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The Coming of the Messiah

The Time of the Redemption

Although the Sages did not seek to calculate the precise date of the future redemption, they did consider certain times auspicious for the coming of the messiah.

It is written [concerning the messiah’s arrival, that it will occur]: “In its time” (Isaiah 63:4), and it is also written [in the same verse]: “I will hasten it.” If they merit, God will hasten it; if they do not merit, the messiah will come at the designated time.

Six thousand years is the duration of the world. The first two thousand are characterized by emptiness, the next two thousand are characterized by Torah, and the last two thousand are the period appropriate for the coming of the messiah.

Rabbi Eliezer says…the Israelites were redeemed from Egypt in the Hebrew month of Nisan and they are destined to be redeemed with the coming of the messiah in the month of Tishrei. Rabbi Yehoshua says: They were redeemed in Nisan and they are destined to be redeemed in Nisan. (Sanhedrin 97a–b; Rosh HaShana 10b)