Chanukah Day 7
Tonight we light Seven!
Seven is the number of completeness and perfection (both physical and spiritual). We see that in many places, most prominently in the seven days that it took to finish Creation, just as it takes seven days to fill the week. The seventh day marks completion, and is set apart as holy.
The Hebrew term for “completeness” of “wholeness” is shlemut. Like a menorah in the early days of Chanukah, when some of the candles have not yet been lit, there are aspects of our own inner light that are not yet shalem. The inner lights that are not yet burning as brightly as they could define our personal spiritual curriculum. Filling out the inner light by improving our middot, our soul-traits, describes the Mussar path to wholeness.
The word shlemut shares a Hebrew root with the word shalom (peace). Only wholeness delivers peace, and the same is true for a family, a community and a nation.
