The Torah portion of Matot describes the war against Midian. At the end of the war, a short section addressing the laws of purging utensils is presented. It reads,
And Elazar the priest said to the soldiers who had gone to the battle, “This is the statute of the law that Havayah commanded Moses: Only the gold, the silver, the copper, the iron, the tin, and the lead, everything that can withstand fire, you shall pass through the fire, and it will be pure except for that which must be purified with the water of sprinkling; and all that cannot withstand fire, you shall pass through the water.”
Apart from the exceptional introduction in which Elazar the priest conveys the words God spoke to Moses, this section contains the largest list of metals in the Pentateuch: gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, and lead. These six metals, along with the metal known as “quicksilver” in English, which today is known as mercury, constitute the seven metals known to ancient science. The seven metals are mentioned by the commentators of the Book of Formation as analogous to the seven visible planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn), to the seven transformations, the seven double letters (בגד כפר"ת), and more. It follows then that the seven metals correspond to the seven sefirot from loving-kindness to kingdom, also known as the sefirot of the emotive and habitual faculties of the soul. We will soon see this parallel in detail.
THE FOUR ELEMENTS OF ANTIQUITY
An important question asked in the study of ancient science, and consequently in understanding the perception of the sages regarding the elements, pertains to the relationship between the four elements—fire, air, water, and earth—and the seven metals. In the Torah’s inner dimension, the relationship between 4 and 7 can be found in the relationship between the four faculties that make up the super-consciousness and the intellect and the emotive and habitual faculties that number seven. Therefore, it is indeed fitting to position the four elements of antiquity—fire, air, water, and earth—as corresponding to the sefirot crown (the super-consciousness) and wisdom, understanding, and knowledge (the intellectual faculties).
However, first, let us note that while all seven metals of antiquity (six of which are found explicitly in our reading) are still defined today as chemical elements, the four ancient elements are not. For example, we currently present water as being a composite substance, a molecule containing two hydrogen atoms for every one oxygen atom. What this means is that it would not be consistent to place the four elements of antiquity in the same model as the seven metals of antiquity.
Nevertheless, with a bit of thought, it is easy to recognize that each of the four ancient elements corresponds to a modern chemical element. Water, as its name suggests, corresponds to hydrogen. Oxygen is the most important component for humans in the air. Nitrogen (nitrates) is the essential active element in the earth, promoting growth. Finally, fire corresponds to carbon, the primary material of combustion. It is important to note in passing that almost all the material of the human body (and similarly the bodies of animals and plants) is composed of these four essential elements: hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen.
Now, if we arrange the four elements and the seven metals according to the sefirot while noting the atomic number of each element or metal, we get the following structure (partzuf, in Kabbalistic terminology):
- crown
Air • Oxygen (O)
Atomic number: 8 - understanding
Fire • Carbon (C)
Atomic number: 6 - wisdom
Water • Hydrogen (H)
Atomic number: 1 - knowledge
Earth • Nitrogen (N)
Atomic number: 7 - might
Gold (Au)
Atomic number: 79 - loving-kindness
Silver (Ag)
Atomic number: 47 - beauty
Copper (Cu)
Atomic number: 29 - acknowledgment
Lead (Pb)
Atomic number: 82 - victory
Tin (Sn)
Atomic number: 50 - foundation
Mercury (Hg)
Atomic number: 80 - kingdom
Iron (Fe)
Atomic number: 26
THE SPIRIT WITHIN MATTER
This partzuf of the elements contains an extraordinary wealth of important phenomena for understanding the spiritual aspects of matter. We will mention only a few simple and clear phenomena.
The sefirah of knowledge is considered a bridge between the intellect and the seven lower attributes—the emotive and habitual faculties. In our partzuf, knowledge is represented by the element of earth, while the seven metals are essentially defined as types of ores that are found in the earth.
The atomic number of quicksilver (mercury) is 80, which corresponds to the numerical value of the name of the sefirah “foundation” (דֹסוְי) to which it corresponds in the partzuf.
The sum of the Hebrew names of the seven metals (יפחֶסֶּת כֶרֶפֹיל עוִדְּת בֶׁשֹחְב נָהָף זֶסֶּכ לֶזְרַּב) is seven times the numerical value of “iron” (לֶזְרַּב), indicating that among all the metals, iron is the most central. Indeed, it is known that the Hebrew word for “iron” (לֶזְרַּב) serves as an acronym for the names of Jacob’s wives—the archetypal feminine souls (of kingdom): Bilhah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Leah (לֵחָרהָּפְלִזהָהְלִּבהֶאֵל) with the handmaidens preceding the matriarchs, a topic we have discussed in length elsewhere.
The sum of the atomic numbers of all seven metals (47, 79, 29, 50, 82, 80, 26), is 393, which is precisely the numerical value of the word “handmaid” (הָחְפִׁש). The sum of the atomic numbers of just the four lower metals corresponding with victory, acknowledgment, foundation, and kingdom (50, 82, 80, 26) is 238, which is also the value of “Rachel” (לֵחָר), the archetypal soul of kingdom.
Furthermore, the numerical sum of the names of all ten sefirot (דֶסֶה חָינִּה בָמָכֲר חֶתֶּכ תּכוְלַד מֹסוְד יֹח הוַצֶת נֶרֶאְפִּה תָרּבוְּג) is 2868, which is 12 times 239, again the numerical value of “iron” (לֶזְרַּב), the metal corresponding to kingdom, providing another illustration of the centrality of iron.
