6-7, Love, And Gematria — Devi Stern

Today’s episode is the first part of a two-part Shabbat Replay of our service on February 13th — Erev Valentine’s Day. What is the hidden meaning behind 2/13? Or 6-7? Builder Devi Stern shared her expertise in gematria (Jewish numerology) to provide some insight.

There is also a hidden meaning behind the numbers 3/2: it’s the date of our Purim Spiel! On March 2nd, we hope you will join us for our annual Purim Party. Register at the link below.

https://www.mishkanchicago.org/event/adult-purim-2026/

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Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, produced, and performed by Kalman Strauss.

Transcript

Transcript

A Mystical interpretation of the Six/Seven craze as an omen of hope

The 6/7 phenomenon has been going on for several months now.  kids would cup their hands in front of their chests and move them up and down,  as if they were  balancing  a libra-like pan scale, and repeat 6/7 over and over.


6/7started showing up for me constantly to the point where I had to pay attention. I quickly realized that it could be interpreted as an eerily accurate representation of the state of the world today and a message of healing.

The mystical nature of 6/7 provides the key.

Many of us are experiencing the current state of the world as chaotic and dark. The biblical story of creation, as described in the book of Genesis, also begins with a time of chaos and darkness. With “let there be light”, the story of creation begins, and for the next six days the world comes into being. The seventh day is the day of rest and integration, called the Sabbath.
Giving, working, creating are all outwardly directed forces and are  thus considered masculine, yang in Eastern traditions. The receptive energy of Shabbat , balances the six days, and is considered feminine, the Eastern concept of yin. Giving and receiving,  both masculine and feminine qualities, are present in all of us regardless of gender, and can represent all the opposite qualities we possess.

Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition, provides an answer to 6/7…
In Hebrew, the language of Kabbalah, letters have numerical values based on their position in the alphabet. So Let’s start at the very beginning with the letter Aleph( א ), which, because of  its position represents  the number 1.
It is said that the Aleph asked God to be the first letter of the Torah. To its dismay, God said no…and began the Torah with Bet, 2, and the word breishit..in the beginning. The interpretation of this is that the Torah, and thus Kabbalah, is at its essense all about relationship.
In fact, although you might think that the most common word in the Torah is one of the many names of God, it is in fact the word vuh, which means AND. The Torah is all about relationship, connection.
Which brings us to fascinating discovery.
In kabbalah, Words have numerical values based on adding the values of their individual letters. This is called Gematria. Words that have the same gematria are  thought to be related, sometimes in mysterious ways.  When 6 representing the masculine and 7 representing the feminine come together in balance, they add to 13. 13 is the gematria of the word אהבה, AHAVA, which means LOVE. The more we can hold our opposities in balance, the more LOVE we create. 13 is also the gematria of the Hebrew word for one,  אחד, echad. The more balanced our opposites, the more whole we become.

The conflicts  in the world right now can be seen as  6/7’s…opposites pitted against each other, us against them, whoever “they” may be. I think of this conflict as the labor pains birthing a new world order, as unsustainable institutions fall apart, and the divisions between people, based on religion, property, land, power, whatever!…seem insurmountable.

Yet, there is  another important message the kids have been demonstrating and the solution also lies in their hands.
When a 13 of LOVE meets another 13 of LOVE, their connection creates 26. 26 is the Gematria of יהוה/ YHVH,  a name of God referred to as YAHWEH which we pronounce as Adonai because it is considered to be so holy that the pronunciation is unknown.

This idea actually underlies  our most important affirmation….the words of the Shema.
I was sitting in services many years ago thinking about the significance of 26 and thought..I wonder how many letters there are in the Shema.
I started counting…there were 25!
But then I started counting again, stopping at the 13th letter, counting forward from Shema and backward from Echad.
The 13th letter in both directions is the letter alephא
..1
Why is this significant?
Mystically the aleph א is made up
Of an upper letter yud י
An upside down letter yud י
And the two yuds, representing heaven the Kaddish Baruch hu( Divine masculine) and the earth Shechina(Divine feminine) are separated and connected by a diagonal vav…the word AND!
(The gematria of these three letters
Yud  10
yud   10
Vav.    6
Adds to 26!)
With the letter aleph, the words of the Shema create an infinity sign of love….
13+13=26
26=1

the mystery of the Shema is that heaven and earth are ONE and our intention is to be united with them.

So if you run across a child doing the 6/7 shtick, show them it’s time for the fingers holding the 6/7  scales to come together, and demonstrate moving the fingers together in a heart shape of love.
13=Love=oneness, and when a 13 of love joins another 13 of love, 26=1 YHVH

We are all  connected…. we are all ONE. May we live to see the birth of this new era of peace, connection, and love.

As a final note..we are about to sing lecha dodi, the mystical poem which welcomes the Shabbat as the beloved, the divine feminine returned to unite with the kadosh baruch hu.  Just before Lecha dodi we have another example of 6/7. Ana bekoach…Seven lines, six letters per line… the first letters of each word spelling out the 42 letter name of God, also unpronouncable.

And the kids thought they made up some nonsense.
Far from it!!!

Shabbat shalom and
happy
2-13-26