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Orchard of Delights
candelabrum); the seven shepherds of the Jewish people; the seven
circuits the bride makes around the groom at a wedding; the seven
blessings recited during the seven days of celebration following a
wedding; the seven days of the holidays of Pesach and Sukkot; and
many others, including the seven lower sefirot. (In the next Torah
portion, we will demonstrate the intrinsic connection between the
last three plagues that led to their being grouped together.)
According to Kabbalah, the sefirot correspond on one level of
interpretation to the human soul: the three upper sefirot are associated
with the intellect and the seven lower ones with the emotions and
character traits. One of the most popular diagrams of the sefirotic
structure portrays the sefirot in three vertical columns: two exterior
columns and one interior, unifying, one. This diagram portrays the
secret of balance and harmony. When counting the horizontal lines
formed by the ten sefirot as they descend from above to below in their
three vertical columns, we discover seven lines, another example of
the connection between three and seven (see the arrangement of the
Sefirot in Appendix III).
In Sefer Yetzirah, one of the oldest and most fundamental Kabbalah
texts, each month is associated with a letter. These correspondences
yield profound secrets of creation and primordial paradigms of
energy that manifest on every level of reality. The third month of
the year, Sivan, is associated with zayin, the seventh letter of the
Hebrew alphabet. Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh explains that the
source for the division of ten into three and seven is this association
of the third month and the seventh letter, zayin. Intriguingly, when a
scribe writes the letter zayin in the Torah scroll, he affixes three small
crowns to its top. Another beautiful hint to the intrinsic connection
between three and seven is that the word for “pair” in Hebrew is
zug – a word whose two primary letters are zayin, the seventh of the
Hebrew alphabet, and gimel, the third. This indicates that three and
seven are in a sense the quintessential pair.
The unique relationship between seven and three is also affirmed
by the Torah having been given on Shabbat – the seventh day –
during Sivan, the third month of the year. While all the Talmudic
Sages agree that the Torah was given on Shabbat in the month of
212
7 Va’eira
£Moses Challenges God£Moses Challenges GodMoses Challenges God
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According to Rashi the opening verses of this portion quoted in the
previous section are a direct response to Moses’ questioning of God
at the conclusion of Shemot. Moses went to Pharaoh in order to save
Israel, but instead Pharaoh dramatically increased the workload.
“Moses returned to God and said: ‘My Lord, why have you done
evil to this people, why have you sent me? From the time I came to
Pharaoh to speak in Your Name he did evil to this people, and You
did not rescue Your people” (Exodus 5:22-23).
God begins to answer at the end of last portion, “Now you will see
what I will do to Pharaoh, for with a strong hand he will send them
out and with a strong hand he will expel them from his land” (Exodus
6:1). God’s explanation continues in this portion by further clarifying
that the process of redemption is a lengthy one, which began back in
the days of the patriarchs: “And God (Elokim) spoke to Moses and
said to him ‘I am God (Hashem, God’s four-letter name). I appeared
to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai, but my name Hashem
I did not make known to them” (Exodus 6:2-3).
The Ishbitzer Rebbe notes a subtle anomaly in the first verse
– “And God (Elokim) spoke to Moses and said to him ‘I am God
(Hashem)’” – between the Hebrew word used for “spoke” (dibber)
at the beginning of the verse and the Hebrew word used for “said”
(amar) later in the verse. He explains that the former connotes
harshness, whereas the latter implies gentleness. At first God reacts
harshly to Moses’ questioning Him, but when he sees Moses recoil
from the rebuke He softens His approach so as not to overly frighten
him. In his explanation, the Ishbitzer Rebbe does not state explicitly
why God chose to change his tone with Moses other than stating
the obvious that when a person sees a loved one react negatively to
reproach he will naturally try to soften the blow. The question that
begs an answer is, why is God concerned with not overly discouraging
Moses, in this particular case?
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