Q&A: The End of the World in 221 Years
The End of the World in 221 Years
Question
Hello and blessings.
Many among the Religious and Haredi public believe that "the world will exist for six thousand years" (Sanhedrin 93), etc.—meaning that this world can exist for a maximum of 6,000 years, and at the end of that period the Messiah must necessarily be revealed, a Temple of fire will descend from heaven, and so on and so on. According to the calculation, this would fall about 221 years from now—not very far off.
As someone who does not believe in such supernatural changes, but rather believes that "the world follows its natural course," I am quite curious and concerned about what will happen to the believing Jewish public: Will its general faith be shaken? Will this also shatter other assumptions? Will it cause a crisis?
Is it worth trying in advance to change the approach?
What do you think?
Answer
This is an aggadic midrash, and I do not think it should be understood literally. In any case, I am not concerned. The gates of interpretation have not been locked, and quite a few messianic prophecies have already been disproved and nothing happened. Crises occur when there is a problematic background even without this belief. There were crisis situations when the public was in severe distress and was comforted with a prophecy that the Messiah would come in the near future, and then it was disproved. (That was the case, for example, in Jerusalem at the beginning of the twentieth century. I believe Shulamit Lapid wrote about this in her book Like Broken Earthenware.)
It is worth changing the approach because aggadic texts should be treated properly, and not necessarily because of such concerns.