The Jewish Bible is replete with statements concerning te Ultimate Leader that is to appear at the end of days and rescue us from exile. There seems to be two opposing avenues in reaching this goal: miraculous or natural. The sages of the Talmud were aware of this internal conflict within the Jewish Bible to the point where they commented on daf 98:a in tractate Sanhedrin.
And behold, one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven whilst [elsewhere] it is written, [behold, thy king cometh unto thee … ] lowly, and riding upon a donkey! (Zechariah 9:7) — if they are meritorious, [he will come] with the clouds of heaven;(Daniel 7:13) if not, lowly and riding upon a donkey.
So which is it? In order to warrant “with the clouds of heaven” we have to have merit within our actions and if not then the Ultimate Leader comes naturally in order to lead us to refine ourselves and the world which will in turn bring us to a truly miraculous future.
Derech Chaim was established to enable all of us together to build Beit David in a real way, hoping for the miraculous, but aware that we have to work in the physical world.
