Messianic Era (Chabad Lubavitch)
In the Messianic Era, the Divine plan for the world will be fully realized. There will be universal peace, prosperity, goodness and knowledge of God. The coming Moshiach will not cause a break with the past and the beginning of something entirely new. On the contrary, it is the culmination and crowning stroke of all our efforts toward a world of peace and consummate holiness.
Moshiach will free the Jewish People from all servitude to foreign nations, rebuild the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and gather all the Jews of the entire world to Israel. Peace and prosperity will be universal and all the nations of the world will serve the one God. Moshiach will reveal Godliness in every facet of the Creation. He will elevate each of us from our respective limitations and open our eyes to the Godliness that is the inner reality of our life.
We will still have our family, friends and possessions. However, they will be more wholesome and meaningful because we will see their true value-their Divine purpose.
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From "The Book of Words," by Lawrence Kushner
Tradition wisely warns against "forcing the hand of the Messiah." On the other hand, imagining how much better things could be than they are now only guarantees despair.
Sometimes "the best" is the enemy of "the good." If you allow yourself to measure existence against a perfect standard, life will certainly be miserable. Things, by definition, could always be better than they are now. On the other hand, succumbing to the way things are now is to cease dreaming. The balance, perhaps, is to accept the way things are because, like it or not, for better or for worse, that is literally the only way things are. They, of course, can be different, but only later. To worry about "later" is to miss "now." Remember, one of us may be the Messiah. That possibility shouldn't, but nevertheless does, affect how we treat one another.
http://www.aish.com/sp/ph/69742282.html
In Kabbalah, it is not only God who judges us. As we bid farewell to the world, we are shown a film that contains scenes of our entire lives. We are witnesses to every moment of our days on Earth as they pass before us with incredible rapidity. And as we watch our own story unfold, there are times when we cringe with embarrassment; others when we smile with glee. Our past moral lapses cause us to shudder in pain; our victories over our evil inclinations provide us with a keen sense of spiritual triumph. It is then that we realize in retrospect that we alone are the greatest judges of our own lives. What happens after death is that we gain the wisdom to evaluate our own life by the standards of Heaven -- because we have finally glimpsed an eternal perspective.
What is Hell? Remember when you were in eighth grade and something utterly embarrassing happened? The shame you felt and how you just wanted the ground to open up so you could disappear. That is Hell. It is the deepest realization that our life (or part of it) has been squandered, which creates a deep regret and shame in our soul.
The good news is that God -- in His infinite kindness – established this as a cleansing process, where after one year (or less), all the negativity has been forever washed away.
When will the messiah arrive?
When we master the violence that fills our world.
When we look upon others as we would have them look upon us.
When we grant to every person the rights we claim for ourselves.
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