Renewed Messianic Thought in Nineteenth Century Germany: A Dispute between Moses Hess and Leopold Loew

Hess obviously reject the version of the Messianic idea, extending from Rashi to Hermann Cohen, according to which "in suffering for the nations Israel aquires the right to convert them" But Hess is far from being an example for the vulgar, eduemonist nationalism that Cohen later so vehemently regected as a motive of Messianism. For Hess, and later for Herzl, it is precisely putting an end to their suffering, and undoing the wrong that has been done to the jews, that will eventually heal the entire world.