Monday, May 7, 2012

The Folding of History

What is the timing of events that are yet to happen?  First, we must know that the entire time for all to happen – the length of history for this world is 6000 years.  Not including the six days of creation, which took 15.34 billion years (see my post The Age of the Universe, 3 Apr 2012).  The 6000 years are broken up as 2000 years of chaos, 2000 years of Torah and 2000 years of Messiah.  The first 2K years took us up to the time when Abraham at age 52 started his outreach work to teach the world about monotheism.  He discovered that Hashem existed at age 3 but didn’t really start his quest to bring the world to the same realization until later.  This started the second 2K years where the Torah would be studied and handed down to a newly formed nation at Mount Sinai in the year 2448.  The Torah was actually conceived by Hashem 2000 years before the creation.  That means the Torah is about 15,340,007,772 years old.  Any question as to what is the oldest text in the world?

The Oral Torah, the Talmud, which is a very detailed and complete explanation of the laws in the Torah, was passed down orally until the time of the Roman siege.  The Talmud faced the problem of the information being lost after the Jews were exiled from their land.  To preserve the Oral Law, the sages in Babylon constructed the written Talmud that we study today.  The event was miraculous and proved to be very accurate, guided by Hashem all the way.  Rabbi Judah the Prince gathered Rabbis from all over who had knowledge of the Oral Torah.  He found that even though they were strangers to each other, they had the exact same details handed down through their Rabbis.  The writing of the laws, or the Mishnayot, was finished around the year 3950 (190 CE).  The extensive discussion by the sages codifying the law, or as it is known the Gamorah, was completed around the year 4260 (500 CE).  The timing is very significant for a couple of reasons.  There is a Gamorah (Tractate Sanhedrin) that tells that the earliest time that the Messiah can appear is the year 4250 (490 CE) about 500 years after you-know-who.  We also are told that the information in the Talmud was only for the Jews, considering that it gets extensively into the 613 commandments that only Jews are obligated to fulfill.  There is no coincidence that the information was handed down orally until after the time that the Xtian religion and the church doctrine were established (after The First Council of Nicaea of 325).  It was not for the world but only for the Jews.  We see why the third 2K years became the time of the Messiah, from about the year 4000 to the end at 6000.



Anyway, getting back to the timeline.  Now we are in the year 5772 which means that everything has to be completed in the next 228 years which is called the Messianic age.  The return to Israel, the land producing, the final stages of Gog and Magog, the ingathering of the exile (including the 10 lost tribes), the coming of the Messiah, the Third Temple, Judgment day (the too late date) and the Resurrection of the Dead all will occur by the year 6000.


We have one other bit of information that really makes all this exiting and gives us much better detail of our schedule of events.  The holy Zohar tells us that history is folded (I was wondering why this blog post is called the folding of history) and that the 210 years that we were in Egypt followed by 40 years in the desert is prophecy for the end of time.  The folding of the calendar means that the last 210 years will be the time of the Resurrection of the Dead and that the other events will occur within the 40 years before that.  Translated into actual years, 210 years before the year 6000 is 5790 (2030).  The 40 years before that, means that the events already have started in the year 5750 (1990).

Scorecard:


·       Return to Israel – completed


·       Land producing – completed


·       Gog and Magog – I have already discussed the possibilities and see the final battle as a spiritual war that is ongoing.  Will there be further war?  I believe (oh no, my opinion?) that there will be a very short war at which time Hashem will take over with so-called natural disasters to, measure-for-measure, rid the world of the wicked with only the righteous remaining.  This final stage of Gog and Magog commenced with the Oslo accords in the early 1990’s and will probably be completed this year.  What a coincidence?


·       Ingathering of the exile (including the 10 lost tribes, which already are showing up) – ongoing with the biggest boost starting in 1990, the demise of the Soviet Union, Operation Solomon – the Jews leaving Ethiopia, the exile of Jews from many of the Arab countries, the increase of Aliyah from the rest of the world, etc.  All the Jews of the world should be here this year considering the next paragraph.  It is brought down that the Jews will return in two stages – a remnant before the coming of the Messiah and the remainder shortly thereafter.  I’m not going to get into the details but there are two Messiahs.  One is a descendent of David (that’s the popular one that we all know about) the other is the Messiah, descendent of Joseph.  Moshiach ben Yosef, as he is known, will be the one to take us through the final battle of Gog and Magog and gather in the remainder of the Jews.  The final group to come over will fly on the wings of Eagles.  It will be very miraculous since there is an estimate that the trip will take about 5 minutes (no time for meals or movies).  There is no coincidence.


·       The coming of the Messiah – he is already here with great expectations that he will be introduced to the world shortly (within the next 3 months according to many sources).


·       The Third Temple – hopefully this year, 5772.


·       Judgment day (the too late date) – I believe I know the exact date for this but I am not going to speculate (it is coming fast enough to take it seriously).


·       The Resurrection of the Dead – will probably occur over many years considering that is should be completed by the year 6000.  First the righteous will be resurrected (that could start this year, or already has started -- we have some possibilities that we are aware of) – then the remainder of Jews from history.  The details of this are too extensive for now.


There are many changes that we will see in this period of the Messiah (from now to the year 6K).  Very soon should be the end of war, evil, hatred, greed, death and sickness since that phase of the rectification of us and the world should be relatively complete in the near-term.   Many other wonderful changes will happen during this timeframe approaching 6K.


What happens after 6K?  The next 1000 years, 6000 to 7000 are called the years of Shabbat (we are going to need a really big cholent pot).  This period is not totally understood because we will not be on Earth but in Heaven.  Since time as we know it will be over, the 1000 years may be a single day in Heaven, the World of Souls (Psalms 90:4:  1000 years is but one day in Your eyes).  At the year 7000 the body and soul will be reunited and brought back to what is called the World-to-Come.  A final judgment will occur at that time to determine the eternity of each of us.  As with Heaven, the World-to-Come will be many levels of holiness – with those more deserving being closer to Hashem.  There are also stages of the World-to-Come that are beyond the scope of this discussion.  The years 7000 to 8000 will be followed by additional rectification in the years 8000 to 9000 and even further happenings 9000 to 10000.   Once again, just know that all is for the good.  Those who are worthy will be experiencing a future that is so tremendous it is beyond our human comprehension.  Hashem takes good care of those who follow His ways.

7 comments:

  1. Very interesting. I understand that the resurrection of the dead will occur in 2026CE or 2030CE. There have been rumours of the appearance of haMoshiach for years now. Who knows? And if he appears soon is it ben Yosef or ben Dovid?

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  2. Rabbi,

    Thanks for sharing your perspective. Must we die first before join 1000 yrs shabbat after 6K?

    Tom

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  3. I seem to recall from one of Rabbi Pinchas Winston's books that the time beyond 7000 will be a multi-millennial process where the 4 worlds will gradually be elevated until all are one with G-d.

    Also, the idea that everything will become one has led me to wonder if there is anything in Judaism that suggests a period of Restoration / Reconstitution (or Apocatastasis) of the souls of all living beings (both Good and Evil) to their original G-dly source, though I am unsure if there is any basis to my conjecture apart from the fact that the time of reward and punishment would have ended long ago.

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  4. You wrote: " The coming of the Messiah – he is already here with great expectations that he will be introduced to the world shortly (within the next 3 months according to many sources)."

    So, which messiah is this talking about? MBD or MBY?

    I know a number of convert families, whole families who converted together and they all seemed to start going in that direction about 1990. Are they souls of the "lost tribes?" Or what might be your explanation for that phenomenon?

    Also, there is a whole new christian sect calling themselves ephraimites who believe they are the "lost tribes" and some Jews have bought into it and are trying to settle them in Israel, despite that they still have a belief in Yeshu and think that Jews will also have that belief at the end of the day.

    Your thoughts on that?

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  5. I read recently that when the righteous will be resurrected (the text referred to persons of the male persuasion) they will come to life and reproduce. I have many questions regarding this. What bodies will we be resurrected in? How old will they be - the same as the age we died? If someone dies not being able to reproduce, he/or she will be able to reproduce no matter how old they are or...? If we are converts and went through many gilgul, which body will we be in our final return? Will old women be able to reproduce or will there even be childbirth?

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    Replies
    1. That opens a hole new can of worms, if that is the case than that also leads to the question of whether unmarried souls spanning many generations (even to today) will marry each other upon resurrection or marry those still alive who have yet to be resurrected?

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  6. We are praying for Moshiah Ben David

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