Chapter M – The One – Neo – The Character of “Adam” – Adam David Messiah
Who is "the One" – and why are the fighters of Zion willing to give their lives to find him?
"His strength derives from the fact that he is the sum of all human desires for liberation."
One of the important subjects raised in the film is the idea of a "redeemer." The plot of the film is built around the heroic character of Neo, fighting as the emissary of "enlightened" humanity against the consciousness that took over the world.
In a dialogue with the Architect, in which Neo tries to understand the rules of the game and the essence of the characters taking part in it, including his own, the Architect tells him that his soul is a general soul, expressing the sum of all the souls in the Matrix that refused to accept the prison of the imaginary simulation they produced. We discover that his strength derives from the fact that he is the sum of all human desires for liberation from the jaws of slavery to the Matrix and its agents.
In a conversation with Morpheus, shortly after his release, Morpheus tells Neo that his soul was already here in the world a long time ago. Already in its first appearance in the world it discovered its ability to resist the forced conception inserted into every baby born into the Matrix, to wash it away and cleanse itself so as to stand clear and clean, and to break through the limits of the imaginary simulation. This recognition of freedom gave it powers beyond the rules of the physical / digital world, and enabled it also to wash and cleanse the minds of other souls on their way to awakening and to spiritual and physical liberation from the great mental prison. He also tells him that since then it has reincarnated in this reality several times, in different appearances, each time advancing the course of the world war of liberation.
However, since every time it comes it does not know who it is and what its abilities are, some of the fighters of Zion have taken it upon themselves to search for this soul among all the souls in the world, in order to awaken it, guide it through the trials it will have to go through, and help it discover the powers hidden within it. Because of this soul's important role in the "redemption," the fighters of Zion are willing to give their lives and souls for its discovery and protection.
This, of course, is a modern adaptation of a thousands-of-years-old longing for the renewed appearance of the yearned-for figure of the Messiah. The film itself does not hide this: after Smith blinds Neo's physical eyes, he calls him "the blind Messiah."
The figure of the "redeemer" begins with Moses, who is defined by the sages of the hidden Torah (Kabbalah) as the "Da'at" (knowledge, awareness) of the whole of Israel. This notion enfolds the generality of the soul of the Messiah, which represents the awareness of the entire people, as he is told: "Go down, for your people have acted corruptly" – you cannot remain on this high level, because the people whose emissary and representative you are has fallen.
Moses goes through several trials that prepare him for this role, and the guiding line of all of them is his readiness to give himself up for the whole of Israel. Moses, like Neo, stands before the possibility of giving up on this "problematic" people and building from him a new and better people, but Moses, like Neo, will not hear of such a possibility, and declares that if the people is not forgiven, he is willing to be erased from the book of the Creator. The guiding line of his character is devotion to the whole, and humility.
Neo's name, besides its Latin meaning, "renewal," is made of letters that hint at his role – NEO / ONE, "the One" – and it also strikingly resembles one of the names of the Messiah: Yinon.
Because of the generality of the soul of the Messiah, and its being built by the souls of the entire people, the sages of the hidden Torah guide the fighters of Zion to awaken others and to awaken themselves as much as possible, since every thought, speech and action of every single soul in this direction strengthens, reveals and brings closer its renewed appearance and the general redemption. Each one has a part in the soul of the Messiah. Each and every one is Neo. Each one has the part that only he can do on the way to personal and general liberation.
All the young fighters of Zion, even today, are directed to intensive study of the program language, its essence and so on – even at the expense of studies more useful for life inside the "Matrix" – in order, like Morpheus and the fighters of Zion, to find that one soul that can pull the whole wagon out of the mud in which it has been stuck for ages, to give it the right preparation for this role, and not to lose it to the Bar Association, to managing a high-tech company, or to the operating room at Ichilov Hospital.