The embodiment of liberation

D’var Torah from March 28, 2025

Part 1: Story 

I want to share a story with you all. 

One day, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi found Elijah the prophet. 

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said to Elijah: When will the Messiah come? 

Elijah responded: Go ask them. 

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi asked: Where will I find them?

Elijah said to him: At the entrance of the city of Rome. 

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi asked him: How will I recognize the messiah there?

Elijah answered: They sit among the poor who suffer from illnesses. The people there untie all their bandages before re-tieing them all. But the Messiah unties and reties one bandage at a time. In doing so, the messiah thinks: Perhaps at any moment I will be needed to bring about the redemption. Therefore, I will never untie more than one bandage, so that I will not be delayed. 

So Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi sent out to find the Messiah. 

When he arrived and identified the messiah he said: Shalom to you, my rabbi and my teacher. 

The Messiah said to him: Shalom to you. 

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi asked him the question he came to ask: When will redemption come? 

The Messiah said to him: Today. 

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi returned home. Sometime later, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi came again to Elijah. Elijah said to him: What did the Messiah say to you? 

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said to Elijah: The Messiah lied to me, they said: “I am coming today”, and they did not come. 

Elijah responded, this is what the messiah said to you: They said that they will come “today” to quote the verse from Psalms 95, “today, if you will listen to my voice”. 

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Part 2: The messiah

A lot of Jewish people I know don’t connect with the idea of the messiah. It makes sense. In our Christian hegemonic world, the messiah carries a particular connotation. That of some kind of charismatic Jesus-like figure who will bring the end of times. Or perhaps a masculine superman who will come fight the bad guys, and single-handedly end all evil.

This image has its detriments. 

But ever since I was a child, I have secretly loved the idea of the messiah. It brings me hope when things feel at their worst. I can’t help wishing I could wake up one day and everything would be fixed. 

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Part 3: Genocide

Sometimes, I feel the weight of this genocide and it’s all I can feel. There is no horizon and no relief. There is no way to be well right now. There is no way to breathe when we know our siblings are being starved and killed. 

Nothing I could ever do is enough. The catastrophe is too massive. 

And some kind of supernatural age of healing is the only thing that could make it right. An age where the dead come back and peace is forevermore. 

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Part 4: The embodiment of liberation

I like this story because I believe it illuminates a more subtle image of the messiah than we might otherwise have.  

In the story, we are not saved by some singular hero. Rather, the messiah is more hidden and more symbolic. The messiah is a metaphor for what it would mean to bring healing to our world. The messiah is an embodiment of liberation. 

Part 5: The lessons of the story

If the messiah is the embodiment of liberation, what can we learn about liberation from our messianic character?

First, our liberation will always come from the leadership of the most oppressed. In our story, the messiah is one of the poor and the sick. In the imagination of the author, the most disadvantaged member of society. The messiah is indistinguishable from the other poor and sick people, except for how she unties and reties her bandages. 

Second, liberation is imminent. She is waiting and for the moment she will need to come. A reminder that as broken as things are, or when they seem more broken than ever, all we need is the flip of a switch to reach a time of peace, wellbeing, and freedom. As Elijah quotes, all we need is to listen to her voice. 

Part 6: Something else

Something else catches my eye in this story. 

It’s that only the messiah ties and unties each of her bandages one by one. Everyone else unties all their bandages and then ties them all again. 

This feels like a hint to me that we can’t stay in the urgent state that the messiah stays. Somehow, we must exist within the urgency and the normalcy. 

Experience the pain and at the same time rest in our healing. Find space in our tying of the bandages. It is not on us to remain constantly vigilant. It is only on us to know that liberation, she is vigilant, she is ever arriving. She will join us at the slightest move. 

As soon as we listen to her voice.