In today’s daf, the Gemara goes on one of its classic tangents that ultimately leads to a discussion of the Messiah — the expected redeemer of Israel descended of the Davidic monarchy who will usher in a new age. What else do we know about this anticipated savior?

The Messiah was blessed with six virtues, as it is written: “And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:2); and it is written: “And his delight (vahariho) shall be the fear of the Lord …” (Isaiah 11:3)

The first verse lists six virtues with which the Messiah will be blessed: wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge and fear of God. Curiously, since this verse has already brought us to six attributes, it’s not clear why we need the second verse. (Indeed, this midrash appears in Ruth Rabbah with only the first verse, Isaiah 11:2, as textual support.)

The Gemara decides to examine the grammatically puzzling follow-up line. The term vahariho at the beginning of Isaiah 11:3 is difficult to translate. While one translation, cited above, renders it as “his delight,” another possibility is, “he shall sense the truth.” The rabbis see in this ambiguous word and opportunity for multiple creative readings:

Rabbi Alexandri says that the term hariho teaches that God burdened the messiah with mitzvot and afflictions like millstones (reihayim). 

Rava says that hariho teaches that the Messiah will smell (demorah) and then judge on that basis, sensing who is right, as it is written (in the next lines of Isaiah): “And he shall neither judge after the sight of his eyes, nor decide after the hearing of his ears; and with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and decide equity for the meek of the earth.” (Isaiah 11:3–4)

Rabbi Alexandri’s interpretation leans into the familiar concept of a simultaneously righteous and suffering messiah, who is “weighed down” by both troubles and good deeds, which are as a millstone (a word close to the mystery word in the verse from Isaiah). Ben Yehoyada, an aggadic commentator on the Talmud, suggests that it is in fact the Messiah’s suffering that enables the rest of the Jewish people to continue existing and doing mitzvot, and therefore the two phenomena are described as linked.

Rava, however, offers a different linguistic connection — to the word re’ah, meaning smell. He suggests the Messiah will have a preternatural sense of smell which will allow them to detect the righteous and worthy. This interpretation pairs well with the continuation of the Isaiah quote, which describes both the righteous accuracy of the Messiah’s judgment and the fact that it’s not done via visual or auditory intake, as most of us process the world. The Gemara relays a tradition that supports Rava’s reading about the Messiah’s incredible sense of smell:

Bar Koziva ruled for two and a half years. He said to the sages: I am the Messiah. They said to him: With regard to the Messiah it is written that he is able to smell and judge, so let us see ourselves whether he is able to smell and judge. Once they saw that he was not able to smell and judge, they killed him.

Bar Koziva is better known by many as Bar Kochba, leader of the Bar Kochba Revolt against the Roman empire. Bar Kochba claimed to be the Messiah, leading the Jewish people to redemption, and indeed scored some military successes, ruling areas like Beitar for a few years, before ultimately suffering a crushing defeat at the hands of the Roman Empire. While Rabbi Akiva was famously enticed by Bar Kochba, and believed his claim to be the Messiah, the rabbinic tradition on the whole treats Bar Kochba with great wariness and skepticism. Here, the Gemara notes one tradition of how the rabbis determined Bar Kochba to be a false messiah: He may have been a charismatic leader, but he was exposed as a fraud because he lacked the messianic sense of smell.

The most simple grammatical read of the final clause in today’s sugya suggests that when Bar Kochba was proven to be a false messiah, the rabbis themselves killed him. That is how it is translated above. However, multiple commentators chime in to note that elsewhere we have sources stating his death was at the hands of non-Jews, so some translations of the Talmud render the line in a more ambiguous fashion.

Read all of Sanhedrin 93 on Sefaria.

This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on March 20, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.