The Messianic hope, which originated in Biblical times as hope for a new, triumphant Jewish king, expanded and developed in the course or the centuries until it encompassed the hope for individual, national, and universal redemption. It freed man from his fixation on a mythological or legendary past and encouraged him to look forward. Belief in the coming of the Messiah inspired fighters and dreamers, militants and escapists, rationalists and mystics. It taught people how to wait and be patient, since there was something worth waiting for. Many waited, others sought to “hasten the end.” Messianic impatience gave rise to nihilists and revolutionaries.

The vision of the Messiah gave meaning to martyrdom, ancient and modern. The Alenu prayer—a contemplation of the Kingdom of God—was the final prayer of the medieval Jewish martyrs. And those who marched to their doom in Hitler’s death camps sang: “Vos vet zein az der Moshiach vet kumen?”—What will happen when the Messiah comes?

Since there was no dogma to stabilize the functions and the features of the Messiah, scores of possibilities presented themselves to the mystical imagination, to theological thinking, and to popular fancy. There was the lowly king “riding upon an ass,” and “the son of man coming with the clouds of heaven”; there was Messiah, the bruised beggar waiting before the gates of Rome, and Messiah, the son of Joseph, who leads in the battle against Gog and Magog and falls. Against the Messiah destined to fail, there was posed the Messiah who was son of David and who must succeed—or else “it is obvious that he is not the one promised.” There was Messiah, the arbiter of the world, and Messiah, the miraculous redeemer. . . .

It is not surprising that a people known for their love of learning should envisage the Messiah in the role of teacher, too, and should attribute to learned discourse a redemptive quality. The Midrash already spoke of the Messianic king who would teach the nations (Genesis Rabba 98:14). The Lord himself, who even now starts his “day” by studying the Torah (Abodah Zarah 3b), will teach his children in the Messianic Age (Midrash Tehillim to Psalm 21:1).

Our first selection below is from the early medieval “Alphabet of Rabbi Akiba” (published by A. Jellinek in Beth Ha-Midrash, Leipzig, 1853, vol. III). The second selection is based on a medieval Yemenite manuscript (published by Yehuda Ibn Shmuel in Midreshey Geulah, Jerusalem, 1954). The translation of both is my own.—Nahum N. Glatzer

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At that future time, the Holy One, blessed be He, will sit down in the Garden of Eden and teach, and all the righteous ones will sit before Him. The Celestial Family will be present there: to His right the sun and the planets, to His left the moon and all the stars. The Holy One, blessed be He, will explain the principles of the new Torah which He is about to issue through the Messiah. When He reaches the homily, Zerubbabel the son of Sealtiel [who once led the Exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem] will rise and proclaim: “Magnified and sanctified be His great name.” His voice will reach from one corner of the world to the other and all people will respond and say. “Amen!” Even those from among the Israelites and the heathens who are still confined in Gehenna, the place of punishment, even they will respond and say “Amen!” out of Gehenna, and their Amen will shake the world and will be heard by the Holy One, blessed be He. The Lord will ask: What is this frightful voice which I have heard? The ministering angels will answer Him: Master of the Universe, this was the voice of people in Gehenna, faithfully responding with Amen. Whereupon the Lord’s compassion will be moved strongly toward them, and He will say: Why should I punish them beyond what they have already endured? The Evil Impulse caused them to fail. In that hour will the Lord take the keys of Gehenna, hand them over to Michael and Gabriel in the presence of all the righteous ones, and say: Go and open the gates of Gehenna and let them come out. As it says: Open ye the gates that the righteous people that keepeth faith may enter in (Isa. 26:2). Then go forth Michael and Gabriel, open the gates of Gehenna, grasp each person by his hand and lead him out of Gehenna, wash him, anoint him, heal him from the wounds of Gehenna, clothe him with beautiful and good garments, grasp each one by his hand and bring him before the Holy One, blessed be He, and before all the righteous ones.

Scripture says: Let Thy priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and let Thy pious ones rejoice in good (II Chron. 6:41). By “priests” Scripture means the righteous among the Gentiles who serve God as priests in this world; by “pious ones” Scripture means those who formerly were wicked in Israel.

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II

In the Messianic future the Holy One, blessed be He, will call the Garden of Eden “Zion” and Zion He will call Garden of Eden. The desolate places in Zion He will make bloom like Paradise. He will build a Jerusalem in Heaven and call it “the throne of the Lord.” The righteous ones who remained in Zion and the pious ones who were found there will all be placed on thrones of glory, and a crown will be put on the head of every one, and the Divine splendor will be reflected in their faces. The Holy One, blessed be He, will write down the name of every righteous one for a good life, and for blessed years in the Messianic Age, so that he may take part in the joy of Zion and the gladness of Jerusalem. As Scripture says: Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her (Isa. 66:10). The Messiah, son of David, will be given his seat in the academy on High; they will call him “Lord” just as they call his Master, as it is written: And this is his name whereby he shall be called, the Lord our righteousness (Jer. 23:6).

And as the Messiah sits in his Academy, all the people will come and sit before him to listen to the new teaching and new laws and profound wisdom which he will teach Israel. Elijah the prophet—may he be remembered for blessing—will stand as an interpreter before the Messiah, whose voice will reach from one end of the world to the other.

What will come to pass in that hour? It will come to pass that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Joseph and all the tribes, Moses and all the prophets, Aaron and all the Temple servants, Samuel and all the seers, David and all the kings, Solomon and all the wise men, Daniel and all the pious, Mordecai and all the sages, Ezra and all the scribes, the Hasmonean and all the heroes, Nehemiah and all the enlightened ones, yes, all the righteous ones, all of them will rise from their graves by the power of the Holy Spirit, and come and take their seats in the Academy of the Messiah and listen to his discourse on the Torah and the Laws.

And the Holy One, blessed be He, will reveal to them through Elijah—may he be remembered for blessing—laws of life, laws of peace, laws of zeal, laws of purity, laws of restraint, laws of piety, laws of justice. Whosoever hears the discourse issuing from the mouth of the Messiah, he will never forget it, because it is the Holy One, blessed be He, who makes himself manifest in the Academy of the Messiah, and it is He who pours from His Holy Spirit over all the human beings in that Academy so that the Holy Spirit rests upon each and every one. In that Academy man’s own reason will make him understand the laws, the exegesis, the deliberations, the lore, and the traditions; each one will know out of his own knowledge; as Scripture says: And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions (Joel 3:1). Even men servants and maid servants which were bought from the heathen nations will be endowed with the Holy Spirit and be able to engage in a discourse; as it says: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My spirit (Joel 3:2). And each one will have a study room in his home, a room for the Divine Presence.

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