B”H
Greetings, all:
In the last class we continued our study of Likutei Moharan. In this text, reference is made to Moshiach ben Yosef. R. Avram assigned us to research Moshiach ben Yosef.
I wanted to point everyone to an article on Moshiach.com by R. Emanuel Schochet that gives a nice, fairly detailed but not laborious treatment of the subject. I found it a useful overview.
The specific article is located at: http://www.moshiach.com/topics/in-depth/moshiach-ben-yossef.php
Please add your findings on this topic by subnitting a comment to this post.
b’shalom,
shir ‘Az
June 16, 2008 at 11:40 pm
I have found this site as well, and from all the ones I found, it is the best IMHO. I find it particularly interesting that the role Moshiach ben Yosef is purely conditional, but parameters of these conditions are not very clear. It is also interesting, that for some unexplainable reason, the Mormons consider the founder of their chusrch to be Moshiach ben Yosef. One would think that with all these Jewish lawyers we would start to enforce our trademarks and copyrights.:=)
June 18, 2008 at 11:30 pm
shir”az,
Thank you for directing us to Immanuel Schochet’s article. In reading this article and others on the question of Moshiach Ben Yoseef/David I find myself wondering in the 21st century what is the purpose of q Moshiach and is it necessary to have a Moshiach appear for our redemption?
We have been in Galut for many centuries and t Hashem said that each one of us is a temple through which we may find redemption. I realize that the function of Moshiach ben David is to bring redemption to Israel, yet even in Israel where connection to Hashem our strongest is their not danger in looking toward a Moshiach to bring about redemption.
Luria said each one of us through our holy sparks become the collective Moshiach. Is it possible that by holding on to the belief of Mishiach ben Yossef/David we block our path to redemption since we fail to see the holy sparks that Hashem has given to each of us?
These are questions I have no answers to perhaps others in the class might share their thoughts.