The Seven Days of Creation

During the first thousand years, from the creation of Adam and Eve until the Flood, according to Kabbalah, everything in this world was immense - Adam lived to be 930 years old, people were taller than trees and animals were gigantic. Everything was immense. After the Flood, G-d said, from now on, hundred and twenty years will be a human life span, everything else was reduced down to what we now call normal size.

So for a thousand years, everything was out of proportion. And that’s because the first day of Creation G-d was exercising the attribute of kindness. The second day of Creation, G-d  exercised the attribute of restraint, or severity.  

The first day of Creation, G-d said, Let there be light, and the light was too much, too intense, and it was withdrawn, and hidden away for the times of Moshiach. Which tells you right away that the attribute that was active or functioning on that first day was the attribute of kindness and kindness in its pure state is indiscriminate, give everything to everyone endlessly. And it’s exactly what happened - too much of a good thing. Kindness is the first of the attributes. So the six days of Creation are really the six attributes, the six emotions. 

Now the first thousand years of history corresponds to the first day of Creation. So, we see in the first thousand years of history, from the year 1 to the year 1000, the same was true. The world was immense, everything was overabundant, and there was no judgment. People did whatever they wanted, and got away with it. 

Now the second day of Creation was the attribute of severity. The attribute of severity is judgment. You don’t get, if you don’t deserve, and nobody deserves. That’s the instinct of judgment - in other words, guilty till proven innocent. On the second day, G-d separated the waters, and the dry earth came to the surface, so there was a separation, some of the water went up, some of the water stayed down - there was a judgment - the second day of Creation. 

The second thousand years was the same attribute. Severity, judgment. And that’s why the second thousand  years was marked, highlighted by the Flood, in other words, the accumulated thousand years of sinning was finally punished, and that’s why it had to be such a severe punishment, because it was such an accumulation of a thousand years of getting away with murder literally, it finally caught up and, and exploded in the Flood. Interesting that the attribute of judgment on the second day of Creation, was also expressed by water, by separating  the water. And here it was by a flood. And maybe that’s why it was a flood - it could have been an earthquake, but it was a flood because the judgment came in water. 

The second event of that millennium was the Tower of Babel, where all people of that time were building to rebel against G-d and G-d divided them - separated them, broke them apart, by giving them each a different language. So that was the judgment of the second thousand years, in the second millennium. 

The third millennium, the third day of Creation, is the third attribute, the attribute of compassion, or beauty. Compassion is a harmony of kindness and severity, and harmony is beauty. It’s also called Truth, because kindness and severity are extremes, and they are mutually exclusive. Truth is everywhere and everything - so that which is in harmony is closer to truth than the extremes. So the third attribute was beauty or truth and on that day, G-d said, Let the earth give forth vegetation - in other words the beauty of the earth, not a barren earth. Or in different words, the earth began to produce fruit. To be fruitful. 

Kindness is the right arm. And severity is the left arm. And beauty is the body, the torso. So on the third day, the attribute of beauty was expressed, and so the world became beautiful. The third millennium was marked by the appearance of Avraham, who served G-d, and the Giving of the Torah, and the fulfillment of mitzvas, which means that the world was beginning to produce its fruits, it was starting to get nice. The beauty and the truth of the world. 

The fourth day of creation is the attribute of netzach  which in English is translated as victory or perseverance. Netzach, in the emotion, is the  maintaining of kindness when the feeling is not there, staying loyal in kindness when the emotion is not there - you were once great friends - you don’t really feel close anymore, but for old time sake…you’re going to be kind, you’re going to continue with the kindness, because it was once there. So it’s like persevering in kindness, or where the kindness is blocked - you want to do something kind, but there are obstacles, so do you let it go or do you persevere in kindness. This attribute called netzach, which is victory or perseverance, but it’s the perseverance of kindness. 

Physiologically, that’s the right leg, which is the support for the right arm, and it’s stronger than the arm, the arm is more talented, more delicate, but leg is stronger. In the same way, the perseverance of kindness is not the same as the feeling of kindness, which is nicer and more delicate and so on, but it is stronger because it will go on when the emotion is no longer there. So it’s almost like real kindness involves love, and netzach means kindness where there is no love, where the love is gone but the kindness remains.  

The fourth day of creation was the perseverance of kindness and so on the fourth day of creation, G-d put the sun, the moon and stars into their orbit. Which is similar to the first day, similar to kindness, light, but not infinite light, not incredible light, pieces of light. The fourth millennium was marked by the sun, which is the First Temple, the moon, which is the Second Temple and the stars, which were the thousands of prophets that roamed the earth at that time. Spots of G-dliness, that was the fourth millennium. 

The fifth day of creation  is the left leg physiologically, and that is the attribute of again victory and glory but this time it’s the victory of severity. It’s when severity perseveres, when you need to be strict, you need to be judging, discriminating, and it’s hard - so do you persevere or do you give up? So if you really need to, to discipline your kid, but you’re in a good mood and you don’t want to ruin it, are you not going to discipline him when he needs to be disciplined, or will you persevere and do it, because it has to be done. That’s the attribute of hod or glory, - this is a lower form of severity, it’s not as refined as judgment itself, it’s just the perseverance, the stubbornness behind judgment. 

The fifth day of Creation, G-d created all the creepy, crawly , nasty little things .The fifth millennium was, marked by the feudal system, petty dictators, an ugly period of time that is what we call the dark ages, where every other guy was a dictator and was enslaving somebody, or was persecuting somebody, or was killing somebody, it was a horrible time. 

The sixth millennium, the sixth day of Creation, was the attribute of yesod, and yesod means foundation. Foundation means simply, the essential commitment, connection, to another person. Before you get to kindness, before you get to severity, before you get to beauty, before you get to anything, there has to be just the fundamental statement that there’s a connection between people, and that’s called yesod, which physiologically are the reproductive organs. The connection that is fundamental even when there is no emotion behind it: the act itself is a very powerful joining and will result in pregnancy, whether you feel like it or not. So it’s a very powerful interaction even when there is no emotion.  

The sixth day of Creation was different than the other days. Because on the sixth day of creation, G-d divided the day.  The first part of the day is the twelve hours of nighttime. The second part of the day is the twelve hours of daylight. So, on Friday, during the night hours, which means Thursday night, G-d created the large animals, the beasts. And during the daylight hours, G-d created man.  

Now Adam was a tzaddik, and tzaddik is called foundation, tzaddik is the foundation of the world. Because the sixth attribute is called foundation, in other words, the fundamental connection between people. So the tzaddik is called foundation, he is the foundation of the world, the fundamental connection which G-d has with His Creation. So that even when G-d is angry with His Creation, He remains loyal because with the tzaddik, He still has a bond.  

The sixth millennium which begins in the year 5001, was marked by two contrasting, opposite events. One, it introduced the greatest beasts in history, while the fifth millennium was the petty dictators,  the real beasts came in the sixth millennium - Genghis Khan, the Inquisition, and Hitler, the real monsters.  

At the same time, in this millennium, the world was introduced to the tzaddik - just like Adam was created a tzaddik, in the sixth millennium, we were introduced to this phenomenon called the tzaddik.  

Now here’s the interesting thing, if you take any given millennium, as a day, which means that a thousand years is a day, twenty four hours,  then a half a day would be five hundred years. So if we say, the first twelve hours of Friday is when the beast were created, and the second twelve hours, the daylight hours, is when Adam was created, so you take the millennium, which begins in the year 5001, and break it into half, so that in the year 5500, that’s when the day began. The dawn of Friday is cosmically the year 5500.  

So the year 5500 is dawn of Friday - the Baal Shem Tov who started the Chassidic movement was born in the year 5550, which means fifty years into the day of Friday - 5550. If you take the daytime, the daylight hours of Friday and break that into half, to get the afternoon, a quarter of a day would be 250 years. So midday on Friday would be the year 5750. When you reach midday on Friday, you can halachally begin your Shabbos . 

So when the Rebbe started saying  “ We want Moshiach now, now is the time for Moshiach, it was because now we can halachally start Shabbos, it does not have to be Friday anymore, it can be Shabbos.  

So when the Baal Shem Tov came along, it was the year 5550, and that’s when the idea of tzaddik was introduced into the world. And that also became the preparation for Moshiach., because that’s what all of Chassidus is - basically a preparation for Moshiach, which is the same as saying preparation for Shabbos, because when Moshiach comes, it will be a permanent Shabbos of sorts. 

That’s the idea of Shabbos, that during the six days of the week things need fixing. So the six days of the week are masculine. They’re time - six days of the week - and time is masculine. Shabbos is not time, it is space. It’s a holy space. Was the world created in six days or seven? We keep saying the world was created in six days.So what is this seventh day, how does it get added on? 

The reason why it is not quite one of the days of the week is because it’s not really time, it’s a space, not a time.  

During the six days of the week we should be fixing things and improving things, mastering , harnessing nature, so for six days, when G-d said, for six days you should work, and on the seventh you should rest, there are two commandments here: that you should work for the six days, and you should not work on Shabbos. So whatever you are meant to do in the six days, that’s what you’re not to do on Shabbos. What are you meant to do in the six days? Fix things, rearrange things, improve things, transform things. So certainly turning on a light and, and getting the electricity…. that’s, that’s transforming. I mean that’s real creative work. Because it was dark, you made it light, it was cold, you made it hot, you’re mastering… 

On Shabbos, G-d says, leave everything alone. It’s fine the way it is. On Shabbos we are content. That’s the bottom line. That’s what Shabbos is all about.  

And so Shabbos means, instead of looking to what you can fix, enjoy what is. If the light is on, enjoy it. If the light is off, enjoy it. The food is cooked, enjoy it. The food is not cooked, enjoy it. Leave it alone. It’s fine. G-d’s world is fine. 

When you leave everything alone, then what happens? Then your soul takes over. One day out of the week, pay attention to your soul, and don’t help Me, G-d says, don’t make the world better, I like it the way it is, for one day of the week, I like the G-dliness that already exists. Pay attention to your soul. 

In terms of the week, Shabbos is our intimate space. So G-d says don’t lug weekday activities into My intimate space. That’s Shabbos. And that’s what Moshiach is. When Moshiach comes, the world will be celebrating its own holiness, not working towards holiness. So that’s why the time of Moshiach is called Shabbos. 

So the seventh day of creation is the seventh attribute, which we haven’t talked about yet, and the seventh attribute is called royalty. Malchus. Now physiologically, malchus is related to speech. It’s not actually a part of the body, it’s speech, and that’s because malchus, royalty means, the influence of your words. The guy who gets to be king, he gets to be king, not because he’s big and strong, but because his words have an effect. 

And that’s not necessarily because he’s smart - because there have been some very stupid kings - but for some reason, he has the attribute called royalty. And that attribute means that his words…when he speaks people listen.. 

So the thing with a king is that his words are effective. And that’s why we refer to G-d as King, because when G-d says, Let there be light, there’s light. That’s the royalty aspect of G-d. The thing with speech is that it’s not a part of the body, it is the expression of the body. It’s what comes out. And that’s what royalty is also. Royalty is the effect you have on others. Not what’s going on inside of you. 

So kindness is what you’re feeling, severity is what you’re feeling - speech is what you’re sharing with the outside, what comes out. So royalty is not a personal thing, royalty is the effect you have on others. So it’s the externalizing of what proceeds it.  

Moshiach is not going to introduce a whole new Torah, or a whole new G-dliness, he is simply going to bring it to the surface. But the G-dliness is what we accomplished in three thousand three hundred years of doing mitzvas, all that accumulated holiness that we’ve planted, the seeds that we’ve planted in the earth, will finally produce their fruit and come out, will finally express itself. Moshiach’s main contribution is that he brings to the surface that which we have been planting for three thousand years.

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