What is Moshiach (the Messiah), and how does this concept differ in Judaism and Christianity?

     One problem with modern Jews believing in Moshiach is that most Jews get their introduction to such ideas from the surrounding Christian culture, which they then rightly reject as non-Jewish.  However this often leads to Jews rejecting the authentic beliefs of their own tradition even before coming to grasp with them.  As such, it is important to differentiate between the Christian and Jewish concept of the Messianic era.

     The Hebrew word 'moshiach' means 'anointed by God', and refers to a mortal human being.  In contrast to this Jewish view , Christians use this word in a different way.  For Christians, God’s ultimate miracle was His Self-Incarnation as a human being.  For them, God was both fully man and yet also fully human, both limited in intelligence and yet omniscient, and all of these simultaneously.  Philosophically and logically, these claims are mutually incompatible, they are tautologies.  However the absurdity of these claims was seen by the Christian founders as a proof of their veracity.  Tertullian, a 3rd century CE Church father is well known for his quote from De Carne Christi 5.

And the Son of God died; it is by all means to be believed, because it is absurd. And He was buried, and rose again; the fact is certain, because it is impossible.

     How can God die?  For Tertullian, it is true because it is absurd, it is true because it is impossible.  Needless to say, this kind of thought is totally foreign to Judaism.  Within Judaism, the Messiah is always described as a human being who will be a descendent of King David, and will usher in a Messianic era of peace and prosperity for Israel and all the nations of the world.  The job description is this:

1. All of the people Israel will come back to Torah.
2. The people of Israel with be gathered back to the land of Israel.
3. The Holy Temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt.
4. Israel will live among the nations as an equal, and will be strong enough to defend herself.
5. Eventually, war, hatred and famine will end, and an era of peace and prosperity will come upon the Earth.

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What do Conservative Jews believe about the Messiah and the Messianic age to come?

On awaiting the Messiah

  Throughout the course of human history, Jews have differed as to what can be done by human beings to bring these dreams [of a Messianic era] into reality.  Generally they have spoken in two voices: a radical or revolutionary voice, and a more gradualist or evolutionary voice. Revolutionary messianists are impatient. They despair about humanity's ability to deal with its intrinsic problems in the normal course of affairs.  They view themselves as responsible - even required - to take radical action to effect this transformation, to force God's hand.  They are less likely to satisfied with baby steps that their contemporaries are taking, with the small partial redemptions they witness.  They thus become militant activists and resort to aggressive political activity and even, in the extreme, military action and violence to bring about their goals.  They see the age to come as emerging out of a cosmic upheaval (which they will attempt to precipitate) that will destroy the familiar world of nature and history.

    In contrast, messianic gradualists see the age to come as emerging slowly and imperceptibly out of the world as we know it today, restoring a pre-existing harmony.  Theirs is a more patient and humanistic voice.  With a basic confidence that human beings can and will work on the infinite details of their social, political and interpersonal lives, they are prepared to accept these practical redemptions as forecasts of the ultimate redemption yet to come.  They see the eschatological scenario not as an immediate demand but as a vision which yields hope for the future and infuses all of their day-to-day activities with infinite import.

     The dominant eschatological voice today is clearly revolutionary - In Islam, in American fundamentalism and evangelical Christianity, and among certain groups of Jews in Israel and throughout the world.  We understand the concerns that impel communities to resort to such programs.  We are also convinced of their dangers:  exclusivism, triumphalism, radical political action and in the extreme, militarism and even terrorism.

     We therefore affirm a gradualist or evolutionary eschatological approach.  We are aware that it too has its inherent dangers:  inertia, quietism and a generalized sense that since God will send the Messiah in His good time, what we human beings do has little significance.  We strive, therefore, to remind ourselves of the classical Jewish teaching that God and humanity are partners, not only in creation and revelation, but in redemption as well.

    We do not know when the Messiah will come, nor whether he will be a charismatic human figure or is a symbol of the redemption of humankind from the evils of the world.  Through the doctrine of a Messianic figure, Judaism teaches us that every individual human being must live as if he or she, individually, has the responsibility to bring about the messianic age.  Beyond that, we echo the words of Maimonides based on the prophet Habakkuk (2:3) that though he may tarry, yet do we wait for him each day.  [Emet Ve-Emunah,  p.30-32]


The Messianic Era

     In regards to the future of the individual, the nation of Israel and the nations of the world, the classical texts of Judaism provide a rich source of speculation, but do not provide us with one definitive framework.  Since no one knows what will happen "in the days to come" each of us is free to fashion personal speculation.  Some of us accept these speculations are literally true, while others understand them as elaborate metaphors, generated by deep seated human needs, and woven out of Judaism's most intuitive values and commitments.  Thus, if "the age to come" is an age of universal peace and justice, it is because our Torah commands that we strive to create that kind of social order in the here and now and because our Nevi'im (the Prophets) railed against our ancestors failure to do so in their own day.

     For the world community we dream of an age when warfare will be abolished, when justice and compassion will be axioms of all, as it is said in Isaiah 11: "...the land shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea."

     For our people, we dream of the ingathering of all Jews to Zion where we can again be masters of our own destiny and express our distinctive genius in every area of our national life.  We affirm Isaiah's prophecy (2:3) that "...Torah shall come forth from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem".

[From Emet Ve-Emunah, p.28,29]