Shemot: Chapter 11

"Seventy souls"

Synopsis

In reference to "Seventy souls," Rabbi Chiya asks Rabbi Shimon to explain the significance of the number seventy, and why the Torah first enumerates the sons of Jacob as twelve, and then as seventy. Rabbi Shimon's explanation is that seventy corresponds to the seventy nations of the world, and the nation of Israel was equal to all of them. Furthermore, we learn that just as the world cannot exist without the four winds, the other nations of the world cannot exist without Israel, as the twelve tribes illuminate the seventy nations.

Relevance

As the heart furnishes blood to all the organs of the body, Yisrael furnishes spiritual energy to all the nations of the world. This nourishment can only take place through the spiritual secrets of the Torah - the sacred Zohar - which arouses the soul of a man, connecting the soul to the Tree of Life, the source of all joy, wisdom and peace. When there is a deficiency of Light in our world, darkness becomes a naturally occurring phenomenon. Yisrael creates the Light for the seventy Nations through the Central Column - which is the free will to RESIST all reactive and self-serving impulses in favor of receiving the treasures of this world for the sake of sharing with others. Each of us is a child of Yisrael. Each time we resist our reactive desires, we nurture the souls of our fellow man with sweetness and Light. Hatred is then banished from the human heart.

Reading these verses nourishes all nations and all mankind with spiritual sustenance. Global conflicts peacefully end and hatred is abolished forever from the human heart.