Seven – Emotions, Nations and Sefirot
Seven Emotions, Seven Nations, Seven Sefirot
Against your will, you are formed,
Against your will, you are born,
Against your will, you live,
Against your will you die, and
Against your will you are destined to give a judgment and accounting
before the King, king of all kings, The Holy One, Blessed Be He. Avot 4.22
Look at G-d’s work – for who can straighten what He has Twisted?. When the Blessed Holy One Created the first human, He took him and Led him round all the trees of the Garden of Eden and said to him: Look at My works, how beautiful and praiseworthy they are! And all that I have Created, it was for you that I Created it. Pay attention that you do not corrupt and destroy My world: if you corrupt it, there is no one to repair it after you. Koheles Rabbah 7.13
If a person is drawn toward this world and distances himself from his Creator, he will be corrupted and will corrupt the world with him. Yet, if he can rule over himself and he cleaves to his Creator and uses this world solely to aid him in serving his Creator, he will be elevated and the world itself will be uplifted with him. The Path of the Just Moshe Chaim Luzzatto Feldheim page 9-10
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 7.1-2 You shall not make a treaty with them
We are not allowed to make a treaty with the Seven Nations of Canaan, the nations that inhabited Eretz Yisrael before its conquest by the Jews.
These nations are:
the Hittites,
the Girgashites,
the Amorites,
the Canaanites,
the Perizzites,
the Hivites, and
the Jebusites.
The land of the seven nations
– the seven sefirot
– the seven emotions that need to be refined
– these are the garments of the soul.
And Jericho had shut its gates and was barred because of the children of Israel; none went out and none came in. And the L-rd said to Joshua, See, I have given into your hand Jericho and its king, the mighty warriors. Yehoshua (Joshua) 6.1-2
And Joshua said, By this, you shall know that the Living G-d is in your midst, and He will certainly Drive out the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites from before you. Yehoshua (Joshua) 3.10
This is the command to conquer the land, to conquer our seven emotions. We transform Caanan into the Land of Israel. We transform our emotive elements of our soul, we transform our character. See Positive Commandment 187
Jericho represents the soul’s three garments, thought, speech and deed. These are from the animal soul. The Divine soul is found in the love and awe (fear) of G-d when we think and understand Words of Torah, speak Words of Torah, and when we do Mitzvot. These Mitzvot become the garments of our soul in the afterlife.
וְהָיָה כִּי יְבִאֲךָ יְהֹוָה אֶל אֶרֶץ הַכְּנַעֲנִי כַּאֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּע לְךָ וְלַאֲבֹתֶיךָ וּנְתָנָהּ לָךְ : ס
And it shall be when the L-rd shall Bring you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and to your fathers, and shall give it to you: Shemot (Exodus) 13.11
The word Canaan in this verse is surrounded by a Hei and a Yud; they are letters of G‑d’s Name, hence
by surrounding Canaan they transform it.
- Chesed – Canaanites – Ham is the father of Canaan Gen. 9.18 – Chesed expresses unlimited benevolence. Chesed is expansive and outflowing. Canaanites are associated with idolatry. Idolatry belongs to the realm of reality that is forbidden. They are intrinsically evil. They are asur, tied down – the opposite of Chesed.
- Gevurah – Hittites – Gevruah is the power to restrain one’s innate urge to bestow goodness upon others. – The word Hittite means sons of terror and refers to the descendants of Heth. Terror produces a sense of deep emotional despair and torment. This is the opposite of Gevurah.
- Tiferet – Amorites – Tiferet is harmony, empathy, and mercy. Amorites were obsessed with earthly fame and glory, they were domineering, the opposite of Tiferet.
- Netzah – Perizites – also referred to as Rephaim – Netzach is victory, fortitude, ambition and the opposite of Perizites which have limited vision, laziness, low self-esteem
- Hod – Hivites – Hod is devotion and humility. The Hivites had limited vision. They were focused on enjoying an earthly inheritance, hedonism
- Yesod – Jebusites – Yesod means foundation but it is also an emotion called bonding. You bond with something or someone, it is not just experiencing something. Jebustites suppressed spiritual authority in fellow believers, they were legalistic.
- Malchut – Girgashites – Malchut literally means nobility and kingship. On an emotional level, it is leadership and sovereignty. The soul power of Malchut is self-expression which we is expressed with the power of speech. Kingship requires that we be sensitive to the needs of those we seek to rule. We draw closer to G-d through the portal of Malchut. Tehillim (Psalms) 118.20 says………. This is the gate of the L-rd, into which the righteous shall enter. Total commitment to G-d’s Way, to the Torah. It is why the world exists. Avot 3.5 says, Rabbi Nechunia the son of Hakanah would say: One who accepts upon himself the yoke of Torah is exempted from the yoke of government duties and the yoke of worldly cares; but one who casts off the yoke of Torah is saddled with the yoke of government duties and the yoke of worldly cares. – that is real sovereignty. Girgashites do not listen to G-d or the Torah. They rely on the natural mind and are related to our nefesh – our animal soul – They do not believe in what they cannot see.
The Rambam, in dealing with the rectification of one’s character traits in the service of G-d, speaks of the middle path, which seeks to void the extreme manifestation of any particular emotive attribute, and leads to a life of moderation and constant consideration of one’s fellow man. The Hebrew Letters Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh Gal Einai Publications, Jerusalem page 98
Blessings and Peace
Rebbetzin Revi Belk
