The Messiah and the Passion

The last day of Pesach is a day dedicated to anticipating the future redemption through Moshiach.

This has special poignancy this year when much of the Christian world is the throes of rediscovering Jesus through the prism of Gibson's most unfortunate film. Let us remember that Jesus, in the eyes of the early Christians who were of course Jews, was the embodiment of the long anticipated Jewish Messiah.

What then is the difference between what became the Christian understanding of the Jewish Messiah, and the Jewish understanding of the Jewish Messiah?

While the following is very far from an exhaustive exposition of this subject, it touches upon one of the most fundamental differences between Judaism and Christianity.

Whereas Christians believe that there is something unique about Jesus, we Jews believe that what Christians believe concerning Jesus is true of every Jew.

Christians believe that Jesus was the son of G-d. We Jews believe that every Jew is a child of G-d. ("You are Children to G-d, your G-d"; "My son, my firstborn, Israel")

Christians believe that Jesus was the ultimate priest. We Jews believe that every Jew can be a priest. ("You shall be for Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation").

Christians believe that Jesus was the Messiah. We Jews believe that every Jew has within him a spark of the Messiah.

In the haftorah that we read on the last day of Pesach, it is written concerning Moshiach, "And a sprout will go forth from the trunk of Jesse; and a shoot will blossom from his root"). The difference between a trunk and a root? The trunk is visible; the root is invisible. The trunk refers to the revealed national Messiah of the Jewish people; the root refers to the hidden personal Messiah within every Jew.

Every Jew, man or woman, has within him or her this holy spark of the Messiah. It comes as a legacy of our being the children of G-d, of our each being a priest and teacher for all mankind.

With the knowledge that each of us have within ourselves a spark of the Messiah we can understand an apparent contradiction. Whereas the Christian world understands Isaiah's "suffering servant" to be the Messiah, most early Jewish commentators understand him to be the Jewish people as a whole. The noted exception is the Midrash which interprets him to be the Messiah. However, on the basis of the above we see that there is really no contradiction at all. The Jewish People are the Messiah!

This is why in Christianity it is the priest in church who says the HaMotzi on the bread, and HaGefen on the wine - whereas every individual Jew in his or her own home says HaMotzi on bread, and HaGefen on the wine.

True, there will be a national Messiah as well - a great and holy individual - sage, teacher, prophet and leader. But his main job will be to draw out the Messiah within us all. So that all of us together will be able to bring the world to redemption.

This is similar (and please don't read too much into this) to what Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said concerning the Rebbe: "What was remarkable about the Rebbe was the exact opposite of what was usually attributed to him. This was not a man who was interested in creating followers. Instead, this was a man who was passionate about creating leaders."