How a False Messiah is Born: Why Did People Believe in Him?

It is well known to every historian and scholar of Jewish history that during any difficult period throughout our two thousand years of exile, the natural longing for the fulfillment of the majestic and glorious prophecies in the Bible, about that wonderful time of national revival in our land, was awakened in the people when we would be freed from foreign oppression and subjugation, and the whole world would abandon false religions and recognize the kingdom of Hashem.

Since the biblical prophecies clearly speak of an exalted individual who will be anointed as king, and he who will redeem the people of Israel from their subjugation to the nations, every period of decline in the exile immediately became fertile ground for the rise of charismatic individuals, with grandiose aspirations (in other words: delusions of grandeur) and strong nationalist opinions, each of whom proclaimed at their time that he was indeed the exalted future ruler prophesied by the prophets.

It is clear that every such false messiah only pretended to say that he would redeem Israel, whereas in reality, he only harmed the people, who became more persecuted and oppressed due to the kings' fear of Jewish uprisings.

It should be noted that the sages of Israel, in every generation, declared while the false messiah was still alive, after thorough examination, that he was lying and had no fear that he might be the true messiah. This is based on the clear signs of the true messiah as outlined in the Bible and the words of our sages, signs that none of these figures possessed. Moreover, all false messiahs, without exception, were not wary of committing transgressions when it came to their own honor or for other foreign reasons, which immediately proved that he was a deceiver trying to lead the people astray. For the true messiah is a faithful servant of Hashem, who surely would be cautious and meticulous even about the simplest commandment. And indeed, generally, only the shallow masses were swept away by the surface glitter of false messiahs, as is known from history (an exception was the false messiah Shabtai Tzvi, who at the beginning of his path succeeded in sowing confusion and embarrassment even among many of the sages of Israel through his extensive knowledge of Torah). However, even the common people ultimately came to see the truth, as the simple reality of the prolonged exile continued after the death of the false messiah.

Then came Jesus, a man who resembled other false messiahs in his delusions of grandeur, which led him to believe himself to be the messiah and his ability to impress the shallow masses, but he differed from most in his Torah ignorance to the extent of not knowing simple scriptural verses, as evident in the abundance of corrupted verses in his addresses to his disciples. This Jew himself violated some of the commandments while at the same time declaring that he did not come to detract from or change the Torah of Moses. His declaration of himself as the messiah led his heirs to establish a new religion, which sought to increase its numbers from among the idol-worshipers of that time, by "waiving" the commandments that made joining difficult, such as circumcision, Shabbat, and others, until they turned it into a completely different religion, which can be equated with idolatry, after they began to worship a mortal being.

Incidentally, it is clear beyond a doubt that this is the only reason why this false messiah became more famous than others, until much of the world worships him today. For, in stark contrast to the Jewish nation, which, being a kingdom of priests and a chosen people, never pursued other nations to convert them (just as a royal family does not demand that all citizens join it...), even though Judaism always had the most convincing material that could easily convert entire nations of idol worshipers (as evidenced by the many converts who joined the Jewish people at its most difficult times, such as Onkelos, nephew of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, Rabbi Meir Baal Haness, Shemaiah and Avtalion, the parents of Rabbi Akiva, and many others), the Christian religion, which was the first religion to forge and copy from Judaism its foundations and views (deriving from its very founding on the base of belief in a false Jewish messiah), actually attacked various idol worshipers, using missionary persuasion and intimidation tactics with all its power to convert them.

Since, as mentioned, the new religion was based on fabrications and imitations of the true Jewish Torah, it appeared to idol worshipers, in comparison to their belief in stone idols, as preferable. However, the people of Israel, familiar with the superhuman true Torah received in the remarkable and awe-inspiring event at Mount Sinai, always despised this cheap imitation, and during debates forced upon them throughout history by kings and popes, Israel's sages struck down the Christian "scholars" by proving to them their fallacies so conclusively that in several cases, the initiators of the debate sought to halt it midway.