As best I can recall, in my Talmud reading so far there has been only one reference to the Messiah. This came in Tractate Berachot, where one sage was cited as saying that the deeds of the Messiah would not be supernatural, but political—that the only difference between our world and the messianic age would be the restoration of Jewish sovereignty. And it makes sense that messianism should not, at least so far, be a major concern of the Talmud’s rabbis. After all, they are not theologians but legislators, concerned with how Jews should live in the here and now.A flying Messiah, no less, which brings to mind flying Jesus, as well as the flying Man from the Sea in 4 Ezra 13 who is mentioned in the article cited in the immediately preceding post.
In this week’s Daf Yomi reading, however, the subject of the Messiah returned, in an utterly unexpected and roundabout fashion. ...
Previous Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.
