There is a child’s legend of a messianic era when candy grows on trees. (It might secretly entice adults as well.) The source for this idea is in the Talmud, which details a whole array of wonderful promises that will happen in the future. From gigantic grapes, each producing gallons of the finest dry wine with ease, to barren trees producing the most delectable and juicy fruits, the list leaves nothing off the table.
The Talmud goes on to say: Rabbi Gamliel, the leading halachic authority of his generation, was once teaching his students about the era of Moshiach, and mentioned that “the Land of Israel will produce delicious pastries.”
One student began to mockingly laugh, exclaiming: “Your teaching contradicts an explicit verse in the Book of Kohelet, which states: ‘There is nothing new under the sun!’” Rabbi Gamliel took him outside and pointed to a patch of mushrooms, round like cookies and ready to eat, which took but one day to grow. “It happens already,” he concluded.
There is a much easier answer to the skeptic’s problem with his rabbi’s words. Many commentaries explain how certain seemingly implausible prophecies of the future era of Moshiach can be understood in a non-literal way. Why did the great Rabbi Gamliel go so far to prove that these wild ideas were practical?
