Taking Stock of Law Four - Chapter 11

  The Laws of Kings and Their Wars

     from Maimonides' Code - The Book of Judges

• How do we identify the Messiah?


• He is a Jewish Torah scholar who is a descendant of King David.


• He lives a life based fully on the Written Torah and the Oral Torah.


• He leads the Jewish people to follow the ways of the Torah.


• He fights for the honor of G-d.  He lends a positive perspective on how G-d's plan is unfolding in world events.


• Such a man is presumably the Messiah.


• If he succeeds in marginalizing all the enemies of Jews;


• If he builds the Holy Temple in Jerusalem on the same site as the two earlier Temples;


• If he brings all Jews to the Land of Israel;


• Then he is certainly King Messiah.

• However, if he wasn't fully successful or he was killed, then he is not the Messiah who the Torah promises us.


• Nevertheless, he was a king over the Jewish people.


• Why did G-d raise our hopes and then dash them?


• This is a Divine test.


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will be peaceful - .

free from outside interference - .

embedded in Scripture - Also see the Thirteen Principles of Faith.