{"id":79630,"date":"2020-09-06T14:54:58","date_gmt":"2020-09-06T11:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=79630"},"modified":"2020-09-06T14:54:58","modified_gmt":"2020-09-06T11:54:58","slug":"herzl-the-messiah-son-of-joseph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/herzl-the-messiah-son-of-joseph\/","title":{"rendered":"Herzl, The Messiah Son Of Joseph"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"79630","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36277,"related_cahpter":"562","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"At least in the eyes of Rav Kook in his lamentation for him\r\n\r\n","content":"

Chapter 12 of Zechariah tells of a future war against Jerusalem in some unspecified time, the death of an unidentified but notable victim in battle and a great mourning for the one who was slain that engulfs the whole land. “On that day the lamentation will be great in Jerusalem, like the lamentation of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.” (12:11.)<\/span><\/p>\n

The Talmudic sage Rav Yosef testified to the obscurity of this verse, saying, “were it not for the Aramaic Targum, I would not have understood the meaning of this verse.” (Talmud Megillah, 3a.)<\/span><\/p>\n

The opacity of this chapter and of the victim’s identity led the Talmud (Sukkah 52a) to make two conjectures that seem remote from the meaning of the text, but which have reverberated throughout Jewish thought and history. We will deal briefly with the first, that the slain was the Messiah, Son of Joseph.<\/span><\/p>\n

This led to the elaboration of the theory of two Messiahs. The first, Messiah son of Joseph would be a political-military figure, who would struggle with partial success to redeem the Jewish People, dying in the attempt. He would be followed by Messiah the son of David, a leader of great spiritual stature who would bring full redemption.<\/span><\/p>\n

The most celebrated modern articulation of this idea was Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook’s “Lamentation in Jerusalem,” delivered in 1904 at a memorial convocation for Theodore Herzl, the trail-blazer for political Zionism who had recently died at the age of 44.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rav Kook identified Joseph, whose political skills had ensured his family’s survival in Egypt, with the physical-material aspect, while David, the warrior-psalmist represented the full integration of spiritual and material in Jewish leadership.<\/span><\/p>\n

Without referring to Herzl by name, Rav Kook identified political Zionism with the spirit of Messiah son of Joseph, saying:<\/span><\/p>\n

“The Zionist vision manifest in our generation might best be symbolized as the \u201cfootstep of Messiah son of Joseph\u201d (\u2018ikva de-Mashiah ben Yosef<\/em>…) It is unequipped to realize that the development of Israel\u2019s general aspect is but the foundation for Israel\u2019s singularity. The ideal of Israel\u2019s national renascence, including all the material accouterments\u2014 which is a proper thing when joined to the spiritual goal\u2014to date has not succeeded, and the lack of success has brought on infighting, until finally, the leader of the movement has fallen, a victim of frustration.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Rav Kook urged his listeners “to rejoice in the national reawakening,” represented by Herzl and political Zionism, “and to know that this is not the end goal of Israel, but only a preparation.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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