In the past 200 years the world has changed rapidly and dramatically; in fact, the technological and scientific advances of the past century far outpace anything the world has seen in the past five millenia. It is not just that the pace of progress picked up compared to the past. For millennia before the advent of the scientific revolution, the world changed hardly at all. Generation after generation, people traveled with horses and carts; drew water from a well; tended to their fields with wooden plows pulled by oxen; and spun wool to sew their clothing.

Practically nothing changed for thousands of years, when suddenly that bucolic world was overturned, practically overnight. Less than 100 years ago, the Wright brothers turned their bicycle into the world's first airplane. Within decades, computers morphed from room-sized contraptions into laptops and handheld devices with more computing power than the most advanced models of 20 years ago.

A time traveler from 150 years ago who lands in the present would find himself in an entirely foreign world, and would be convinced that he traversed at least a million years. It is difficult to imagine that so much change has taken place in such a short period of time.

What was the trigger that set off the industrial revolution? Historians point to the convergence of a number of factors: improved roads, railways and canals; the introduction of the steam engine as well as many machines for manufacture; and a renewed spirit of scientific inquiry.

Meanwhile, Chassidic teachings highlight a passage in Zohar: “And six hundred years into the sixth millennium the gates of wisdom from above and the fountains of wisdom from below will open, and the world will be corrected as a preparation for its elevation in the seventh [millennium].” The industrial and technological revolution paralleled an unprecedented outpouring of G-dly teachings, in the form of Chassidism, founded by the Baal Shem Tov. Both of these advances heralded the upcoming Redemption with Moshiach.

The dizzying progress we have seen thus far is but a foretaste of what awaits us in the future. Very soon, at any moment, the world will see an even more drastic transformation. We will wake up and realize that our past life was but a dream in relation to the wonders that await us. We will experience a dramatic expansion of consciousness that will sweep over the entire universe like a wave. We will finally meet G-d face to face, and see the G-dliness that pervades all of creation. This will be a shared experience that will embrace all of us, uniting the world into an organic, spiritual whole.

This is the future that awaits us in the time of the true and complete Redemption.