The wise shine because Eden is still flowing.
Zohar, Shemot 1 reads Daniel's promise that the wise will shine like the radiance of the firmament (Daniel 12:3) as a glimpse into the Garden of Eden. A stream goes out from Eden. Its brightness reaches the firmament. In the middle of the Garden stands the Tree of Life, spreading branches over forms, trees, spices, beasts, and birds.
The fruit of that tree gives life, and the Zohar insists that the "other side" has no place there. This is a world of holiness, not mixture. The righteous who taste from it live in this world and the world to come.
Then the image turns toward exile. Israel descends into Egypt with a light that does not shine by itself, accompanied by heavenly hosts. Even in descent, Eden is not erased. Its river is still the source of brightness. Egypt can surround the body, but it cannot dam the stream above.
The Zohar makes wisdom into a kind of reflected Eden. The wise do not manufacture light. They receive it from the stream that never stops. Exile may darken the road, but the Tree of Life keeps shining above it.
<small>NOW THESE ARE THE NAMES OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WHICH CAME INTO EGYPT EVERY MAN AND HIS HOUSEHOLD CAME WITH JACOB</small>. It is written: <i>And the wise shall be resplendent as the splendour (</i>zohar<i>) of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness shall be like the stars for ever and ever</i> (Dan. 12, 3). “The wise” are those who penetrate to the real essence of wisdom; “they shall be resplendent”, i.e. illumined with the radiance of the supernal Wisdom; “as the splendour”, this is the flashing of the Stream that goes forth from Eden (Gen. 11, 10), this being alluded to as “the firmament”. There are suspended the stars, the planets, the sun and the moon, and all the radiant lights.
The brightness of this firmament shines upon the Garden of Eden, and in the midst of the Garden stands the Tree of Life, whose branches spread over all forms and trees and spices in fitting vessels. All the beasts of the field and all the fowls of the air shelter beneath the branches of this Tree.
The fruit of the Tree gives life to all. It is everlasting. The “other side” has no abode therein, but only the side of holiness. Blessed are they who taste thereof; they will live for ever and ever, and it is they who are called “the wise”, and they are vouchsafed life in this world as well as in the world to come.
The Tree rises to a height of five hundred parasangs, and its circumference is six myriads of parasangs. Within this Tree is a light<sup class="footnote-marker">1</sup><i class="footnote"><i>Tifereth</i>.</i> out of which radiate certain colours: they come and go, never being at rest save in the Tree.
Should they issue from it to show themselves in the brightness which does not shine of itself,<sup class="footnote-marker">1</sup><i class="footnote"><i>Malkuth</i>.</i> they are not at rest but flit about. From this Tree went forth twelve tribes,<sup class="footnote-marker">1</sup><i class="footnote">The twelve ‘obliquities’ of <i>Tifereth</i>.</i> who had long been warmed by it, and they went down with this light that does not shine of itself into the exile of Egypt, accompanied by multitudes of heavenly hosts.
