Recap and opening — what is the secret of ‘the seventh’?
Welcome back to the ninth lesson on the maamar Basi LeGani 5711 — and today we open ois gimel.
Let's recall where we stopped. In ois beis we saw the descent and the return: seven sins raised the Shechina up to the seventh firmament, and seven tzaddikim — from Avraham to Moshe — brought it back down, until Moshe the seventh brought it all the way to the earth itself. And in the middle of the sentence the maamar hid three words, within parentheses, as the reason for the whole matter: “and all sevenths are beloved.”
These three words look like an aside — but they are about to open before us into the deepest idea of the chapter. For they answer a question that remained hanging: why davka Moshe, the seventh, succeeded in completing the mission? And the answer is not “because he was the greatest” or “the most talented” — but, surprisingly, “because he was the seventh.”
But what does that even mean? In what does the virtue of the seventh lie? And is it dependent on him, or given to him from the start? In this we'll delve today.
The precision of the wording — ‘the sevenths are beloved,’ and not ‘the beloved are sevenths’
The maamar opens with a precision in the wording of our Sages. They said: “all sevenths are beloved.” And the maamar makes a precision: notice, they did not say “all the beloved are sevenths.” And the difference between the two forms is all the difference in the world.
Let's think about it for a moment. Had they said “all the beloved are sevenths” — that the beloved are the sevenths — the meaning would be that the belovedness is the cause, and their being sevenths is only a result. That is: there are beloved people, special, exalted — and it happened that they are also the sevenths. The importance would lie in the belovedness itself, and the number seven would be only an incidental detail.
But our Sages reversed the order: “all sevenths are beloved” — their being sevenths is the cause, and the belovedness is the result. That is: what makes them beloved is the very fact that they are the sevenths. Not that they are beloved and therefore sevenths, but that they are sevenths and therefore beloved.
And from here, says the maamar, “it is proven that the ikar of the virtue is this — that he is seventh.” The very being-in-the-seventh-place — that is the virtue. Imagine two people who receive a prize. To one it was given for some achievement of his; to the other it was given simply because he arrived exactly seventh in line. In the language of our Sages, the belovedness of the seventh is of the second kind — it is tied to the place, not to an achievement. And this is exactly what needs explanation: how can it be that a true virtue would depend on a place, and not on what a person did?
The novelty — a virtue that is not acquired, but given from birth
And here the maamar says a novelty worth pausing on, because it is the opposite of everything we are used to thinking. It says that the belovedness of the seventh “is not by virtue of a matter dependent on his choice, his will and his service — but rather in this, that he is seventh, which comes by virtue of birth.”
Let's unpack this. Usually, when we appreciate a person, we look at what he chose, what he wanted, what he labored for and achieved. The achievement is measured by the effort. A person who climbed a mountain by his own strength deserves a different appreciation from a person who was carried to the summit by cable car. Virtue, we are used to thinking, must be earned.
And here the maamar says: not here. The belovedness of the seventh does not depend at all on his choice or his service. It “comes by virtue of birth” — from the very fact that he was born seventh, that he stands in the seventh place in the chain. He did not earn it. He received it together with the place in which he was set.
And this sounds almost unfair, doesn't it? Where is the justice? If a person did not labor for something — why should he be beloved on account of it? But davka here lies the depth. For there are things too great to be dependent on our choice. A child born to a king is a prince from the moment of his birth — not because he worked for it, but because that is his essence, that is his belonging. There are virtues that are not the fruit of effort, but the fruit of connection; not an achievement, but an identity.
And therefore, the maamar concludes the point, “and nevertheless — all sevenths are beloved.” Even though this is not an earned virtue — it is a true virtue, and perhaps even a deeper one. “And therefore Moshe merited that the Torah was given through him.” Moshe did not merit to give the Torah only by virtue of his personal greatness, but by virtue of his being the seventh. The place in the chain is what qualified him to be the vessel through which the Torah would descend to the world.
The Rebbe Rayatz's explanation — the seventh points to the first
And here the maamar brings a deep explanation from my revered father-in-law the Rebbe, the Rebbe Rayatz, which he said at the beginning of his arrival in America. He added a point that illuminates everything: even in the matter of “the sevenths are beloved,” davka within the virtue of the seventh, the virtue of the first is evident.
How? In his words: “for the whole matter of seventh is that he is seventh to the first.” Think about it. The word “seventh” does not stand on its own at all. There is no such thing as “seventh” by itself. Seventh is always seventh to something — seventh to a first. Without a first, there is no count at all, no second and third, and no seventh. The entire virtue of the seventh is built on there being a first whom he continues.
Imagine the last link in a chain. It is important — it is the one that grips the anchor, it is the one that reaches the goal. But all its strength comes from its being connected, link after link, up to the first link that is tied to the source. Detach it from the chain — and it is just a ring of metal. The seventh is great not in spite of the first, but by virtue of him: he carries forward what the first began.
And who is the first? “This is Avraham Avinu.” Avraham is the first link, the one who opened the entire chain. And here the Rebbe Rayatz stops and asks: and in what lies Avraham's greatness? And the answer: “because of his service — and that his service was with mesirus nefesh.”
And notice the wonderful surprise here. The virtue of the seventh, we said, he did not earn; it came to him “by virtue of birth,” from his very place. But the virtue of the first — Avraham — is davka the fruit of service, the fruit of mesirus nefesh. The seventh did not labor for his place — but his place is connected, through the entire chain, to a first who did labor. The belovedness that is not earned draws its strength from a virtue that was earned. The seventh receives as an inheritance what the first acquired with sweat.
Summary and introduction — what is the mesirus nefesh of Avraham?
So what did we see today?
We opened ois gimel with the precision of the wording: our Sages said “all sevenths are beloved,” and not “all the beloved are sevenths” — and from here that the ikar of the virtue is the very being-seventh. And we learned the novelty: this belovedness does not depend on choice, will or service, but comes “by virtue of birth” — from the place itself; and nevertheless it is a true belovedness, and therefore Moshe merited that the Torah be given through him.
And then we learned the Rebbe Rayatz's explanation: davka within the virtue of the seventh the virtue of the first is evident, for seventh always means seventh to a first. And the first is Avraham Avinu, whose entire greatness is by virtue of his service — and his service was with mesirus nefesh.
But here the maamar is about to make a surprising move. For it would seem natural to think that mesirus nefesh means a readiness to die for the sanctification of G-d's Name. And the Rebbe Rayatz will reveal to us that the mesirus nefesh of Avraham was davka something else entirely — and that davka it, and not the heroism to die, was the heart of his service. And we'll further see how all this is not reserved for unique individuals, but is demanded of each and every one of us. With this we'll continue in the next lesson. Thank you for learning with us — and we'll see you in the next lesson.