THE END OF
DAYS
Cont'd from Home Page
Throw into the mix the fact that
my wife obsesses over the Mayan calendar ending December 21,
2014, supposedly a harbinger of the world ending. She even
said to me as we stood aghast, frightened by the devastation
of Chile on the news, "Do you think the world is going to
end?" Then, to top it all off, the cheery news broadcaster
states, "Seismologists tell us, about California’s ‘Big One.’
It is not a matter of whether it will ‘hit,’ but merely a
matter of ‘when’ it will hit." Science says "we are
overdue."
I hope not. But our Jewish
history does dwell on this point, as a theologic preamble to
the Divine Design of the End of Days (Hebrew : aharit
ha-yamim). The intellectual study of eschatology deals with
the final destiny of the Jewish people and the world. (Other
religions have their own schemes.) All of our great scholars
have dealt with the perceived complexities of the End of Time:
Maimonides, Nachmonides, the Vilna Gaon, …the list goes on.
When the End of Time arrives, a
perfected world (all of the problems resolved) shall
eventuate, and all of our souls, previously damaged in our
former lives by all of the temptations and seductions we face
in fragile, normal life, shall also be repaired. (Tikkun Olam)
The ultimate triumph of G-d’s will shall take place with the
omnipotent victory of G-d’s truth and justice for all.
According to Amos (5:18-20), the
Day of the Lord will be one of great doom, with destruction
for all non-believers (Zephaniah 3:8-13), followed by
establishment of the glory of Israel’s remnant. A most
important feature of the Day of the Lord is that of
"Judgment." This has two key components. The first is that G-d
has demonstrated his wrath against all of those who have
angered Him, and Israel shall have revenge over all of its
historical enemies. Secondly, more importantly, this will be
the unending era of the vindication of the righteous. While
we, as Jews, may sometimes be in awe of the rewards for good
behavior and punishments for the bad, that Christians hold
close to their hearts in the final death of each person; our
ultimate plan for such rewards—or at least the vindication of
G-d’s goodness, won’t come until the end of the world. Just
like the Moshiach: we poor Jews are left waiting, and waiting;
except now, we are waiting for the Day of Doom, and suffer
through it, only then to be rewarded by the triumph of
Goodness.
This discourse, of course, being
inherently Jewish, must require differences of opinion. In
Maimonides’ The Principles of Faith, he includes his belief in
the world to come with the inherent coming of the Moshiach.
Way back in the 2nd century, at the time of Jesus
Christ, the Pharisees incorporated these elements of the Day
of the Lord, and victory of the righteous, and the coming of
the Moshiach to usher it all in… and this gave fodder to those
Jews who "founded Christianity," while the Sadducees would
have none of it. The Essenes, who would have none of the
formalized religion, nor any "sniff" of the oppressive Romans
occupying our land, escaped to the caves of the Dead Sea,
indulged in their mystic beliefs that they were living in the
"wickedness era," but which would be ultimately redeemed by a
"Divine era, with G-d’s favor" in the restored days. One of
the most famous Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in the sands and
debris of the caves of the Essenes, describes in detail the
catastrophic battle between the "Sons of Light"divinely
triumphing over the "Sons of Darkness."
Much of the writings and
thoughts of this decisive conflict between good and evil, must
occur when the forces of the world are caught in the "worst of
times." Each era which previously boasted the arrival of a
Messiah, had at its core, a very terrible prevailing human
condition. The time of Jesus Christ had at its nexus the
destruction of the Temple and the occupation of the Holy Land
by the Roman Empire, which persecuted, killed, and maimed our
forebears, even "ridding" Jerusalem of all of its Jewish
inhabitants and thoroughly disregarding our tenacious grasp of
religion: the Romans even desecrated the Temple before they
destroyed it. The time of Zabbatai Zevi, (mid 1600’s) he led a
pilgrimage across Russia, as a "deliverer" of the Jews. Many
rabinnical authorities of the time held that he may, in fact,
be the Moshiach, some even wrote to Baruch Spinoza. European
Jewry in the mid-1600s was in the midst of turmoil. . The
bloody pogroms of Bogdan Chmelnitzky had wiped out one third
of the Jewish population of Russia and destroyed many centers
of Jewish learning and communal life. This was also a
propitious, low moment in Jewish history for the messiah to
appear and deliver salvation. On and on… The Holocaust, of
course, might have been an appropriate time for a "deliverer"
to come to the aid Europe’s trapped Jews.
One tractate in the Talmud
(Avodah Zarah) states that the world as we know it will exist
for only six thousand years. By Jewish calculations, the year
2007 equals 5767 years since the creation of Adam, therefore
the End of Days may occur on or before our calendar year of
2240 (6000 in the Hebrew Calendar). Not the same as the
Mayans.
A great battle shall occur
(Armageddon), and G-d will intervene and save the Jews. Having
vanquished evil for good, the 7th millennium (after
the year 6000 on the Jewish Calendar) will be an era of
holiness, tranquility, spiritual life and peace : Olan haba
(future world). All people will know G-d, and Micah’s words
shall ring true: " they shall beat their swords into
plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks…" (Isaiah
2:4).
Even the Kabbalah gets caught
up. It teaches of a belief in "gilgul" or a transmigration of
the soul, which may be interpreted as a form of reincarnation.
Many well known rabbinic authorities have rejected the idea of
reincarnation; but some have promoted it. According to
tradition, when the Moshiach arrives, the souls of the dear
arise to greet and welcome him. This belief specifies that
each Jewish soul, by Kabbalistic standards, is resurrected,
and advocates of this idea include the Baal Shem Tov and Gaon
of Vilna. This belief is universal in Chasidic Judaism, which
regards the Kabbalah as sacred. Each Jewish soul returns, but
must fulfill the process of Tikkun (rectification) by which it
must fulfill each of the 613 Mitzvot and thus become "pure" to
its essence as envisioned by G-d. In these teachings of the
Kabbalah, as passed down from Isaac Luria, a "shattering of
the vessels" of the Sephirot falls down to earth from the
Spirit worlds, and these shards are embedded in our physical
world as "sparks of holiness" (nitzutzot). Once these
sparks are redeemed to their original and spiritual source,
only then can the Messianic era begin. The souls of the
righteous among the Nations will be assisted by these
gilgulim, or sparks of divinity, to fulfill the laws of the
Bible. This concept gives a cosmic importance to each
individual person, since each one’s list of tasks is
individual, and only that person knows them to fulfill them.
Thus, the "gilgulim" assist each individual soul in its tasks.
This also explains the Kabbalistic view of why any future
utopia must devolve from our "lower" imperfect world, and only
in this pedestrian realm is the purpose of a glorious Creation
realized and fulfilled.
Let us return to our here and
now: our tear filled, stunned realization of the destruction
of poor Haiti and Chile, with a nervous anticipation of a
future, similar calamity to shake our beloved California. The
obvious meaning of the End of Days is for all of us to assess
our shortcomings in preparation to the cleansing of our
smudged souls, and not just on an annual rite on Yom
Kippur…but as an on-going assessment, even if we live beyond
the time-frame of the rock and roll of
California.
________________________
Dr. Joseph Michelson, The Jewish Observer
Contributing
Columnist
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