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Someone wrote "Shalom. I have a question regarding Talmud Bavli Sanhedrin 98a. I have heard missionaries and other Christians states that the passage from that Tractate states that Mashiach can come on one of two ways. If the Jewish people merit redemption, he will come with the clouds of heaven (Daniel 7:13) whereas if the Jewish people do not merit redemption, he will come humble on a donkey (Zech 9:9). These Christians claim that 2000 years ago, the Jewish people did not merit redemption and therefore, Mashiach has to come as a humble man on a donkey. What is the response to this?" Do you suppose the missionaries making that claim realize that this part of the Talmud was written hundreds of years AFTER the death of Jesus? For nearly 200 years the sages worked together to write down Jewish law so that it would not be forgotten. This Herculean effort, the מִשְׁנָה / Mishna, was finalized around 190 CE. Jews being Jews, no sooner was the מִשְׁנָה / Mishna complete then the discussions began. These discussions were never about core matters of Judaism. Each and every single debate in the history of Jewish Law has been about a minor detail of the Torah. These discussions came to be written down and called the Gemara. The passage in question is found in the Gemara. The Babylonian Talmud was completed 500 years after Jesus -- including the Mishna and the Gemara. It was edited for the next 200 years... So this discussion took place long after Jesus died and they were still discussing just "who" this messiah might be! So much for this passage pointing to Jesus, he'd been dead for around 500 years! The מִשְׁנָה / Mishna was created to be a "cheat sheet" for a learned person -- the writing was kept to a minimum and meant only to serve as a aid to faltering memories who were taught to memorize the oral mitzvot. It was necessary because Jews were living throughout the known world with a very large community in Babylon. These rules had been maintained in courts of law from generation to generation, but for fear that some would be lost they were written down. There were details and discussions around the Mishna. These discussions may discuss the finer points of Jewish law (מִדְךְשׁי הֲלָכָה / Midrash Halacha), but there are also stories and humor as well. These stories, humor and more are all part of מִדְרַשׁ־אַגָּדָה / Midrash Aggadah. מִדְרַשׁ־אַגָּדָה / Midrash Aggadah is not prophecy or meant to be taken literally. . . a word or sentence is lifted from the bible to make a moral point. However, prophecy is NEVER based on these flights of fancy. The missionaries are taking story telling -- humor -- and trying to present it as if the messiah will either come from the clouds (which is ridiculous since this was a VISION in Daniel and the messiah will be a normal human) or lowly and humbly... This is wrong, and it is deceitful. Whether or not the missionaries misusing this passage realize they are distorting it is open to question. Most of them probably do not know anything about the Talmud or Judaism let alone מִדְרַשׁ־אַגָּדָה / Midrash Aggadah. The modern resource The Encyclopedia Judaica says this about :אַגָּדָה / aggadah: "The aggadah comprehends a great variety of forms and content. It includes narrative, legends, doctrines, admonitions to ethical conduct and good behavior, words of encouragement and comfort, and expressions of hope for future redemption. Its forms and modes of expression are as rich and colorful as its content. Parables and allegories, metaphors and terse maxims; lyrics, dirges, and prayers, biting satire and fierce polemic, idyllic tales and tense dramatic dialogues, hyperboles and plays on words, permutations of letters, calculations of their arithmetical values (gematria) or their employment as initials of other words (notarikon) – all are found in the aggadah." The point of this passage is that no one knows who the messiah will be or when he will come -- he could be rich, he could be poor... in every generation lives a man who could be the messiah if we warrant him... Yet again missionaries are distorting Jewish teachings. Big surprise! Isn't it interesting how they ignore the parts that refute Christianity? Also in Sanhedrin 98a is the passage "Ze’eiri says that Rabbi Ḥanina says: The son of David will not come until the arrogant will cease to exist from among the Jewish people, as it is stated: “For then I will remove from your midst your proudly exulting ones” (Zephaniah 3:11)." This discussion of "when will the messiah comes" is recorded hundreds of years after Jesus died. The criteria mentioned by R' Ze'eiri is the opposite of the time of Jesus when there were many different divisions among the Jewish people who arrogantly fought each other -- leading to the eventual destruction of the Temple in 68 CE due to baseless hatred of Jew against Jew. Thus Jesus could not be the messiah just based on this one sentence in Sanhedrin 98a if the missionaries were to seriously accept any of it! Who will be the messiah? No one knows. How long will the messianic era last? No one knows:
The point of the discussion in Sanhedrin 98 (a and b) is not to waste your time endlessly speculating as to when the messiah will come, or who he might be, or even how long it may last. He will come when he comes -- whether by our merit or by G-d's timeline... For a shiur on the daf (Sanhedrin 98a) visit Yeshiva University Torah Online. For a point by point outline of the daf visit Daf Yomi.
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