Ask the Rabbi with Rabbi Chaim Mintz
You have said that the world was created to exist for 6,000 years. What will happen at that time? Will the world just revert to nothing?
Secondly, do we subscribe to the concept of Armageddon — a battle between good and evil at the end-of-times? And if so, is there anything I should be doing to protect myself?
Rabbi Chaim Mintz responds:
The End of Times: A Timeline
Arrival of the Messiah
Our prophets do not predict the world coming to an end. According to our tradition, the world will continue to exist forever, just not in its material form that we know. We await the arrival of Mashiach — a human being descended from King David — who will usher in a new spiritual era. He will illuminate the entire world, by teaching everyone to appreciate that God is the Creator and that we are here to serve Him. He will be accepted as the true leader of the world, recognized by Jews and non-Jews alike, and a prophet nearly as great as Moshe.
World to Come
In the period following that, there will be techiyat hameitim, the return to life of those God-fearing people who have died. Their souls will once again join their bodies, uplifting and purifying their physical entity. That will lead into an existence known as the World to Come. There are differing opinions if the existence in the World to Come will be with our bodies or just with our souls, but either way it will be a spiritual life, in which the souls will thrive forever. In contrast to our physical world, where we sometimes struggle to connect to the spiritual, the mundane will become pure and holy, and the spiritual realm will be clear and obvious. And because we will then be spiritual beings living in a spiritual world, we will no longer be subject to death.
Birth Pangs of Mashiach
As far as a battle at the end-of-times between good and evil, there are many different opinions among the sages as to what exactly will transpire. Our rabbis (Sanhedrin 98b) refer to this period as the “birth-pangs of Mashiach,” and the prophets foretell a great war — Milchemet Gog U’Magog — that will be very frightening for the Jewish people. Some believe that the Second World War was a fulfillment of that prophecy, as what happened to the Jewish people during the Holocaust certainly conforms to the prophets’ descriptions. There are also prophecies of nations uniting to attack the Jewish nation. The news is continually full of such events, where forces of evil are repeatedly attacking the Jewish people, the representation of good in the world.
Here and Now
And in regard to protecting ourselves from these fearsome days, our rabbis (ibid.) teach us that the only sure way to protect ourselves from these “birth-pangs” is by strengthening our connection to God through Torah learning, prayer, keeping Shabbat, and performing acts of kindness. This will give us the merit we need to live to see the heralding of the Messianic era, which we are so eagerly awaiting.
In short: We do not know exactly what will transpire, but we do know that the world will continue to exist forever, in which the souls will thrive. Our only protection is by strengthening our connection to God.
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