Two Encyclopedias, Fat and Thin

[David Morris]

The number seven has implications of completeness/completion, as in
the seventh day of creation.

http://www.hagshama.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=210

Without OD'ing on numbers lets look at a few examples of sevens:

The days of creation
The Noahide commandments
Pairs of "clean" animals taken on the ark
Abraham's agreement with Avimelech (lambs)
The altars built by the three patriarchs
The altars of Balaam
Joshua and the walls of Jerico, etc...
Even the Menorah has 7 branches.

Sometimes entire cyles are determined by the number seven: The 7th day
- the Shabbat, the 7th year (Shmitah) when the crops are to lie
fallow, and the Jubilee (Yovel) which is every 7th shmitah. Jewish
holidays are usually comprised of 7 days.

What about the 7 blessings of marriage and the 7 days of celebrations
afterwards?
Especially when we come to the laws of purification and consecration,
we see the number 7 over and over. There is something about the number
which is supposed to take you from one point and bring you to another,
higher level. For example, People purify themselves by going to a
natural body of water (or a mikveh) and dunking themselves 7 times.

Ok. So where's the connection to Shavuot?

Shavuot too is bound with the number 7. We are told to count 7 weeks
after Passover before we celebrate Shavuot. The commentators on the
Talmud (in Avoda Zarah 3a) explain that the 7 weeks were to give the
Jews in the desert time to prepare to receive the Torah. They needed 7
weeks to absolve themselves from the 210 years of slavery. This
"cleansing" was necessary, for in Judaism, if you are not free you
cannot understand and take upon yourself the ideals and goals of the
Torah.


On 1/11/07, robinlandseadel at comcast.net <robinlandseadel at comcast.net> wrote:

> I will look for a copy of "The 49 Steps". Knowing there's a Talmudic aspect as well only deepens the mystery. Seven squared would doubtless have many numerological implications.
>