(1) And Jacob called his sons and said, “Come together that I may tell you what is to befall you in the end of days. (2) Assemble and hearken, O sons of Jacob; Hearken to Israel your father: (3) Reuben, you are my first-born, My might and first fruit of my vigor, Exceeding in rank And exceeding in honor.

(23) Lo, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome, fearful day of the LORD.

(1) The word that Isaiah son of Amoz prophesied concerning Judah and Jerusalem. (2) In the end of days, The Mount of the LORD’s House Shall stand firm above the mountains And tower above the hills; And all the nations Shall gaze on it with joy. (3) And the many peoples shall go and say: “Come, Let us go up to the Mount of the LORD, To the House of the God of Jacob; That He may instruct us in His ways, And that we may walk in His paths.” For instruction shall come forth from Zion, The word of the LORD from Jerusalem. (4) Thus He will judge among the nations And arbitrate for the many peoples, And they shall beat their swords into plowshares And their spears into pruning hooks: Nation shall not take up Sword against nation; They shall never again know war.

(6) The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard lie down with the kid; The calf, the beast of prey, and the fatling together, With a little boy to herd them. (7) The cow and the bear shall graze, Their young shall lie down together; And the lion, like the ox, shall eat straw. (8) A babe shall play Over a viper’s hole, And an infant pass his hand Over an adder’s den.

(19) Oh, let Your dead revive! Let corpses arise! Awake and shout for joy, You who dwell in the dust!— For Your dew is like the dew on fresh growth; You make the land of the shades come to life.

(2) Many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, others to reproaches, to everlasting abhorrence.

And these are the exceptions, the people who have no share in the World-to-Come, even when they fulfilled many mitzvot: One who says: There is no resurrection of the dead derived from the Torah, and one who says: The Torah did not originate from Heaven, and ...

You are mighty forever, O Lord, You revive the dead, You are mighty to save.

You sustain the living with loving kindness, You revive the dead to life with great mercy, You support the fallen and You heal the sick; You free the captives and preserve Your faith with those asleep in the dust. Who is like You, Master of mighty deeds? Who can be compared to You, O King Who causes death and restores life, and causes Your salvation to sprout.

You are faithful to restore the dead to life. Blessed are You, O Lord, Who brings life to the dead.

(2) Our Sages have said that there is no difference between This World and the Days of the Messiah except (our) subservience to the kingdoms of the world alone. From the plain meaning of the words of the prophets we understand that at the beginning of the days of the Messiah there will be the War of Gog and Magog. Before the War of Gog and Magog, a prophet will arise to correct Israel and prepare their hearts¹³⁷I.e. Direct them to G-d., as it says, “Behold, I will send you Elijah” (Malachi 3:23). ... He will only come to bring peace to the world...

But regarding all these matters and similar, no one knows how it will be until it will be. For these matters were unclear to the Prophets. Even the Sages themselves did not have a Tradition regarding these matters and only could attempt to understand the verses. Thus, there were disagreements in these matters. Nevertheless, neither the order that these events will occur nor their details are fundamental to the religion. Thus, a person must never busy himself with the Aggadohs and not dwell on the Midrashim regarding these matters or similar issues. He must not make them dogma¹⁴¹Or, the essence, a tenet.. For these do not result in either love (for G-d) nor fear (of sin). Similarly, one should not calculate the Ends¹⁴²Of a) the Exile, and b) when the Messiah will come.. Our Sages have said that the spirit of those who calculate the Ends will expire¹⁴³I.e. They will die.. Rather, one is to (simply) wait and believe in the principle¹⁴⁴And not contemplate the details. of this matter, as we have explained.

(1) The King Messiah will arise and re-establish the monarchy of David as it was in former times. He will build the Sanctuary and gather in the dispersed of Israel. All the earlier statutes will be restored as they once were. Sacrifices will be offered, the Sabbatical and Jubilee years will be observed, as commanded in the Torah. ...

The first Messiah was David who saved Israel from her adversities. The final Messiah will be from his sons and will deliver Israel from the hands of the descendants of Esau....

(3) It should not occur to you that the King Messiah must bring wondrous signs or perform marvels or invent new things or revive the dead or anything like what the fools say. It is not so. For Rabbi Akiva, one of the wisest of the Sages of the Mishna, was King Ben Coziba’s¹²⁴Bar Cochba. arms-bearer¹²⁵I.e. his staunch supporter. and said that he was the King Messiah. He and all the Sages of his generation thought that he was the King Messiah, until he was killed because of his sins¹²⁶He killed Rabbi Elazar HaModai.. Since he was killed, they then understood that he was not the one. The Sages never asked of him neither a sign nor a wonder. ...

(1) These are things the fruits of which a person enjoys in this world, while the principal remains for them in the world to come: Honouring parents, acts of lovingkindness, and bringing peace between people. And the study of Torah is equal to them all.

(1) All Jews have a share in the World to Come... but these have no share in the World to Come: One who says that [the belief of] resurrection of the dead is not from the Torah, [one who says that] that the Torah is not from Heaven, and one who denigrates the Torah. Rabbi Akiva says: also one who reads outside books, and one who whispers [an incantation] over a wound...Abba Shaul says, also one who utters the Divine Name as it is spelled.

(5) The righteous of the non-Jews also have a portion in the World to Come

Rav had a favorite saying: "The world-to-come is not at all like this world. In the world-to-come there is no eating, no drinking, no procreation, no commerce, no envy, no hatred, no rivalry; the righteous sit with their crowns on their heads and enjoy the radiance of the Shekhina (Divine Presence), as it is written (Ex. 24:11) 'And they saw G-d and they ate and drank.'"

(1) The goodness which is in store for the righteous is the Life of the World to Come – Life which has no Death, Good which has no Evil...The reward of the righteous is that they will earn this pleasantness and never be cut off or die; and the punishment of the wicked is that they will not merit this life, and will be cut off and die. And anyone who does not earn this life is the dead who will never live, but is cut off in his wickedness and lost...

(2) The World to Come has no body or concrete form, only the souls of the righteous alone, without body like the ministering angels. There is no need there for eating, drinking, or other of the bodily necessities of the sons of man in this world; neither will any of the many things which happen to bodies in this world come to pass there, as, for instance, sitting down, standing up, sleep, death, sadness, mirth or the like. Thus did the ancient sages say: "In the World to Come there is no eating, no drinking, and no family life, rather that the righteous are sitting, graced with crowns upon their heads, and indulge in feasting upon the luminousness of the Shekinah".⁴Berakot, 17a.

(16) Rabbi Jacob used to say: This world is like a vestibule before the world-to-come. Fix yourself up in the vestibule so that you may enter the banqueting hall. (17) He would say: Better one hour spent in repentance and good deeds in this world than the whole life in the world-to-come. And better one hour of bliss in the world-to-come than the whole life in this world.

(10) He also used to say that there are five things that [last] twelve months: The judgment of the generation of the flood, twelve months; The judgment of Job, twelve months; The judgment of the Egyptians, twelve months; The judgment of Gog and Magog in the time to come, twelve months; The judgment of the wicked in hell, twelve months, for it is said, "And it will be from [one] month until the [next appearance of the same] month" (Isaiah 66:23). Rabbi Yohanan the son of Nuri says: From Passover to Atzeret, for it is said, "And from one sabbath until the [next] Sabbath."

Reish Lakish said: With regard to the sinners of the Jewish people, the fire of Gehenna has no power over them... [for] even the sinners among you are full of mitzvot like a pomegranate...

Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar [said]: There are three entrances to Gehenna, one in the wilderness, one in the sea, and one in Jerusalem... Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: Gehenna has seven names... She’ol, Avadon (Destruction), Be’er Shaḥat (Well of Destruction), Bor Shaon (Pit of Turmoil), Tit HaYaven (Slimy Clay), Tzalmavet (Shadow of Death), and Eretz HaTaḥtit (Underworld).

...

Reish Lakish said: If [the Garden of Eden] is in Eretz Yisrael, its entrance is Beit She’an, and if it is in Arabia, its entrance is Beit Garem, and if it is between the rivers of Babylonia, its entrance is Dumsekanin, for all these places feature a great abundance of vegetation and fertile land.