Parashat Eikev is filled with references to the upcoming entrance of the Israelites into the Land of Israel. The seven species are the types of fruit the Land of Israel is blessed with, as described in the verses from our parashah:
For Havayah your God brings you into a good land, a land of water courses, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil, and honey.
When eating a variety of fruit, these species take precedence over others (such as oranges or apples) and therefore we recite the blessing for fruit on them. On bread prepared from wheat or barley (the first two of the seven species) we recite the special blessing for bread. On pastries made from wheat or barley we recite the special blessing for pastries and on wine prepared from grapes (the third species) we recite the special blessing for wine. After eating from these types of fruit, we also recite a special blessing (and after a meal with bread, the full four blessings of Birkat HaMazon (grace after a meal).
Let us discuss the correspondence found in this model. This is one of the most beautiful such models in the Torah because its seven elements correspond, in order, to the seven lower sefirot.
Wheat and Barley
Wheat and barley usually make up the staples of our diet. In Perek Shirah (Song of Creation), an anthology documenting the individual verse “sung” by various creatures in praise of the Creator, wheat and barley sing verses that relate to prayer. Wheat sings the verse, “A song of ascent: From the depths I have called upon You, God.” Barley sings the verse, “A prayer for the destitute: Before God he pours his words.” These two verses suggest that wheat and barley correspond to the staple of the spiritual dimension of our lives, prayer, and each illustrates a particular type of prayer. Wheat is a “song of ascents,” barley “a prayer for the destitute.”
Traditionally, barley is considered the food of the poor and needy, while wheat was reserved for the wealthy. Likewise, barley sings of the prayer of the impoverished individual who cries out to God to fulfill his physical needs, while wheat corresponds to the prayer of the wealthy individual who is only truly able to pray when he has reached the greatest depths of his heart, when he has touched the root of his spiritual being.
The existential experience of the wealthy is one of God’s loving-kindness, of abundance; that all of reality is indeed meant to serve their every need. The individual who struggles through life has an existential experience of God’s might—translating into the feeling that every penny counts. Where the sefirah of loving-kindness represents infinite abundance and possibility, the sefirah of might represents a sense of appreciation for the forces of separation and division in reality, forces that break it up into its smallest particles.
Grape
The grapes of the vine sing the verse, “So says God: As wine is found in the cluster [of grapes] and one says, ‘Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it,’ so will I do for My servants’ sake; I will not destroy them all.”
The word for “grapevine” in Hebrew stems from the same root as the word for “body.” In the introduction to Tikunei Zohar, the sefirah of beauty is described as “the body.”
From the verse it sings, the grapevine calls upon us to look at the content and not just the packaging. The interior harbors a promise for the future that cannot always be seen from the outside. Likewise, in the future, the soul will be nourished by the body; i.e., our inner self, the soul, will be nourished by our exterior self—the body. The inner soul of beauty is the sefirah of knowledge, properly expressed when we recognize the importance of both the message and the media it is being transmitted through.
Fig
The fig sings the verse, “He who guards the fig tree shall eat its fruit.” The traditional commentaries explain that the fig tree needs to be carefully watched. Once it is ripe, it will quickly spoil if not picked immediately from the tree. The sefirah of victory, which is also translated as eternity, is the one most related to time and therefore fits best with the temporal urgency found in the fig.
The fig is also the first fruit mentioned explicitly in the Torah. According to Rashi, the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was the fig. After having sinned, Adam and Eve, instead of living forever, were punished to die (the opposite of the sefirah of victory/eternity). Realizing that they were naked, they prepared clothing from fig leaves (from the very tree of their sin). This suggests that the fig is connected with the experience of the ba’al teshuvah, the penitent who wishes to mend his relationship with the Almighty. Indeed, the ba’al teshuvah experiences a sense of urgency about the Divine commandments and prohibitions that is meant to offset his or her earlier proclivity to ignore them.
The Hebrew word for “excuse” stems from the same root as “fig.” The true ba’al teshuvah eventually comes to the realization that his previous lifestyle, when still ignorant of God and the commandments, was not a mistake. Rather it was an excuse used by the Almighty to bring him to experience this urgency in his Divine service.
Pomegranate
The verse sung by the pomegranate is “Your cheekbones are like a piece of the pomegranate from between your braids.” Based on the grammatical similarity between “cheekbone” and “empty individuals” the sages state that even those Jews who seem void [of performing the commandments] are filled with good deeds like a pomegranate is full of seeds (the delicious fruit of the pomegranate).
To understand that even the void is full of good requires us to realize that God and His goodness are truly universal and omnipresent. There is no place void of God’s Presence and even that which for the time being seems empty is truly filled with God’s infinite light (i.e., revelation). This is the cornerstone of the Ba’al Shem Tov’s interpretation of the Arizal’s doctrine of the contraction (tzimtzum). The pomegranate thus represents the need to acknowledge God’s omnipresence and corresponds to the sefirah of acknowledgment.
Olive
In Perek Shirah, the olive tree does not have a specific song. Rather, it is included in the general song sung by the trees of the field, “Then, the trees of the forest will sing before God who has come to judge the earth.” Thus, the olive includes the song of all the trees, like the sefirah of foundation includes all the sefirot above it. In fact, the word “foundation” is equal to the two words “for all,” the opening words of its description, “For all in the heavens and the earth.”
The sages describe olives as causing memory loss, but olive oil as strengthening memory. In the verse describing the seven species, the olive is described with both words “olive oil,” but because of the grammatical structure, the wording suggests that the oil, which promotes memory is derived from the fruit, which causes forgetfulness. Thus, the message hinted at is that memory follows forgetfulness. What does this mean? The olive’s taste is bitter; thus, it is the bitterness of mundane life that it is blessed with making us forget. By forgetting the bitterness of the past, we open ourselves to remembering it in a positive light. This is a particularly important ingredient in retelling history, especially the history of the Jewish people.
The Torah is likened to olive oil. It is the study of Torah, the Divine light given to us from above, that grants us the ability to “judge the earth,” to retell history in a positive manner. When the oil of the Torah judges/rectifies the entire earth, representing mundane wisdom (such as science), then indeed all the trees of the field will sing before God.
Date Palm
The date palm sings the verse, “The tzadik will blossom like a date palm, like the cedar of the Lebanon it shall grow.” The final letters of the words, “the tzadik will blossom like a date palm” spell Korach, the name of the Levite that contested Moses’ leadership. Thus, the date palm represents a rectified form of Korach’s arguments against Moses’ leadership. Korach claimed that “the entire congregation is holy.” Indeed, in the future, we will see that “Your entire people are tzaddikim.”
While the individual holiness of the tzaddik corresponds to the sefirah of foundation, the collective holiness of the entire congregation of Israel corresponds to the sefirah of kingdom. Kingdom is described as the receptacle able to contain the light emanating from foundation. Likewise, every Jew is like a vessel shining with the holiness of the leader of the generation, considered the extension of Moshe Rabbeinu himself. When the tzaddik’s light has been properly integrated into his generation’s Jewish people, we merit to inherit the Land of Israel, as in the conclusion of the verse quoted above, “Your entire people are tzaddikim, they will forever inherit the land.”
Two Commandments to Eat
As noted, parashat Eikev contains the source of all the blessings we say every day. The blessings are connected inherently with the Land of Israel, “You will eat and be sated, and you shall bless Havayah your God for the good land He has given you.” Apart from Birkat HaMazon (grace after meals), the sages also use this verse to support the recitation of all the blessings of enjoyment.
However, this is not the only verse in our parashah that begins with the word, “You will eat.” The other verse appears even earlier (both verses are in the first aliyah) and it reads, “And you shall consume all the peoples which Havayah your God gives you; you shall not spare them, nor shall you worship their gods, for that will be a snare for you.” This refers specifically to the seven Canaanite nations—the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Emorite, the Canaanite, the Perizite, the Chivite, and the Jebusite, idolaters who were steeped in human sacrifice and other abominable practices.
The Seven Canaanite Nations and the Seven Species
What might be the connection between these two verses about eating—eating food and eating, i.e., conquering and vanquishing the Canaanite nations? Since the verse about eating food comes right after the description of the 7 species that the Land of Israel was blessed with it follows that the 7 species correspond to the 7 Canaanite nations that inhabited the Land of Israel before the Jewish conquest. When we merit eating the species with the right intention, we merit eating, i.e., rectifying these nations. Indeed, the word species in Hebrew has two meanings: species and heretics. To eat heretics means to include them within holiness. To eat the non-Jewish nations, that means either to finish them off or to transform them. It is called eating because to eat is to include something in yourself. Likewise, when these nations are “eaten,” their spiritual energy is converted to holiness; what was included completely disappears and transforms. This is like the left being included fully in the right. Though these seven Canaanite nations no longer exist, apparently today there are 7 different types of heresies, each corresponding to one of the seven lower sefirot and rectified by eating one of the 7 Species, allowing their higher spiritual root to be revealed.
In general, the spiritual root of what is being consumed is higher than that of the consumer. Food contains a spark that is higher than the person eating it, which is what he is revealing and elevating when consuming it.
The Perizite and Victory
The order of the nations in most enumerations is the same as the order of the 7 species. Thus, the partzuf/model of the Seven Canaanite Nations and the seven lower sefirot is:
- loving-kindness-chessed: Canaanite
- might-gevurah: Hittite
- beauty-tiferet: Amorite
- victory-netzach: Perizite
- splendor-hod: Chivite
- foundation-yesod: Jebusite
- kingdom-malchut: Girgashite
Let’s bring one example of this correspondence. The Perizite correspond to netzach. At every opportunity we like to mention the Tzetel Katan from Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk. He writes that whenever one feels that a negative character trait is awakening in him, he can push it away, by crying out the names of the 7 Canaanite nations. Just saying the words in the Torah that describe these negative inclinations has the power to rectify them. Now we learn that it is even better to eat them. In every act of consumption there is also enjoyment, which is why we say the blessing in the first place. Consumption represents an opportunity to praise God.
Returning to the Perizite, they correspond to the fig and the sefirah of victory, which the sages say was the Tree of Knowledge. Victory is associated with Jerusalem. When we eat a fig, we should have in mind first of all that it is victory and that we are eating the Perizite, and as the verse says, Jerusalem will be tranquil without a wall, where the word for the Perizite and the word for “without a wall” are cognate, and the tranquility of living without defenses is the ultimate sign of victory over all opposing forces.
References:
- Deuteronomy 8:7-8.
- As well as other types of grain not mentioned in these verses.
- Psalms 130:1.
- Ibid. 102:1.
- Isaiah 65:8.
- Proverbs 27:18.
- See Judges 14:4 and Rashi there.
- Song of Songs 4:3 and 6:7.
- Eiruvin 19a.
- 1 Chronicles 16:33.
- Ibid. 29:11.
- The earth corresponds to the sefirah of kingdom. Thus, the olive, corresponding to foundation judges the earth corresponding to kingdom.
- Psalms 92:13.
- Isaiah 60:21.
- Deuteronomy 8:10.
- Ibid. 7:16.
- Ibid. v. 1.
