[Avodah] Rambam on False Messiahs

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Aug 28, 2013 at 05:16:52PM -0400, Zev Sero wrote:
>> I am not sure BK actually was a false messiah.

> I don't believe there is such a concept in Judaism as "false messiah".
> There is only "actual messiah", and "turned out not to be messiah",
> of which -- in the Rambam's shita -- BK is the prime example.  I think
> the term "false messiah", with its negative implication, was introduced
> by the maskilim.

I'm trying to make a distinction between Bar Kokhva, where the decree from
heaven that he isn't the messiah may not have been until well into his
career, and Shabbatai Tzevi, where I don't think anyone asserts he ever
was an candidate in beis din shel ma'alah's plans.

> But the topic of this thread is the Rambam's discussion of those who turned
> out not to be the Moshiach, and BK is the specific person he had in mind when
> he wrote that paragraph, and indeed the whole chapter.

He says as much in 11:3.

And I'm adding the notion that there is a second sort of safeiq going
on here:

1- we don't know if kelapei shamaya galya this king has any chance of
fulfilling the role of mashiach, but we have to rely on the chazaqah
that someone who did what he did would be;
or
2- even if BD shel maalah put a man into the role and is waiting to see
how we respond, since we don't know the future we are besafeiq and have
to rely on a chazaqah.

The phrase "bechezqas shehu mashiach" (11:4) doesn't imply that BD put
him in the role to later decide whether to let him complete it or not,
it's "merely" a rule of birur since we have a safeiq.

But notice that when the Rambam gives R' Aqiva's assessment of Bar
Koziba it's "hu hayah omer eilav shehu melekh hamoshiach". Not that R'
Aqiva thought he was relying on chazaqah. Oddly, the Rambam says "hu
vekhol chakhmei doro", but we know that Rabban Gamliel and the rov of
the Sanhedrin didn't think BK was mashiach. R' Aqiva's toes didn't have
grass growing between them yet.

...
>> In the same sense, one could say that decision that BK wasn't mashiach
>> wasn't made until about the time R' Aqiva left the cause.

> AFAIK the Rambam doesn't hold that this happened.  His shita is that BK
> was killed not because of "his sins", but because of "sins", i.e. those
> of the generation which meant they didn't deserve him.

I don't think one can mine the Rambam's halakhah book for what he
thought HQBH was planning when. Especially since we're speaking bedavqa
of the Rambam, who would focus on how we can't talk about "when HQBH was
planning" in any literal sense rather than the details of this instance
of the figurative sense (when aspects of HQBH's plans are experienced,
which is necessarily after the events caused by human bechirah that made
those aspacts appropriate).

The above reluctance to use the word chazaqah MIGHT indicate that the
Rambam did think BK was put into the role by the RBSO. But the Rambam
was at least convinced R' Akiva thought BK was.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             When faced with a decision ask yourself,
micha at aishdas.org        "How would I decide if it were Ne'ilah now,
http://www.aishdas.org   at the closing moments of Yom Kippur?"
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            - Rav Yisrael Salanter