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Rabbi Moshe Yess
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY BY AVRAHAM SUTTON
The Cosmic Clock
The Torah teaches that G-d has a plan for creation. That is, G-d created the world with a purpose in mind, and this purpose is the motivating force behind all that happens. We know of the existence of this plan (and that it will unfold in stages) from the first chapter in the Book of Genesis. There we are told that G-d created the world in six days, and rested on the seventh day, the Sabbath. Resting on the Sabbath means that the various things that G-d created throughout the first six days of creation were preparatory – part of a larger plan which was brought to completion on the seventh day. This is the meaning of the Torah’s statement:
It was evening and it was morning, the sixth day. Heaven and Earth and all their hosts were completed. With [the advent of] the seventh Day, G-d brought all the work He had done to completion. On the seventh day, He ceased from all the work He had completed. G-d therefore blessed the seventh day. G-d also sanctified [and elevated] it, for on it He ceased from all His work which He had created to perfection (Genesis 2:1-3).
The six days of Creation followed by a Sabbath serve as a template or blueprint for what is known as the 6000 years of history followed by the Great Sabbath (Sanhedrin 97a). Right now, according to the Biblical calendar that has been kept by the Jewish people for millennia, we are in the year 5762, that is, 762 years into the 6th Millennium, 238 years before its conclusion and the advent of the 7th Millennium. The 6th Millennium corresponds to the 6th day of Creation and the 7th Millennium corresponds to the first Sabbath.
Biblical Years Common Era
5000 1240 C.E
5250 1490 C.E.
5500 1740 C.E.
5750 1990 C.E.
6000 2240 C.E.
Everybody knows that the year 1900 C.E. was the beginning of the 20th Century. Similarly, the year 2000 C.E. marks the beginning of the 21st Century. In the same way, the above table begins with the Biblical year 5000 which marked the beginning of the 6th Millennium. That year corresponded to the year 1240 of the Common Era. [We are not concerned here with why they correspond, just with the fact that they do.]
The table then jumps 250 years to the Biblical year 5250 (one-quarter of the way into the 6th Millennium) which corresponded to the year 1740 C.E. Another 250 years brought us to the year 5500 (half-way into the 6th Millennium), corresponding to the year 1740 C.E. Another 250 years brought us to the year 5750 (three-quarters into the 6th Millennium), corresponding to the year 1990 C.E. As of this writing (January 2002), that was 12 years ago. That leaves us exactly 238 years until the year 6000, the beginning of the 7th Millennium.
Or does it?
Our tradition states that each millennium, that is, each 1000 year period of history, is like a “cosmic day” made up of 24 “cosmic hours.” In other words, if 24 hours on the “cosmic clock” correspond to one “cosmic day,” then each 6 hour segment corresponds to 250 years.
Biblical Years
Common Era
Cosmic Clock
5000
1240 C.E.
6:00 p.m. (“evening”)
5250
1490 C.E.
12:00 p.m. (“midnight”)
5500
1740 C.E.
6:00 a.m. (“dawn”)
5750
1990 C.E.
12:00 a.m. (“noon”)
According to the Jewish Calendar, we are more than three-quarters through the 6th Millennium, in the last home-stretch of history, racing to the Great Sabbath. This fact alone gives us tremendous insight into the events of our time. Jewish communities the world over have always “welcomed the Sabbath” early, before sunset every Friday. This itself follows upon intense preparations for the Sabbath that begin on Wednesday and Thursday, and intensify throughout Friday morning and afternoon. Then, as the sun begins to set, all preparations cease. Whether we are ready or not, the light of the Sabbath enters and permeates the world. Time, space and consciousness are uplifted with a taste of the Great Sabbath.
This weekly cycle of six days building up to and culminating in a seventh is a miniature of the millennial cycle of six thousand years building up to and culminating in the Great Sabbath. Just as preparations intensify as the weekly Sabbath approaches, so history begins to intensify and accelerate as the Great Millennial Sabbath approaches. And more importantly, just as the Jewish people collectively welcome the Sabbath before sundown every Friday, so we are promised that the light of the Great Sabbath will enter and permeate the world way before the year 6000 (2240 C.E.).
This is the meaning of the following prophetic passage in which the Zohar (1:117a) likens the acceleration of the final stages of history to the onset of the Shabbat:
In the 600th year of the 6th millennium (5600 = 1840 C.E.) the gates of supernal wisdom above together with the wellsprings of wisdom below will be opened up and the world will prepare to usher in the 7th millennium. This is symbolized by a man who begins preparations for ushering in the Shabbat on the afternoon of the 6th day.
Just as the Jewish people have traditionally hurried to get everything done before Shabbat, so the world itself is moving faster before the onset of the Great Shabbat.
Surely, then, we are living at a crucial stage in history. Major events and major historical processes are taking place all around us and before our eyes at closer intervals and ever increasing rates. According to the “Cosmic Clock” we have passed “high noon” of the 6th Millennium. This means that we have entered and are living through an important “culminating” stage in the history of the world. Similar to the last scenes of a movie or play, this last stage of history will see all the “threads” of the Historical Drama come together. In Aramaic this stage is called Ikveta d’Meshicha, the Footsteps or Heels of the Messiah. In English, it is called “the Pre-Messianic Era.” As we have said, according to the Torah, history is a great Messianic Drama that leads to a rendezvous with G-d, specifically, with greater and greater revelations of the G-dly Unity that underlies all existence. This rendezvous is called “the World-to-Come” and “the Great Sabbath.” It is the goal of the historical process, the end of history as we know it, the beginning of a whole new world, an eternal world of light, of heaven on earth, of heaven coming down and elevating and transforming earth existence.
Again, the fact that the historical process is leading up to and will culminate in the advent of such a New World is perhaps one of the most important messages of the Torah for our generation. It is a message that is pregnant with meaning and which begs to be seriously understood and acted upon in a mature and thoughtful manner. Our Tradition is permeated with this message, and our Prayer directed to G-d, filled with yearning and hope, must be not only for the fulfillment of this message, but for the privilege of consciously participating in its realization.
continued here:
http://www.geulah.org/4namea.htm
Rabbi Moshe Yess
Rabbi Moshe Yess
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY BY AVRAHAM SUTTON
The Cosmic Clock
The Torah teaches that G-d has a plan for creation. That is, G-d created the world with a purpose in mind, and this purpose is the motivating force behind all that happens. We know of the existence of this plan (and that it will unfold in stages) from the first chapter in the Book of Genesis. There we are told that G-d created the world in six days, and rested on the seventh day, the Sabbath. Resting on the Sabbath means that the various things that G-d created throughout the first six days of creation were preparatory – part of a larger plan which was brought to completion on the seventh day. This is the meaning of the Torah’s statement:
It was evening and it was morning, the sixth day. Heaven and Earth and all their hosts were completed. With [the advent of] the seventh Day, G-d brought all the work He had done to completion. On the seventh day, He ceased from all the work He had completed. G-d therefore blessed the seventh day. G-d also sanctified [and elevated] it, for on it He ceased from all His work which He had created to perfection (Genesis 2:1-3).
The six days of Creation followed by a Sabbath serve as a template or blueprint for what is known as the 6000 years of history followed by the Great Sabbath (Sanhedrin 97a). Right now, according to the Biblical calendar that has been kept by the Jewish people for millennia, we are in the year 5762, that is, 762 years into the 6th Millennium, 238 years before its conclusion and the advent of the 7th Millennium. The 6th Millennium corresponds to the 6th day of Creation and the 7th Millennium corresponds to the first Sabbath.
Biblical Years Common Era
5000 1240 C.E
5250 1490 C.E.
5500 1740 C.E.
5750 1990 C.E.
6000 2240 C.E.
Everybody knows that the year 1900 C.E. was the beginning of the 20th Century. Similarly, the year 2000 C.E. marks the beginning of the 21st Century. In the same way, the above table begins with the Biblical year 5000 which marked the beginning of the 6th Millennium. That year corresponded to the year 1240 of the Common Era. [We are not concerned here with why they correspond, just with the fact that they do.]
The table then jumps 250 years to the Biblical year 5250 (one-quarter of the way into the 6th Millennium) which corresponded to the year 1740 C.E. Another 250 years brought us to the year 5500 (half-way into the 6th Millennium), corresponding to the year 1740 C.E. Another 250 years brought us to the year 5750 (three-quarters into the 6th Millennium), corresponding to the year 1990 C.E. As of this writing (January 2002), that was 12 years ago. That leaves us exactly 238 years until the year 6000, the beginning of the 7th Millennium.
Or does it?
Our tradition states that each millennium, that is, each 1000 year period of history, is like a “cosmic day” made up of 24 “cosmic hours.” In other words, if 24 hours on the “cosmic clock” correspond to one “cosmic day,” then each 6 hour segment corresponds to 250 years.
Biblical Years
Common Era
Cosmic Clock
5000
1240 C.E.
6:00 p.m. (“evening”)
5250
1490 C.E.
12:00 p.m. (“midnight”)
5500
1740 C.E.
6:00 a.m. (“dawn”)
5750
1990 C.E.
12:00 a.m. (“noon”)
According to the Jewish Calendar, we are more than three-quarters through the 6th Millennium, in the last home-stretch of history, racing to the Great Sabbath. This fact alone gives us tremendous insight into the events of our time. Jewish communities the world over have always “welcomed the Sabbath” early, before sunset every Friday. This itself follows upon intense preparations for the Sabbath that begin on Wednesday and Thursday, and intensify throughout Friday morning and afternoon. Then, as the sun begins to set, all preparations cease. Whether we are ready or not, the light of the Sabbath enters and permeates the world. Time, space and consciousness are uplifted with a taste of the Great Sabbath.
This weekly cycle of six days building up to and culminating in a seventh is a miniature of the millennial cycle of six thousand years building up to and culminating in the Great Sabbath. Just as preparations intensify as the weekly Sabbath approaches, so history begins to intensify and accelerate as the Great Millennial Sabbath approaches. And more importantly, just as the Jewish people collectively welcome the Sabbath before sundown every Friday, so we are promised that the light of the Great Sabbath will enter and permeate the world way before the year 6000 (2240 C.E.).
This is the meaning of the following prophetic passage in which the Zohar (1:117a) likens the acceleration of the final stages of history to the onset of the Shabbat:
In the 600th year of the 6th millennium (5600 = 1840 C.E.) the gates of supernal wisdom above together with the wellsprings of wisdom below will be opened up and the world will prepare to usher in the 7th millennium. This is symbolized by a man who begins preparations for ushering in the Shabbat on the afternoon of the 6th day.
Just as the Jewish people have traditionally hurried to get everything done before Shabbat, so the world itself is moving faster before the onset of the Great Shabbat.
Surely, then, we are living at a crucial stage in history. Major events and major historical processes are taking place all around us and before our eyes at closer intervals and ever increasing rates. According to the “Cosmic Clock” we have passed “high noon” of the 6th Millennium. This means that we have entered and are living through an important “culminating” stage in the history of the world. Similar to the last scenes of a movie or play, this last stage of history will see all the “threads” of the Historical Drama come together. In Aramaic this stage is called Ikveta d’Meshicha, the Footsteps or Heels of the Messiah. In English, it is called “the Pre-Messianic Era.” As we have said, according to the Torah, history is a great Messianic Drama that leads to a rendezvous with G-d, specifically, with greater and greater revelations of the G-dly Unity that underlies all existence. This rendezvous is called “the World-to-Come” and “the Great Sabbath.” It is the goal of the historical process, the end of history as we know it, the beginning of a whole new world, an eternal world of light, of heaven on earth, of heaven coming down and elevating and transforming earth existence.
Again, the fact that the historical process is leading up to and will culminate in the advent of such a New World is perhaps one of the most important messages of the Torah for our generation. It is a message that is pregnant with meaning and which begs to be seriously understood and acted upon in a mature and thoughtful manner. Our Tradition is permeated with this message, and our Prayer directed to G-d, filled with yearning and hope, must be not only for the fulfillment of this message, but for the privilege of consciously participating in its realization.
continued here:
http://www.geulah.org/4namea.htm
Rabbi Moshe Yess
