Sabbatical Cycles of Creation (and Destruction)

26 Adar 5785  

This post goes with the previous one in order to validate the claim of a looming cataclysmic event that Science shows has occurred cyclicly about every 6000 years.

According to Ben Davidson of SpaceWeatherNews (SO)

Those who approach Science without the input of Torah sources are bound to get many of the details wrong, but that doesn't mean they don't get some of it right.  With regard to the concept of cycles of destruction demonstrated by geologic evidence, the following excerpts from the book Immortality, Resurrection, and the Age of the Universe: A Kabbalistic View by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan of blessed memory will be helpful.

The question of the age of the universe has been discussed in Torah circles for more than a century.  The Torah seems to teach that the universe is no more than six thousand years old.  Indeed, many would say that any opinion stating that the world is more than six thousand years old must of necessity contradict the Torah.  However, there appears to be a good deal of observational evidence that the universe is much older than six thousand years.

A number of approaches have been proposed to resolve this problem, some of which were discussed in a book published a few years ago.  Our concern, however, is not merely to resolve the question, but to do so in a manner firmly based on Torah teachings.  That is to say, we seek a solution that is actually found in the classic Torah literature.

The only choice...is to look into our classical Torah literature and determine whether there are any pertinent statements regarding the age of the universe.  Significantly, there is a very important, though not well known, concept that is discussed in the Sefer ha-Temunah, an ancient Kabbalistic work attributed to the first-century tanna, Rabbi Nehunya ben ha-Kanah.  The work discusses the forms of the Hebrew letters and is the source of many of the most frequently cited opinions on this subject in the halakhic literature.  Thus, Sefer ha-Temunah is not an obscure, unimportant work, but one which is relied upon by most halakhic authorities.

The Sefer ha-Temunah speaks about Sabbatical cycles (shemitot).  This is based on the Talmudic teaching that "the world will exist for six thousand years, and in the seven-thousandth year, it will be destroyed."  The Sefer ha-Temunah states that this seven-thousand-year cycle is merely one Sabbatical cycle.  However, since there are seven Sabbatical cycles in a Jubilee, the world is destined to exist for forty-nine thousand years.

There is a question as to which cycle we are in today.  Some authorities maintain that we are currently in the second Sabbatical cycle.  Others maintain that we are currently in the seventh cycle.  According to the second opinion, the universe would have been forty-two thousand years old when Adam was created.  As we shall see, the implications of this are very important.

...According to Sefer ha-Temunah, then, there were other worlds before Adam was created.  These were the worlds of previous Sabbatical cycles.

Significantly, there are a number of allusions to this approach in the Midrash.  Thus, commenting on the verse, "It was evening and it was morning, one day" (Genesis 1:5), the Midrash Rabbah states, "This teaches that there were orders of time before this."

Another well-known Midrashic teaching also appears to support the concept of Sabbatical cycles.  The Midrash states that "God created universes and destroyed them."  One of the important classical Kabbalistic works, Ma'arekhet Elokut, states explicitly that this passage refers to worlds that existed in Sabbatical cycles before Adam was created.  The same source states explicitly that the Midrashic teaching that "there were orders of time before this [creation]" is also speaking of earlier Sabbatical cycles.

A Talmudic passage seems to support this view of Sabbatical cycles.  According to the Talmud, and some Midrashim as well, there were 974 generations before Adam.  ...The Ma'arekhet Elokut states explicitly that these generations existed in the Sabbatical cycles before Adam's creation.

The concept of pre-Adamic cycles was well known among the Rishonim (early authorities), and is cited in such sources as Bahya, Recanati, Ziyyoni, and Sefer ha-Hinnukh.  It is also alluded to in the Kuzari, and in the commentaries of the Ramban and Ibn Ezra. 

The world's elite believe this.  It's why they all have bunkers prepared and why they built a seed vault near the North Pole.  However, if they refuse to acknowledge the sovereignty of the Master of the Universe, HKB"H, nothing they do can help them. 

What's important for the righteous to understand is that while it appears to that the poor and downtrodden will never in any natural way succeed in overthrowing The Powers That Be, HKB"H is going to arise to judge the earth and wipe evil from the world.  They will be as if they never were.  May it truly be soon!