Letters To The Editor - October 2, 2026

Who Is Likely to Be Moshiach

I very much enjoyed Chaim Yehuda Meyer’s interview with Rabbi Aharon Yaakov Lieberman, “Who Can Be Moshiach?” (Sept. 25). I did, however, come away with one question.

The discussion seems to suggest that throughout the generations, the natural candidates for Moshiach have been great rabbanim, tzaddikim and talmidei chachamim. But doesn’t the most famous example from the era of Chazal itself point in a rather different direction?

Rabbi Akiva regarded Bar Koziba (Bar Kochba) as the potential Redeemer, a view shared, at least initially, by other Chachmei Yisrael. Yet Bar Kochba was not remembered as one of the great authors or teachers of Torah. He did not author any mishnayos. He was, above all, the leader of a Jewish revolt who fought to restore Jewish sovereignty.

If the assumption was that the greatest talmid chacham or tzaddik of the generation was the most likely candidate for Moshiach, why didn't Chazal say: Rabbi Akiva will lead us and save us! Rabbi Yehuda is Moshiach! Rabbi Shimon will bring the Geulah!

Perhaps, then, the Bar Kochba episode suggests an important distinction between being a great tzaddik or talmid chacham and being the person uniquely suited to accomplish the historical mission of Moshiach. The two may overlap – but are they necessarily the same?

Rafi Hagler

Israel

Ed Sheeran’s Libel

Ed Sheeran’s recent tirade at his Philadelphia concert – where he broke his self-professed political silence to address Israel’s fight to eliminate the Hamas terrorists in Gaza – revealed a fundamental misunderstanding of Israel’s strategic and moral imperatives. Delivering what was clearly a prepared statement while attempting to pass it off as an off-the-cuff moment of reflection, Sheeran instead weaponized a deeply flawed anti-Jewish, anti-Israel narrative.

When Sheeran condemned Israel’s military operations as "catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate," he echoed the highly dangerous accusation that Israel is driven by a need for revenge. This premise is entirely false. Israel’s objective since the atrocities of October 7 has never been retribution; it has always been the complete removal of an existential terrorist threat to Israeli families and the securing of its borders so that its citizens can live without the constant danger of Arab terrorist attacks.

Worse still, Sheeran’s framing echoes some of the darkest periods of anti-Jewish sentiment in British cultural history. By painting the Jewish state as an unreasoning, bloodthirsty aggressor, his rhetoric eerily mimics the worst classic antisemitic caricatures of British literature – from Shakespeare’s Shylock to Dickens’s Fagin. Attributing an innate, disproportionate desire for vengeance to Jews or the Jewish state relies on tropes that have fueled anti-Jewish prejudice in the UK and beyond for centuries.

Pop stars reading prepared statements from a stadium stage may garner headlines, but they obscure the realities of a nation defending its people against Arab terrorism. When Sheeran and Macklemore use dangerous historical tropes and level unfounded moral charges against a country fighting for its security we are once again reminded of the danger of allowing entertainers to preach values when they are far too often incapable of it.

Moshe Phillips

National Chairman

Americans For A Safe Israel

New York, N.Y.