Rambam[1]
tells us that there will be two Moshiachs. First, King David who is mentioned
many times in the bible, established his reign and drove out the enemies of
Israel with a strong hand. Then much later, at the end of Days, one of his
sons, who will be the final Moshiach, will organize and establish the Jewish
people. He will then prepare them, and the nations of the world, to serve
HaShem.
Rambam[2]
tells us that if a descendent of King David arrives who is great in Torah
learning and is diligent in doing good deeds as did his father David, who knows
the Written and the Oral Torah, and who will cause the Jews to follow the Torah
and to strengthen their belief in it, and he will wage wars for the honor of
HaShem; this person has arrived at a state where we assume that he is Moshiach,
even though we are not yet positive.
If he continues and succeeds,
and builds the Temple in its place, and gathers in the scattered Jews from
their places, then we assume that he is definitely Moshiach.
He will continue to fix up the
entire world and teach everyone to serve Hashem together, as it is said, ‘For
then I will change over among the nations a clear tongue, so that all of them
call out jn the Name of HaShem, and serve Him with one effort.”
We come now in the Rambam to
Chapter 12 passage 1.
Here the Rambam makes it clear
that the passages in the bible about the wolf lying down in peace with the lamb
are not to be taken literally, because these passages simply teach that the
nations who were once ferocious enemies of Jews and killed them, robbed them
and beat them, will then become one nation with Israel to serve HaShem
together. But a wolf remains a wolf, even when Moshiach comes.
The Rayved, a great sage who
was older than the Rambam, disagreed. He quotes the biblical passage “And I
will destroy wild animals” to mean exactly that. A wolf will not eat a sheep.
So he disagrees with the Rambam.
It is important that we note
the relationship between Rayved and Rambam. Rambam was younger than the Rayved,
and it is possible that the magnificent line of great rabbis and saints in the
Rayved’s family were special. Furthermore, the Rambam was not just a great
Torah scholar. He spent a lot of time serving the King of Egypt, the mighty
warrior Sulleiman, and he was very close to him and honored greatly.
There is a story I once heard:
Somebody in the court of the King of Egypt announced that he had trained a cat
to sit like a person, not like a cat. Rambam publicly disagreed. So, there was
a test. The man produced his trained cat, and encouraged him to climb up and
sit like a person and the cat began to eat like a person. Rambam came along,
removed a mouse from his pocket, and threw it down. In a flash the cat was away
from his chair and chasing the mouse. The Rambam won.
When Rambam noticed the
criticism of the Rayved on his Mishneh Torah, he replied, “Nobody ever defeated
me who was not an expert in only one type of learning.” Meaning, Rambam was a
famous doctor, who served the family of the King and many others, besides being
a great Torah scholar. Rayved was not a doctor so he was “an expert in only one
type of learning.” But both got along well with respect.
Rambam then says that we don’t
know clearly what exactly will happen in the times of Messianic revelations.[3]
But from reading biblical passages we sense that there will be a war of Gog and
Magog, perhaps a war HaShem makes on the enemies of Israel, but before then a
prophet, perhaps Eliyohu, will come to restore peace to parents and children.
Rambam says that nobody knows
exactly what Messianic times means, but we must believe in it; and how it
appears will only be known then.
Rambam says[4]
when the last Moshiach will become established and gather in the scattered of
Israel, he will begin designing the roles for the Levites and other Jews, with
the power given him by Heaven to obtain Ruach HaKodesh, the holy heavenly
spirit.
Rambam continued[5]
The sages and prophets did not desire the Days of Moshiach to conquer the
world, or to conquer nations, or to be elevated by other nations, or to eat and
drink and rejoice, but only to be free to study Torah and its wisdom in order
to merit the Higher World.
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