The Torah perspective on Moshiach and the ''end of the world''.
What is the end of the world going to look like? How do ''good deeds' bring the Redemption? Will the end be violent or peaceful? In this video from 2011 Rabbi Simon Jacobson discusses Moshiach and the Future Redemption.
shalom. i really dont understand why H' needs to use such a deadly and bloody end? thats called Torah?!! i know from a very credible souces that the time to make mashiach come with 'love' its over. but achishena doesnt mean need to be deadly and ISIS style?!. 2/3 of the world will be destroyed - but we think by a an atomic bomb or by a EMP or nuclear or ww3! really??? no! 2/3 of the world will be desapearded as cristians catholics, buhdaist all of them will be jews. thats a masssive people.... thats the end!! moshich will bring his way to know how to comunicate to H' , bringing that DAAT to this world and change it. with wisdom, not with destruction.....then, ages ago we werent here!! thats the Torah i want we all want!!!! shabat shalom!!
Destruction is easier to understand as Torah when we understand that our deeds and observance are what continually allows the world to continue to exist. A moment without Torah in the world means the world will cease to exist. Hashem had no choice but to destroy the first 974 worlds as the lack of righteous people made it unworthy of existing. The world at Noach's time was unable to continue as it was also due to their non-righteous behavior. We hope everyone will be brought to teshuva immediately before the world could be destroyed but if people don't repent in time, how can the world continue to exist? That is derech hateva (the way of nature) which is the way the world goes until Moshiach comes. That is what is happening now with the flooding and earthquakes, etc. Hashem can make changes to that and save all of us with but a word but the evil has to get destroyed somehow. Evil goes into the living creatures of the world, the animals, the trees. Everything is affected. Hashem will purify us and the world. We pray that it is with the most mercy possible. Maybe one can understand 2/3 of the world being destroyed as assimilation as I'm sure the numbers are very high but the world has gone through many real destructions for us to understand that it can be so again literally and yes, this is called Torah.
So incredible to hear these things and try to comprehend them....but if each one of us have a part.. a puzzle piece to fit into place... to do ... something we each one do, to tip the scales to the side of HaShem's Great Mercy, we have to be conscientiously constantly...looking for the "moment" in our lives, moment by moment... to DO those kind deeds and have mercy when we feel otherwise, to be kind, to be helpful, looking always, what can i do to help ...what is my role, HaShem, in this world to help bring this Change?
Does being aware, and telling everyone we meet, that HaShem's great Mercy is the very heartbeat of this world help to bring this change? Without His Mercy, even on the wicked, it would cease to exist is what Tomer Devorah says... such powerful words... His Great Great Mercy upon us all...and that we should be emulating our Creator... to DO these acts of mercy for each other also... Does this help ...
Becoming aware of every conversation we have, every thought that runs thru our mind, taking control of every wrong thought, and redirecting it to a Place of Good.... With every conversation, purposefully, speaking of the Good Things of HaShem and Torah, finding a Way to bring Him into our constant conversation brings awareness to the world that we somehow have left HaShem to the sidelines and tried.. (and actually thought).. that we were running our own lives, to begin with!!! Helping others to learn this Great Truth of our Creator and HE'S been the One running our lives and directing it... and it's all for the Good... everything He does is Good and will always be Good, no matter what my "understanding" of Good is... HIS is the Best Way possible, and we must REST and understand that.
Shuy: Evil must be destroyed! The evil doers have all been reincarnated at this time (end times). Do you think that letting the murderers of thousands of years against the Jewish people, the people of H', get away with evil. Maybe liberal leftists think that way because they don't think and feel there is a moral equivalence between good and evil. Justice will be done and vengeance is H's.
Secondly, the world will not be all Jews. Jews will be Jews. The righteous of the world will live by the Seven Laws of Noach and will live in their respective countries. Once a year at Sukkot, they will make pilgrimage to the Beit HaMikdash in holy Yerushalayim to pay homage to H'.
Miriam is correct when she says that the end of the evil doers will be their matter will become trees, stones, animals, etc.
It is so heartening to hear there are more positive voices out there. the world is never saved by the majority, rather the minority. usually by a small group of people, sometimes ten, sometimes 36 and in the arizal's time it was through the relationship between he and R' Chaim Vital. Hashem will bring things about to save the world--a spirit of teshuva will most certainly descend on the jewish people and affect the whole world.
There is a very clear tradition passed down from Rebbe Nachman, especially through a work called "Megilas Sesarim" ("Scroll of Secrets") that there will be no apocalypse per se and the Jews will return to God, the entire world will be elevated and return to God, and the entire creation will be brought to tikkun. not to say there won't be rough and dramatic times to catalyze teshuva, but this two-thirds of the world being utterly destroyed is not going to happen as many are proposing (and demanding it be fulfilled!). and woe be to the person who suggests otherwise. This way of thinking is actually quite christian (gasp!) since it pits the "sons of light" against the "sons of darkness." Hashem will deal with the wicked and the evil in the world in His way and in His time. There will be an end to it. however the challenge in this final generation is that the evil is all entangled in the souls of the Jewish people which makes it excruciating to purify (see Ramak's letter called Elima Rabbati.") (the Ramak was one of the great kabbalists in Tsfat during the time of the Arizal.) I have heard many times in the name of the Lubavitcher Rebbe that the difference between the Exodus from Egypt and the Final Redemption is that where only 20% of the Jewish people were saved during the Exodus, the Final Redemption will be 100%. No wonder things are taking so long! HaShem is good and merciful and will bring the world to its final tikkun through Mashiach.
Sorry for the length of my comments, but here is that portion of the Ramak's special letter (because it is so powerful and timely):
"At the end of exile, close to the time of our redemption, Israel’s troubles will greatly strengthen and intensify. Because of the tremendous travail that will surround them from every side, they will say, “Let the mountains and hills fall on us to hide us.” Their straits will become so dire that fathers will abandon their sons. Anyone who survives this period will be considered a triumphant warrior.
This will all come about since the Shechina will judge her house, Israel, and their adherence to sexual morality, in order to purify them for the Final Redemption and the good promised by the prophets. This good is utterly incomprehensible to the human intellect. The miracles and wonders of the redemption from Egypt will not be remembered in comparison to the final redemption. As it is written, “The days are coming,” says the L-rd, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the L-rd lives, who brought the children of Israel up out of Egypt,’ but instead it will be said, ‘As the L-rd lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where He had banished them.’ For I will restore them to the land I gave to their ancestors.” (Jer. 16:14-15).
At the time of the Final Redemption the miracles and revelation of the Shechina to Israel will be wondrous. All who are worthy will exclaim, “Here is HaShem; we hoped for Him!” (Isa. 25:9). They will literally point their finger at the revelation of the Shechina. Who will actually merit this?!
Therefore, during this same time, troubles will increase to refine Israel according to strict judgment. Every single person will regret according to their debt, and anyone who stiffens their neck and refuses to return will be lost. Whoever will return in teshuva, and welcomes and accepts the difficulties gladly, will be purified and made worthy.
The entire matter rests on the fact that the time will have arrived for the klipot (“husks,” forces of evil) to be nullified in the world. However, as long as their wickedness clings to Israel, how is it possible to nullify these “external forces”? The L-rd is the Master of Judgment, meting out a righteous and faithful justice, with no perversion. Therefore, Israel will undergo repeated purging and refining until they are clean and pure as refined silver. This divine process will be administered with strict judgment, since the klipa will demand any portion owed to it.
In these final days, nations will fight each other, each one’s sword against its neighbor, and Israel will be caught in between, with tremendous suffering. Each nation will desire to plunder this “sheep” and consume her flesh. However, the Holy One will take compassion on His people in the merit of the three holy forefathers [Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov], and their suffering will refine and whiten them. During this time of judgment, the Holy One will overthrow the seed of Amalek, cut it off from the world, and ‘erase him from under the heavens.’"
esther: One thing is important to note; that amongst the Jewish people there are many Erev Rav, as we know from Chazal and the GR'A points out that in the end of days, most rabbis and the ruling elite of the state of Israel will be Erev Rav. They will have the same end as Esav/Yishmael because they have joined with them and will even do battle alongside them against Israel (the true Jews) in the war of Gog U'Magog.
It will be that the true bnai Yisrael (Yiddishe neshamot) will all be saved, because every Jewish neshama has a chelek in Olam Habah!
The prophecy of Bilaam states that Moshiach will “uproot all the sons of Seth”, which refers to all of his descendants–the nations of the world. One interpretation is that Moshiach will “rule over” the nations of the world, but the Ibn Ezra understands it as “destruction”, as do the Aramaic translations of the verse. The translation of the holy Tanna Yonason ben Uziel connects it with the war of Gog and Magog.
However, to say that the nations will be destroyed is puzzling, because there are numerous prophecies that speak of the nations of the world in the time to come, streaming to Jerusalem and serving Hashem together.
We also find in the prophecy of Zecharia (13:8) that two-thirds of the world’s population shall perish: “And it shall come to pass throughout all the land, says the Lord, two parts of it shall be cut off. They shall perish, and the third shall remain therein.” The Midrash states that the third which shall remain refers to Israel, thus the two-thirds which perish are the nations of the world.
How can we reconcile this with the words of the Rambam that Moshiach will:
“repair the entire world, motivating all the nations to serve G-d together, as it states: ‘I will transform the peoples to a purer language that they all will call upon the name of G-d and serve Him with one purpose.'”
How will the nations of the world “serve Him” if they have perished?!
Furthermore, about Hashem it says “G-d is good to all and His mercy is over all His handiwork”–how could the destruction of humanity illustrate His mercy over all His handiwork (and not just His chosen people)?!
Although we have the example of the flood (in the times of Noach), that was explicitly as a punishment for wrongdoing, which is not the case in these prophecies. Similarly, if one will invoke the decrees and destructions that the Jewish people endured (may they not come a second time), those events happened during a time of exile, when Hashem’s mercy is concealed.
But in the prophecies mentioned above, we are speaking of the Messianic future, when G-dliness will be revealed in the world. Thus how can there be a destruction and desolation of all the nations?
The answer is that we need to properly understand what is meant by “destruction” and “perish”, since it cannot be understood literally for the reasons outlined above.
In the time about which these prophecies are speaking there will be a state of “the world will be filled with the knowledge of G-d as water fills the seabed” and “the spirit of impurity will be removed from the earth”. When this happens, the nations of the world (who will indeed be physically alive at that time) will feel how their existence is not a separate existence from Hashem, but rather that without Hashem nothing would exist, including themselves.
This means that the nations of the world will perceive how they are not a true, independent existence at all: their sense of independent existence will be “cut off and die”, “uprooted”, and “destroyed”. (This is the true meaning behind the prophecies, and not physical destruction.)
From a talk of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, 5743 (1983), available in three languages: Yiddish (Likkutei Sichos v.23) Hebrew (Sha’arei Geulah, v.2) English (WikiSicha.org)
shalom. i really dont understand why H' needs to use such a deadly and bloody end? thats called Torah?!! i know from a very credible souces that the time to make mashiach come with 'love' its over. but achishena doesnt mean need to be deadly and ISIS style?!. 2/3 of the world will be destroyed - but we think by a an atomic bomb or by a EMP or nuclear or ww3! really??? no! 2/3 of the world will be desapearded as cristians catholics, buhdaist all of them will be jews. thats a masssive people.... thats the end!! moshich will bring his way to know how to comunicate to H' , bringing that DAAT to this world and change it. with wisdom, not with destruction.....then, ages ago we werent here!! thats the Torah i want we all want!!!! shabat shalom!!
ReplyDeleteDestruction is easier to understand as Torah when we understand that our deeds and observance are what continually allows the world to continue to exist. A moment without Torah in the world means the world will cease to exist. Hashem had no choice but to destroy the first 974 worlds as the lack of righteous people made it unworthy of existing. The world at Noach's time was unable to continue as it was also due to their non-righteous behavior. We hope everyone will be brought to teshuva immediately before the world could be destroyed but if people don't repent in time, how can the world continue to exist? That is derech hateva (the way of nature) which is the way the world goes until Moshiach comes. That is what is happening now with the flooding and earthquakes, etc. Hashem can make changes to that and save all of us with but a word but the evil has to get destroyed somehow. Evil goes into the living creatures of the world, the animals, the trees. Everything is affected. Hashem will purify us and the world. We pray that it is with the most mercy possible. Maybe one can understand 2/3 of the world being destroyed as assimilation as I'm sure the numbers are very high but the world has gone through many real destructions for us to understand that it can be so again literally and yes, this is called Torah.
ReplyDeleteSo incredible to hear these things and try to comprehend them....but if each one of us have a part.. a puzzle piece to fit into place... to do ... something we each one do, to tip the scales to the side of HaShem's Great Mercy, we have to be conscientiously constantly...looking for the "moment" in our lives, moment by moment... to DO those kind deeds and have mercy when we feel otherwise, to be kind, to be helpful, looking always, what can i do to help ...what is my role, HaShem, in this world to help bring this Change?
ReplyDeleteDoes being aware, and telling everyone we meet, that HaShem's great Mercy is the very heartbeat of this world help to bring this change? Without His Mercy, even on the wicked, it would cease to exist is what Tomer Devorah says... such powerful words... His Great Great Mercy upon us all...and that we should be emulating our Creator... to DO these acts of mercy for each other also... Does this help ...
Becoming aware of every conversation we have, every thought that runs thru our mind, taking control of every wrong thought, and redirecting it to a Place of Good.... With every conversation, purposefully, speaking of the Good Things of HaShem and Torah, finding a Way to bring Him into our constant conversation brings awareness to the world that we somehow have left HaShem to the sidelines and tried.. (and actually thought).. that we were running our own lives, to begin with!!! Helping others to learn this Great Truth of our Creator and HE'S been the One running our lives and directing it... and it's all for the Good... everything He does is Good and will always be Good, no matter what my "understanding" of Good is... HIS is the Best Way possible, and we must REST and understand that.
Shuy: Evil must be destroyed! The evil doers have all been reincarnated at this time (end times). Do you think that letting the murderers of thousands of years against the Jewish people, the people of H', get away with evil. Maybe liberal leftists think that way because they don't think and feel there is a moral equivalence between good and evil. Justice will be done and vengeance is H's.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, the world will not be all Jews. Jews will be Jews. The righteous of the world will live by the Seven Laws of Noach and will live in their respective countries. Once a year at Sukkot, they will make pilgrimage to the Beit HaMikdash in holy Yerushalayim to pay homage to H'.
Miriam is correct when she says that the end of the evil doers will be their matter will become trees, stones, animals, etc.
It is so heartening to hear there are more positive voices out there. the world is never saved by the majority, rather the minority. usually by a small group of people, sometimes ten, sometimes 36 and in the arizal's time it was through the relationship between he and R' Chaim Vital. Hashem will bring things about to save the world--a spirit of teshuva will most certainly descend on the jewish people and affect the whole world.
ReplyDeleteThere is a very clear tradition passed down from Rebbe Nachman, especially through a work called "Megilas Sesarim" ("Scroll of Secrets") that there will be no apocalypse per se and the Jews will return to God, the entire world will be elevated and return to God, and the entire creation will be brought to tikkun. not to say there won't be rough and dramatic times to catalyze teshuva, but this two-thirds of the world being utterly destroyed is not going to happen as many are proposing (and demanding it be fulfilled!). and woe be to the person who suggests otherwise. This way of thinking is actually quite christian (gasp!) since it pits the "sons of light" against the "sons of darkness." Hashem will deal with the wicked and the evil in the world in His way and in His time. There will be an end to it. however the challenge in this final generation is that the evil is all entangled in the souls of the Jewish people which makes it excruciating to purify (see Ramak's letter called Elima Rabbati.") (the Ramak was one of the great kabbalists in Tsfat during the time of the Arizal.) I have heard many times in the name of the Lubavitcher Rebbe that the difference between the Exodus from Egypt and the Final Redemption is that where only 20% of the Jewish people were saved during the Exodus, the Final Redemption will be 100%. No wonder things are taking so long! HaShem is good and merciful and will bring the world to its final tikkun through Mashiach.
Sorry for the length of my comments, but here is that portion of the Ramak's special letter (because it is so powerful and timely):
ReplyDelete"At the end of exile, close to the time of our redemption, Israel’s troubles will greatly strengthen and intensify. Because of the tremendous travail that will surround them from every side, they will say, “Let the mountains and hills fall on us to hide us.” Their straits will become so dire that fathers will abandon their sons. Anyone who survives this period will be considered a triumphant warrior.
This will all come about since the Shechina will judge her house, Israel, and their adherence to sexual morality, in order to purify them for the Final Redemption and the good promised by the prophets. This good is utterly incomprehensible to the human intellect. The miracles and wonders of the redemption from Egypt will not be remembered in comparison to the final redemption. As it is written, “The days are coming,” says the L-rd, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the L-rd lives, who brought the children of Israel up out of Egypt,’ but instead it will be said, ‘As the L-rd lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where He had banished them.’ For I will restore them to the land I gave to their ancestors.” (Jer. 16:14-15).
At the time of the Final Redemption the miracles and revelation of the Shechina to Israel will be wondrous. All who are worthy will exclaim, “Here is HaShem; we hoped for Him!” (Isa. 25:9). They will literally point their finger at the revelation of the Shechina. Who will actually merit this?!
Therefore, during this same time, troubles will increase to refine Israel according to strict judgment. Every single person will regret according to their debt, and anyone who stiffens their neck and refuses to return will be lost. Whoever will return in teshuva, and welcomes and accepts the difficulties gladly, will be purified and made worthy.
The entire matter rests on the fact that the time will have arrived for the klipot (“husks,” forces of evil) to be nullified in the world. However, as long as their wickedness clings to Israel, how is it possible to nullify these “external forces”? The L-rd is the Master of Judgment, meting out a righteous and faithful justice, with no perversion. Therefore, Israel will undergo repeated purging and refining until they are clean and pure as refined silver. This divine process will be administered with strict judgment, since the klipa will demand any portion owed to it.
In these final days, nations will fight each other, each one’s sword against its neighbor, and Israel will be caught in between, with tremendous suffering. Each nation will desire to plunder this “sheep” and consume her flesh. However, the Holy One will take compassion on His people in the merit of the three holy forefathers [Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov], and their suffering will refine and whiten them. During this time of judgment, the Holy One will overthrow the seed of Amalek, cut it off from the world, and ‘erase him from under the heavens.’"
esther: One thing is important to note; that amongst the Jewish people there are many Erev Rav, as we know from Chazal and the GR'A points out that in the end of days, most rabbis and the ruling elite of the state of Israel will be Erev Rav. They will have the same end as Esav/Yishmael because they have joined with them and will even do battle alongside them against Israel (the true Jews) in the war of Gog U'Magog.
ReplyDeleteIt will be that the true bnai Yisrael (Yiddishe neshamot) will all be saved, because every Jewish neshama has a chelek in Olam Habah!
Annie, you make a lot of sense.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
sc
Gog uMagog Explained (blog)
ReplyDeleteWhat Happens to 2/3 of the World…?!
The prophecy of Bilaam states that Moshiach will “uproot all the sons of Seth”, which refers to all of his descendants–the nations of the world. One interpretation is that Moshiach will “rule over” the nations of the world, but the Ibn Ezra understands it as “destruction”, as do the Aramaic translations of the verse. The translation of the holy Tanna Yonason ben Uziel connects it with the war of Gog and Magog.
However, to say that the nations will be destroyed is puzzling, because there are numerous prophecies that speak of the nations of the world in the time to come, streaming to Jerusalem and serving Hashem together.
We also find in the prophecy of Zecharia (13:8) that two-thirds of the world’s population shall perish: “And it shall come to pass throughout all the land, says the Lord, two parts of it shall be cut off. They shall perish, and the third shall remain therein.” The Midrash states that the third which shall remain refers to Israel, thus the two-thirds which perish are the nations of the world.
How can we reconcile this with the words of the Rambam that Moshiach will:
“repair the entire world, motivating all the nations to serve G-d together, as it states: ‘I will transform the peoples to a purer language that they all will call upon the name of G-d and serve Him with one purpose.'”
How will the nations of the world “serve Him” if they have perished?!
Furthermore, about Hashem it says “G-d is good to all and His mercy is over all His handiwork”–how could the destruction of humanity illustrate His mercy over all His handiwork (and not just His chosen people)?!
Although we have the example of the flood (in the times of Noach), that was explicitly as a punishment for wrongdoing, which is not the case in these prophecies. Similarly, if one will invoke the decrees and destructions that the Jewish people endured (may they not come a second time), those events happened during a time of exile, when Hashem’s mercy is concealed.
But in the prophecies mentioned above, we are speaking of the Messianic future, when G-dliness will be revealed in the world. Thus how can there be a destruction and desolation of all the nations?
The answer is that we need to properly understand what is meant by “destruction” and “perish”, since it cannot be understood literally for the reasons outlined above.
In the time about which these prophecies are speaking there will be a state of “the world will be filled with the knowledge of G-d as water fills the seabed” and “the spirit of impurity will be removed from the earth”. When this happens, the nations of the world (who will indeed be physically alive at that time) will feel how their existence is not a separate existence from Hashem, but rather that without Hashem nothing would exist, including themselves.
This means that the nations of the world will perceive how they are not a true, independent existence at all: their sense of independent existence will be “cut off and die”, “uprooted”, and “destroyed”. (This is the true meaning behind the prophecies, and not physical destruction.)
From a talk of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, 5743 (1983), available in three languages:
Yiddish (Likkutei Sichos v.23)
Hebrew (Sha’arei Geulah, v.2)
English (WikiSicha.org)