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What’s So Special About the Number 17? Rabbi Carl M. Perkins
Temple Aliyah Parashat Vayechi December 14, 2013
“This was the total span of Abraham’s life: one hundred and seventy-‐five years.” (Genesis 25:7)
175 “Isaac was a hundred and eighty years old when he breathed his last and died.” (Genesis 35: 28-‐29)
180 “Jacob lived seventeen years in the land of Egypt, so that the span of Jacob’s life came to one hundred and forty-‐seven years.” (Genesis 47:28)
147 175 = 7 x 52 180 = 5 x 62 147 = 3 x 72
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Joseph’s Lifespan is NOT: 64 = 1 x 82 Instead, it is: 110 = 1 x (52 + 62 + 72) “Joseph is the “successor” in the pattern of (7 – 5 – 3 – 1) and the “sum” of his predecessors (52 + 62 + 72).” (James G. Williams, “Number Symbolism and Joseph as Symbol of Completion,” JBL 98 (1979), pp. 86f, quoted in Casper J. Labuschagne, “The Life Spans of the Patriarchs,” New Avenues in the Study of the Old Testament, p. 126.)
Joseph’s lifespan is an “extension” of that of his predecessors in yet another way: the presence of the number 17. Sum of “Prime” Factors 175 = 7 x 5 x 5; 17 180 = 5 x 6 x 6; 17 147 = 3 x 7 x 7; 17 Joseph’s life begins with living 17 years with his father (Genesis 37:2), and ends with him living 17 years with his father (Genesis 47:28).
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What is the significance of the number 17? Numeral Values (Gematria 400; Ordinary Gematria – as opposed to Positional Values, or Gematria 22): ,7 = ז ,6 = ו ,5 = ה ,4 = ד ,3 = ג ,2 = ב ,1 = א פ ,70 = ע ,60 = ס ,50 = נ ,40 = מ ,30 = ל ,20 = כ ,10 = י ,9 = ט ,8 = ח 400 = ת ,300 = ש ,200 = ר ,100 = ק ,90 = צ ,80 = The Tetragrammaton: Positional Values: ה = 5, ו = 6, ה = 5, י =10; sum = 26 (Ordinary Gematria) Sum of Digits ה = 5, ו = 6, ה = 5, י = 1; sum = 17 (Gematria K’tanah) Further reduction: 2 + 6 or 1 + 7 sum = 8 See: The Numerical Features of the Books of the Bible, by Casper J. Labuschagne; Stephen J. Lieberman, “A Mesopotamian Background for the So-‐Called Aggadic ‘Measures’ of Biblical Hermeneutics,” HUCA 58 (1987), 188-‐192; Israel Knohl, “Sacred Architecture: The Numerical Dimensions of Biblical Poems,” Vetus Testamentum 62 (2012) 189-‐197. “For [the Biblical scribes] writing entailed composing and composing necessarily involved counting. In fact, ,ספר writing, document, book, and ,סופר scribe, enumerator, secretary, derive from one and the same verb ,לספר meaning both to count, to number, to report and to recount. This means that the biblical writings in general and the psalms in particular were not written in an off-‐the-‐cuff manner, but were meticulously composed according to compositional techniques in which counting played a crucial role.” (Caspar J. Labuschagne, “Significant Compositional Techniques in the Psalms: Evidence for the Use of Number as an Organizing Principle,” Vetus Testamentum 59 (2009), p. 583-‐605)
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“Numerological criticism analyses literary structures of various kinds, ordered by numerical symmetries or expressing number symbolism. In poetry, numerological structure often forms a level of organization intermediate in scale and externality between metrical patterns, on the one hand, and structure as ordinarily understood, on the other. As such, it constitutes a huge subject—perhaps even larger than most medieval and Renaissance scholars have begun to realize. It is probably no exaggeration to say that most good literary works—indeed, most craftsmanlike works—were organized at this stratum from antiquity until at least the eighteenth century. Moreover, numerological criticism is potentially a more fruitful subject than large-‐scale prosody, since it has more bearing on meaning, thematic content, structure and other adjacent strata.” (Silent Poetry: Essays in Numerological Analysis, edited by Alistair Fowler, London, 1970, p. xi., quoted in: Caspar Labuschagne, “Significant Compositional Techniques in the Psalms.”) The Blessing for Joseph (Deuteronomy 33: 13-17):
יג :אמר וליוסף מטל שמים ממגד ארצו יהוה מברכת :תחת רבצת ומתהום
יד : ירחים גרש וממגד שמש תבואת וממגד
טו : עולם גבעות וממגד הררי־קדם ומראש
טז כני ורצון ומלאה ארץ וממגד סנה ש
: אחיו נזיר ולקדקד יוסף לראש תבואתה
יז קרניו ראם וקרני לו הדר שורו בכור
אפסי־ארץ יחדו ינגח עמים בהם
:מנשה אלפי והם אפרים רבבות והם (17 cola; 26 + 26 words)
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“Independently, … Jacob Bazak drew attention to the fact that ‘the psalmists deliberately employed numerical devices in order to emphasize central sentences and also to make use of symbolic numbers’. He demonstrated that in Psalm 23 the central expression, כי אתה עמדי -- ‘for you are with me’ (v. 4d), is flanked by 26 words on either side (55 = 26 + 3 + 26), and that the pronoun you’, designating God, is positioned exactly in the centre of‘ ,אתהthe central expression. To show that this is no coincidence, he mentioned more examples: Psalm 92 and Psalm 81….”
כג פרק
א :לדוד מזמור
: אחסר לא רעי' ה
ב ירביצני דשא בנאות
: ינהלני מנחות על־מי
ג ישובב נפשי
במעגלי־צדק ינחני
: שמו למען
ד צלמות בגיא כי־אלך גם
רע לא־אירא
עמדי כי־אתה
ומשענתך שבטך
: ינחמני המה
ה צררי נגד שלחן| לפני תערך
: רויה כוסי ראשי בשמן דשנת
ו חיי כל־ימי ירדפוני וחסד טוב אך
:ימים לארך' בבית־ה ושבתי (26 words, “For thou art with me,” 26 words)
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“The phenomenon of symbolizing divine names through the use of numbers was found in the Mesopotamian world as early as the beginning of the second millennia BC. In general, the Mesopotamian method of numerical representation is not based on the value of letters, which is inappropriate for a cuneiform writing system. … The alphabetic script opened new possibilities for representation of the divine name by number. We have discovered here a variety of sophisticated numerical structures, using the number of words and the number of cola that probably represent the name YHWH. These literary and numerical means of making God present have special significance in a society that forbids representing God’s image with a statue or picture.” (Israel Knohl, “Sacred Architecture: The Numerical Dimensions of Biblical Poems,” Vetus Testamentum 62 (2012) pp. 195-‐196) “The name of God was interwoven in the Torah as in a fabric.” (Joseph Gikatilla, 1248 – c.1305; quoted in Labuschagne, Numerical Secrets of the Bible, p. 93, n. 16.)
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