[Avodah] Rambam on False Messiahs

[Zev Sero]

On 27/08/2013 12:08 AM, shalomyitz at comcast.net wrote:
> In Mishneh Torah Melachim uMilchamot 11, the Rambam writes that if a ruler arises and
> he isn't successful in building the mikdash and gathering the exiles, or he dies, then he
> isn't the Moshiach, and "HKB"H caused him to arise only to test the many".
>
> But what, according to Rambam, is passing the test?  Do we pass the test if we don't
> follow the Moshiach while he is alive, or if we do?

I think the Rambam's meaning is clear -- we pass the test by following him,
and showing that we continue to seriously expect Moshiach.  Subjecting him
to excessive skepticism, rejecting his claim without adequate evidence against
it, would indicate that we don't really expect a Moshiach at all, and we would
have treated the real one the same way.

The Rambam's model for all this is Bar Kochva.  He paskens like the version in
the gemara that BK remained a tzadik, and was killed because the people's sins
meant they didn't yet deserve the geulah, as opposed to the version that has
him killed for his own sins.  He also rejects the story that the chachamim
abandoned BK for not being able to judge by literally smelling guilt and
innocence; he explicitly paskens that Moshiach need not perform any miracles
or display any supernatural powers.  As far as the Rambam is concerned, if the
day after BK's defeat an identical claimant had risen the Jews would have been
required to follow him just as strongly as they did the first one.

-- 
Zev Sero               A citizen may not be required to offer a 'good and
zev at sero.name          substantial reason' why he should be permitted to
                        exercise his rights. The right's existence is all
                        the reason he needs.
                            - Judge Benson E. Legg, Woollard v. Sheridan