The Sages discuss the process of the redemption. How will the messiah arrive? Will the redemption be completed in a single moment?

It is written: “I was seeing in night visions, and behold, with the clouds of the heavens, like a person was coming” (Daniel 7:13), and it is written: “Humbly, and riding on a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9). The resolution is: If the Jewish people are worthy, the messiah will come miraculously, “with the clouds of the heavens.” If they are not worthy, the messiah will come “humbly, and riding on a donkey.”

Rabbi Hiyya the Great and Rabbi Shimon ben Halafta were walking in the Arbel valley at dawn, and they saw the early morning light emerging. Rabbi Hiyya the Great said to Rabbi Shimon ben Halafta: Honorable rabbi! So is the redemption of Israel: At first little by little, but as it continues, it keeps increasing. (Sanhedrin 98a; Jerusalem Talmud, Berakhot 1:1)