Sefer Bamidbar is referred to by some as the “Book of Numbers,” but the numbers really begin in the previous two parshios, Behar and Bechukosai. There we learn about two remarkable – and related – numbers, “seven” and “forty nine.”
My friends, these are more than numbers. Like everything else in the Torah, they are beyond this world; they are reflections of eternity.
The number “seven” is the centerpiece of the first portion in the Torah, the building block of the world. There is no major culture in the world which does not accept the seven-day week. Even our enemies live according to this cycle, which only substantiates the universality of our Torah.
Those who hate us unconsciously proclaim the Truth of our Torah and the existence of the Master of the Universe, against whom they rebel!
At the end of six days, Hashem rested. The seventh day is devoted to understanding the nature of what had just been created, meaning that we are to understand that the previous six days were created by the Master of the Universe.
Rashi explains that the Torah was revealed in discrete parshios in order “to give Moshe Rabbeinu an interval of time for contemplation between one section of the Torah and another, and between one topic and another.” (Rashi on Vayikra 1:1)
We are supposed not simply to read the Torah or Gemara or say the tefilla, but to think and try to comprehend everything we have read! This requires constant effort. Hashem gave us brains with which to understand! (Which is, I believe, one reason why the bracha of “daas” is placed so forward in Shemoneh Esreh, to indicate to us that we are supposed to contemplate everything we are saying.)
Just as we pause between parshios to understand what we have learned, so on the Seventh Day, we pause and enter a different realm in order to understand the nature of the previous six days. Apparently the same holds true, perhaps to an even greater extent, when we multiply seven times seven. On the day after the forty-ninth day, we reach a tremendous elevation; the Fiftieth Day is different. On that day our ancestors stood at Har Sinai and beheld the Throne of Hashem. They saw Reality with their own eyes.
Additionally, in the Fiftieth year, the Land of Israel the land receives total rest. Am Yisroel arises from its labors in order to contemplate the nature of life. Who created this Land? Who owns this Land? At this moment of understanding, all Eretz Yisroel reverts to its original pristine state, as if creation is beginning once again.
On the day of Shavuos we read “Megilas Rus,” which tells the story of the origins of the Redeemer of Israel, who arose from the refuse heap of Moav and brought redemption and renewal to Israel. This resembles a seed which has disintegrated in the dark and “dirty” soil. Following its disintegration and destruction, the seed sprouts; glorious flowers and fruits emerge. On this day Hashem’s Kingdom is revealed. All creation springs from darkness, just as Beraishis began with chaos, “tohu vavohu” and Adam was created from the earth.
The disintegration of the seed, its destruction and subsequent flowering, is reminiscent of the six days of Creation, the six days of the week, the forty-nine days of Sefira and the forty-nine years of the Yovel cycle. All creation goes through a process of creation, production, decay and death, followed by glorious renewal on a new level.
Before G-d had fashioned the earth and the inhabited land, He created this pattern. “You [Hashem] reduce man to pulp and say, ‘Repent, Oh sons of man!’ …. In the morning they blossom and are rejuvenated. By evening they are cut down and brittle .... Our days passed by because of Your anger and our years like a fleeting thought …. [But Hashem will] gladden us according to the days [He] afflicted us.” (Tehillim 90)
All our trials and toil during the weeks and years of our lives will be seen at the end as a blessing from the Master of the Universe and we will sing Hallel, just as we sing Hallel on Shavuos after our arduous ascent from the depths of Mitzraim.“Praise Hashem all nations! Thank him all peoples!” (Tehillim 117) The Redemption from Mitzraim was prodigious, but the Redemption from our current Golus will be beyond imagination.
During the Pesach Seder, the minhag is to dip our finger in the kos when we mention the Esser Makkos. We place those ten drops of wine on the plate before us. There is a powerful moshul here, that those ten drops of wine represent Yetzias Mitzraim, but the wine remaining in the kos represents the Geulah Shelemah!
Imagine the vast difference in magnitude between those ten drops on the plate and all the wine remaining in the kos! That is how much bigger the Geulah Shelemah will be than Yetzias Mitzraim! (Be’er Miriam as seen in the Artscroll Interlinear Pesach Haggadah)
That is the Redemption which we are currently awaiting! On the Fiftieth Day the curtain will open on infinity, revealing a world in which the nature of life will become evident to all creatures who desire to understand. May we see it soon with our own eyes!
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Flowers, fruit and wine
GLOSSARY
Am Yisroel: the Jewish People
Daas: Insight
Eretz Yisroel: the Land of Israel
Esser Makkos: the Ten Plagues
Geulah Shelemah: the Final Redemption
Har Sinai: Mount Sinai
Megilas Rus: the Book of Ruth
Minhag: Jewish custom or practice
Mitzraim: ancient Egypt
Moav: a degraded nation
Moshe Rabbeinu: Moses
Moshul: a parable
Rashi: classic commentator on the Torah and Gemara
Sefira: the 49 days between Passover and Shavuos
Tefilla: prayer
Tohu vavohu: chaos which existed at the beginning of the process of creation
Yetzias Mitzraim: the Exodus from Egypt
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