In the case of the Ten Plagues, the portion of Va’eira contains seven plagues and the next portion, Bo, has three, so this division is supported by the text itself.
Although the ten sefirot can be divided according to a number of different schemes, the most natural division is that of the three higher and the seven lower sefirot. In general, the number seven indicates complete cycles and inherent unity. This is manifest in scores of concepts and contexts: the Shabbat, the seven weeks between the holidays of Pesach and Shavu’ot, the Sabbatical year, the seven fruits the Land of Israel is blessed with, the seven lamps of the menorah (the Temple candelabrum), the seven shepherds of the Jewish people, the seven circuits a bride makes around the groom at a wedding, the seven matrimony blessings recited during the seven days after a wedding, the seven days of the holidays of Pesach and Sukkot, and many others, including the seven lower sefirot.
According to Kabbalah, on one level of interpretation the sefirot correspond to the human soul: the three upper sefirot are associated with the intellect and the seven lower ones with the emotions and habitual traits. One of the most popular diagrams of the sefirot portrays them in three vertical columns: two exterior columns and one interior, unifying, one. This diagram portrays the secret of balance and harmony. When counting the horizontal lines formed by the ten sefirot as they descend from above to below in their three vertical columns, we discover seven lines, another example of the connection between three and seven.
In Sefer Yetzirah, one of the oldest and most fundamental Kabbalah texts, each month is associated with a letter. These correspondences yield profound secrets of creation and primordial paradigms of energy that manifest on every level of reality. The third month of the year, Sivan, is associated with the letter zayin, the seventh letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
One of the main sources for the natural division of ten into three and seven is this association of the third month and the seventh letter, zayin. Intriguingly, when a scribe writes the letter zayin in the Torah scroll, he affixes three small crowns to its top.
Another beautiful hint to the intrinsic connection between three and seven is that the word for “pair” in Hebrew is zug (זוּג)—a word whose two primary letters are zayin, the seventh of the Hebrew alphabet, and gimmel, the third. This indicates that three and seven are in a sense the quintessential pair!
The unique relationship between seven and three is also affirmed by the Torah having been given on Shabbat, the seventh day, during Sivan, the third month of the year. While all the sages agree that the Torah was given on Shabbat in the month of Sivan there is a disagreement over whether the Torah was given on the sixth or the seventh day of that month.
According to Rabbi Yossi who argues for the seventh (and with whom Rashi agrees), it is especially clear that the day on which the Torah was given reveals the intrinsic connection between the Ten Plagues and the Ten Commandments, for the division of ten into three and seven is again recalled. Further supporting this connection, the Ten Commandments themselves reflect this division as three of the commandments are phrased in positive, prescriptive language while the other seven are phrased using negative, prohibitive language.
Not only do the “first” Giving of the Torah, when the first set of Tablets were given, reflects the seven-three division, so does the second Giving of the Torah, when the second set of Tablets was given. After the people sinned by worshipping the Golden Calf and Moses destroyed the Tablets, he prayed for God to forgive the people and descended from Mount Sinai after three periods of forty days with the second Tablets on Yom Kippur, the tenth day of the seventh month.
Another instance of the number ten in the Jewish calendar is the Ten Days of Repentance, beginning with Rosh HaShanah and culminating with Yom Kippur. Of these ten days, three are holidays—two days of Rosh HaShanah and one of Yom Kippur—and seven are not. The seven intermediate days form a transitional period between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, and the entire ten days serve as the transitional period between the old and new year. Fittingly, it is on the tenth day, Yom Kippur, that finite human beings perhaps more than at any other time of the year attempt through prayer and spiritual service to reconnect to their infinite source in God.
THE NUMBER TEN AND THE LAND OF ISRAEL
Ultimately, the division of ten into seven and three is also reflected in the Jewish people’s inheritance of the Land and the coming of Mashiach. In the book of Genesis, as mentioned above, God promises Abraham that his descendants will inherit the Land of Israel from ten nations. Yet, after this promise is made, only seven Canaanite nations are ever mentioned. What happened to the other three nations? It is explained in Chasidut that through the rectifying energy of each of the seven lower sefirot, the power of the seven Canaanite nations was nullified, causing their defeat.
Additionally, due to the spiritual energy of the seven shepherds of Israel (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph and David), each of whom is associated with one of these seven lower sefirot, the power of these seven nations was nullified. Because the shepherds were able to conquer the opposing negative energy to each of the sefirot their descendants were able to conquer these nations. The three higher sefirot await the Messianic era when these three loftier energies relating to the intellectual sefirot will be completely purified and rectified. Only then will the last three nations (Edom, Moab, and Ammon) be conquered as well. This is yet another promise waiting to be fulfilled. When it is, then truly God will be one and His Name will be one.
