The end of the world in 221 years

This is a Midrash Agada and I don’t think it should be understood literally. In any case, I’m not worried. The gates of interpretation have not been closed, and quite a few messianic prophecies have already come true and nothing has happened. Crises happen when there is a problematic background even without this belief. There were crisis situations when the public was in dire straits and they were comforted by a prediction of the coming of the Messiah in the coming days, and then it came true (for example, this was the case in Jerusalem at the beginning of the twentieth century. I think Shulamit Lapid wrote about this in her book ‘Like a Broken Pottery’). It is worth changing the approach because it is appropriate to treat legends correctly and not necessarily because of such concerns.