Mod Lnafshotikeem Ki Lo Reiteem Kol T'munah Bi'Yom Dver Hashem Elikeem B'Chorev Metock Ha'Eish- Take extreme cautious watch of yourselves, therefore for YOU SAW NO MANNER OF FORMS (Tselem- Idolatrous figures), IMAGES(Etsav- Idol images), on the day that Hashem spoke to you in Horev out of the midst of the fire. (15.) Pen Tashchitun Va'asiteem Laceem Pesel Temunat Kol Samel Tavnit Zakar O Nkvah- Unless you become corrupt, corrupting yourselves, and make you a Pesel (images, forms, idols, gods, relics,reliquaries), the FORM OF ANY FIGURES, THE LIKENESS, RESEMBLANCE OF MALE OR FEMALE.(16.)
Dvarim 4.15-16. Read also: Shmot 20. 2-5/ Shmot 22.20/ Hosea 11.9/Dvarim 24.16/ Tehillim 106. 36-48/ Yeshayah 43. 11. Moshe tried to die for Yisroel, to die in there place as a human blood sacrifice, Hashem was strongly against it-Shmot 32. 30-35/ Bmidbar 23.19 for starters.....
The Book of Jewish Knowledge. By Nathan Ausubel.
Copyright 1964. Pages 286-290 states:
One of the most fascinating quests, and one even more enigmatic and romantically strange than the search for the golden fleece conducted by the Greek Argonauts, has been the Jews ardent search for the Messiah. It can be said, without danger of exaggeration that of all the religious beliefs and preoccupations of the Jews in our history, the Messianic dream was the one that most strongly imprinted itself on the Jewish mind and character and hence most greatly shaped the people's conduct. Without its conditioning, the psychic physiognomy of the Jew would have been entirely different. There were many claimants to the role of Messiah in the course of two thousand years of Jewish history(Toldot Yisroel). The plain Jewish folk devout and completely convinced in what they were taught by their religious teachers concerning the Messiah, found numerous “authoritative” signs and assurances of the inevitability of the Redemption(Geulah B'Rachamim) in the preachments(Hatafots) of the Prophets(Ha'Nevi'im), in the visioning of the post-Biblical apocalyptic writers, and contradictions and confusions present in those speculations, certain central ideas received general acceptance. One of those root-ideas was expressed in the supplication by Nehemiah-Nechemyah in the fifth century BCE... “and in the time of their Tzoros-trouble, when they cried unto You, You heard from heaven; and according to your manifold mercies, You gave them Moshi'im- deliverers, saviors who might save them out of the hands of their adversaries. “(Nehemiah 9:27). As such, indeed, were regarded the liberators and heroes of our Jewish people: Moshe, Dovid, and Judah the Maccabeeetc.
National troubles, catastrophes, and persecution were the quickeners of the fever of Messianism; an idealistic religiosity lent its spirituality and emotional drive. Several centuries later, like day dreaming children, the Jews, who were groaning under the juggernaut of Roman tyranny, were emotionally ready for any miraculous solutions to the afflictions of an unjust and topsy-turvy Golus life. Since natural means, considering the military and political weakness of the Jewish State, had failed to succor them, they wishfully were prepared to achieve an ideal harmony and justice in society by the mediation of a supernatural agency.
The popular notion that the emergence in Jewish religious history of Jesus as the Christos(The Greek word for the Hebrew: Moshiach, meaning “Messiah,” “Savior” or “Redeemer” was a unique occurrence among the Jews is, of course, an incorrect one.
There were not a few individuals in the same century who dramatically stepped forward and announced to a breathless Jewry- each on his own behalf- that he was the Moshiach, the Redeemer of Yisroel. Now the extraordinary thing about these first century claimants for Messianic distinction was that each served as a rallying point for Jewish revolt against Roman rule. Unlike Jesus, who was an Essene pacifist and a non-resister to evil, the other “messiahs” of that period were, without exception, militant firebrands and patriots; they were leaders of the Zealots (q.v.) who formed an influential wing of the sectarian Perushim (Pharisees). Quite obviously, the events that pursued Jesus to his execution on the cross at Golgatha, stemmed from the historical fact that the would-be-messiahswho preceded him were insurrectionary leaders who managed to inflict severe losses in causalities and prestige upon the Roman legions sent to Judea to suppress them.
[The real story of who Jesus is, is told in the Jewish writings called: Yeshu Toledot as recorded after Rome merged their Roman, Greek gods into a Jewish figurehead to infuriate Judaism with a “Greek Hellenized” mixture methodology calling the pantheistic polytheism of Greek Idolatry Christianity. But the real Jesus was not praised and exclaimed as a religious righteous man as Christianity made him out to be. Yeshu Toledot is said to have had been written as early as the 6th century but you can study the sources yourselves....
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In
the year 3671 in the days of King Jannaeus, a great misfortune befell
Yisroel, when there arose a certain disreputable man of the tribe of Judah, whose name was Joseph Pandera. He lived at Bethlehem, in Judah.
Near his house dwelt a widow and her lovely and chaste daughter named Miriam. Miriam was betrothed to Yohanan, of the royal house of David, a man learned in the Tora and G-d-fearing.
At the close of a certain Sabbath, Joseph Pandera, attractive and like a warrior in appearance, having gazed lustfully upon Miriam, knocked upon the door of her room and betrayed(Raped) her by pretending that he was her betrothed husband, Yohanan. Even so, she was amazed at this improper conduct and submitted only against her will.
Thereafter, when Yohanan came to her, Miriam expressed astonishment at behavior so foreign to his character. It was thus that they both came to know the crime of Joseph Panderaand the terrible mistake on the part of Miriam. Whereupon Yohanan went to Rabban Shimeon Ben Shetah and related to him the tragic seduction. Lacking witnesses required for the punishment of Joseph Pandera, and Miriam being with child, Yohanan left for Babylonia.
Miriam gave birth to a son and named him Yehoshua, after her brother. This name later deteriorated to Yeshu. On the eighth day he was circumcised. When he was old enough the lad was taken by Miriam to the house of study to be instructed in the Jewish tradition(Mesorat Yehudi).
One day Yeshu walked in front of the Sages with his head uncovered, showing shameful disrespect. At this, the discussion arose as to whether this behavior did not truly indicate that Yeshu was an illegitimate child and the son of a niddah. Moreover, the story tells that while the Rabbis were discussing Ha'Tractate Nezikin, he gave his own impudent interpretation of the Ot and in an ensuing debate he held that Moshe could not be the greatest of the prophets if he had to receive counsel from Yitro. This led to further inquiry as to the antecedents of Yeshu, and it was discovered through Rabban Shimeon Ben Shetah that he was the illegitimate son of Joseph Pandera.Miriam admitted it. After this became known, it was necessary for Yeshu to flee to Upper Galilee.
After King Jannaeus, his wife Helene ruled over all Yisroel. In the Temple(Beit Ha'Mikdash) was to be found the Foundation Stone- אבן היסודon which were engraved the letters of G-d's Ineffable Name (Shem Meforosh). Whoever learned the secret of the Name and its use would be able to do whatever he wished. Therefore, the Sages took measures so that no one should gain this knowledge. Lions of brass were bound to two iron pillars at the gate of the place of burnt offerings(Ha'Olah). Should anyone enter and learn the Name(Shem Meforosh), when he left the lions would roar at him and immediately the valuable secret would be forgotten.
Yeshu came and learned(stole) the letters of the Name(Shem Meforosh); he wrote them upon the parchment which he placed in an open cut on his thigh and then drew the flesh over the parchment. As he left, the lions roared and he forgot the secret. But when he came to his house he reopened the cut in his flesh with a knife an lifted out the writing. Then he remembered and obtained the use of the letters.
He gathered about himself three hundred and ten young men of Yisroel and accused those who spoke ill of his birth of being people who desired greatness and power for themselves.Yeshu proclaimed, "I am the Messiah; and concerning me Isaiah prophesied and said, 'Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Emanuel.'" He quoted other messianic texts, insisting, "Dovid my ancestor prophesied concerning me: 'The L-rd said to me, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee.'"
The insurgents with him replied that if Yeshu was the Messiah he should give them a convincing sign. They therefore, brought to him a lame man, who had never walked. Yeshu spoke over the man the letters of the Ineffable Name(Shem Meforosh), and the leper was healed. Thereupon, they worshiped him(Chillul Hashem, Avodat Elilim-profanation,Idolatry) as the Messiah, Son of the Highest (Paganism!).
When word of these happenings came to Jerusalem, the Sanhedrin decided to bring about the capture of Yeshu. They sent messengers, Annanui and Ahaziah, who, pretending to be his Talmidim, said that they brought him an invitation from the leaders of Jerusalem to visit them. Yeshu consented on condition the members of the Sanhedrin receive him as a L-rd (Chutzpah, Idolatry, Paganism, Chillul Hashem-profanation against Hashem). He started out toward Jerusalem and, arriving at Knob, acquired an ass on which he rode into Jerusalem, as a so called fulfillment of the prophecy of Zechariah (Meshuganah!).
The Sages(Chazal Rabbonim Chachamim) bound him and led him before Queen Helene, with the accusation: "This man is a sorcerer and entices everyone." Yeshu replied, "The prophets long ago prophesied my coming: 'And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse,' and I am he; but as for them, Scripture says 'Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly.'"
Queen Helene asked the Sages: "What he says, is it in your Tora?" They replied: "It is in our Tora, but it is not applicable to him, for it is in Scripture: 'And that prophet which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.' He has not fulfilled the signs and conditions of the Messiah."
Yeshu spoke up: "Madam, I am the Messiah and I revive the dead." A dead body was brought in; he pronounced the letters of the Ineffable Name(Shem Meforosh) and the corpse came to life (Deception, Trickery, Magic, Witchcraft tactics). The Queen was greatly moved and said: "This is a true sign." She reprimanded the Sages and sent them humiliated from her presence. Yeshu's dissident followers increased and there was controversy in Yisroel.
Yeshu went to Upper Galilee. the Sages came before the Queen, complaining that Yeshu practiced sorcery and was leading everyone astray. Therefore she sent Annanui and Ahaziah to fetch him.
The found him in Upper Galilee, proclaiming himself the Son of G-d(Blasphemy-Chillul Hashem).When they tried to take him there was a struggle, but Yeshu said to the men of Upper Galilee: "Wage no battle." He would prove himself by the power which came to him from his Father in heaven. He spoke the Ineffable Name(Shem Meforosh) over the birds of clay and they flew into the air. He spoke the same letters over a millstone that had been placed upon the waters. He sat in it and it floated like a boat. When they saw this the people marveled. At the behest of Yeshu, the emissaries departed and reported these wonders to the Queen. She trembled with astonishment.
Then the Sages selected a man named Judah Iskarioto and brought him to the Sanctuary where he learned the letters of the Ineffable Name(Shem Meforosh) as Yeshu had done.
When Yeshu was summoned before the queen, this time there were present also the Sages and Judah Iskarioto. Yeshu said: "It is spoken of me, 'I will ascend into heaven.'" He lifted his arms like the wings of an eagle and he flew between heaven and earth, to the amazement of everyone.
The elders asked Iskarioto to do likewise. He did, and flew toward heaven. Iskarioto attempted to force Yeshu down to earth but neither one of the two could prevail against the other for both had the use of the Ineffable Name(Shem Meforosh). However, Iskarioto defiled Yeshu, so that they both lost their power and fell down to the earth, and in their condition of defilement the letters of the Ineffable Name(Shem Meforosh) escaped from them. Because of this deed of Judah they weep on the eve of the birth of Yeshu.
Yeshu was seized. His head was covered with a garment and he was smitten with pomegranate staves; but he could do nothing, for he no longer had the Ineffable Name(Shem Meforosh).
Yeshu was taken prisoner to the synagogue of Tiberias, and they bound him to a pillar. To allay his thirst they gave him vinegar to drink. On his head they set a crown of thorns. There was strife and wrangling between the elders and the unrestrained followers of Yeshu, as a result of which the followers escaped with Yeshu to the region of Antioch; there Yeshu remained until the eve of the Passover.
Yeshu then resolved to go the Temple to acquire again the secret of the Name(Shem Meforosh). That year the Passover came on a Sabbath day. On the eve of the Passover, Yeshu, accompanied by his disciples, came to Jerusalem riding upon an ass. Many bowed down before him(Chillul Hashem- Profanation). He entered the Temple with his three hundred and ten followers. One of them, Judah Iskarioto apprised the Sages that Yeshu was to be found in the Temple, that the disciples had taken a vow by the Ten Commandments(Asar Ha'Dvarim) not to reveal his identity but that he would point him out by bowing to him. So it was done and Yeshu was seized. Asked his name, he replied to the question by several times giving the names Mattai, Nakki, Buni, Netzer,each time with a verse quoted by him and a counter-verse by the Sages.
Yeshu was put to death on the sixth hour on the eve of the Passover and of the Sabbath. When they tried to hang him on a tree it broke, for when he had possessed the power he had pronounced by the Ineffable Name(Shem Meforosh) that no tree should hold him. He had failed to pronounce the prohibition over the carob-stalk, for it was a plant more than a tree, and on it he was hanged until the hour for afternoon prayer, they buried him outside the city.
On the first day of the week his bold followers came to Queen Helene with the report that he who was slain was truly the Messiah and that he was not in his grave; he had ascended to heaven as he prophesied. Diligent search was made and he was not found in the grave where he had been buried. A gardener had taken him from the grave and had brought him into his garden and buried him in the sand over which the waters flowed into the garden.
Queen Helene demanded, on threat of a severe penalty, that the body of Yeshu be shown to her within a period of three days. There was a great distress. When the keeper of the garden sawRabbi Tanhuma walking in the field and lamenting over the ultimatum of the Queen, the gardener related what he had done, in order that Yeshu's followers should not steal the body and then claim that he had ascended into heaven. The Sages removed the body, tied it to the tail of a horse and transported it to the Queen, with the words, "This is Yeshu who is said to have ascended to heaven." Realizing that Yeshu was a false prophet who enticed the people and led them astray, she mocked the followers but praised the Sages.
The disciples went out among the nations--three went to the mountains of Ararat, three to Armenia, three to Rome and three to the kingdoms by the sea, They deluded the people, but ultimately they were slain.
The erring followers amongst Yisroel said: "You have slain the Messiah of the L-rd." The Israelites answered: "You have believed in a false prophet."There was endless strife and discord for thirty years.
The Sages desired to separate from Yisroel those who continued to claim Yeshu as the Messiah, and they called upon a greatly learned man, Simeon Kepha, for help. Simeon went to Antioch, main city of the Nazarenes and proclaimed to them: "I am the disciple of Yeshu. He has sent me to show you the way. I will give you a sign as Yeshu has done."
Simeon, having gained the secret of the Ineffable Name(Shem Meforosh), healed a leper and a lame man by means of it and thus found acceptance as a true disciple. He told them that Yeshu was in heaven, at the right hand of his Father, in fulfillment of Psalm 110:1
He added that Yeshu desired that they separate themselves from the Jews and no longer follow their practices, as Isaiah had said, "Your new moons and your feasts my soul hates." They were now to observe the first day of the week(Sunday the day of the Roman Sun god Ra) instead of the seventh, the Resurrection(Trinatarinism) instead of the Passover, the Ascension into Heaven instead of the Feast of Weeks, the finding of the Cross (The ancient symbol of Tammuz) instead of the New Year, the Feast of the Circumcision(The blood human sacrifice) instead of the Day of Atonement, the Pagan New Year instead of Chanukah; they were to be indifferent with regard to circumcision and the dietary laws(It's now through Jesus alright to eat pork, shellfish, shrimp and other sea garbage and treft). Also they were to follow the teaching of turning the right if smitten on the left and the meek acceptance of suffering. All these new ordinances which Simeon Kepha (or Paul, as he was known to the Nazarenes) taught them were really meant to separate these Nazarenes from the people of Yisroel.
[2] Some traditions say 'Egypt'. [AH]
[3] Sexual impurity (incest, adultery, prostitution, etc.). [AH]
[4] In one version of this admission, she confesses that not only is Yeshu the product of an illicit union, but she was ritually unclean from menstruation at the time as well (Sexual contact even with a woman's husband is not lawful during, or, in Rabbinic law, for some time after, menstruation). [AH]
[6] Consistent, apparently, with the general tenor of Jewish criticism of Jesus' miracles going at least as far back as Celsus (2nd c.) this tradition does not deny Jesus' ability to perform miracles, accusing him instead of practicing magic. This version even accepts the divine origin of the miracles, attributing them to his misuse of the divine name, with its inherent powers. In the Alphabet of Ben Sira, Lilith is accused of the same crime, using the power of the name to escape from the Garden of Eden. [AH]
[7] Some traditions say 'Egypt'. [G]
[8] In a variation on the story, Judah is able to out-miracle Yeshu in the sign contest without defiling him. Yeshu is discredited and arrested, and, as in this story, his followers are able to break him free, but he still remembers the Ineffable Name(Shem Meforosh). He escapes to Egypt in hopes of learning Egyptian magic as well regarded as the best magic in the world. Judah comes to Egypt and infiltrates the disciples, posing as one himself. It is from this vantage point that he is able to cause Yeshu to forget the magical Name, resulting in the later's desire to return to Jerusalem and relearn it. Judah sends warning to the Sages, along with his plan to arrest him. [AH]
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There can be no doubt that all the “messiahs” who appeared among the Jews in the tumultuous Roman times were extraordinary Jewish men. They
were dedicated idealistically, even fanatically, to their religion, yet at the same time, they were inflamed by a patriotic love for their oppressed people which led them to attempt to throw
off the Imperial Roman yoke. A factual but acidulous account of them was given by the noted Jewish
historian of that time, Josephus, who, as a collaborationist with Rome, went to great lengths to pour fire and brimstone on
all Jewish patriots. He raged in
his Antiquities of the Jews:
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Another group of men also sprang up.. who destroyed the peace of the city [Jerusalem]... For they were deceivers and deluders of the Jewish people, and under pretense of divine illumination, were for innovations and changes, and prevailed on the multitude to act like mad men, and went before them in the wilderness, pretending that G-d would there show them signs of liberation.
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The attempts by Josephus to disparage the rebels either as criminals or as religious maniacs did not succeed. The first of these messiahs of whom Josephus wrote was Judas of Galilee, who led an uprising in 6 CE. About him and his followers Josephus grudgingly conceded: “They have an inviolable attachment to liberty and they say that G-d is to be their only Rule and L-rd.”
In the year 44, another rebel-messiah came forward. He was Theudas. Conceiving himself to be a prophet in the tradition of Moshe, he led a Jewish multitude of his followers to the banks of the Jordan with the promise that he would there demonstrate his prophetic powers by dividing the waters so he could lead them dry shod across to the other shore, just as Moshe had their ancestors at the Reed Sea. Sensing trouble, the Roman procurator dispatched horsemen after them. Many were slain, and those who remained were taken prisoner. Theudas himself was crucified- this was the customary Roman way of executing criminals- and then beheaded.
At some time between 55 and 60 CE. There appeared a mysterious messiah warrior known only as Benjamin the Egyptian. He sparked once more the fire of revolt in the people, and proclaimed himself the “Messiah”- “the anointed of the L-rd.” To his thirty thousand embattled followers, whom he assembled on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, he announced that, with his G-d- given powers, he would make the walls of the city tumble down, just as Joshua had the walls of Jericho, and then they would enter the Holy City in triumph. But he apparently did not figure on the probability that the procurator Felix would march against him with his legions, as indeed he did. Many of Benjamin's Jewish followers were killed, but he himself managed to make his escape. Only a year or two later, another rebel- messiah, his name today unknown, took up his crusading standard against the Romans. He persuaded his adherents to go with him into the wilderness where, according to Josephus, he promised that they would find their deliverance and freedom from their misery.”
A new type of Messiah appeared in the year 67 CE., when the war with the Romans which finally led to the destruction of the Jewish State four years later had broken out. This was the fiery Zealot leader Menachem, the grandson of Judas the Galilean. He, too, proclaimed himself “Messiah,” and he organized his Zealot followers in a successful surprise attack on the important fortress of Masada. Obtaining weapons there, he armed his men and marched on Jerusalem, capturing the key fortress of Antonia from its defending garrison. But what actually happened after that to his enterprise and to himself remains unknown.
It does seem, though, that the classic pattern for the Messiah had become well- set by this time; he had to be a prophet-warrior. The last great figure in this category was Simeon Bar Kochba, who organized the rebellion against the Emperor Hadrian in 132-35 CE. It had been provoked by the imperial decrees which had for their aim the breakup of the Jews as a people and as a religious entity. It was Rabbi Akiva Ben Yosef, the most influential Jewish convert of all Rabbinic Sages, who hailed Bar Kochba as the Messiah [I'm not saying this to create Halachic or Hashkafow issues, or Mahkach Tohous Chas V'Chalelah Shifachas Domim, Sowtaher Daas Chazal- or to besmirch Rabbi Akiva orRebbe Shimon Bar Yoahchaee! The Rabbis get very angry when these facts are related. It is against Halacha to besmirch a Rabbi and so in relating facts isn't besmirching Rabbi Akiva it is just the facts. It does not delineate that Rabbi Akiva was a great Rebbe with 24 thousand students and that there fight against Hellenization wasn't honorable. Rebbe Akiva traveled across Yisroel and Chutz L'Ahahratz Mitzrayim(Egypt) enlisting soldiers and funds for the revolt. So don't get mad at the information. All of these men did great things for the Jewish People so I am not besmirching any of them, however this does not mean they are the Messiah. That's the point of this lesson!].
He based his recognition of him on the Scriptural verse: “There shall come forth a star [Bar Kochba means: “Son of a Star”] out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out ofYisroel, and shall smite through the corner ofMoav. “Akiva's fervent pronouncement provoked this scoffing retort from his skeptical minded Rabbinic colleague, Yochanan Ben Torta: “O Akiva! Before the son of Dovid will appear, grass will sprout on your cheeks!” For three years the struggle against the Romans lasted, with a staggering loss of Jewish lives- 580,000 were killed in battle, and this was in addition to the many thousands more who died of pestilence and starvation. When it was over, the Roman Historian, Dio Cassius, commented laconically: “All of Judea became almost a desert.” The Fortress of Bethar, the last stronghold of the rebellion, fell in 135, and Bar Kochva perished with it. Whatever the catastrophes that resulted from each messianic adventure, the Jews, practically without a dissenting voice, remained steadfast in their Judaic observance that, out of Hashem's infinite compassion and love for Yisroel, he would, in the fulfillment of time, send a Moshiach, an event that had been foretold by so many Prophets and Sages of Yisroel. Nourished by national despair and insecurity, the Messianic hope seemed at various times to be just on the verge of being fulfilled. Invariably, each prophetic promise by the would be saviors ended in bitter disappointment.
A bundle of Bar Kochva letters written in Hebrew on papyrus between 132 and 135 CE. And discovered in a Judean Desert cave near the Dead Sea by Professor Yigael Yadin and his Hebrew University archaeological expedition in 1961. The opening line of this letter by Bar Kochva (Kosiva), the Messianic leader of the uprising against Rome in 132 CE., reads: From Shimon Bar Kosiva to the men of Engedi, to Masabala and to Yehonatan Bar Ba'ayan- Shalom! You sit, eat, and drink from the property of the House of Yisroel, and care nothing for your brothers.” (American Friends of the Hebrew University).
To the religious Jew, during the long centuries of Ha'Golus- the Exile in Dispersion- the expectation that the Messiah would soon come riding on his white horse while the Prophet Elijah, as his herald, would precede him, blowing upon the Shofar of the Redemption, was anything but a dream. It was a holy certainty which he never questioned. The mystics and the writers of apocalyptic visions, who believed that the End of Days was imminent, engaged in feverish speculations. They got lost in irrational calculations about the coming of the Messiah based merely on the authority of certain Scriptural verses having but the remotest and the most innocent connection with their obsessive subject. A Talmudic authority of the first century raged against that variety of mental acrobatics. He declared that too much preoccupation with the matter was causing unrest and a morbid excitement among the people. One of the many arbitrary dates set for the coming of the Messiah was the year 440. As if in response to general anticipation, a self- proclaimed “Messiah” suddenly appeared in 431 on the Island ofCrete. His name was Moses from Crete and, like the first Moses, he announced himself ready to lead the dispersed remnants of Yisroel back to the land of their fore-fathers. Mastered by the same delusion that had condemned the messianic adventure of Theudas to a disaster in the year 44, he also assured his followers that, by means of his supreme prophetic powers, he would be able to lead them dry shod to Eretz Yisroel across the Mediterranean Sea- a feat even greater than Moshe had performed at the Reed Sea, which is a much narrower body of water. On reaching the Mediterranean, his numerous Talmidim unquestioningly walked into sea. The contemporary Byzantine Church Historian, Socrates Scholasticus, noted that many of the Talmidim were drowned(Suicide) But the “Messiah” Moses himself disappeared. The intensified persecutions of the medieval Jews, which resulted from the religious hysteria of the Crusades, saw a lively increase in Messianic claimants.
Maimonides mentioned one who had appeared in the south of France but who was killed- how and why it is not known- in 1087. In 1117 an- other “Messiah” revealed himself to the Jews in Cordova, and still another in Fez about a decade later. But of all these so called saviors- whether they were self deluded visionaries or merely adventures- the first to arrest general Jewish attention was David Alroy. A native of Kurdistan Persia, he proclaimed himself “the Messiah” about 1160. He assured his followers that G-d had sent him to free the Jews from the yoke of Islam and to effect their in-gathering in the land of their forefathers-Yisroel. He assembled a nondescript army which was soon enough crushed in battle. In the end, Alroy was murdered while asleep.
The Jews of Yemen were especially susceptible to the Messianic fever. Time and again there appeared among them wild- eyed seers who announced themselves either as “the Messiah (Moshiach)” or as his “Forerunner(Ha'Mavasar).” The Yemenite Jews proved enthusiastic, and also unquestioning, followers. When the attention of Maimonides was drawn to the appearance in 1172 in Yemen of a forerunner of herald of the Messiah, he replied in his characteristically common sense manner, in his famous “Letter to Yemen.”He ridiculed all Messianic speculations as futile and irrational, and Messianic claimants as either swindlers or madmen. Twenty years later, in response to a query on that matter by the Jews of Marseilles, he gave as his opinion that “that poor man, although he appeared to be well enough and G-d fearing, was demented and altogether ignorance. Everything he said or did was either a lie or an illusion.”
The ardor with which the esoteric Cabala, combining Jewish Biblical lore and ethics with was studied during the Middle Ages, only added a new intoxicating ingredient to the Messianic brew. The first of a string of Cabalist “Messiahs” was Abraham Abulafia, who won notice in the later half of the thirteenth century. He first drew public attention to himself when he declared his intention of calling on Pope Nicholas 2 in Rome to effect his conversion to the Jewish religion by means of his secret Cabalistic powers. When the Church authorities in Rome got wind of his plans, they flung him into a dungeon. Believed to be insane, he was finally released, only to turn himself as “the Messiah”; he claimed there that G-d had spoken to him “Face to face,” just as He had with Moshe. Though he found many adherents among the ignorant and the emotionally unstable, he was publically branded as a swindler by Rebbe Solomon Ben Adret, a leading Rabbi of the day.
Only a few years later, in 1295, another Cabalist, Nisim Ben Abraham presented himself as “the Messiah.” in Avila, Spain. He fixed the last day of the Jewish month of Tammuz of that year as the time when he would inaugurate the Messianic age. All those Jews who believed in him started fasting; they gave their possessions and money away, and waited impatiently for the apocalyptic day to arrive. A mercenary impostor, he was eventually exposed, and so he prudently and quietly disappeared. In bitter disenchantment, many of his Jewish followers became Galachim Notsri- Christians [Exchanged one false Messiah for another].
This incident was duplicated, but on a much larger scale, in 1502 in Germany. There the Cabalist Asher Lammlein had assumed the role of Elijah, the forerunner of the Messiah. He declared 1502 to be the year in which the Savior would appear. But the inevitable disillusionment to which this led once more resulted in numerous Jewish defections(Apokoris-apostasy) from the Jewish Faith(Judaism).
Only one generation later, the mystic Cabalists, by means of their numerological reckoning, had reached with absolute certainty the conclusion that the Messianic era was about to be ushered in. As if by coincidence, in the year 1528 there suddenly appeared out of the east a romantic looking self styled “prince” by the name of David Reubeni. He had come, said he, as the envoy plenipotentiary and extraordinary of his brother Joseph, the ruler of the Jewish Kingdom Khaibar, in Arabia. He subsequently made a series of sensational appearances at the royal courts of Europe. On behalf of the Jews of Khaibar, he proposed separately to the Pope in Rome, to the Emperor Charles V, and toKing Joao 3 of Portugal, a military alliance against the Turks. The very theatricality of his appearance in Portugal, backed by the Pope's enthusiastic recommendation, excited the wildest interest in him among thousands of Marranos or New Christians, who had been hiding their Jewish loyalties under a pretended Catholicism through dread of the Inquisition. It was a hope for succor by a divine intervention that prompted them, desperate because of their plight and religious guilt feelings, to flock to Reubeni and to hail him as “the Messiah.” The leader of this “Messianic recognition” among the Marrano Jews of Portugal (My People)was the brilliant but mentally unbalanced young intellectual, Diego Pires (1500-32), who under the name of Solomon Molcho, had returned openly to the Jewish fold, despite, despite the dangers, and had become a devotee of the “practical” Cabala.
It was obvious that Reubeni had no intention of playing the Messainic role; he understood only too well the mortal danger in which it would place him- and all the Marranos as well- did the Holy Inquisition of the Church learn of this pretension. But despite the vehemence of his disclaimer that he was “the Messiah,” the obsessed Molcho and his JewishMarrano followers would not let go of him. The furor this whole affair aroused eventually led to both Molcho's and Reubeni's imprisonment, trial by the Inquisition, and death [We will cover more about this in part 2].
Nevertheless, the Messianic delirium among the wishful thinking, the despairing, and the emotionally disturbed, raged on unabated. In fact, it kept on rising in a crescendo of compulsive hysteria. Once again, in 1648, the Cabalists triumphantly were proclaiming that, according to their numerological calculations, that very year would see the occurrence of the Redemption. They played up certain popularly held notions. They pointed “convincingly” to the frightful calamities that were then being visited upon the Jews as demonstrable signs from Heaven that the Messianic age was about to burst upon them. They emphasized the fact that the Thirty Year's war, in which the Jews of Germany had suffered so grievously, had just come to an end. Infinitely worse, the Cossack and Tatar insurgents, led in their rebellion against their Polish overlords by their hetman, Bogdan Chmielnicki, were still not finished with there side excursion of mass slaughtering hundreds of thousands of Jews in the Ukraine, in Poland, and in Galica. An awareness of all this horror, rolling like a tidal wave of despair over the surviving Jews of Europe, made the Cabalists fantasies appear entirely credible to the pious. It was a time of backwardness and intellectual stagnation- their “Dark ages”- for the Jews of Europe, who from childhood on had been thoroughly indoctrinated with the Messiah-lore, taught how to “recognize” all the “signs(Otot)” all the “birth pangs(Chavli Halidah)” of the Moshiach and the Redemption (Geulah B'Rachamim).
Under these desperate circumstances it was not surprising that another self convinced “Messiah” should make his appearance in answer to the clamor of the bewildered Jews for divine and immediate help. This Redeemer, possessed of a magnetic personality, was a youth of twenty one, and his name was Sabbatai Zevi (in Yiddish: Shabsai Tzvi; 1626-76). He had studied the Cabala in his native city of Izmir (Smyrna) and was well versed in every aspect of esoteric Messianic lore. With supreme self confidence, he announced himself in 1648 as the “Messiah Ben Dovid.”The Rabbinic Assembly of Smyrna, horrified by his Chillul Hashem- profanation, blasphemous pretensions, issued against him its most severe excommunication (Cherem) and ordered him to leave the Jewish community at once. But Sabbatai's mere announcement that he was “Ha'Moshiach” unleashed a hitherto unheard of religious hysteria among all the backward elements in the ghettos of Europe. This popular excitement was intensified when Sabbatai Zevi's claims were championed by Nathan of Gaza. He was an energetic Cabalists initiate who had elected himself the “forerunner of the Messiah (Mafsharo Shel Ha'Moshiach)”- the part assigned by legend and tradition to the Prophet Eliyahu, who was expected to descend from Heaven for that purpose. Nathan wrote grandiloquent pronouncements and issues prophetic sounding manifestos which he sent by messengers to all the far flung Jewish communities of Europe, the Near East, and Northern Africa. He exhorted all Jews everywhere to confess there sins, to do penance, and to prepare themselves for the approaching Kingdom of G-d by renouncing the corrupting gods of the world. Wherever Sabbatia went, great crowds of hysterical men and women assembled to pay him royal homage as “the L-rd's anointed.” waving palm and myrtle branches, this was also the way the followers of Jesus-Yeshu had greeted his entry into Jerusalem, they met him everywhere with the shout: “Hail to our King Messiah!”
The madness spread like a forest fire.Thousands of devout Jewish adherents Ashkenazim as well as Sefardim, and also Oriental Jews flocked to Sabbatai's Messanic standard. Excited deputations arrived from distant countries with worshipful messages and costly gifts for “the Redeemer.” Entire Jewishcommunities started preparing themselves for the advent of the Messianic era, at which time Sabbatai Zevi promised he would lead them in triumphal procession to Mount Zion.
A Christian writer in the Ukraine, an eyewitness to the event he was reporting, noted with astonishment: “Some Jews abandoned their houses and property. They refused to do any work whatsoever, claiming that the Messiah would soon arrive and would carry them off in a cloud to Jerusalem. Others fasted for days, denying good even to their little ones. Perhaps “the Messiah” somewhat overdid his boasting when he announced to his followers in 1665 that, in the following year, he would go to Adrianople and drive the Sultan of Turkey, who was also the ruler of the Holy Land, off his throne. Then, he promised, he personally would lead the dispersed remnants of Yisroel back to Mount Zion, to establish there the Kingdom of G-d that the Prophets of old had foretold. But when Sabbatai arrived in Adrianople, the Turkish authorities promptly clapped him in chains and threw him into a dungeon in the fortress of Abydos. Yet, so indestructible was the faith of his followers, that they did not feel the least bit discouraged by his imprisonment. On the contrary, they interpreted the incident as merely being the fulfillment of the Prophet Isaiah's description of “the suffering Messiah.” whom men would despise, mistreat, and persecute before they would be ready to acknowledge him. They actually were confident that the Sultan could do Sabbatai, the “chosen” of G-d, no physical harm. And so thousands everywhere, while waiting for his expected release, readied themselves for the impending world shaking climax. The climax came, but it was not in the awe inspiring manner that his believers had expected. When Shabbatai Zevi was faced by the Turkish authorities choice of either becoming aconvert to Islam or else suffering decapitation, the “anointed of the L-rd.”thought well enough of his head to turn Mohammedan.
The shock and disillusionment among the great mass of his adherents after this act of betrayal can be well imagined. They execrated his name and prayed that it should be blotted out forever from the memory of man. Nonetheless, so great was his hypnotic effect on some Jewish People, that notwithstanding full objective proof of his perfidy, they continued to believe in him and his “Messianic” election by G-d. Paradoxically, they even tried to rationalize away his misconduct by all kinds of mystical exegesis and followed his example(Jews followed Shabbatai and converted to Islam). The sectarian Mohammedan Donmeh in Turkey are the present day descendants of those unyielding adherents of the seventh century.
True enough, there appeared several other messianic visionaries and adventurers after Sabbatai Zevi's undoing. But they proved to be ineffectual. This was because the wounds of disenchantment among the Jews after their experience with
“the Messiah of Izmir” were so deep and lingering.
Like Judas Iscariot in Christian/ Messianic Galachim Notsri very symbolism, Sabbatai Zevi's name too entered into the vocabulary of contempt among the Yiddish folk in eastern Europe. The term Shabsaitzvinik is still being used by the Ultra Orthodox to describe a religious charlatan, blasphemer, and humbug.
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Lastly from theTanakh we have been taught.......
Mishle 6. 16-23
16.Toavat(These) Shesh (six) things does Hashem hate; indeed, Shevah(seven) are a To'evot (abomination) unto His Nefesh (soul); 17.Annayim Rmot(Haughty eyes, greedy after money, riches), a Lashon Sheker (Lying tongue), and hands(Yad) guilty of Shefach Dahm Naki (Hands that shed innocent blood,causes the death of the innocent Jews), 18. A Lev (heart) that devises[creates] Rah Machshevot (wicked plans), Raglayim(feet) that are swift in running to Ra'ah(evil, mischief, disorder, chaos). 19. An Ed Sheker (False witness, False Prophet, False Messiah) that speaks[promises] lies, and he that sows Medanim (contention, strife, discords, separates theJewish PeoplefromTora, Judaism, into another way, a fake way, aChameleon Jewishlooking falsity) amongAchim (Jewish communities, Jewish brothers, Jewish People). 20.Ami Beni (My Son), keep Ha'Mitzvat Avicha(The commandments of Your Father Hashem), and FORSAKE NOT HA'TORAT IMMECHA (TheTorashown to you by your mother); 21. Bind them Tamid (Continually) upon your Lev (Heart, Mind), and tie them about your Neck. 22. When you go, it shall guide you; when you sleep, it shall be Shomer (guard, protect, observe) over you; and when you awake, it shall talk to you. 23. For Ha'Mitzvah(The commandment) is a Ner (Lamp); and Tora an Ohr(Light); and Tokhakhot Musar (Reproofs of correction, discipline) areHa'Derech Chayyim (The way, direction to life).
Well share another text with you on part two of the lesson but, let's get a Ha'Parsanut Al Posikim......
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Mishle was written around 700 BCE., mostly by Shlomo, Agur and Lemuel.
Posuk 1, 3, 20 in chapter 6.
6:15-26. Besides causing discord(Metelekhet) among the Jewish people by his deceptive words(Milot Mata'ot) and his sinister gestures(Machot Maravasot), a scoundrel(Naval),false Prophet(Nevi'i Sheker), false Messiah(Moshiach Sheker) brings disaster(Shoah) not only on the Jewish People but on himself as a result of misleading(Ha'Mateh) the Jewish People, Hashem enacts his Shofet (Judgment). His downfall(Nifilah) is destined to be quick, complete, and certain. Hashem will cause the effects of his deceit to reveal for itself, who this crook really is, who the false messiah(Moshiach Sheker) is! Focus on Hashem and not whoever the Moshiach is!
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What has happened to all thefalse messiahs in Jewish History, they all have been found and killed and none of them has ever come back to report to us anything!!!
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Hashem's hatred of the Falsity(Ha'Kizev), the False Messiah(Moshiach Sheker),False Prophet's(Nevi'im Sheker), The crook(Ha'Nokal) is described in verses 16-19. These two sections are linked by the words “stirs up dissension” The six, seven pattern is also used in Iyov 5:19, and a similar pattern of other numbers plus one is used in Mishle 30:15-16, 18-19, 21-31. The purpose of this kind of numerical pattern (X and X +1) is not to give a complete list. Instead it is to stress the final (X + 1) item, as the culmination or product of its preceding item or events.
A person with haughty eyes(Anayim Yaharim), a proud look(Gah Nerah)icf. 8:13, 30:13; Tehilim 18:27; 101:5, a lying tongue (Lashon Sheker) (cf. Prov. 12:19; 21:6; 26:28), hands that murder(Yadim Sharzach), shed innocent blood(Lishpoch Dahm Chafim Mefsar), a heart that plots wicked actions
(Lev Ki Magrashim Ma'ashi Reshai'im), feet that move quickly into sin(Regalim Sherazot Bmaherot Lachtah), and one who lies against someone(Shekerim Nagad Meshehu) when witnessing in court is a person who causes discord among friends. Apparently by His lies he causes friends to be suspicious of each other. Lying(Shenivah) referred to twice in this list of things Hashem hates (vv. 17, 19), is one of the many wrong uses of words that are condemned in Mishle.The scoundrel, False Prophet, False Leader, False Messiah uses various parts of his body in violation of the commands in 4: 23-26, as seen in these passages: Heart, Mouth, Lips, Eyes, Feet (4:23-26); Mouth, Eye, Feet, Fingers, Heart (6:12-14); Eyes(Anayim), Tongue(Lashon), Hands(Yad), Heart(Lev), Feet(Raglayim) (vv. 17-18).
This man “The False Agenda, False Prophet, False Messiah used the weakness, the turmoil the Jewish People were facing at each false Messiah uneventful time, to pull his punt performance, showcase in times when the Jewish People were in Golus, Galut, exile, captivity, diaspora, trouble, enslavement to draw them into the counterfeit savior susceptibility of a “great hope” for Redemption- Geulah B'Rachamim. As with each troubled catastrophic time the Jews were in need for some rescue! And the hope of a promised Messiah coming, even a false one was hopeful in times of starvation, enslavement, abuse, murder and imprisonment-Ha’Shoah. All of these false movements, false messiahs but one, dispersed, died off when it's leader died but “The Jesus People.” After two thousand + years the Christian and even Hebrew Christian and some deceived Jews are still following this dead man, who has yet to return after more than 3000 years He's still dead!!!
It is imperative that we “the Jewish People” try drawing “our Jewish People” away from the deception chameleon religious pagan idolatrous cloaks, back to Mekarev (to bring back to “Judaism.”)! It is the one source throughout the last 5000 years that remained true, honest, Tora committed when these other groupings have come and gone, and others will rise up and fall in the future including “The Jesus People.” Some people think, proof of something being true is how long it last, this is not true a lie can last and be spread for thousands of years. It's tenacity to be spread and re-told does not prove authenticity! Misleading thousands, millions for centuries does not prove something is true because it out lasted many others. Paganism has been on the scene for over 7000 years does that make it the authentic way of Hashem because it has lasted for so long? Thus everything must be measured by Tora for authenticity!