The number 7 is written in Yehudit as the letter Zayin (ז), the 7th letter of the alphabet. Given that 7 is the sacred number of the deity, and that the deity is repeatedly described as a fertility god, it is not surprising that the word Zayin, like the shape of the letter Zayin, is also the word for the penis in Yehudit.
Innumerable connections to this all-important number. The page below will take them one by one, in no specific order:-
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The seven days of creation which become the seven days of the week (see also the table in the essay on Time & Calendar)
Day 1 Light
Day 2 Division of Water
Day 3 Dry Land/Pasture/Trees
Day 4 Stars/Seasons
Day 5 Sea-beasts/Birds
Day 6 Land-beasts/Humankind
Day 7 Rest
According to Jewish tradition, the creation of Adam occurred on October 7th, 3761 BCE, which was the first day of the month of Tishrey in the year 0 (or 1, depending on how you prefer to calculate the millennium), at the time regarded as the first but now regarded as the seventh month in the Jewish calendar.
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The Seven Branches of the MenorahThe menorah dominates the frieze on Titus' triumphal arch, which he carried back from the Temple in Yeru-Shala'im to Rome. Mythical water-monsters in relief decorate six small panels at the base of the Menorah. Shelomoh (Solomon) had placed five such menorot, in gold, on either side of the Great Altar, as well as a number of silver ones. These were all removed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE. The rebuilt Temple contained a single replacement in gold, built by Zeru-Bavel (זְרֻבָּבֶל). This in turn was carried off by Antiochus IV of Syria somewhere between 175 and 163 BCE, but replaced by Yehudah ha Maccabee. The menorah depicted on Titus' arch is remarkably similar to the one described - stem and branches only - in Exodus 25:31-40, to the point that one must conclude that the author of Exodus is describing the later original, rather than the other way around.
The cosmic significance of the menorah is noted in Zechariah 4:10; the Prophet having learned from a vision that its seven lamps were the eyes of YHVH that run to and fro across the universe - i.e. the seven planets. The Temple menorot were lit as part of the autumn festival. The fact that the central stem is also the fourth branch, and that the fourth day of creation was that of the stars (the heavenly bodies or Tseva'ot), and that in Babylon the day was sacred to Nabu, the god of wisdom and writing as well as the inventor of astronomy, is surely no coincidence. We must therefore read the monsters as the ones destroyed by YHVH before he could undertake the act of Creation (see notes to Genesis 1 and to Tehom et al, as well as below).
On the lower left panel a pair of dragons face each other in similar positions, though their wings and tails differ. These may be read as two Leviathans (Liv-Yatan in the Yehudit): The Fleeing and Crooked Serpents. The symmetrical and identical fish-tailed creatures with somewhat feline heads shown in the top left and right panels are, perhaps, the "great dragons" Tahamat and Behemot of Genesis 1:21. The dragon on the lower central panel, with its head twisted haughtily up and backward, suggests Rahab ("haughtiness"), who appears in Joshua 2:1 and 6:17 as a key figure in the capture of Yericho (Jericho), but also appears elsewhere as yet one more variant of the mythological dragon. An indistinct monster on the lower right may be Tehom or Ephes (the number Zero personified as a beast), elsewhere known as Apsu. A relief on the top central panel vaguely resembles the familiar pair of Phoenician winged creatures always shown facing each other: possibly they are keruvim (cherubim), YHVH's messengers, whose effigies surmounted the Ark of the Covenant.
The archangels are held to have had a day of the week in their demesne.
Each of the seven branches represented a god (Babylonian origins). Zechar-Yah 4:10 and Josephus' Wars 5:5 confirm this. The order of Creation is likewise tied to this: Nergal, a pastoral god, came third in the hierarchy and therefore 3rd in the week; Nabu, of the planets, 4th in the hierarchy and therefore 4th in the week. Consequently grass was created before stars. In the Enuma Elish Creation goes:
Separation of Heaven from Earth and Sea
Creation of planets and stars
Creation of trees and herbs
Creation of animals and fish
(5th and 6th tablets damaged)
Finally on the seventh, Marduk's forming of Man from Kingu's blood (blood in Hebrew is Dam (דם), whence Adam, Adom, Edom, dam, odem, Adamah etc; Kingu was Tiamat's mate)
Worshippers in the Temple faced the sunrise, but the menorah in the Temple faced West-south-west, which line on a map takes the eye directly to On-Heliopolis, the original home of the sun-god to whom Mosheh and Aharon were priests, and perhaps more importantly the city in which Yoseph was based. According to the Kabbalistic mystical work the Zohar, the menorah receives its light from the sun, which is presumably a way of avoiding saying that YHVH was himself the sun-god.
Worshippers in the Temple faced the sunrise, but the menorah in the Temple faced West-south-west, which line on a map takes the eye directly to On-Heliopolis, the original home of the sun-god to whom Mosheh and Aharon were priests, and perhaps more importantly the city in which Yoseph was based. According to the Kabbalistic mystical work the Zohar, the menorah receives its light from the sun, which is presumably a way of avoiding saying that YHVH was himself the sun-god.
Josephus tells us that the three wonders of the sanctuary were the menorah, the shew-bread and the altar of incense:
"The seven lamps signified the seven planets... the twelve loaves the circle of the zodiac... thealtar of incense by its thirteen kinds of sweet-smelling spices with which the sea replenishes it, signified that YHVH is the lord of all things in both the habitable and uninhabitable parts of the world, and they are all dedicated to his use..."
Why the sea, and why 13? Numbers 29:13 calls for the sacrifice of 13 bullocks on the first day of Tabernacles (plus a single extra one on the 8th day). 13 refers to Rahab, prophetic goddess of the sea, guardian of She'ol (i.e. Josephus' uninhabitable regions).
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Seven-headed Liv-Yatan (Leviathan)
A very complete index of cross-cultural references to Leviathan can be found at The Institute for Biblical and Scientific Studies. It includes a reference to Rachav (Rahab) in her capacity as sea monster.
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The sevenfold vengeance of Kayin (Cain); seventy-seven-fold vengeance of Lamech; seven hundred and seventy-seven years of Lamech's life; and note that Lamech is also the 7th generation after Kayin.
See notes to Genesis 4:1-4:16 and Genesis 4:17-4:24
This becomes significant in the Jubilee laws, given in both Leviticus 25ff and Deuteronomy 15:1ff. See especially my notes to Leviticus 25:9, which makes the 7x7x7 link formal. See also my note to Exodus 23:11.
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The sevenfold vengeance of Kayin (Cain); seventy-seven-fold vengeance of Lamech; seven hundred and seventy-seven years of Lamech's life; and note that Lamech is also the 7th generation after Kayin.
See notes to Genesis 4:1-4:16 and Genesis 4:17-4:24
This becomes significant in the Jubilee laws, given in both Leviticus 25ff and Deuteronomy 15:1ff. See especially my notes to Leviticus 25:9, which makes the 7x7x7 link formal. See also my note to Exodus 23:11.
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The Well of the Oath: Be'er Sheva
In Genesis 21:24 VA YOMER AV-RAHAM ANOCHI ISHAV'E'A - וַיֹּאמֶר אַבְרָהָם אָנֹכִי אִשָּׁבֵעַ - And Av-Raham said, "I will swear." ISHAV'E'A (אשבע): from the root SHAVA = "an oath", whence the verb used here, LISHBO'A = "to swear an oath". It also gives the root of the number 7 (שבע), presumably because one swore by the name of one's god, and to the Beney Yisra-El the god of the Number 7 was the highest form of swearing. Don't forget that we have just left Hagar at a well called Be'er Sheva (באר שבע), the Well of the Oath, from several sworn there: Av-Raham and Avi-Melech in Genesis 21:22, YHVH and Yitschak in Genesis 26:23ff. Traditional commentary and translation of Genesis 21:29-31 render Be'er Sheva as "The Well of the Seven", because Av-Raham sets aside seven ewe-lambs; but in verse 30 he explains to Avi-Melech that he has done so "that it may serve as my witness that I have dug this well"; which in fact confirms the oath as the correct translation.
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Ya'akov's wives
In Genesis 29:19, Ya'akov offers to "serve seven years" for Lavan's daughter Rachel. When he is tricked into marrying Le'ah instead, Lavan offers him Rachel as a second wife (verse 27) " for the service which you shall serve with me yet seven more years." Verse 28 then tells us that "Ya'akov did so, and fulfilled her week; and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife." A week, of course, is seven days.
The number seven occurs three times here, twice for his years of service in order to be granted the privilege of marriage, once (with a second occasion implicit with Rachel) for what we would today call the honeymoon, though in this case it was rather more solemn and liturgical: the fulfilling of the week in a fertility cult is an act of service to the deity. Ya'akov has been chosen as sacred king, to serve the moon god Lavan (who may well be a masculinisation of the moon goddess Lavanah - "The White One", in whichever gender), and the "daughters" are the sacred queens, the May Queens in the ancient British tradition, as are both Bilhah and Zilpah who Ya'akov takes for his third, and then for most of his fourth term of office (he flees with his wives and property in Genesis 30:25 ff, conscious that he has no future as sacred king after the four-term limit is ended; exactly the same issue is at the heart of King David's war with Av-Shalom, the father unwilling to yield his throne even though his time is up, the son unwilling to be the "fourth lamb" sacrificed in surrogacy for the sacred king - see 2 Samuel 14 ff)
And when he meets his brother Esav again after three-times-seven years (Genesis 33:3), he bows to the ground in front of him, precisely seven times.
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The Jubilee and the festival of Shavu'ot; the counting of the Omer.
In the seventh year any slaves held among the Beney Yisra-El were to be freed (Exodus 21:2), having completed their time of captivity and service. Every seventh year was a sabbatical year (Leviticus 25:4) - 25:2 specifically describes it as being "a Shabbat for the land". In the Year of Jubilee (at the completion of 7 x 7 years = the 50th year), all land was freed from lease and tithe and returned to its original owners (Leviticus 25:10). Pentecost, the Feast of Weeks, usually known as Shavu'ot, which means "weeks", takes place seven times seven days after the Pesach (Passover).
In fact, all the major (pilgrim) festivals were 7-day affairs, as confirmed by Leviticus 23, the same chapter that gives the 7 weeks for the counting of the Omer. Verses 34 and 41 are also relevant to this, denoting Tishrey, the 7th month in which Rosh ha-Shana, Yom Kippur, Sukot, Shemini Atseret and Simchat Torah all occur, as a month of rest, so that that 7th day, the 7th month, the 7th year, and 7th septennial of years, all become Shabatot.
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The seven No'achide laws
Do Not Deny God
Do Not Blaspheme Against God
Do Not Murder
Do Not Engage in Incestuous, Adulterous or Homosexual Relationships.
Do Not Steal
Do Not Eat of a Live Animal
Establish Courts/Legal System to Ensure Law Obedience
These are not specifically stated in the tale of No'ach, but deduced from them by the later Rabbis - click here for more background.
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The seven colours of the rainbow
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.
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The conquest of Yericho (Joshua 2-6), or Yerecho, Yareyacho...
The Biblical description of the capture of the city is not borne out by archaeological evidence, though it is known that Yericho was one of the very first cities ever built by humans, dating around 7,500 BCE, and it was significant alongside Ur and Charan, not simply because these are the three cities associated with Av-Ram/Av-Raham, but because they were the three centres of moon-worship in the ancient Middle East - the name Yericho comes from Yareyach (ירח), which is the Chaldean word for the moon (Ur, the absolute centre of moon-worship, was in Chaldea, Yehudit Kasdim).
Probably the account of the conquest was a re-writing of an account of a liturgical ceremony, not very different from the circumambulations of the various Ka'abas in the cities and shrines of the Arab world, of which the black rock at Mecca is the best known. Hajjis to this day make seven circuits of the rock, known in Arabic as tawaf, just as brides make seven circuits of their grooms in the Jewish wedding ceremony (see below). In the account of Yericho, the siege was laid for seven days, and on each day the "pilgrims" circumambulated seven times around the walls of the city, culminating in seven blasts on the shofar - the traditional call to prayer before the days of the muezzin - brought the walls down; which makes it seem much more likely that what took place at Yericho was a moon-pilgrimage festival and not a siege at all.
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Seven times the bride walks around her groom under the chupah as part of the marriage ceremony (kidushin and nisu'in).
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Seven times the bride walks around her groom under the chupah as part of the marriage ceremony (kidushin and nisu'in).
Today in the Jewish world, this custom is understood to be Kabbalistic, with references in both Tikunei Zohar (6, 23a) in regard to the verse "a woman shall go around a man" (Jeremiah 31:22). In the same way, the custom of breaking a glass at the ceremony is imbued with mystical meanings. In truth, both symbolic acts go back long before Kabbala, to the days of the matriarchy and the rites of the fertility-goddess. To this day, in Lebanon and other parts of the orient, the groom will stamp on a ripe pomegranate at the moment in the ceremony where a glass is trodden in the Jewish; no fruit has more seeds than the pomegranate, which was why it was one of the central symbols of the fertility goddess, and the spilling of the seed in this manner has a meaning too obvious to require elucidating. The custom of circumambulating the groom relates to the ceremony of the Hajj described above, as does the ceremony below.
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"When a woman gives birth, and bears a male child, she shall be rendered unclean for seven days; as in the days of the impurity of her sickness she shall be unclean." Leviticus 12:1
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"When a bullock, or a sheep, or a goat, is born forth, it shall spend seven days with its mother; but from the eighth day and afterwards it may be accepted for a fire-offering to YHVH." Leviticus 22:27
This law makes an unexpected connection to the BERIT MILAH, the circumcision of boys at exactly the same age; and by the terms of deduction used elsewhere, tells us that the Berit Milah is therefore regarded not just as a rite and ceremony but actually as an act of sacrifice - of "making sacred".
Why the eighth day? Because there is the seven day cycle of Creation, after which there is the start of what we might call Being; as this applies to the making of the Universe, so it applies to everything within the universe, human and animal. Does this make the occurrence of the Jubilee in the seventh year an inconsistency? No, because the Jubilee is neither about Creation nor Being, but that intervening moment of Rest between the two.
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Seven appears to be the standard number for these ceremonies. In Leviticus 8:11 Mosheh does the same, and in verse 33 of the same chapter he instructs Aharon: "Do not leave the entrance to the tent of meeting for seven days, until the days of your ordination are completed, for your ordination will last seven days. "
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While the Christian Bible is broken down into chapters, artificially imposed on the text like a modern novel (click here), the Torah in the Jewish world comes in Sidrot, and these are broken down into parashot or portions, for each of which a different person is honoured with being called to the bimah for the reading, and blessed before and after doing so. There are seven of these aliyot, one for each parashah; or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that there are seven pareshot, one for each aliyah.
Why the eighth day? Because there is the seven day cycle of Creation, after which there is the start of what we might call Being; as this applies to the making of the Universe, so it applies to everything within the universe, human and animal. Does this make the occurrence of the Jubilee in the seventh year an inconsistency? No, because the Jubilee is neither about Creation nor Being, but that intervening moment of Rest between the two.
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"When anyone sins unintentionally and does what is
forbidden in any of YHVH’s commands, if the anointed Kohen sins, bringing
guilt on the people, he must bring to YHVH a young bull without defect as a
sin offering for the sin he has committed. He is to present the bull at the
entrance to the tent of meeting before the YHVH. He is to lay his hand on its
head and slaughter it there before YHVH. Then the anointed Kohen shall
take some of the bull’s blood and carry it into the tent of meeting. He is to
dip his finger into the blood and sprinkle some of it seven times before YHVH, in front of the curtain of the sanctuary. The Kohen shall then put some
of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense that is before YHVH in the tent of meeting. The rest of the bull’s blood he shall pour out at
the base of the altar of burnt offering at the entrance to the tent of meeting.
He shall remove all the fat from the bull of the sin offering - all the fat
that is connected to the internal organs, both kidneys with the fat on them
near the loins, and the long lobe of the liver, which he will remove with the
kidneys - just as the fat is removed from the ox sacrificed as a fellowship
offering. Then the Kohen shall burn them on the altar of burnt offering. But
the hide of the bull and all its flesh, as well as the head and legs, the
internal organs and the intestines, that is, all the rest of the bull - he must
take outside the camp to a place ceremonially clean, where the ashes are
thrown, and burn it there in a wood fire on the ash heap." Leviticus 4:6-12
Leviticus 16:14 and 19 have the blood-sprinkling again, this time for Yom Kippur.
Leviticus 16:14 and 19 have the blood-sprinkling again, this time for Yom Kippur.
Seven appears to be the standard number for these ceremonies. In Leviticus 8:11 Mosheh does the same, and in verse 33 of the same chapter he instructs Aharon: "Do not leave the entrance to the tent of meeting for seven days, until the days of your ordination are completed, for your ordination will last seven days. "
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While the Christian Bible is broken down into chapters, artificially imposed on the text like a modern novel (click here), the Torah in the Jewish world comes in Sidrot, and these are broken down into parashot or portions, for each of which a different person is honoured with being called to the bimah for the reading, and blessed before and after doing so. There are seven of these aliyot, one for each parashah; or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that there are seven pareshot, one for each aliyah.
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The seven hakafot at Simchat Torah reflect the seven circumambulations of Yericho by Yehoshu'a and those of the Hajj at Mecca, as well as the bridal circumambulations.
Simchat Torah falls immediately after the end of Sukot, and completes the twenty-two days of festival at the opening of the Jewish liturgical year, though it is a completely separate festival from the "Days of Awe" (Rosh Ha Shanah, Yom Kippur, Sukot, Shemini Atseret), despite being itself a ceremony of renewal: it is the day on which the annual cycle of the reading of the Torah is completed, and a new cycle commenced. The modern tradition, probably commencing around the 1st century CE, after the destruction of the Temple, involved celebratory dancing, but nothing more complex; the custom of removing all Torah scrolls from the Ark in the synagogue and carrying them in dance around the interior of the building, until seven circuits have been completed, cannot be dated earlier than the 16th century CE.
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The Seven Pillars of Wisdom
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Pharaoh in his dream saw seven cattle coming from the Nile (Genesis 41:2), prefiguring the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine that would follow.
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Shimshon's (Samson’s) sacred Nazirite locks were braided in seven plaits (Judges 16:13).
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TREES LINKED TO DAYS:
According to Robert Graves the trees representing each day of the week are:
DAY
|
GREEK
|
HEBREW
|
SUNDAY
|
BIRCH
|
BROOM or ACACIA
|
MONDAY
|
WILLOW
|
WILLOW
|
TUESDAY
|
HOLLY
|
HOLLY or KERM-OAK
|
WEDNESDAY
|
HAZEL OR ASH
|
ALMOND
|
THURSDAY
|
OAK
|
TEREBINTH OAK
|
FRIDAY
|
APPLE
|
QUINCE
|
SATURDAY
|
ALDER
|
POMEGRANETE
|
Most of these trees can be found on hills, which allows me a pretext to mention the seven hills of Yeru-Shala'im (Jerusalem).
Other references to the number seven may be found, with commentary, at:
Leviticus 13:4, 5, 21, 26, 31, 33, 50 and 54, as well as 14:7-9, 16, 27, 38 and 51 - all these are to do with Leprosy and the rituals and ceremonies for its treatment. 15:24-28 continues this, but for different (female) matters. The "issue" is given in 15:19. Finally there is Leviticus 26:14 ff, in which the number 7 is central to the threats made to Yisra-El by YHVH if they fail to keep his commandments (verses 18, 21 and 28 are the ones to note specifically, and verse 44, which makes clear that the connection to the Sabbath is entirely intentional)
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And in addition, note that:
* the Babylonian flood lasted 7 days and nights; while Utnapishtim's ship, on which he survived the flood, had 7 storeys, each with 7 compartments - see Genesis 6:9-22 (v 16 has No'ach's ark with just 3 storeys; but then the number 7 is key to all of the Utnapishtim version, and No'ach is Elohim, not YHVH, so the sacred number would be 12 or 150, as indeed it is; we can assume that a YHVH version of this tale would likely have had 7 storeys, and probably lasted 7 or 7x7 days, because 7 is always YHVH's sacred number, but never Elohim's.)
* but then look at what happens to the numbers in Genesis 7, when the name of the deity also switches, from Elohim to YHVH; and then 8:10 where he waits 7 days to re-send the dove…
* seven is the number associated with the wake or mourning-vigil for the dead, known from the number as "sitting shiva". Does that in any way connect to Hindu Siva (pronounced Shiva), who is the god of destruction and regeneration?
* in my notes to Genesis 3 I mention a number of goddesses identified wth Chavah (Eve), one of whom is the Egyptian Hepta. The reason for my mentioning it here as well can be found by clicking the link here.
* when YHVH threatens to bring plagues to the Beney Yisra-El in the wilderness (Leviticus 26:21), it is not ten, as in Egypt, where ten was the sacred number, but... yes, seven.
* see my note to Exodus 2:11 - too lengthy to repeat here, but it relates to the seven handmaidens of Osher (Osiris)
* Exodus 2:16 tells us that Yitro has seven daughters - a school of priestesses, obviously, but the fact that it comes so close to that Osiric reference cannot just be coincidence.
* Exodus 7:25 has 7 days elapsing between the stages of the first plague.
* See also Leviticus 16:14, 19 and 29.
* And Leviticus 22:27
* And Numbers 19:4, which gives a significant detail of the methodology of sacrifice.
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