MOSHIACH BEN YOSEF – A Six-Part Series by Rabbi Pinchas Winston

The following article has been posted by Shuvoo with the written permission of Rabbi Pinchas Winston

PART ONE. The Question

Over the last few weeks, I have been asked several times about the identity of Moshiach Ben Yosef —who he is supposed to be—and about his role in the process of bringing about the Final Redemption.

Moshiach Ben Dovid is less of a question, because he is the hero’s hero. Everyone can, and has conceived of him. He is the ‘perfect one’ who will bring about the ‘perfect end’ to a difficult history, ushering in the ‘perfect world.’ Though he be of human stock he will be invincible because he will be G-d’s ‘chosen one,’ the one who was meant to succeed ever since G-d willed creation into being.

However, Moshiach Ben Yosef’s success, by our standard of measurement, is a limited one. Not only will he be, or perhaps already is (or even already was), human, he will be humanly vulnerable. In fact, according to one opinion in the Talmud, Moshiach Ben Yosef will leave this world without being able to see the fruits of his labors, dying instead in the ‘Great Battle,’ prompting a great and difficult eulogy by the Jewish people (Succah 52a).

Another fundamental and puzzling difference between the two redeemers is that the tribe of Yosef, from which Moshiach Ben Yosef comes, is lost—and has been now for over twenty-five HUNDRED years! Amongst the ten tribes that were carried off into exile in the year 3206 (555 BCE) by the Assyrians and lost to the Jewish nation were the tribes of Menashe and Ephraim, the two tribes that came from the tribe of Yosef.

However, the tribes of Yehudah, Binyomin, and Levi, though exiled into Babylonia 132 years later by Nebuchadnetzar after the destruction of the First Temple (3333/423 BCE), never completely lost their identity. Thus, Jews today who can trace their roots back to Temple times must have, by definition, come from one of these three tribes.

Now, it is possible that Binyomin is the answer to this riddle, because we do find that Binyomin often takes the place of Yosef. In fact, the first king to rule over Israel before a king from Yehudah was chosen was Shaul HaMelech, from the Tribe of Binyomin. For, since Binyomin himself was from the same mother as Yosef (Rachel), and there was such a strong bond and sense of identification between the two brothers, there is a kind of interchangeability about them, in some cases.

Nevertheless, even should this be true, there are still other ‘black holes’ in our knowledge about Moshiach Ben Yosef, beginning with why we even need him in the first place. After all, why can’t Moshiach Ben Dovid, about whom the Talmud writes often, be the first and last redeemer of the Jewish people? Must we suffer the disappointment of watching another great leader die in battle, one whom we are bound to love and respect because of his love for G-d, Torah, and the Jewish people?

Perhaps, then, as we delve further into the concept of the Yosefian redeemer, the answer will become more apparent, reassuring, and inspiring. For, as we shall now see, Yosef seems to be there first, wherever ‘there’ needs to be from Heaven’s point of view. Thus, it is a historical pattern that has its roots in the earliest days of Jewish history, and where there are roots that can be unearthed, there are revelations about the tree that grows above ground.