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Behar
The number seventy (ten times seven) also plays a significant role
kedOshim םי ִׁשֹד ְק in the Jewish tradition. Seventy souls accompanied Jacob when he
went down to Egypt, and these correspond to seventy archetypal
nations descended from Noah and their seventy archetypal languages.
During Sukkot, the cohanim sacrificed seventy oxen in the Temple
in Jerusalem on behalf of these seventy nations as a symbol of the
£Why Moses Spoke Directly Why Moses Spoke Directly Why Moses Spoke Directly Why Moses Spoke Directly Why Moses Spoke Directly Why Moses Spoke Directly Jewish people’s desire to live in peace with the entire world. In the
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desert Moses appointed seventy elders to assist him in judging and
to the Assembled People
to the Assembled People advising the people. The Sanhedrin (High Court of Law or Supreme
to the Assembled People
Court) in the Land of Israel also had seventy sitting justices and a
nasi (the chief justice) who presided over them.
“God spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the entire assembly of the What might be considered the most significant manifestation of the
Children of Israel and say to them: ‘You shall be holy, for I, God number seven and what is clearly the mystical message alluded to by
your God, am holy’” (Leviticus 19:1-2). The Talmud teaches that the Sabbatical year cycle is the following tradition: the very existence
after receiving a revelation from God, Moses always taught Aaron of the world is predicated on a cycle comprised of seven thousand
first, Aaron’s sons next, then the elders, and finally the people who years. For six thousand years mankind will work at developing its
assembled at his tent (Eruvin 54b). In Kedoshim, God tells Moses full potential but in the seventh millennium, a radically new era will
to depart from this custom and address the entire assembled people begin and the great and never ending Shabbat will arrive.
first. Rashi explains that the majority of the Torah is dependent on
the laws found in this portion, so it was only right that Moses address Thus, it is no coincidence that as we approach the year 6,000 (the
the entire nation as one. current year is 5771 in the Jewish calendar), the Jewish people are
returning to Israel. All the prophets prophesied that after a long and
In making this assertion, Rashi may be referring to the fact horrifying exile, the ingathering of the Jewish people would occur
that all of the Ten Commandments are reiterated in some form in at the End of Days. The Land of Israel would be replanted and
Kedoshim. The Ten Commandments only appear two other times in flourish, Jerusalem would be rebuilt, and the final wars guaranteeing
the Torah – in Yitro, where the Ten Commandments are given, and Jewish sovereignty would be fought. The process would culminate
in Va’etchanan, where the story of their being given is retold – so with the coming of Mashiach, the rebuilding of the Temple, and the
their appearance in Kedoshim, right between the two other accounts, establishment of world peace and harmony. This utopian vision is the
is quite significant. The order and way in which the commandments hope Judaism holds out to the world and is in a sense the Shabbat of
are presented in these three portions mirrors the order and method of world history.
presentation delineated by the kelal uferat ukelal principle, one of the
thirteen principles by which the Torah is elucidated. This principle Just as the six days of the work week are followed by rest and
(taught by R. Yishmael) dictates how the law should be interpreted the spiritual bliss of Shabbat and six years of agricultural labor
in a case where a general principle is followed by particulars and then are followed by the Sabbatical year, human and world history
succeeded by a repetition of the general principle. In our case, the follow the same pattern as six thousand years of mundane toil will
Ten Commandments are mentioned in general in Yitro, elucidated culminate in a Sabbatical millennium. The profound meaning this
further in Kedoshim, and then basically repeated in Va’etchanan. correspondence holds is even deeper than it first appears because
the seventh millennium is also, according to tradition, a “return to
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