Belief in the Messiah is not as central to Jewish identity and practice in the modern world and it was for the rabbis of the Talmud. From their perspective, we’ve been waiting quite some time for the Messiah to come. On today’s daf, the Talmud presents a number of traditions about when we might expect his arrival.

The school of Eliyahu taught: 6,000 years is the duration of the world. Two thousand are chaos, 2,000 are Torah and 2,000 are the period of the Messiah.

Time, teaches the school of Eliyahu, can be divided into three great eras. The first is characterized by the chaos in the world that preceded Torah, the second began at Sinai with the giving of the Torah and the third will begin with the coming of the Messiah. Each era is of equal length. For those who just checked the Jewish date and realized the Messiah is, according to this reckoning, overdue: It may be that 2,000 years is meant to imply an extremely long time rather than a specific number or years.

While the school of Eliyahu placed the Messiah’s arrival in the distant future, other rabbis believed that redemption was imminent:

Rabbi Akiva would interpret the verse, “Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth,” (Haggai 2:6) to mean that the redemption would transpire soon after the destruction of the Temple.

Rabbinic tradition suggests that Rabbis Akiva acted on this belief and attached himself to the rebellion against Rome fomented by the messianic pretender Bar Kochba. This belief cost Rabbi Akiva, and many others, their lives as the rebellion was short lived and an utter failure.

The rabbis noted the failure of Rabbi Akiva’s prediction. Two prominent Babylonian sages suggest such calculations are a fool’s errand:

Rav says: All the ends of days that were calculated passed, and the matter depends only upon repentance and good deeds. When the Jewish people repent, they will be redeemed.
And Shmuel says: It is sufficient for the mourner to endure in his mourning to bring about the coming of the Messiah. 

Rather than focusing on the counting of the days, Rav suggests that we look to our actions. The coming of the messianic era isn’t set in stone — it is in our hands. What greater motivation could there be to repent and perform good deeds? Alternatively, Shmuel suggests that the experience of loss and destruction will bring about the Messiah, thereby assigning purpose and meaning to the suffering of the people. Times may be hard now, but the pain that we are experiencing serves a greater purpose and will ultimately bring all pain to an end. Either way, we can’t know when the Messiah will come, but we can hope that what we are doing and suffering will expedite his arrival.

Can we also delay the Messiah? Perhaps so. Rabbi Zeira, for example, warns:

When  Rabbi Zeira would find sages who were engaging in discussions about the coming of the Messiah, said to them: Please, I ask of you, do not delay his coming by calculating the end of days. As it was taught in a beraita: There are three matters that come only by means of diversion of attention and they are: The Messiah, a lost item, and a scorpion.

Just as a lost object (or scorpion) seems to always turn up when you least expect it, says Rabbi Zeira, the Messiah will not be hurried along by these calculations. So perhaps it is best not to think too hard about it.

Read all of Sanhedrin 97 on Sefaria.

This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on March 24, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.