dvar Torah- Balak
This week's Torah portion includes the following phrase: "there shall come a star out of Jacob." (Numbers 24:17).

The "star" has often been understood to be the Messiah. For example, in 132 Simon bar Kosiba organized a Jewish revolt against Roman occupation of Israel. Rabbi Akiva, one of the great Torah scholoars of his time, thought that bar Kosiba was the Messiah because of his early military successes. Some called bar Kosiba "bar Kochba" - or "son of a star"- an allusion to the "star" in Numbers 24:17.

Despite Rabbi Akiva's Messianic dreams, Bar Kosiba's revolt was eventually a dismal failure. The Romans killed about half a million Jews, and leveled Jerusalem to deter further revolts. (For more info go here. Perhaps if no one had claimed that bar Kosiba was the Messiah, his rebellion would have died earlier and fewer Jews would have been slaughtered.

Unfortunately, bar Kochba was not the last false Messiah. In the 17th century, the Jewish world was rocked by the Sabbatai Zevi movement. (Just Google Sabbatai Zevi and you'll find plenty of commentary, or search for him in Jewish Encyclopedia. Zevi claimed to be the Messiah, and although did he did not lead a military uprising, he caused some Jews to impoverish themselves by getting rid of their property in preparation of his messianic reign.

Why were people so credulous? Partially because some fairly respected commentators believed that the Messiah was coming sometime around that time: For example, Kabbalist Moses Cordervero wrote: "Though not delaying the date of redemption, they [our sins] have hidden it so that its light is invisible until the appointed time. But none of these things will be later than the year 408 [1648], and some will occur earlier, such as the resurrection [of the dead] in the Holy Land." (From Scholem, the Mystical Messiah). Instead of getting a Messiah, Jews in the Ukraine got massacred in 1648.

(For a more complete discussion of Messianic predictions and the rationale for same, go here.

Indeed, throughout history Jews have speculated about (and predicted) Messianic deliverance. When times were good, good times were interpreted as a sign of upcoming redemption; when times were bad, persecution of Jews was interpreted as "the birth pangs of the Messianic age." Needless to say, all such predictions have (so far) been proven wrong by a Messiah's failure to emerge.

So whenever one of your friends (or enemies) tells you that Messianic deliverance is coming, smile politely and thank him for the information- but don't give away all your worldly goods just yet!