7 · Seven · The Completion of the Week
The rhythm of creation, the seventh day, the structural number of the natural order.
The seven lower sefirot — chesed, gevurah, tiferet, netzach, hod, yesod, malchut — the emotional middot through which the soul engages the world in Chabad thought.
Read on →18 · Eighteen · Chai · Life
The gematria of the Hebrew word ‘chai’ (חי), life. Every multiple of 18 is a multiple of life.
The classical name of the weekday Amidah — Shemoneh Esrei, ‘the Eighteen’ — is itself a marker of the figure; the Tanya was first printed in Slavuta in 1796.
Read on →26 · Twenty-six · The Ineffable Name
The gematria of the Tetragrammaton (י-ה-ו-ה). The numerical value of the four-letter Name of God.
Chabad readings of the Tetragrammaton as the structure through which creation is sustained; the Name is not pronounced, the number carries it.
Read on →72 · Seventy-two · The Shem ha-Mephorash
The seventy-two-letter Name derived from three verses of Exodus; also four times chai — a fourfold life.
Kabbalistic readings carried forward through Chabad thought; the seventy-two-letter Name as a structure of divine providence.
Read on →77 · Seventy-seven · Mazal · The Mark of Fortune
The gematria of the Hebrew word ‘mazal’ (מזל), constellation, destiny, the good fortune that pours from above.
Chabad readings of mazal as the channel through which higher influence reaches the soul; not luck, but received providence.
Read on →108 · One hundred and eight · Six times chai
Six times chai — the gift of life multiplied through the six directions, the six days of creation, the six volumes of the Mishnah.
Chabad readings of the six directions — north, south, east, west, above, below — as the geometry of the created world.
Read on →613 · Six hundred thirteen · Taryag Mitzvot
The canonical count of the commandments of the Torah — taryag (תר״ג) mitzvot — 248 positive and 365 negative.
The Tanya as a treatise on how the 613 mitzvot animate the whole person — body, soul, attention.
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