Israel’s Mysterious 7 Watershed Moments

G-d works in mysterious ways, but occasionally He reveals Himself to us to impart His holiness and perfection to the world.

As we know, seven represents the miraculous days of G-d’s creation of the heavens and earth and his rest on the holy seventh day of Shabbat. Additionally, in Kabbalah, seven represents the number of lower sephirot, which are the divine manifestations or emanations of G-d present in this world.

We shall see that many of Israel’s watershed moments have happened over many decades in years ending in the number seven (7)—many in both the English and Hebrew calendars.

1897 (5657)—The First Zionist Conference is held by Theodor Herzl (its founder and first president) in Basel, Switzerland, representing the birth of Zionism itself, and with it the restoration of the Jewish people by G-d to their sovereign homeland in Israel.

20 years later…

1917 (5678)—The Balfour Declaration by the British government is issued, announcing its support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine.

20 years later…

1937 (5697)—The Peel Commission, a British Royal Commission on Palestine, reported for the first time that the League of Nations Mandate was unworkable and recommended partition of Palestine to include the establishment of a Jewish State “with protection of all legitimate Jewish and other minority rights.”

10 years later…

1947 (5708)—The United Nations miraculously decided in Resolution 181 to partition Palestine into two states, and, for the first time in almost 2,000 years, permitted the reestablishment of a Jewish State, which led to Israel’s Declaration of Independence by its national founder and first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, in 1948.

20 years later…

1967 (5727)—The Six Day War was decisively won by Israel against the Arabs, resulting in a tripling of Israel’s size, including the capture of the holy city of Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, and the Sinai Peninsula.

10 years later…

1977 (5737)—Menachem Begin, the founder of the Likud, becomes the sixth prime minister of Israel, ending 30 years of rule by the Labor party. And in the same year, he agrees to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem to address the Knesset, which led sixteen months later, in 1979, to a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt (the largest Arab country in the Middle East) and subsequently to peace in 1994 with Jordan.

30 years later…

2007 (5767)—Continuing the Begin Doctrine of preemption against existential threats to the Jewish state, the IDF bombed the Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007, and in 2018, Israel said that the strike should be a warning to Iran not to threaten Israel with nuclear weapons.

10 years later…

2017 (5778)—Israel marks 70 years of independence, and U.S. President Donald Trump recognizes the City of David, Jerusalem, as Israel’s eternal capital, which led a few years later to the signing of the Abraham Accords, including recognition of the sovereignty of Israel and peace agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan.

Can you imagine what incredibly wonderful things could happen in Israel by 2027 and beyond?

Seven is truly a mystical and holy number in Judaism. It is deeply rooted in critical moments in the establishment and history of the modern State of Israel. The seven days of the week are a testament to G-d’s creation of the universe in six days and subsequent rest on the seventh. We reaffirm G-d’s intimacy with us and the world when we keep the Shabbat each week. And G-d reaffirms his presence in this world in the manifestation of the number seven in the redemption of the Jewish people and our return as G-d’s holy people to the land of Israel.