2005 Yom Kippur Sermon While We Await the Coming of Messiach One
of the principles we have held close to our hearts as a people
over the centuries is the coming of Messiach, the coming of the
Messiah. It is believed that Messiach will usher in an age of
universal peace and also will return the Jewish people from the
corners of the earth to Israel . Over these centuries we have
been disappointed again and again, placing hope in particular
individuals like Simon Bar Kokhba in the first century CE, and
Shabbetai Zevi in the 17 th century, who then failed us. Rabbi
Yochanan ben Zakkia, in fact, became so skeptical of messianic
claims that he said to his followers, “If you should happen to
be holding a sapling in your hand when they tell you that the
Messiah has arrived, first plant the sapling and then go out and
greet the Messiah.” Yet this belief in a messiah and a messianic
age is so deeply rooted in Jewish tradition that a statement
concerning the Messiah became one of Maimonides’s Thirteen
Principles of Fait