Mashiach

by R. Gidon Rothstein Maharal’s Days of Mashiach: The Nature of Nature Maharal’s system forces the conclusion, in chapter 48 of Netzach Yisrael, that the Messianic era will last forever. Since he views perfection as ultimate form, once an item gets there, it cannot change or lose itself, because that would not be perfection. This explains, for him, why the ...

by R. Gidon Rothstein Maharal, Week Two: A Time Utterly Different Than Our Own Maharal bases his ideas of how the days of Mashiach will look in Talmudic texts. He cites them at length, and goes through them step by step, interpreting them in the way that reveals his view of the Messianic world. Those interpretations, however, aren’t simple or ...

by R. Gidon Rothstein Maharal’s Yemot HaMashiach: Getting at the Roots Part of what I find interesting in studying different Torah scholars’ perspectives on the same topic is that juxtaposing them gives us a clearer picture of their varying foci. Rambam was interested in the Messianic era as a time when the world could better focus on service of Hashem, ...

by R. Gidon Rothstein Abarbanel’s Yemot HaMashiach: Depths of Exile and Wonders of Redemption Mashmi’a Yeshu’a is a book about the prophets who predicted salvation for the Jewish people. In theory, Abarbanel could have shared only those prophecies that had new information about the Messianic era, and noted in the introduction or conclusion that he’s skipped many prophecies that echo ...

by R. Gidon Rothstein Yeshayahu’s View of Gog u-Magog and International Relations During Yemot HaMashiach Yeshayahu 18 is the beginning of the third of Yeshayahu’s prophecies that Abarbanel discusses. Traditional commentary (as opposed to Christian, which Abarbanel summarizes but we will ignore) read the chapter as being about the war of Gog and Magog to which other prophets (most explicitly, ...

by R. Gidon Rothstein Abarbanel’s Understanding of Yeshayahu’s Yemot HaMashiach: Changes in the World and the King Who Will Inaugurate Them Abarbanel deals with Yeshayahu’s vision of the Messianic era at remarkable length [I find it especially remarkable because he was pre-printing, mostly, so that to write at such length implies a confidence in readers’ willingness to transcribe this that ...

by R. Gidon Rothstein R. Isaac Abarbanel’s View of Yemot HaMashiach: Introduction R. Don Isaac Abarbanel (I will follow common convention and refer to him just as Abarbanel) had as much reason as anyone to long for the Arrival of Mashiach. He had been forced out of his native Portugal in 1483, then Spain during the Expulsion of 1492. Add ...

by R. Gidon Rothstein Welcome to a new series for Torah Musings, discussing views of the Messianic era in Jewish thought. I don’t intend to be comprehensive; rather, by comparing Rambam’s view (which we can cover in one week), some of what Abarbanel had to say about that time (another week), and moving on to an extended engagement with Maharal’s ...