Musar על ראש השנה 61:12

There is a general concensus among our sages that the Torah was given to the Jewish people on the Sabbath. Torah originated in Heaven, (i.e. the domain of תפארת,) the domain in which the concept of Israel is at home. This domain radiates spiritual values in all six directions. Moses told the Israelites in Deut. 4,36: מן השמים השמיעך את קולו ליסרך, ועל הארץ הראך את אשו הגדולה, ודבריו שמעת מתוך האש. "G–d made you hear His voice from Heaven in order to discipline you, and on the earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the fire." The "earth" referred to here is the emanation מלכות. G–d told us that the emanations from תפארת up to and including the emanation מלכות, i.e. 7 emanations, were part of the revelation at Mount Sinai. These are the seven קולות, voices, that David refers to in Psalm 29 which we recite every Friday evening when ushering in the Sabbath. They are also an allusion to the tradition that this universe will continue for 6,000 years before it will experience a metamorphosis of 1,000 years after which the עולם הבא will be ushered in. The 1,000-year interval symbolises the concept of the Sabbath. We have discussed the dimension of "Time" on pages 208-209. When calculating the number of Sabbath days in the 6,000 years and adding the fact that the 1,000-year interval before the advent of עולם הבא is composed only of Sabbath days we get a total of 600,000 Sabbath days, or the same number as the number of the Jewish souls which experienced the Revelation and the building of the Tabernacle. This number also equals the number of letters the Torah is made up of.

Just as the six days of creation being "G–d's days," are viewed as the equivalent of one thousand years each, so the Kabbalists view this as a reference to the six thousand years this physical world will exist before a period of one thousand years of ruin, i.e. a period without creative activity, ישבות. This process is supposed to repeat itself seven times until the year fifty thousand, which is the סוד, secret of the יובל, ultimate freedom. The Exodus is to be viewed as a branch of the tree which represents universal history. This idea was hinted at already at the time of the Exodus, when Israel escaped the power (limitations imposed on all creatures) of the fifty levels of בינה, insight. This is the deeper meaning of וחמושים עלו בני ישראל in Exodus 13,18, i.e. that the target of the ascent was "fifty." The idea is that when attaining the fiftieth level, one has achieved more than merely escaping a branch of the fifty levels of בינה. [These 50 gates of בינה are perhaps identical with the 50 gates of טומאה that we are all familiar with from Midrashic literature. At any rate, they represent different levels of restraint, exposure to the pull of the material universe. Ed.] The fact that יציאת מצרים is mentioned in the Torah exactly fifty times may further reinforce the idea that after reaching level fifty freedom becomes absolute. The author suggests that the average lifespan of man of seventy years is a further reminder of this concept, allowing for the fact that man is not judged by Heaven for misdemeanours committed during the first twenty years of his life. Even the male Jewish servant who has his ear pierced, must go free not later than in the fiftieth year, יובל, which is the meaning of Exodus 21,6, "he shall serve לעולם."