Spiritual Significance of the Seven Blessings
Seven is a very significant number in Judaism. The number seven hearkens back to the very creation of the universe, which God accomplished in seven days, culminating in the holy Sabbath on the seventh day. There were seven days in the first complete cycle, the week, in the history of the world, as recorded in the Torah.
Following a Jewish wedding are seven days of feasting, during which these seven blessings are again recited. This double cycle of seven also reminds us of the seven-year agricultural cycle that the Jewish people were commanded to observe after they entered the land of Israel. The seventh year of each cycle was the sabbatical year during which no land could be cultivated.
This seven-year agricultural cycle was also part of a double seven-year cycle of 49 years. After the seventh seven-year cycle, the 49th year, the Jewish people would celebrate a 50th year, a jubilee year, during which all land in Israel would return to its original owners.
In each Jewish calendar year, we also experience a double cycle of seven days. From the holiday of Passover until the holiday of Shavuot 50 days later, we formally count seven weeks — seven cycles of seven.
Many reasons are given for the number seven and its connection to marriage. In his book Made in Heaven, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan suggests a most unique idea: that the number seven alludes to the numerical value of the Hebrew word echad, which means “one.” This, of course, is the moment at which the bride and groom become one entity, a reflection also, perhaps, of the great and ultimate unity of the divine.
The Sabbath, which is the seventh day of each week, is the moment of ultimate unity between God and the world. On the Sabbath a song called “Licha Dodi” (“Come My Beloved”), is sung. This song describes the Sabbath as a marriage between the part of the divine that resides within the physical universe, the shechinah, and the more infinite divine. These aspects of God seem separate, but ultimately God is pure unity. Thus, seven is also the number representing the ultimate spiritual unity of the universe.
The number seven may also refer to the seven lower sefirot, the seven mystical realms through which the infinite divine flows to the finite world. Though there are ten sefirot all together, these “lower” seven sefirot are much closer to merging with the universe than the three sefirot above them, which are more removed.
Thus, the number seven in reference to the sefirot represents bonding and unification between the divine and the world. Perhaps it is this ultimate unity of the divine, this merging, that is reflected in the unification of two people under their chuppah.
