The Gifts of the Magi are reverently kept in the monastery in several small reliquaries: 28 small gold plates in the form of a trapezoid, quadrangle and polygon, decorated with elegant, filigree ornaments. This is the gold that the Magi brought to the Divine Infant as King. In addition, about 70 small, olive-sized, balls of frankincense and myrrh are kept. These shrines are strongly fragrant. Sometimes the possessed are healed.

Has one of the most authoritative representatives of modern Judaism really recognized that the name of the Messiah is Jesus?

Hieromonk Job (Gumerov)  

On January 29, 2006, at the age of 108, Kabbalist Yitzhak Kaduri (real name Diba), who was the spiritual leader of Sephardic Jews, died. In recent years, he often spoke of the imminent coming of the Messiah. Before his death, he said that he knew the name of the Messiah, "which was revealed to me on the 9th of Cheshvan 5764 (i.e., November 11, 2003)." He wrote this name in a small note and asked to be printed only a year after his death. As it turned out, the note contains the following text: "Yarim ha-Am Veyokhiakh Shedvaro Vetorato Omdim (He will exalt the people and prove that His word and law are valid)." Text in Hebrew. The first letters of the words in the Hebrew text (ה ו ש ע י) make up the name of the Messiah – Yishhua (Jesus).

Although many Orthodox Jews reacted sharply negatively to the contents of the note, seeing in it a deviation from Judaism, the text is not sufficient to conclude that Isaac Kaduri was referring to our Savior. Everything that Rabbi Yitzchak said (including after November 2003) during his lifetime fits well into the framework of ordinary Judaism, although some statements may have puzzled Orthodox Jews: "It will be easier for non-religious people to follow the Messiah (i.e., the Messiah) than for Orthodox people."

The most significant thing is that Yitzhak Kaduri does not say that the Messiah had already come into this world 2000 years ago, but in the words of the Apostle John the Theologian, "every spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ who has come in the flesh is not of God, but it is the spirit of the Antichrist, of whom you have heard that he will come, and is now already in the world" (1 John 4: 3). Yitzhak Kaduri, in his exceptional focus on the interests of the Jews, is no different from a typical representative of Judaism.

Over the long history from the coming of the Redeemer into the world to the present day, two polar positions have been determined. Some Jews recognized Jesus as God incarnate, the Messiah-Savior. By accepting His teaching and sacrificially following His commandments, they attained holiness and inherited eternal bliss in the Kingdom of Heaven: the apostles, the righteous Gamaliel, Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, and many others in the centuries that followed. Other Jews (ranging from blind Pharisees to modern Judaists) had and still have an overwhelming hatred for the Savior of the world and His followers. This hostility is sometimes surprising in its sophistication. Since the beginning of the 70s of the XX century, even the international plus sign has been banned in all Jewish elementary schools, and later in many higher schools, because it resembles a cross. Instead, a sign similar to the inverted letter "t" is used.

Religious life requires from a person attention to himself, moral sensitivity, humility and pure intentions, aspiration to the heavenly. If this is not the case, the heart gradually hardens. A substitution inevitably occurs. Its consequences are spiritual death. The goals and aspirations of the Jews remained on earth. Earthly well-being, wealth, success, and power have become the main values, but unlike socio-political ideologies, in Judaism these worldly values are sacralized, they are given a religious character. This consciousness was formed gradually. Even before our Savior began to preach the gospel of the kingdom of heaven, the Jews began to imagine the Messiah as a powerful earthly king who would exalt the Jews above all nations and make them rich and powerful.

However, the prophets foretold the coming of another Messiah, the Afflicted One. The prophet Isaiah speaks about this with impressive vividness and accuracy, who, because of the multitude of prophecies and the accuracy of their fulfillment in Jesus Christ, has been called the "Old Testament evangelist" since patristic times (Jerome, Blessed, Epistle to Paulinus). In the words of St. Cyril of Alexandria, "Isaiah is both a prophet and an apostle, his prophetic utterances have the clarity of evangelical preaching" (Commentary on Isaiah, Preface).

Каков же истинный Мессия?

«Он был презрен и умален пред людьми, муж скорбей и изведавший болезни…

Он взял на Себя наши немощи и понес наши болезни; а мы думали, [что] Он был поражаем, наказуем и уничижен Богом.

Но Он изъязвлен был за грехи наши и мучим за беззакония наши; наказание мира нашего [было] на Нем, и ранами Его мы исцелились.

…Господь возложил на Него грехи всех нас.