Everyone is talking about Messiah so let's get it directly from
the sources and learn exactly what the Sages say.
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/Hezekiah. 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 Third Temple takes place.
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 didn't
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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