[Avodah] Rambam on False Messiahs

[saul newman]

On Fri, Aug 30, 2013 at 10:41 AM, Zev Sero <zev at sero.name> wrote:
>                                                 He did things that
> could be seen as symbolic of the steps in Moshiach's revelation, as
> listed by the Rambam, which his followers trumpeted, perhaps correctly;
> but these were merely symbolic, possible foreshadowings of the actual
> steps to be taken later, and not replacements for those steps.  Had he
> begun fulfilling them literally, he would have steadily gathered
> believers.

and of course to the thousands who crowned him messiah amongst his
followers still believe he is.... and one can therefore envision the
difficulty of the pre-clearlymashiach period..... one wonders what
the 'amcha' believed in r akiva's time--were they hailing him as the
messianic king?