menu
small logo

Back

The Coming of the Messiah

Calculating the End of Days

We do not know the time appointed for the redemption, the end of days. Is it appropriate to attempt to calculate it?

There are three matters that come only by means of diversion of attention from those matters, and they are: The messiah, a lost item, and a scorpion….

May those who calculate the end of days be cursed, as they might say that since the end [of days according to their calculations has] arrived and the messiah did not come, he will no longer come at all….

Rav says: All the ends [of days that were calculated have] passed, and the matter is dependent only on repentance and good deeds.

If a person will tell you when the end of the redemption will come, do not believe him, as it is stated: “For it was a day of vengeance in My heart” (Isaiah 63:4). If the heart does not reveal the time of the redemption to the mouth, to whom can the mouth reveal it? (Sanhedrin 97b; Yalkut Shimoni 2:507)