One Mashiach or Two?

B"H

4 Nisan 5771


Dear Bnei Yisrael---children of Ya'aqov Avinu,

It has been a few months since you have heard from me. Like you, I am busy everyday working to keep body and soul together; shlepping the groceries and paying the bills. I try to learn something everyday and work at my relationship with my Creator and try to improve myself (which is a never-ending job because there are so very many ways I need improving!). All of us are human beings doing what human beings were created to do and it takes a lot of time and energy and thought.

However, our souls whisper to us that so much more awaits us, not just in the World-to-Come, but right here on Planet Earth, when we are finally zocheh, by Hashem's great mercy, to transition into Days of Mashiach.

Which Mashiach? you may ask. After all, there are two, no? Mashiach Ben Yosef (MBY) followed by Mashiach Ben David (MBD). Rabbi Aryeh Carmell in the name of the Maharal of Prague says that MBY refers not only to a person, but to a process, which can be identified with the current State of Israel since 1948. We can expect that in the future, the State of Israel will transition into the Kingdom of Yisrael. No one is looking for a second State of Israel to materialize on some other soil. So, I ask, why expect a second Mashiach?

I rather think that MBY, who comes in every generation to redeem Bnei Yisrael, if they are worthy, will, when that blessed time arrives, finish his role as MBY and transition into the role of MBD, just as we expect the process of secular statehood to evolve into Torah kingdom.

The Prophet Yechezkel prophesied about this and it is recorded in the 37th chapter of his prophecies in Tanach. Hashem told him to take a stick for Yosef and all the tribes associated with him (this was during the time that the nation was split North and South) and another stick for Judah and the tribes associated with him, and put them together in his hand as ONE stick. Rashi says that the two sticks represent MBY and MBD. I maintain that this does not describe two different people, but two aspects---two missions---of one person, for the Prophet goes on to say that Hashem has told him that he should explain to the people that the two sticks will be ONE in his hand and that it represents the whole nation united as ONE, never again to be separated into two, and ONE king shall rule them.

And this is, I believe, why we are told to pray that MBY does not die, because if he dies without becoming MBD that means we were another generation unworthy of redemption and will now have to wait for another to appear.

In past generations, this is exactly what happened. But, today, we are already near the end of the time allotted to this reality and whether we deserve it or not, Hashem is going to bring the redemption, for his own Name's sake. That means that MBY no longer needs to die without becoming MBD.

As MBY, he will defeat Edom and as MBD, he will defeat Yishmael and from both aspects, he will eliminate the Erev Rav.

May it be soon, IN OUR DAYS!!
-MW-