BUT IF HE IS KILLED…

From Chapter Fifteen of Rabbi Shloma Majeski’s Likkutei Mekoros, Volume 2. (Underlined text is the compiler’s emphasis.)

Translated by Boruch Merkur

If a king arises from the House of Dovid, steeped in Torah study and engaged in Mitzvos, like Dovid his predecessor, in accordance with both the Written Torah and the Oral Torah, and he compels all the Jewish people to follow it, and he strengthens its breeches and wages the wars of G-d – this person is presumed to be Moshiach. If he does so and succeeds, and if he builds the Mikdash in its place, and gathers the exiles of the Jewish people – this man is certainly Moshiach. Moshiach will correct the entire world to serve G-d together as one, as it is said, “For then I shall transform the nations to [speak in] a pure language so they may all call in the name of G-d and worship Him of one accord” (Tz’fania 3:9).

If, however, he does not succeed to this extent, or he is killed,* it is self-evident that this is not the one whom Torah has promised. Rather, he is like all the kings of the Davidic dynasty who were whole and lawful but died. The Alm-ghty only brought him to the fore in order to challenge the masses, as it is said, “And some of the wise will stumble to clarify some of them, and to select and to cleanseThey will stumble in the calculations of the end, for they will put their mind to refine them and to resolve them to know them, but they will err concerning themThey will stumble in the calculations of the end, for they will put their mind to refine them and to resolve them to know them, but they will err concerning themThey will stumble in the calculations of the end, for they will put their mind to refine them and to resolve them to know them, but they will err concerning them,** until the time of the keitz, for there is still the appointed time” (Daniel 11:35).

But Yeshua HaNotzri, who conceived himself to be Moshiach but was killed by the Beis Din, was foreseen by Daniel in prophecy, as it is said, “and the sons of the renegades of your people will exalt themselves to bring about the vision*** but they will stumble” (Daniel 11:14). Is there a greater stumbling block than Yeshua’s legacy? For all the prophets spoke of Moshiach as the redeemer and savior of the Jewish people, who gathers their exiles and strengthens their Mitzvos, whereas Yeshua caused the Jewish people to be slain by the sword and their remnants dispersed and downcast, exchanging the Torah [for a foreign religion] and to misguide most of the world to worship [as] a deity [one who is] other than G-d.

(Rambam’s Laws of Kings Ch. 11:4)

NOTES:

*Here Rabbi Majeski, the compiler, places added emphasis on the word “killed.”

**They will stumble and err in their predictions of the kitzim, the appointed time for the advent of Moshiach; they strive to refine and resolve them to know them [i.e., to determine their dates], but they will err in their calculations. ––Rashi.

***of a new religion that contradicts G-d’s Torah ––Rambam LaAm