Significant Numbers in Judaism
A look at some numbers — from seven to 18 to 613 — that
have Jewish significance.
Why Jews Hope
to Live ‘Until 120’
Jews have always
enjoyed finding meaning and significance in special numbers, perhaps most
intensively through the practice of gematria,
ascribing numerical values to letters and words that are said to reveal
mystical connections. But even beyond this esoteric practice, certain numbers
have a way of reappearing in the tradition, and have accrued significance by
virtue of their presence in key texts and rituals.
There is even a song
sung toward the close of the Passover
seder, Echad Mi Yodeya (Who Knows One?), that
catalogs the significance of the numbers one through 13 in the tradition. But
there are many numbers beyond those that have been meaningful to Jews. Here is
a look at some favorites:
One
Unlike many other
religions, especially in ancient times, a hallmark of Judaism is monotheism —
belief in one God. It is this belief that the universe was created and is
governed by a singular, benevolent deity that undergirds the Jewish view that
the universe is ordered and purposeful. The closest thing Judaism has to a
declaration of faith, the Shema,
which is recited twice daily, declares: Hear O Israel, the Lord is our
God, the Lord is one.
Two
Pairs appear and
reappear in various Jewish contexts, from the animals that entered Noah’s ark
two-by-two to the two tablets of the Ten
Commandments. It is traditional to light two
candles at the start of Shabbat and other Jewish holidays, and
two place two challahs on the table.
Help
us keep Jewish knowledge accessible to millions of people around the world.
With
your help, My Jewish Learning can provide endless opportunities for learning,
connection and discovery.
Three
Judaism began as a
family religion, practiced by three generations of fathers and sons (and their
families) known as the patriarchs:
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Amidah,
the central Jewish prayer, addresses the Jewish God as the God of these three.
In addition, the
Jewish festival calendar is governed by three pilgrimage
festivals — Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot — that
reenact the primal Jewish history, starting with the exodus from Egypt and
continuing with the revelation at Sinai and finally the journey through the
wilderness that would lead the people to the promised land.
The Shema, the daily
Jewish prayer, is surrounded by three blessings that outline cosmic history as
unfolding in three movements, starting with the creation of the world, followed
by revelation at Sinai, and finally ending with the redemption that will bring
about the messianic era.
In some communities,
a child receives their first haircut at age three in a ceremony known as
an upsherin.
Finally, the Jewish
people are classically divided into three groups: priests (kohanim), Levites and
Israelites. In many synagogues, the aliyot in the Torah service are
reserved for members of these groups, with priests taking the first aliyah,
Levites the second, and Israelites the remaining aliyot. Some say that the
three matzahs on the Passover table represent these three groups in Israel.
Four
While Judaism has
three patriarchs, it has four matriarchs, or mothers: Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel
and Leah.
The Passover seder
is famously replete with fours, from the four cups of wine that structure the
evening to the Four
Questions and the Four Sons.
Four is also a
number classically seen as describing the basic shape of the world, from the
four rivers that flowed from the primordial Garden of Eden to the four winds
that blow in each of the cardinal directions. Heaven and earth are also
described, in ancient Jewish texts, as each having four corners.
Finally, Jewish
garments with tzitzit (ritual
fringe), including the tallit (worn over clothes) and
the tallit katan (worn
under clothes), always have four corners with the special fringes.
Five
The Torah, Judaism’s
central sacred texts, is divided into five books, sometimes called the Chumash (from
the Hebrew word for five) or the Five Books of Moses.
The fringe of a tallit tied according
to the Ashkenazi tradition. (via Wikimedia Commons)
On a tallit, a
Jewish ritual prayer shawl, each of the tzitzit, the special corner tassels, is
composed of fringes that are knotted with five double knots each, which
separate four wound sections. In Ashkenazi tradition, the five knots separate
sections with seven, eight, 11 and 13 winds each. And in Sephardic tradition,
the knots separate sections of 10, five, six and five winds each, with each of
those numbers corresponding to a letter in God’s personal name, the
tetragrammaton.
Finally, the
word hamsa,
a popular Jewish talisman that is shaped like a hand, is related to the Hebrew
word for five, because the hand has five fingers.
Seven
Seven is perhaps one
of the most significant numbers in Judaism. The Jewish week is seven days long,
because God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. (The
Hebrew word for week, shavua, is derived from the Hebrew word for
seven, sheva.) The menorah in the ancient Temple also
represented the creation with seven branches, three on each side and one in the
middle. (The Hanukkah
menorah, with nine branches, is modeled on it.)
The number seven
doesn’t just structure the daily cycle of Jewish life, it is also part of a
Jewish yearly agricultural cycle. Every seventh year, called the shmita or
sabbatical year, the land is not tilled but allowed to lie fallow and
rest.
According to Jewish
tradition, there are 613 commandments that Jews must follow, but just seven for
the rest of humanity. These are called the seven Noahide laws.
At Jewish weddings,
seven blessings (Sheva Brachot)
are recited over the bride and groom under the huppah.
In some cases, the bride circles the groom seven times, and in other contexts
the couple circles one another seven times.
An ancient
Jewish midrash notes
the significance of the number seven in Judaism, and lists a few more
instances:
All the sevenths are
always beloved. Above the seventh is beloved (there are seven names for
heaven): Skies, skies of the skies, firmament, heavens, celestial realm, abode,
and clouds … In the lands, the seventh is beloved (there are seven names for
earth): Earth, ground, globe, valley, wilderness, oblivion and world … In the
generations, the seventh is beloved: Adam, Shet, Enosh, Keinan, Mahalalel,
Yered and Chanoch (seven generations separated Adam, the first person, from
Enoch, the first person who didn’t die). In the forefathers, the seventh is
beloved: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Levi, Kehat, Amram and Moshe (seven generations
separated Abraham from Moses) … In sons, the seventh is beloved, as it is
stated (I Chronicles 2:15), “David was the
seventh.” (The great King David was the seventh son in his family.) …
In years, the seventh is beloved, as it is stated (Exodus 23.11), “But in the seventh you
shall let it rest and lie fallow.” In sabbatical years, the seventh is
beloved, as it is stated (Leviticus 25:10), “And you shall
sanctify the fiftieth year.” In days, the seventh is beloved, as it is
stated (Genesis 2:3), “And God blessed the
seventh day.” In months, the seventh is beloved, as it is stated (Leviticus 23:24), “In the seventh month on the
first day.” (Rosh Hashanah takes place in the seventh month, according to the
biblical ordering of months.)
Eight
Jewish boys
are circumcised on
the eighth day of life.
Ten
Ten commandments
were given at Sinai. In addition, ten adult Jews are required to make a minyan,
a prayer quorum that is needed to recite certain prayers. And in Jewish
mystical tradition, there are ten sefirot or
emanations of God.
Twelve
Ancient Israel was
divided into 12 tribes,
corresponding to the 12 sons of the third patriarch Jacob, which were
represented by 12 stones on the high priest’s breastplate. Likewise, the year
is divided into 12 months (when it is a non-leap year), each day and night are
divided into 12 hours, and there are 12 houses of the zodiac.
Thirteen
Jewish tradition
holds that God has 13 attributes
of mercy, which are recited during Selichot and
High Holiday prayers. The Jewish sage Maimonides also
held that there were thirteen articles of Jewish faith, which are codified in a
prayer popularly used to close Friday night services, Yigdal.
According to Jewish
tradition, a boy comes of age, meaning he is responsible for all of the mitzvot,
when he turns 13 and becomes a Bar Mitzvah.
In some communities, girls also come of age at 13, though in others it is at
age 12.
Eighteen
Gematria is
the Jewish practice of assigning a numerical value to each letter and then
adding up the value of certain words. Perhaps the most famous example is that
the numerical value of the word chai,
which means life, is 18. Eighteen is therefore considered a lucky Jewish number
and Jews often give monetary gifts in multiples of eighteen (e.g. $18 or $180).
In addition, the
central Jewish prayer, the Amidah, is known as the Shemonah Esreh, literally
“the Eighteen” because it was originally composed of 18 blessings. Today, it
has 19 blessings, but it is still called the Shemonah Esreh.
Thirty-six
There is a Hasidic
idea that every generation of humanity has 36 righteous people who sustain the
whole world, though their identities are unknown. It is on account of their
extraordinary goodness and piety that the world is not destroyed. These 36 are
called the tzadikim nistarim (literally: hidden righteous
ones) or the lamed vavniks (from the Hebrew letters lamed and vav whose
value adds up to 36).
Forty
Forty appears
frequently in the Hebrew Bible, usually as a significant span of time during
which a radical transformation is wrought. In the story of Noah’s ark, God
causes the heavens to rain for 40 days and nights. In order to receive the
Torah, Moses spends 40 days on Mount Sinai. And the Israelites are punished
with wandering in the wilderness for 40 years until the entire generation that
was liberated from Egypt passes away and a new generation is ready to enter the
promised land.
Forty-Nine/Fifty
Just as seven has
great significance in Judaism, so does the number seven times seven. Between
Passover and Shavuot, Jews count seven times seven weeks, or 49 days, a period
referred to as the Omer.
The next day, the 50th, is Shavuot.
Similarly, according
to the ancient Jewish agricultural calendar, every seventh year the land was
granted a shmita (sabbatical year) during which it was not cultivated and
allowed to rest. After each seven cycles of shmita, in the 50th year, the
Israelites would celebrate the yovel (Jubilee) year. During
this year, not only was the land permitted to rest, but slaves were freed,
debts were forgiven and land was returned to its original owners. The practice
was meant as a societal reset.
Seventy
According to Jewish
tradition, there are 70 nations and 70 languages in the world. Thus, 70 in some
way represents the totality of the world. The Sanhedrin,
the highest ancient Jewish court, was made up of 70 sages. Seventy is also
considered the full span of a human life, and was the number of years granted
to King David.
One Hundred and Twenty
While 70 years is
considered a full lifespan, Jewish tradition holds that 120 is the oldest age a
person can reasonably hope to achieve. It is the age Moses was
when he died, and it is common, on birthdays, for Jews to wish one
another “ad me’ah
v’esrim” — to 120 years old!
READ: 120
Jewish books to read in your lifetime, from ages 1 through 120
Six Hundred and Thirteen
According to ancient
rabbinic tradition, the Torah contains 613 mitzvot, or commandments. The
medieval scholar Maimonides listed all 613 and noted that these include 365
negative commandments (things one may not do) which correspond to the 365 days
in the solar year, and 248 positive commandments (which one should do) that
correspond to the number of parts in the human body. There is a Jewish
tradition that pomegranates have
613 seeds, corresponding to the mitzvot.
My Jewish Learning. Significant
Numbers in Judaism | My Jewish Learning. https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/judaism-numbers/?utm_source=MJL_Iterable&utm_campaign=MJL&utm_medium=email
No comments:
Post a Comment