Beth HaDerech; Messianic Jewish Congregation, Toronto, Canada

Mashiach ben Yosef #1

I am making available to you, the reader, writtings on Mashiach ben Yosef from a non Messianic Jew. Very interesting. Background: Jewish tradition speaks of two redeemers, each one called Mashiach. Both are involved in ushering in the Messianic era. They are Mashiach ben David and Mashiach ben Yosef. Now to the article: A number of months ago, I sang at a wedding where the chosson had written a little sefer about Mashiach ben Yosef and Yehoshua. I recently came across the copy I had gotten, and called him up to ask for permission to reprint it in the blog. He graciously acquiesced, so here I will present, in segments, some of the interesting contents of this sefer, written by Rav Daniel Krentzman. The concept of Mashiach ben Yosef appears once in Shas, in an obscure aggadah in (Succah 52a) that expounds a pasuk in Zecharyah. At the end of a prophetic portrayal of the war of Gog and Magog, it relates: The land will eulogize, each family by itself, the family of David by itself and their wives by themselves (12:12). One opinion amongst the Tannaim identifies this as the eulogy of Mashiach descended from the tribe of Yosef, who will have been killed in the war. The Maharsha explains that Mashiach ben Yosef will precede the coming of Mashiach ben David, saving the Jewish People, but dying...