Q: What are the 6,000 years that are mentioned in the books of Kabbalah?
A: The books of Kabbalah speak about 6,000 years, which are – in the language of the branches – 6,000 degrees that each soul must climb. They have nothing to do with a calendar that you hang on the wall. There are the souls of the righteous that have attained the end of correction – the seventh millennium – many centuries ago.
Rabbi Baruch Ashlag compared birth and death in our world to the changing of one’s clothing. That changing is gradual from generation to generation, each time in more developed bodies with more developed minds and desires. There is no connection between the degrees in the spiritual world and the changing of the bodies.
For some creatures, a thousand years of life will not be enough for them to enter the spiritual world, while others complete their corrections within a single lifetime.