The Letter Zayin: Human Culture Through the Lens of Numbers

It is known that a fierce struggle is occurring between Western and Eastern cultures.

Western culture pursues the fulfillment of material pleasures, to the extent that money and desires are the top priorities for a person within this culture. In contrast, in the Far East and India, the general culture advocates for minimalism, to the extent of extremism among many sects that educate to withdraw from materialism completely; abstain from women entirely, fast and mortify the body, avoid speech, and there are those who, in addition to all these mortifications, sleep on a bed of nails - such individuals are regarded as sublime in their eyes.

In practice, the result of both these extreme approaches is negative and harmful.

The Western culture that extreme in pursuit of materialism, aiming for maximum pleasure, causes people who live by it the exact opposite. Reality shows that those who follow this path lose the quality of enjoyment in all domains, to the point of feeling emptiness and dissatisfaction. They reach a state of disinterest in relationship ties, restlessness, and tension to the extent of mental breakdown, and health destruction due to poor nutrition and lack of rest.

On the other hand, those sects within the Eastern culture whose members disdain the material pursuit of Westerners, and lean excessively toward spirit while ignoring the body's and soul's natural needs, cause bodily and vocal atrophy, loneliness, lack of family establishment, and a general disconnection from normal life in this world. After all, all the body's functions were created by the Creator for us to use them.

The seeker of truth is left bewildered in front of this mighty struggle between cultures; who is right?

However, due to the very nature of human intellect being limited, it tends to gravitate towards the truth as it sees it, this way or that. As such, different cultures accentuated each side despite their clear shortcomings. In contrast, the divine wisdom revealed in the Torah provides the appropriate measure for use in all domains, to achieve a healthy and correct balance between material and spirit, between body and soul. Jewish culture educates: use the material in this world, but sanctify it. Initiating unnecessary fasting is considered sinful.

Here is the language of the Rambam:

"A. One might say, since desire, honor, and the like, are evil paths and lead one out of the world, I shall abstain from them completely and distance myself to the last extreme, to the extent that he would neither eat meat nor drink wine nor marry a woman nor live in a nice dwelling nor dress in fine clothing, but only coarse sackcloth and similar things, like the Edomite priests [Christian clergy], this too is a bad path, and it is forbidden to walk on it.

B. One who walks this path is called a sinner: Behold, it is said of the nazirite, 'and he shall atone for that he sinned against the soul'; our sages said, and if the nazirite who only abstained from wine needs atonement, all the more so for one who abstains from everything.

C. Therefore, the sages commanded that one should only abstain from things that the Torah refrains from, and not forbid himself by vows and oaths on things that are allowed. Thus the sages said, is it not enough what the Torah forbade you, that you add others?

D. Included in this, those who constantly fast are not on a good path, and the sages forbade a person from afflicting himself with fasts. Concerning all these and similar matters, Solomon commanded and said, 'Be not righteous over-much; neither make thyself over-wise: why should thou destroy thyself.'"

You must live with a woman, and without this, you are not a whole person. But beware of forbidden touch while single, and preserve family purity in marriage. Thus your life with your wife will be happier, and your enjoyment will be qualitative and complete even in this world, for less emphasis on quantity will bring more quality. Eat and drink, but bless over the food, and refrain from the meat of animals with negative attributes, such as those loving filth and squalor, or preying and being cruel, and other negative spiritual attributes that have a harmful effect. Work every day as a master of nature, but cease from labor on the seventh day and ascend to spiritual heights. And so it is with other commandments of the Torah.

Thus it emerges that Western culture has extremely adopted what the number six represents - that is the world of material. Eastern culture adopted what the number eight represents - that is the world of spirit. Whereas Judaism teaches that the right path is the middle one, which is the marvelous balance represented by the number seven — the world of spirit within material.

Concept of Nature Through the Lens of Numbers

According to the aforementioned principle of extremism, the human intellect has also operated in relation to the natural sciences.

In the past, when humanity could not explain natural forces and various physical phenomena, the human intellect waywardly attributed all natural forces' activities to angry idolatrous systems operating from various motives, and from disputes and arguments among those imaginary idols themselves, while the innocent human was compelled to suffer their whims.

In that ancient period, even the world of medicine operated according to the doctors' thoughts and conjectures, without reliable scientific tests and follow-ups.

With the significant breakthrough in the modern era, when logical explanations were found for natural phenomena and forces, the human intellect, weary of the evidently false arguments of the idolatrous priests and the clergy, sought to deny everything concerning spiritual existence. It was clear to scientists, who had not properly learned and were unacquainted with the balanced approach in Judaism and were tired of talks about strange spirituality, that they were on the brink of a new period in which everything would be explained by material reality, with no need for spiritual explanation.

Only later, when it became clear that in many situations related to the deeper layers of natural phenomena, there is no explanation that satisfies other than the assertion that a spiritual dimension operates within nature (such as the contradiction in the essence of light, whether it is a wave or particle, various wonders in quantum mechanics, the riddle of the universe's inception, and more), a phenomenon started in the world of science of returning to the Jewish stance, which suggests examining, learning, and researching the material nature without ignoring the spiritual dimension within it.

Thus, here too, the perception that once ruled concerning the essence of the nature of creation was the extreme spiritual concept represented by the number eight. Although it was a mistaken and foolish spiritual concept, from their perspective, it was a spiritual concept. On the other hand, in the modern era, there was an extreme drift toward the number six, representing materialism. The claim was that everything is explained by matter, and there is (Heaven forbid) no Higher Power. This perception is the basis for the theory of evolution, which led to the emergence of Nazism. Only recently are scientists and thinkers returning to the Jewish position, which explains nature with the concept represented by the number seven; a material shell with a spiritual interior.

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