THE MOST DRAMATIC TESTS of leadership in the history of the Jewish diaspora have come when an individual presented himself as playing a central role in the process that would bring an end to the exile of the diaspora. The messianic figure—whether claiming to be the actual messiah from the line of David or a prophet or forerunner of the messiah—transcended the accepted categories by which authority has been asserted and expressed in post-biblical Jewish life. However rooted in traditional texts and expectations the ideology of the incipient movement may have been, for the individual at its core this claim was by its very nature a radical departure from the norms, a revolutionary challenge to the status quo. This placed the more traditional Jewish leadership, especially the rabbinic authorities, who were structurally bound to a conservative position in society, in a difficult situation.

On the one hand, they wanted to preserve and even strengthen the hope for national redemption through the messiah, the belief that deliverance was on its way, which enabled Jews to persevere in holding the fortress of faith despite the battering rams of oppression and the alluring rewards promised for surrender. On the other hand, established leaders naturally viewed with suspicion any actual figure who by the very nature of his claim would be likely to undermine their own authority and—what was perhaps even more worrying— endanger Jewish status and perhaps even lives by provoking the secular authorities, who almost invariably viewed Jewish messianic claims as political revolt and suppressed them violently and ruthlessly. The appearance of a messianic figure was thus guaranteed to create a situation of deep conflict within the Jewish community and a confrontation of leadership modes, with enormously interesting, if sometimes tragic, implications.

The analysis of messianic movements as a category of Jewish historical experience requires some definition of terms. A ‘movement’, among other things, requires a programme that will lead to significant change and a group of people prepared to act on the basis of that programme. The subject of this chapter is thus to be distinguished from ‘the messianic idea’, or ‘messianic doctrine’, or ‘messianic speculation’.