Tefillin, Patriarchs, and the Nine Days

 

Pannullo, Tommie Spain

Over the past couple of years, I've internalized the sequence of the seven patriarchs associated with the seven lower sefirot - Avraham/Chesed, Yitzchok/Gevurah, Yaakov/Tiferet, Moshe/Netzach, Aharon/Hod, Yosef/Yesod, and David/Malchut - and I tend to think of them whenever a sequence of seven comes up, for example, in the Amidah. *

Over the past couple of years, I've internalized the sequence of the seven patriarchs associated with the seven lower sefirot - Avraham/Chesed, Yitzchok/Gevurah, Yaakov/Tiferet, Moshe/Netzach, Aharon/Hod, Yosef/Yesod, and David/Malchut - and I tend to think of them whenever a sequence of seven comes up, for example, in the Amidah. *

Since I've become Jewish and started wrapping tefillin, I have silently in my mind gone through the list of patriarchs as I wrap seven times around my arm, a name with each wrapping, as a way of counting but in a more mindful and spiritually resonant way.

Today, as I did so, the signficant losses each patriarch experienced loomed large in my mind- Avraham losing Hagar, Yishmael, almost sacrificing Yitzchok, and Sarah; Yitzchok almost being sacrificed and experiencing the heartache associated with his sons; Yaakov fleeing his home, losing Leah and Rachel, and being separated from Yosef; Moshe not being able to go into the Promised Land; Aharon losing Nadav and Abihu and not being able to mourn; Yosef being betrayed by his brothers and falsely imprisoned; and David losing Yonatan and Avshalom. (This list is not comprehensive.

And this experience immersed my more deeply in the Nine Days.

* I realize that this is a very masculine association - several proposals have been made to associate matriarchs with the sefirot, but it is not unifor. The one that resonates with me is Tamar - since my Hebrew name is Tomer Yitzchok - and she is associated with Yosef and Yesod - Yosef is the only man in the Torah described as HaTzadik - the Righteous - and Yehudah says that Tamar is tzadkah mimeni - more righteous than I. I think that those wanting to adopt this practice with matriarchs will likely find the practice revealing great insight.