Everybody is talking about Messiah but not too many people seem to know what they are talking about.

Today we're here to learn exactly what we're talking about and what the Sages said.

The (Gemara) Talmudic source for the following is in the Tractate Sanhedrin 98 b.]

The opinion of Rav Hillel stated in the Tractate was that there will be no Messiah for the Jewish people (anymore) because they have already enjoyed (the years of Messiah) in the days of Chezkiahu [Hezekiah]!" (700 B.C.E.)

This is an explanation of this Talmudic source:

There was a very righteous king in the time of Isaiah by the name of Chezkiahu. He did everything that the "Messiah" should do. There are three prerequisites of a Messiah that the Rambam mentions: (We are speaking in the time of the first Temple when everybody was here in Israel). These three prerequisites are (1) the anointing of a King, (2) that King has to overcome Amalek, and (3) the building of the Thrid Temple takes place.a

In the First Temple, in Chezkiahu's (Hezekiah) time, he ruled as the king from the Davidic Dynasty. The Temple was full of idolatry and Amalek was still around. Chezkiahu, who was supposed to be the Messiah, goes out to kill Amalek. He renews the Temple, and brings back people from the Northern Kingdom to the Temple in Jerusalem. He wanted everybody to worship G-d. There was not one child from Dan to Be-er Sheva that didnt' know the laws of impurity [tumah and taharah]. These are very complex laws!

Isaiah, the prophet in the time of Chezkiahu, speaks about the Messiah. [From all the 42 prophets in the Old Testament, the main prophet that speaks about the Messiah is Isaiah....because the Messiah could have come in his time.] Sancheriv was the King of Assyria, and the "superpower" in that time. Sancheriv thought he was king of the whole earth!

Chezkiahu could have been the Messiah. Sancheriv [ King of Assyria] could have been Gog and Megog and the end of history could have been in the year 712 B.C.E.! This would have been the End of Days and the Messiah would have arrived. 

The Ben Ish Chai goes on to explain what Rav Hillel is saying in the Talmudic source: that there may be a possibility that the Jewish people would not have another Messiah. [He is referring to the Messiah of Yosef.] To chose the Messiah of Yosef the Jewish people would have to unify and choose a pre-Sanhedrin assembly. This assembly would choose the Messiah.

Rav Hillel from the Talmud is insinuating that if the Jewish people cannot organize themselves enough to choose a pre-Sanhedrin assembly, then they will not have a Messiah ben Yosef. Thus Chezkiahu would be the last Messiah ben Yosef and the Jewish people would not have a Messiah ben Yosef at all--only a Messiah ben David. But that Messiah, very sadly, would be revealed only at the VERY end of history as we know it, 40 years before the year 6000 [5960/2200 B.C.E.].

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