Rosh Hashanah 31 – What happens after the end of the world

Earlier, we mentioned that if the witnesses who saw the new moon came late, it could lead to mistakes in the sacrifices. What could go wrong was the song that the Levites used to sing, together with the sacrifice. In this, connection the Talmud enumerated which songs were performed on each day of the week and explains why it was fitting, according to what happened on this particular day in the order of creation of the world.

On Shabbat, they sang, "It is good to praise God." When a man emulates God by resting on Shabbat, he can perceive God's ways more clearly. One opinion says that this is about the last thousand years of the world when it will be destroyed, and for one day, God will reign alone (God's day is a thousand years). The other opinion says that this refers back to the first Shabbat of creation, but that the world will be destroyed not for one but two days (two thousand years). The destruction and non-existence refer only to physical activity. However, spiritually all the righteous souls will exist in harmony brought about by the absence of evil. After this, according to some, the world will exist again, with people living in the presence of God. This is discussed in depth at the end of the Tractate Sanhedrin and is mentioned here only parenthetically.

The Talmud discusses other novel laws of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, such as making it easier for the new moon witnesses to go to the Court meeting place and not to the residence of the Head of Sanhedrin. The ninth and the last was to stop putting the strip of red wool on Yom Kippur for all to see: if people were forgiven, it turned white, but if not, they were upset – so now that they could not see it, they would not be sad.

Art: Harvesters Resting (or Ruth and Boaz) by Jean-Francois Millet