Zijsprong:
"Laat dan in de zevende maand op de tiende van de maand bazuingeschal
weerklinken; op de Dag van de verzoening moet je de bazuin doen schallen
in heel jullie land. Geef het vijftigste jaar een bijzondere wijding
door in het land vrijheid af te kondigehn voor al zijn bewoners, een
door de bazuin ingeluid jaar, een Joweel-jaar is het en moet het voor
jullie zijn; ieder moet dan terugkeren naar zijn eigen grondbezit en
ieder moet weer in zijn eigen familie terugkomen"(Lev. 25, 9-10)
Deze
passage wekt bij mij allerlei utopische fantasieen, stel je voor, overal
in het land klinkt het machtige geluid van bazuinen, overweldigende
kopertonen overal in stad en land te horen, als signaal van een fundamentele
bevrijding, een jaar lang, waarin knellende banden geslaakt worden,
waar in een diep vertrouwen de gangbare gedreven arbeid wordt gestaakt
en men zich overgeeft aan de loop der natuur. Het roept allerlei eschatologische
beelden op van een wereld van diepgaande vrede, verzoening en viering.
Imagine...
Is er een tijd geweest waarin Israel zich echt aan dit jubeljaar heeft
gehouden en hoe zal men dit dan ervaren hebben?
En stel dat je het weer zou invoeren, b.v. alleen voor de landbouw,
of stel je voor, helemaal, - ondenkbaar, maar voorstelbaar - hoe zou
dat zijn; het lijkt wel totaal onhaalbaar, maar stel je voor
En stel,
dat je ook weer zeven maal zeven maal zeven jaar - 343 - voorbij laat
gaan en dan een soort jubel-halve eeuw instelt
Er bestaat
ook het idee, dat na zes milennia een sabbath-milennium aanbreekt: de
messiaanse tijd. Ik laat hier een citaat volgen van de website van R.
Avraham Sutton:
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.