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Orchard of Delights
The Tabernacle was dedicated on the first day of Nisan, the day
the world was actually created, as we discussed extensively in the
portion of Vayikra. According to the Midrash it was the greatest
day since the world was created. One can imagine the excitement,
anticipation, and energy surrounding this awesome event. The Torah
describes how each of the princes brought an assortment of gifts to
be used in the Tabernacle. Interestingly enough, even though they
all brought the very same gifts, the Midrash teaches us that each
one came with two sets of intentions: his own unique intentions and
those he had in common with all the other princes (Bamidbar Rabbah
14:24).
Rashi in his commentary on the Tabernacle’s dedication delineates
the princes’ common intentions. (He notes these in his commentary
on the second prince, Issachar, so one might argue that he does not
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attribute them to the first prince, Nachson, but others definitely
attribute them to Nachshon, the first of the princes to bring gifts,
and explain that the other princes followed his lead.) Rashi rarely
employs the assortment of Kabbalistic techniques and methods,
which he adopts in elucidating this particular passage, to explain
the text’s simple meaning. His concentrated use of such methods
here alerts us to the very deep meanings alluded to by the text.
Rashi’s commentary reveals that in bringing these gifts the princes
were alluding to central events in human history, beginning with
Adam and ending with the Tabernacle’s dedication. We will briefly
enumerate these gifts along with Rashi’s explanation and then try to
shed light on these spiritual intentions.
A silver bowl weighing 130 shekels: the numerical value of the
Hebrew words for “silver bowl” is 930, which corresponds to the
number of years of Adam’s life. The number 130 corresponds to how
old Adam and Eve were when they gave birth to Seth.
One silver basin weighing seventy shekels: the numerical value of
the Hebrew words for “one silver basin” is 520, which corresponds to
the sum of Noah’s age when he gave birth to his children at age 500
plus the twenty additional years before they were born that followed
God’s warning him of the flood to come. The weight of seventy
corresponds to the seventy nations that descended from Noah
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Behar
£Seven Cycles of SevenSeven Cycles of Seven
££Seven Cycles of Seven
As we have discussed in the previous section, the most fundamental
of all cycles are those based on the number seven. Whether counting
days, weeks, months, years, series of years, or millenia the cycle of
seven appears again and again in the Jewish tradition. In fact, there
are seven such time periods.
The first cycle is comprised of the six days of creation that
culminated in Shabbat, the seventh day of rest. This weekly cycle
underlies all of reality and orders time itself for the observant Jew.
The second cycle is manifest in the counting of seven times seven
weeks during the period between Pesach and Shavuot. The very act
of taking the time to count every day for seven weeks out loud makes
the counter supremely aware of the importance of this cycle. The
third cycle is manifest in the cycle of the three Pilgrimage Festivals
– Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot – which take place over a seven
month period. These three holidays create their own cycle, which has
practical ramifications in the application of Jewish law in a number
of fields including oaths and the obligation to return lost objects.
The fourth cycle is manifest in the counting of years, the Sabbatical
years discussed in the previous section. This cycle forms the basis for
the larger fifth cycle, where seven times seven years culminate in
the fiftieth – the Jubilee – year. The sixth cycle counts thousands
of years, dividing the world’s existence into seven thousand years:
six thousand pre-Messianic years followed by the Messianic era, the
seventh millennium, referred to as a time that is “all Shabbat.”
The seventh and last of the cycles of time based on seven is referred
to as “fifty thousand Jubilees,” a term denoting the infinite level of
consciousness that will be reached after the Messianic era is reached,
the resurrection of the dead takes place, and the World to Come is
fully revealed. The phrase “fifty thousand Jubilee years” symbolizes
an eternal realm of ongoing revelation and spiritual advancement
and ascent. (See Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, The Hebrew Letters, p.
220.)
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