Nadene Goldfoot
The world is, according to Jewish history, 5,779 years old. We use that on our calendars. We're all Homo Sapiens who go back farther than written history over 100,000 years ago, but we feel that a special spark entered our mankind about this far back. We people are all connected to each other through our mothers who were but a handful of women living tens of thousands of years ago. It was only about 10,000 years ago that mammoths ruled the lands with cavemen and women. They now say that Jews come from 4 unrelated women as well some time ago.
One of the greatest movies I remember was 10,000 BC which is now a 2008 American epic adventure film from Warner Bros. set in the prehistoric era, about the journeys of a prehistoric tribe of mammoth hunters.
Biblically:
"First, we know that the entire human race consisted of eight individuals at the end of the Flood, around 2350 BC. (This was about 4,369 years ago.) This was one “family,” but four were women who married into Noah’s line. So the maximum number of family lines who brought their genes onto the Ark was five (four potentially unrelated women, and one line of men.
We're at the height of the world's technical inventions and intelligence. We've been to the moon, have sent a space ship to Mars, can give a person a new heart if his has worn out, such capabilities! Yes, but the world is in desperate need of Messianic redemption. So many belonging to Judaism, Christianity and Islam are waiting and expecting THE MESSIAH at any time now as this is considered THE END TIMES. Maybe it's because things can't get any worse along with these great inventions. We've got not only the atom bomb but the hydrogen bomb where we could blow up this lovely planet or at least harm it for centuries and make it unlivable.
People are at the point of hating each other though these 3 religions are meant to foster love and care for each other. What is lacking, here? What seems to be man's base nature, anyway? Religion is supposed to make them better people. The United States has been at each other's throats with an impending Republican Democrat Civil War. The Middle East is constantly unsettled, now with Iran trying to take over the world, and Russia is involved with Venuzuela! What a love affair that is turning out to be with the electric lights continually going out in this South American country.
How are we to help the coming of the Messiah? The best way is to love all humanity generously, and this already proves to be impossible for the whole world to follow. Jews are also told that we need to keep the mitzvot of the Torah as best as we can, and to encourage others to do so, as well. Perhaps the 10 basic rules are those to work on. They are still hard to follow, even after Moses gave them to us about 3,300 years ago. Our math skills may be great but not our inner empathy skills that separate us from our Neanderthal genes.
What other explanation can I give and still be nice?
The qualities of the Messiah as seen in Jewish literature will be:
1. Born to human parents, have normal physical attributes like other people. No supernatural qualities like Superman and will not be a demi-god as seen in Greek narratives.
2. Genetically, from his father's side he will be descended from King David. This means to me that his Y haplogroup will show he is of the Cohen gene, a J1 or J2 . It's only now that we can tell for sure just what the line of Kind David would be, and even that is not 100% to be trusted. We have not sampled his body's cells to find his haplogroup. We are trusting in the fact that at least half the Jewish men today carry this haplogroup. The fact is that most men of the Middle East also carry this haplogroup, which gives credence to the Torah saying that there was Ishmael who was a son of Abraham and that Esau went off to live with Ishmael's people instead of staying with his twin, Jacob and his father, Isaac. This makes them our cousins.
Right now, genetic testing is not used to declare anything legally. How one can prove someone is of King David's line without it would need quite a well developed tree to remain readable with the care that the Torah has had. There are such trees, but continuing on to this day is rare. There is one on Rabbi Elijah ben Solomon-who went by the name of THE GAON OF VILNA. His parents were Rabbi Shlomo-Zalman who died in 1758 and wife Treina. Another was Rabbi Samson Wertheimer born 1658 in Worms, Germany. The tree of RASHI is still in existence and may be the one used. Rashi -Rabbi Solomon Yitzhaki ben Isaac-born in Troyes, France in 1040 had a tree that did go back to King David and this was well known and well-used. RASHI was about the best known commentator of our Bible and is still quoted in our prayer books. Rabbi Wertheimer connected to Rashi as many others did as well. In biblical days,
your genealogy was very important. Serving in court systems depended on it. I connect to this same Rabbi Wertheimer as many others do, too.
He will be a rabbi in that he will lead the Jewish people in full Torah observance. Anyone coming to change the Torah in any way will immediately be identified as a false prophet, and we've had our share of those in more than one claim in the past.
3. Prophetic passages in the Bible speak of a descendant of King David who will rule Israel during the age of perfection. This Messiah most likely will be a citizen of Israel. We will recognize the Messiah by seeing who the King of Israel is at the time of complete universal perfection. Therefore it will have a lot to do with who the president or prime minister of Israel will be then, or king for that matter if reverting back to kingship should happen.
4. What is his duty? Role? Messiah or Mashiach simply means the anointed one, a person in G-d's service who was anointed with oil as the initiation. This is an ancient practice for every king and high priest was initiated into service with this prelude. Prophecy from our prophets included a promise of a future age of perfection that would be of universal peace and the recognition of G-d. This is because without G-d, the people would run amok and do wild things like sacrifice people in the hope for better weather, better crops, the appearance of herds of animals for food, and go wild during earthquakes with fear. Today we again have many atheists who believe they have no need for the concept of a G-d in control of the world. They have no concrete yardstick of measuring their behavior, which is something religion gives to others who do. They have no answer to questions such as why do right or not do wrong other than their own civilization's rules. The Mashiach's duty would be to establish the ushering in of this special period of universal peace.
A. He is to build the 3rd Temple.
B. He will gather all Jews back to the Land of Israel. (This has been going on already with the Israeli government. We still have yet to bring in some Pashtuns from Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of India. It may be that there are Christian groups from nearby neighboring states of Israel who also have a claim of being part of the Lost 10 Tribes or from the Babylonian Judaea, Benjamin group.) Even the Palestinians may also claim to be Lost Tribal members. The question is, do they want to become followers of the Torah? Those that have already returned are. Israel is a teeny state. Need I say more? I'm waiting on the Mashiach for that. If some are left out, he is to do it.
C. Usher in an era of world peace and end all hatred, oppression, suffering and disease. That is one big order. It would have to be of the END OF TIMES for that to be fulfilled. Involved would have to be a melding of politics, psychology, sociology, the medical profession, and science. We're getting close.
For it says: NATION SHALL NOT LIFT UP SWORD AGAINST NATION, NEITHER SHALL MAN LEARN WAR ANYMORE. We can thank Isaiah's prophecy for that.
D. The Mashiach is to spread universal knowledge of the G-d of Israel, which will unite humanity as one. As it says, "GOD WILL BE KING OVER ALL THE WORLD--ON THAT DAY, G-D WILL BE ONE AND HIS NAME WILL BE ONE. The prophet Zechariah said that one. This covers the fact that Jews have not prophesied at all, were not permitted by the laws of the new Roman Christian church. Since then, every religion under the sun has been busy proselytizing to us Jews! We haven't appreciated this one iota since it hasn't shown any respect for our religion, which happens to be the parent religion of both Christianity and Islam, by the way. So this last position on the Mashiach's list of to do's makes even me nervous. I have a Christian friend who has been doing just this; and he follows Judaism, the Torah, studies it with a group, and remains a Christian. He's a great person. Perhaps this is what the Mashiach is to do, what his end goal is to be. We cannot expect more. I have a lady friend nearby who is also of the same belief. So people are starting to inquire about the Torah and respect it. I don't think we could have found even 2 people like this 100 years ago.
It will not be easy to find the Mashiach. If an individual fails to fulfill even one of these conditions, then he cannot be THE MASHIACH.
The Mashiach we await will be the greatest prophet in our history, 2nd only to Moses. This causes problems. Prophecy can only exist in Israel when the land is being lived in by a majority of world Jewry, a situation which has not existed since 300 BCE. Right now there are 6 million Jews living in Israel.
We have about 6 million in Israel and 6 million in the USA and 2 million elsewhere in the world, many of which are still in Europe. During the time of Ezra when the majority of Jews refused to leave Babylon where they had been taken to by the Babylonians in 597 and again in 586 BCE, prophecy came to an official end upon the death of the last prophets-Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.
Conditions today as far as anti-Semitism goes, is very bad throughout the world. Europe again is the scene of a great deal of serious anti-Semitism. The UN is one of the greatest producers of this thinking. This is why such a little teeny state has gained such interest to people. It's one reason why some people care what is happening to 0.02% of the world's population-the Jews.
One apparent sign is that the Jewish people have returned to the Land of Israel and made it bloom again. A major movement is that of young Jews returning to Torah tradition. I've seen this happen in my own city and even in my own family. I myself had made aliyah to Israel in 1980 and was able to stay for over 5 years. As Jews become interested in their religion, hatred and accusations are developing such as in our own USA Congress against Jews and Israel.
Judaism is not a belief in miracles. It's the history of the personal eyewitness experience that our ancestors had, all the men, women and children who stood at Mount Sinai 3,300 years ago. What happened there were no miracles. Our belief is not in miracles as then we would have lingering doubts. Miracles can be performed through magic tricks. What one might consider a miracle that he pulled in the desert he did because of necessity-and using some kind of basic science, and not as proof of his prophecy. We're a people who have been discouraged from believing in such things as miracles that are used as a base to cause a belief.
This comes to us through Maimonides, who was MOSES BEN MAIMON who was born in 1135 and died in 1204. He was a philosopher, halakhist and medical writer. Born in Cordova, Spain, he would be a Sephardic Jew. He and his family escaped the Almohade persecutions. See, anti-Semitism way back then in Spain was happening. He arrived in Palestine in 1165 at age 30. One thing he studied was logic; our thinking skills. He established a list of the 613 Precepts. He suffered from the Crusades, kept from settling in Palestine, so he and his family went to Egypt and later became the physician to the viceroy of Egypt. He died at age 70 and was buried in Tiberias. All his life he was a writer about Judaism.
I remember reading about several rabbis who were walking about looking at the small children, and asking themselves if this could be the Mashiach. One never knows.
Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
The SEVEN DAUGHTERS OF EVE by BRYAN SYKES
http://www.aish.com/print/?contentID=48892792§ion=/jw/s, Rabbi Shraga Simmons, 5 pages.
One of the greatest movies I remember was 10,000 BC which is now a 2008 American epic adventure film from Warner Bros. set in the prehistoric era, about the journeys of a prehistoric tribe of mammoth hunters.
 |
| I love books by Jean M. Auel like THE SHELTERS OF STONE |
Biblically:
"First, we know that the entire human race consisted of eight individuals at the end of the Flood, around 2350 BC. (This was about 4,369 years ago.) This was one “family,” but four were women who married into Noah’s line. So the maximum number of family lines who brought their genes onto the Ark was five (four potentially unrelated women, and one line of men.
 |
| Landed on moon 50 years ago in 1969 |
We're at the height of the world's technical inventions and intelligence. We've been to the moon, have sent a space ship to Mars, can give a person a new heart if his has worn out, such capabilities! Yes, but the world is in desperate need of Messianic redemption. So many belonging to Judaism, Christianity and Islam are waiting and expecting THE MESSIAH at any time now as this is considered THE END TIMES. Maybe it's because things can't get any worse along with these great inventions. We've got not only the atom bomb but the hydrogen bomb where we could blow up this lovely planet or at least harm it for centuries and make it unlivable.
People are at the point of hating each other though these 3 religions are meant to foster love and care for each other. What is lacking, here? What seems to be man's base nature, anyway? Religion is supposed to make them better people. The United States has been at each other's throats with an impending Republican Democrat Civil War. The Middle East is constantly unsettled, now with Iran trying to take over the world, and Russia is involved with Venuzuela! What a love affair that is turning out to be with the electric lights continually going out in this South American country.
 |
| Israeli doctors at Gaza fence giving medial aid |
How are we to help the coming of the Messiah? The best way is to love all humanity generously, and this already proves to be impossible for the whole world to follow. Jews are also told that we need to keep the mitzvot of the Torah as best as we can, and to encourage others to do so, as well. Perhaps the 10 basic rules are those to work on. They are still hard to follow, even after Moses gave them to us about 3,300 years ago. Our math skills may be great but not our inner empathy skills that separate us from our Neanderthal genes.
What other explanation can I give and still be nice?
The qualities of the Messiah as seen in Jewish literature will be:
1. Born to human parents, have normal physical attributes like other people. No supernatural qualities like Superman and will not be a demi-god as seen in Greek narratives.
2. Genetically, from his father's side he will be descended from King David. This means to me that his Y haplogroup will show he is of the Cohen gene, a J1 or J2 . It's only now that we can tell for sure just what the line of Kind David would be, and even that is not 100% to be trusted. We have not sampled his body's cells to find his haplogroup. We are trusting in the fact that at least half the Jewish men today carry this haplogroup. The fact is that most men of the Middle East also carry this haplogroup, which gives credence to the Torah saying that there was Ishmael who was a son of Abraham and that Esau went off to live with Ishmael's people instead of staying with his twin, Jacob and his father, Isaac. This makes them our cousins.
 |
| Rabbi Samson Wertheimer |
Right now, genetic testing is not used to declare anything legally. How one can prove someone is of King David's line without it would need quite a well developed tree to remain readable with the care that the Torah has had. There are such trees, but continuing on to this day is rare. There is one on Rabbi Elijah ben Solomon-who went by the name of THE GAON OF VILNA. His parents were Rabbi Shlomo-Zalman who died in 1758 and wife Treina. Another was Rabbi Samson Wertheimer born 1658 in Worms, Germany. The tree of RASHI is still in existence and may be the one used. Rashi -Rabbi Solomon Yitzhaki ben Isaac-born in Troyes, France in 1040 had a tree that did go back to King David and this was well known and well-used. RASHI was about the best known commentator of our Bible and is still quoted in our prayer books. Rabbi Wertheimer connected to Rashi as many others did as well. In biblical days,
your genealogy was very important. Serving in court systems depended on it. I connect to this same Rabbi Wertheimer as many others do, too.
He will be a rabbi in that he will lead the Jewish people in full Torah observance. Anyone coming to change the Torah in any way will immediately be identified as a false prophet, and we've had our share of those in more than one claim in the past.
3. Prophetic passages in the Bible speak of a descendant of King David who will rule Israel during the age of perfection. This Messiah most likely will be a citizen of Israel. We will recognize the Messiah by seeing who the King of Israel is at the time of complete universal perfection. Therefore it will have a lot to do with who the president or prime minister of Israel will be then, or king for that matter if reverting back to kingship should happen.
4. What is his duty? Role? Messiah or Mashiach simply means the anointed one, a person in G-d's service who was anointed with oil as the initiation. This is an ancient practice for every king and high priest was initiated into service with this prelude. Prophecy from our prophets included a promise of a future age of perfection that would be of universal peace and the recognition of G-d. This is because without G-d, the people would run amok and do wild things like sacrifice people in the hope for better weather, better crops, the appearance of herds of animals for food, and go wild during earthquakes with fear. Today we again have many atheists who believe they have no need for the concept of a G-d in control of the world. They have no concrete yardstick of measuring their behavior, which is something religion gives to others who do. They have no answer to questions such as why do right or not do wrong other than their own civilization's rules. The Mashiach's duty would be to establish the ushering in of this special period of universal peace.
A. He is to build the 3rd Temple.
B. He will gather all Jews back to the Land of Israel. (This has been going on already with the Israeli government. We still have yet to bring in some Pashtuns from Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of India. It may be that there are Christian groups from nearby neighboring states of Israel who also have a claim of being part of the Lost 10 Tribes or from the Babylonian Judaea, Benjamin group.) Even the Palestinians may also claim to be Lost Tribal members. The question is, do they want to become followers of the Torah? Those that have already returned are. Israel is a teeny state. Need I say more? I'm waiting on the Mashiach for that. If some are left out, he is to do it.
C. Usher in an era of world peace and end all hatred, oppression, suffering and disease. That is one big order. It would have to be of the END OF TIMES for that to be fulfilled. Involved would have to be a melding of politics, psychology, sociology, the medical profession, and science. We're getting close.
For it says: NATION SHALL NOT LIFT UP SWORD AGAINST NATION, NEITHER SHALL MAN LEARN WAR ANYMORE. We can thank Isaiah's prophecy for that.
D. The Mashiach is to spread universal knowledge of the G-d of Israel, which will unite humanity as one. As it says, "GOD WILL BE KING OVER ALL THE WORLD--ON THAT DAY, G-D WILL BE ONE AND HIS NAME WILL BE ONE. The prophet Zechariah said that one. This covers the fact that Jews have not prophesied at all, were not permitted by the laws of the new Roman Christian church. Since then, every religion under the sun has been busy proselytizing to us Jews! We haven't appreciated this one iota since it hasn't shown any respect for our religion, which happens to be the parent religion of both Christianity and Islam, by the way. So this last position on the Mashiach's list of to do's makes even me nervous. I have a Christian friend who has been doing just this; and he follows Judaism, the Torah, studies it with a group, and remains a Christian. He's a great person. Perhaps this is what the Mashiach is to do, what his end goal is to be. We cannot expect more. I have a lady friend nearby who is also of the same belief. So people are starting to inquire about the Torah and respect it. I don't think we could have found even 2 people like this 100 years ago.
It will not be easy to find the Mashiach. If an individual fails to fulfill even one of these conditions, then he cannot be THE MASHIACH.
The Mashiach we await will be the greatest prophet in our history, 2nd only to Moses. This causes problems. Prophecy can only exist in Israel when the land is being lived in by a majority of world Jewry, a situation which has not existed since 300 BCE. Right now there are 6 million Jews living in Israel.
We have about 6 million in Israel and 6 million in the USA and 2 million elsewhere in the world, many of which are still in Europe. During the time of Ezra when the majority of Jews refused to leave Babylon where they had been taken to by the Babylonians in 597 and again in 586 BCE, prophecy came to an official end upon the death of the last prophets-Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.
Conditions today as far as anti-Semitism goes, is very bad throughout the world. Europe again is the scene of a great deal of serious anti-Semitism. The UN is one of the greatest producers of this thinking. This is why such a little teeny state has gained such interest to people. It's one reason why some people care what is happening to 0.02% of the world's population-the Jews.
One apparent sign is that the Jewish people have returned to the Land of Israel and made it bloom again. A major movement is that of young Jews returning to Torah tradition. I've seen this happen in my own city and even in my own family. I myself had made aliyah to Israel in 1980 and was able to stay for over 5 years. As Jews become interested in their religion, hatred and accusations are developing such as in our own USA Congress against Jews and Israel.
Judaism is not a belief in miracles. It's the history of the personal eyewitness experience that our ancestors had, all the men, women and children who stood at Mount Sinai 3,300 years ago. What happened there were no miracles. Our belief is not in miracles as then we would have lingering doubts. Miracles can be performed through magic tricks. What one might consider a miracle that he pulled in the desert he did because of necessity-and using some kind of basic science, and not as proof of his prophecy. We're a people who have been discouraged from believing in such things as miracles that are used as a base to cause a belief.
This comes to us through Maimonides, who was MOSES BEN MAIMON who was born in 1135 and died in 1204. He was a philosopher, halakhist and medical writer. Born in Cordova, Spain, he would be a Sephardic Jew. He and his family escaped the Almohade persecutions. See, anti-Semitism way back then in Spain was happening. He arrived in Palestine in 1165 at age 30. One thing he studied was logic; our thinking skills. He established a list of the 613 Precepts. He suffered from the Crusades, kept from settling in Palestine, so he and his family went to Egypt and later became the physician to the viceroy of Egypt. He died at age 70 and was buried in Tiberias. All his life he was a writer about Judaism.
I remember reading about several rabbis who were walking about looking at the small children, and asking themselves if this could be the Mashiach. One never knows.
Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
The SEVEN DAUGHTERS OF EVE by BRYAN SYKES
http://www.aish.com/print/?contentID=48892792§ion=/jw/s, Rabbi Shraga Simmons, 5 pages.
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