Messiah
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[edit] Two Concepts of Messiah
There are two concepts of Messiah which are somewhat in conflict with each other. In the first, the Messiah will be a supernatural being in human form who will usher in the end of days at which time the dead will be resurrected. This is clearly untenable to the principles of SiddurWiki, although it is not a surprising desire given many of the hardships that the Jewish people (and many others) have suffered. A deliverance from the pain of this world is a very comforting thought, not dissimilar to the belief in a joyful afterlife.
The second concept is that the Messiah will be a human being who brings peace to the entire world. Life will pretty much go on the way it has been - no dead will rise from the grave, God will not descend on the world and show his presence. How this universal peace will be achieved, of course, is not delineated in Jewish writings - accomplishing such a feat without supernatural abilities seems beyond mortal capabilities. But it is nevertheless a very Jewish goal worth striving for, at least in the abstract.
And to the extent that we can hasten to restore health to the planet and its people, like the Messiah, "we should not tarry."
[edit] Messiah As A Movement
A third possibility is that the Messiah is a movement, not a particular person, or at least a person who leads a movement. That the important thing is not the person himself, but what he accomplishes by having all the "good guys" on his side. This concept traces through the Midrashic ideas of Gog & Magog, and even many of the Messianic myths. Is it so un-Jewish, or so theist, to hope that a movement will come and change things for the better? But is that different from Ghandi, though, or others like him? What makes it a Jewish idea?
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