Israel & messianic fulfilment – Ask the Rabbi
Q. I have heard you say that Israel is part of the messianic fulfilment. Why don’t other people agree with you?
A. I don’t know what you mean by “other people”.
It cannot be the Arab nations or much of the international community, who do not see much that is positive about Israel. Nor the world media, who rarely offer in-depth analysis or constructive assessment.
Possibly the Christian communities, but for some of them the messianic idea is limited to the christological.
So the “other people” are presumably the Jews. In this respect the term Mashi’ach evokes such a frenzy of support or denigration that they can’t always think calmly and rationally about the subject.
But there will come a time when every Jew will recognise that the land of Israel has always been a crucial element in Jewish messianism, and there are miracles in the rebirth of the State, its survival, the revival of its language and culture, the flourishing of Jewish learning and intellectuality, and the emergence of fertility out of barrenness.
That Israel still has internal as well as external problems merely shows that we are dealing with process, not final fulfilment.
