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The gates of wisdom open
Zohar I:117a, Vayera
“In the six hundredth year of the sixth millennium, the gates of wisdom above will open, and the wellsprings of wisdom below, and the world will prepare to enter the seventh, like a person who prepares on the sixth day, as the sun sets, to enter Shabbat. And your sign: ‘In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life… all the wellsprings of the great deep burst open, and the windows of heaven were opened’ (Bereishit 7:11).”
Step by step
- The calendar. The Jewish year count is about 6,000 years old; the seventh millennium is compared to Shabbat. The “six hundredth year of the sixth millennium” is the year 5600 — 1840 on the secular calendar.
- Read it carefully (full passage below). The Zohar says wisdom will open “above” and “below,” and the world will begin to prepare, like a person getting ready for Shabbat late on Friday. It does not say Mashiach comes in 5600.
- The sign. The Zohar links this to Noah’s flood (Bereishit 7:11): in Noah’s 600th year the windows of heaven and the fountains of the deep opened — and the world was covered with destruction. In the 600th year of the sixth millennium, wisdom opens from above and below — and the world will be covered with knowledge, “as the waters cover the sea.”
Two floods
Noah’s 600th year: windows of heaven and wellsprings of the deep open — the world covered with destruction. The 600th year of the 6th millennium: gates of wisdom above and wellsprings of wisdom below open — the world covered with knowledge.
