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Six ages for going in and coming out, for war and peace. The seventh age is entirely Shabbat and rest for life everlasting

-Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 18.12

Ages | Midrash | Talmud

  • The school of Eliyahu (Elijah) taught: Six thousand years is the duration of the world. Two thousand of the six thousand years are characterized by chaos; two thousand years are characterized by Torah, from the era of the Patriarchs until the end of the mishnaic period; and two thousand years are the period of the coming of the Messiah. Six thousand years is the duration of the world, and it is in ruins for one thousand years. The duration of the period during which the world is in ruins is derived from a verse, as it is stated: “And the Lord alone shall be exalted on that day” (Isaiah 2:11). That is the course that history was to take, but due to our many sins, the Messiah did not come after four thousand years passed, and furthermore, the years that elapsed since then, which were to have been the messianic era, have elapsed.
  • Truth will spring from the earth, and righteousness will look down from heaven. In the days of the Messiah, the times of God will become clear, and the righteous will walk in His light.
  • He speaks of the Sabbath at the beginning of creation: “And God made in six days the works of His hands, and He completed them on the seventh day, and rested on it, and sanctified it.” Take heed, children, what He means when He says that He completed them in six days. He means this: that in six thousand years the Lord will bring all things to completion. For a day with Him signifies a thousand years. And He Himself bears me witness, saying, “Behold, the day of the Lord shall be as a thousand years.” Therefore, children, in six days—that is, in six thousand years—all things shall be brought to an end.
  • The Sabbath is a model and an image of the coming kingdom of the saints, when the saints shall co-reign with Christ, when he arrives from heaven, as also John in his Apocalypse describes. For a day of the Lord is as a thousand years. And so since in six days God made all things, it is necessary for six thousand years to be fulfilled.
  • We shall be immortal when six thousand years are accomplished. 
  • in the seventh thousand of years, resuming again immortal, we shall celebrate the great feast of true tabernacles in the new and indissoluble creation, the fruits of the earth having been gathered in, and men no longer begetting and begotten, but God resting from the works of creation