Anti-Judicial reform protests turn anti-Messiah
Protests against the judicial reform measures being proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government took on religious overtones as protesters targeted MK (Likud) Ariel Kallner’s home in Haifa on Thursday night, plastering the neighborhood with posters proclaiming, “Here lives a messianic [believer].”
Kallner filed a complaint about the matter with the police. He responded to the protesters: “The anarchist cowards came in the dead of night and vandalized the residential building where I live and the bus stop across the street.” Kallner told Hebrew-language Maariv news, “Do you really think they will succeed in breaking me? A complaint will be filed with the police. We’ll see if the enforcement system in the ombudsman’s authority will also act against ‘other people’. My answer – enact all the reform laws, quickly and with all the force!”
There were also several demonstrations across the country, in front of the homes of ministers and other coalition members, including Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, Member of Knesset Boaz Bismut, and Minister of Science Ofir Akunis.
Kallner also responded on Twitter with a quote from Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion.
“Zionism is a messianic movement,” Ben Gurion said. “This is perhaps the only word that fits it, that distinguishes it. It is a movement that works for the redemption of the people and the redemption of the world.”
Judaism mandates a strict belief in the messiah (Moshiach, literally ‘the anointed one’ in Hebrew). Maimonides lists this as one of the 13 Principles of Faith, encapsulated in the statement, “I believe with full faith in the coming of the Messiah. And even though he tarries, with all that, I await his arrival with every day”.
The concept of messianism originated in Judaism in which there are two stages in the Messiah: initially Moshiach Ben Yosef (Messiah from the house of Joseph) and, subsequently, Moshiach Ben David (Messiah from the House of David). Moshiach Ben Yosef is a mundane, practical process representing an era in which the Jewish exiles return to the land of Israel, the desert will bloom, and the Third Temple in Jerusalem will be built. Wars will be waged against the forces of evil that oppress Israel. Moshiach Ben Yosef prepares the world for Moshiach Ben David, who will be a specific figure who will reinstate the Davidic Dynasty and fight the War of Gog and Magog.
This is not to be confused with “Messianic Judaism,” which is a branch of Christianity that incorporates Jewish elements. Judaism rejects Jesus, and belief in the divinity of Jesus is incompatible with Judaism:
Rabbi Ouri Cherki, the chairman of Brit Olam – Noahide World Center and a senior lecturer at Machon Meir, explained the concept of messianism in Judaism in the context of the protests.
“The problem is that the word ‘messianic’ is being misused,” Rabbi Cherki explained. “The protesters are using the word to mean a person who is living in a certain dogman and not realistic or living in reality. For them, a messianic is a caricature.”
“For me, being messianic is a positive trait,” Rabbi Cherkio said. “This is a person who wants to fix the world and believes that we can bring ourselves to a better place. In this regard, Zionism is absolutely messianic. But there are two approaches to this, and they are very different. Zionism is messianic without a central figure. It is a movement based on morality.”
The left-wing protests are taking an anti-Messiah stance in other areas as well. On Wednesday morning, members of the Brothers in Arms protest group composed of IDF veterans and a women’s organization gathered outside the Har Hamor yeshiva, which is associated with the Religious Zionist movement and led by the prominent Rabbi Tzvi Thau. Rabbi Thau is one of the leaders of the Dati Leumi (religious zionist) movement. “We came this morning to the yeshiva because it symbolizes the dangerous current in the country, [which is being tolerated] by the one leading the coup d’état [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu],” a demonstrator told Kipa.
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