{"id":452,"date":"2013-04-24T19:12:27","date_gmt":"2013-04-24T19:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/john-reeves\/?page_id=452"},"modified":"2013-06-01T17:32:27","modified_gmt":"2013-06-01T21:32:27","slug":"aggadat-ha-masiah-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/john-reeves\/research-projects\/trajectories-in-near-eastern-apocalyptic\/aggadat-ha-masiah-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Aggadat ha-Ma\u0161iah"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post-rabbinic midrash was first published separately by Adolph Jellinek who excerpted it from the\u00a0editio princeps<\/em>\u00a0of the so-called\u00a0Midrash Leqah\u00a0Tov <\/em>or\u00a0Pesiqta Zutarta<\/em>, an anthology compiled from a variety of sources in the late eleventh century in Byzantium by R. Tobiah b. Eliezer.\u00a0Within that larger collection it serves as an exegesis of Num 24:17-19.\u00a0Yehudah Even-Shmuel provides an expanded text with a number of suggested emendations and an annotated commentary; see his\u00a0Midreshey ge<\/em>\u2019ullah<\/em>\u00a0(2d ed.; Jerusalem: Mosad Bialik, 1954), 99-106. The present translation is based on Adolph Jellinek, ed.,\u00a0Bet ha-Midrasch: Sammlung kleiner Midraschim und vermischter Abhandlungen aus der j<\/em>\u00fcdischen Literatur<\/em>\u00a0(6 vols.; Leipzig, 1853-77; repr., Jerusalem: Bamberger & Wahrmann, 1938), 3:141-43.<\/p>\n

\u2018A star steps forth from Jacob\u2019 (Num 24:17). It is taught in the name of our Sages: the septennial cycle wherein the Son of David comes (will transpire as follows): (in) the first (year), there will not be food for all who need it; (in) the second (year),\u00a0the \u2018arrows of famine\u2019 (cf. Ezek 5:16) will be unleashed; (in) the third (year), a severe famine; in the fourth (year), neither famine nor plenty; in the fifth (year), great plenty, and a star will emerge in the east. This is the star of the Messiah, and it will be visible in the east for fifteen days. Should it linger, it will be to Israel\u2019s benefit. (In) the sixth (year), noises and sounds. (In) the seventh (year), battles. And at the end of the seventh (year), one will behold the Messiah.<\/p>\n

The \u2018people of the west\u2019 will behave arrogantly, and they will maintain sovereignty without opposition. They will come to Egypt and hold her entirely captive. In those days \u2018the king strong of face\u2019 (melekh\u00a0\u2018az panim<\/em>) will rise up against \u2018the poor and impoverished nation\u2019 (Zeph 3:12), and he will \u2018seize control of sovereignty by practicing deceptions\u2019 (cf. Dan 11:21). And about that time Isaiah has spoken: \u2018Go, my people! Enter your rooms and lock your doors behind you! Hide for a short while until the danger is past!\u2019 (Isa 26:20).<\/p>\n

The Sages have taught: R.\u00a0\u0090Hiyya instructed those of his generation, \u2018When you hear that \u2018the king strong of face\u2019 has arisen, do not remain there. For he will decree:\u00a0\u201cEveryone who affirms that the God of the Hebrews is one will be put to death!\u201d\u00a0He will also say:\u00a0\u201cLet all of us be of like expression and one people!\u201d\u00a0He will abolish (observance of) the holidays, festivals, sabbaths, and new moons, and he will suspend the Torah(\u2019s authority) over Israel, as scripture states:\u00a0\u201che will hope to change the appointed times and the religious law, and they will be given into his power for a time, two times, and half a time\u201d\u00a0(Dan 7:25).\u00a0\u201cTime\u201d\u00a0means a year;\u00a0\u201ctwo times\u201d\u00a0means two (years), and\u00a0\u201chalf a time\u201d\u00a0means half a year.\u2019 They (his students) said to him, \u2018Teacher, from where can we expect deliverance?\u2019 He answered them, \u2018Upper Galilee, for scripture states:\u00a0\u201ca surviving remnant will be on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem\u201d(Joel 3:5), and\u00a0\u201cescape and holiness will be on Mount Zion\u201d\u00a0(Obad 1:17).\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2026 it will crush the corners of Moab\u2019 (Num 24:17). R. Huna repeated in the name of R. Levi: This verse teaches that Israel will assemble in Upper Galilee, and there within Galilee the Messiah of the lineage of Joseph will be revealed to them. They will go up from there\u2014he will be accompanied by all Israel\u2014to Jerusalem in order to fulfill what scripture has stated: \u2018and the forceful ones among your people will lift themselves up to fulfill the vision, but they will stumble\u2019 (Dan 11:14). He will go up and rebuild the Temple and offer sacrifices, and the fire (for kindling these offerings) will descend from heaven. He will crush all the nations of the world. He will come to Moab and slaughter half its population, whereas the remainder will endure captivity and bring him tax revenue. He will eventually establish an accord with Moab, as scripture says: \u2018I shall restore the prosperity of Moab\u2019 (Jer 48:47), and they will dwell untroubled for forty years, eating and drinking, \u2018and foreigners will serve as your farm-laborers and vineyard-tenders\u2019 (Isa 61:5).<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2026 and it will demolish all the children of Seth\u2019 (Num 24:17). For he will destroy all the nations of the world who are named after Seth, as scripture states: \u2018for God has established another seed for me\u2019 (Gen 4:25). And after all this, Gog and Magog will hear and come up against them, as scripture says: \u2018the kings of the earth stand together, and rulers sit in council together against the Lord and His Messiah\u2019 (Ps 2:2). He (i.e., Gog) will enter (the city) and kill him (i.e., the Messiah b. Joseph) in the streets of Jerusalem, as scripture predicts: \u2018and it will be a time of trouble\u2019 (Dan 12:1). Israel will see this and say, \u2018the Messiah has perished from among us, and another Messiah will not return (for us)!\u2019 Four clans will mourn him, as scripture promises: \u2018the land will mourn him individually by clans: the clan of the family of David individually, [the clan of the family of Nathan individually, the clan of the family of Levi individually, and the clan of Shim\u2018i individually]\u2019 (Zech 12:12).<\/p>\n

Then the Holy One, blessed be He, will go forth and do battle with them, as scripture says: \u2018and the Lord will go forth and wage war against those nations\u2019 (Zech 14:3). The mountains will quake and the hills will shake, and the Mount of Olives will split across its middle when the Holy One, blessed be He, descends upon it. Israel will run away and escape, as scripture says: \u2018you will flee the valley of My mount \u2026 and this will be the plague\u2019 (Zech 14:5-12). And Israel will go into exile into the <\u2018desert of the peoples\u2019> to forage among the salt-plants and broom-sage roots for forty-five days. Clouds of glory will surround them, and there Israel will be concealed. If anyone should harbor a wavering thought in his mind about the Holy One, blessed be He, the clouds will cast him out and the nations of the world will kill him. Many from Israel will go out to the Gentile nations, and (as a result) they will have no portion with Israel in the World to Come. Those however who [remain] must afflict themselves with salt-plant for forty-five days.<\/p>\n

At the end of forty-five days, a heavenly voice (bat qol<\/em>) will say to them: \u2018Go down to Babylon,\u2019 for scripture says: \u2018and you shall come to Babylon; there you will be rescued\u2019 (Mic 4:10). The heavenly voice will again thunder: \u2018Proceed to Edom and wreak My vengeance!\u2019 This accords with the scriptural passage: \u2018I will wreak My vengeance on Edom through the agency of My people Israel\u2019 (Ezek 25:14). So Israel will come to Rome. The heavenly voice will come out a third time: \u2018Treat it the same way that Joshua treated Jericho!\u2019 So they will circumambulate the city, blowing on their shofars, and on the seventh circuit, they will let forth a shout, \u2018Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God; the Lord is One!\u2019 (Deut 6:4). Then the city wall will collapse. They will enter it (the city) and discover its young men sprawled dead in its plazas, for scripture says: \u2018therefore her young men will collapse in her squares\u2019 (Jer 49:26; 50:30). Afterwards they will help themselves to all her spoils.<\/p>\n

Then Israel will search for their God and for David their king, and the King Messiah will forthwith be revealed to them. He will say to them, \u2018I am the King Messiah for whom you have been waiting!\u2019 He will command them, \u2018Lift up the silver and the gold,\u2019 and they will carry it and go up [to Jerusalem], as scripture states: \u2018a multitude of camels will cover you\u2019 (Isa 60:6).<\/p>\n

A fourth heavenly voice will come forth and say, \u2018(the) voice of one crying out: “Prepare the way of the Lord in the desert!”\u2019 (Isa 40:3), and a fifth heavenly voice will say, \u2018no lion will be there\u2019 (Isa 35:9). A sixth heavenly voice will say: \u2018I will place in the desert cedar, acacia, and myrtle\u2019 (Isa 41:19), and a seventh heavenly voice will proclaim: \u2018Console, console My people!\u2019 (Isa 40:1). Elijah will announce glad tidings to Israel: \u2018your God has become sovereign!\u2019 (Isa 52:7).<\/p>\n

An eighth heavenly voice will announce and say: \u2018Speak to the heart of Jerusalem\u2019 (Isa 40:2), (and) a ninth heavenly voice will say: \u2018Open the gates and let the righteous people enter!\u2019 (Isa 26:2). A tenth heavenly voice will say: \u2018Raise your heads, O gates!\u2019 (Ps 24:7, 9), and the dead will be resurrected, as scripture promised: \u2018your dead will live again; they will raise up my body\u2019 (Isa 26:19). Then the exiles will be ingathered, as scripture says: \u2018and it shall come to pass on that day that He will sound a great shofar [and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were dispersed in the land of Egypt will come]\u2019 (Isa 27:13). Then will (the verse) \u2018a star steps forth from Jacob \u2026\u2019 (Num 24:17) be fulfilled, and thus may it be the will of our Heavenly Father to fulfill this verse during our lifetime and the lifetime of all Israel: \u2018and He will hoist a banner to the nations, and He will collect the dispersed ones of Israel and re-gather the scattered ones of Judah from the four corners of the earth\u2019 (Isa 11:12).<\/p>\n

\u2019Aggadat ha-Ma\u0161iah\u00a0<\/em>is finished.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post-rabbinic midrash was first published separately by Adolph Jellinek who excerpted it from the\u00a0editio princeps\u00a0of the so-called\u00a0Midrash Leqah\u00a0Tov or\u00a0Pesiqta Zutarta, an anthology compiled from a variety of sources in the late eleventh century in Byzantium by R. Tobiah b. Eliezer.\u00a0Within that larger collection it serves as an exegesis of Num 24:17-19.\u00a0Yehudah Even-Shmuel provides an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":454,"featured_media":0,"parent":136,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-452","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P3kl1F-7i","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/john-reeves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/john-reeves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/john-reeves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/john-reeves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/454"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/john-reeves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/john-reeves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1067,"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/john-reeves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/452\/revisions\/1067"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/john-reeves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/john-reeves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}