Spiritual Meaning of the Number 17

Question

Genesis 7:11 In the second (Iyar) month, the seventeenth day of the month the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up,and the “windows” of heaven were opened.

Genesis 8:4 And the (Noah’s) ark “rested” in the seventh (Tishrei) month on the seventeenth day of the month upon the mountains of Ararat. In these Torah passages heaven’s windows opened in the month of Iyar (healing time) and the flood mabbul~ Mem~Bet~Vav~Lamed began.

The ark also “rested” in the seventh month [Tishrei “head” of the year ushering in the High Holidays, Rosh Hashanah, the Ten Days of Repentance, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simchat Torah].

Both of these extraordinary events occurred on the seventeenth day of the month. Will you connect the dots for me? Why Iyar seventeen? Why Tishrei seventeen? Does number seventeen have spiritual significance?

Thanks, for all your invaluable insight.

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Answers

  1. The Just Ask! - AskTheRabbi.org Team

    The number seventeen represents the concept of God within nature. How is that?

    The number seven always represents nature: the seven days of the Creation, the seven days of the week etc. The number ten represents spirituality as in ten “sephirot” of how God interacts with us and the world. When the two come to together, this denotes the spiritual power within the natural world.

    Both instances that you cite are new beginnings within nature. The Flood begins on the 17th day of the month because it represents the enormous force of nature and what happens when mankind goes against Hashem. The Ark came to rest on the 17th of the month to show that this is a new beginning within the old natural world.

    Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team