The Letter Zayin – On the Seven Days of the Week and Other Sevens

The numerical value of the letter Zayin, seven, is the number that hints to the physical world from its spiritual perspective; this seventh and inner dimension upon which all six sides of material depend and are driven by. Therefore, the most common number in Judaism is the number seven:

The seventh day – Shabbat

The Supernatural Origin of the Week

Four cycles of time are accepted worldwide: year, month, week, day. All are based on natural astronomical systems except one - the week. The year consists of three hundred sixty-five days due to the solar cycle. The month consists of thirty days because of the lunar cycle. A day comprises twenty-four hours since within this period, the Earth completes a rotation on its axis. Only the week is composed of seven days without any natural, astronomical, or any other explanation, except the fact that at Mount Sinai, in the Ten Commandments, it was said: "Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is Shabbat to Hashem your God, you shall not do any work." From there, the understanding that the week is divided into seven days spread to all humanity. Otherwise, logically dividing the thirty-day month by a human should have determined time units that appear more rational; such that the number thirty would be divided into these time intervals without a remainder. Not as it is now, where four weeks make twenty-eight days and a remainder stays.

Therefore, all humanity counting seven days in a week unconsciously acknowledges the superhuman origin of this division in Judaism: "For in six days Hashem made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, Hashem blessed the Shabbat day and sanctified it."

The seventh year – Shemitah

The Jubilee year occurs after seven Shemitahs (7X7)

The holiday of the giving of the Torah after seven weeks of the Omer count (7X7)

The branches of the Menorah – seven

The days of the Sukkot holiday – seven

The days of the Passover holiday – seven

The days of the bride and groom’s joy – seven

The blessings for the bride and groom – seven

The days of mourning – seven

The loops of the tefillin straps on the arm – seven

The days of counting the Niddah purity – seven

The Land of Israel praised with seven species of fruit

Seven items in the Four Species of Sukkot

The Mysteries of the Seven Items of the Four Species

During Sukkot, one takes one lulav, one etrog, two hadassim, and three aravot, making a total of seven items, and they are waved together. As it is written in the Torah: "And you shall take for yourselves on the first day, the fruit of a beautiful tree, palm branches, a branch of a thick, leafy tree, and willows of the brook."

The Four Species represent the four families from which the entire plant world is composed:

The etrog - represents the family of plants that have both taste and fragrance

The lulav of the palm date - represents the family of plants that have taste but no fragrance

The hadas - represents the family of plants that have no taste but have fragrance

The arava - represents the family of plants that have neither taste nor fragrance

These four groups correspond to the four letters of the Name of Hashem, which correspond to the four worlds of Atzilut, Beriah, Yetzirah, Assiyah, corresponding to the four elements: fire, air, water, and earth, corresponding to the four components of creation: speaking, life, growing, inanimate.

Each member of the Four Species represents a major part of the human body in its form. Together they represent humanity: The lulav resembles the spine of a person, the etrog resembles the heart, the willow leaves - the lips, and the myrtle leaves - the eyes. As it is said: "For a person is like the tree of the field."

The seven Ushpizin of the seven days of Sukkot correspond to the seven lower sefirot. Abraham – Chesed, Isaac – Gevurah, Jacob – Tiferet, Moses - Netzach, Aaron - Hod, Joseph - Yesod, David - Malchut. And so it is with the seven members of the Four Species:

Three myrtles against Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferet (in the structure of the human body – two arms and the chest connecting them)

Two willows correspond to Moses and Aaron; Netzach and Hod (the two legs of a person)

Lulav corresponds to Joseph the Righteous; Yesod (Joseph, who guarded the covenant, which in the body structure corresponds to the Yesod sefirah, and resembles the lulav, is called Joseph the Righteous as it says, "And a righteous man's basis is the world")

Etrog corresponds to King David; Kingship (the etrog resembles the crown of Yesod. He who guards the sanctity of the covenant merits kingship)

Thus, during the illuminating days of the Sukkot holiday, when the Jew dwells "in the shadow of faith," in the Sukkah, days capable of sweetening the judgments decreed on Yom Kippur, he enthusiastically fulfills the Torah's command of the Four Species which symbolize and represent the Name of Hashem and the sefirot, the four worlds and the four elements, humanity and the seven Ushpizin and all the creation, and through waving them, one repairs worlds and cuts off accusers and harms from himself and from all of Israel and purifies his entire surroundings, as explained in the Talmud.

On the seventh day of Sukkot, they would circle the altar in the Temple seven times, and today they circle the bimah on which the Torah is laid

The walls of Jericho collapsed under themselves after being circled seven days, and on the seventh day seven times, with seven priests blowing seven shofars

Seven shepherds will lead Israel when the time of redemption comes

Life in the World to Come, the spiritual world in the physical world, in the seventh millennium

And more.

Therefore, the letters Shin, Ayin, Tet, Nun, Zayin, Gimel, Tzadi written in the Torah as a crown of tags on their heads are seven letters. For they are the letters that express the kingship of a man who has conquered his inclination and triumphed in the realm unique to each letter. And seven is the number of struggle and victory.

Regarding human life, the days of a spiritual soul residing in a physical body, it is said: "The days of our years are seventy years." This is the usual span of human life.

The seven, which is the spirituality within the material as a soul is to a body, is the source of blessing that rests on wealth. Therefore, just as the soul vitalizes and sustains the body, so does observing Shabbat vitalize and sustain wealth. In the six days of labor, a person creates material (as is commonly said: making money...), and by observing Shabbat, he infuses spirituality into wealth and sustains it. And just as a body without a soul disintegrates, so does wealth without the spirituality of Shabbat vanish and is without blessing. For even if that person earns great wealth, it provides no blessing or enjoyment, but rather it's spent on unforeseen damages to his home, vehicle, business, health, and so on. As the Kabbalist Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz said in "Lecha Dodi": "Come, my friend, to meet the bride; let us welcome the Shabbat."

This seventh dimension, upon which all six sides of the material depend and are set in motion because it is the spiritual inner aspect of the material - in the secret of the letter Zayin, is the foundation of the conceptual message symbolized in the Jewish emblem "Magen David," comprised of six hollowed triangles surrounding the central seventh hollow upon which they are held.

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