אליגוריות החוקים, ספר א ד׳Allegorical Interpretation of Genesis, Book I 4
א׳
1[8] Nature takes delight in the number seven. Thus there are seven planets, the counterpoise to the uniform movement of the fixed stars. It is in seven stars that the bear reaches completeness, and gives rise not to commerce only but to fellowship and unity among men. The changes of the moon, again, occur by sevens: this is the luminary most sympathetic to earthly matters. And such changes as Nature produces in the atmosphere, she effects mainly by the influence of figures dominated by seven.
ב׳
2[9] Indeed, all that concerns us mortals has a divine origin drawn from heaven and is for our weal when its movement is ruled by seven. Who does not know that seven months’ infants come to the birth, while those that have taken a longer time, remaining in the womb eight months, are as a rule still-born?
ג׳
3[10] And they say that man becomes a reasoning being during his first seven years, by which time he is already capable of expressing ordinary nouns and verbs through having acquired the reasoning faculty; and that during his second period of seven years he reaches complete consummation; consummation meaning the power of reproducing his like; for at about the age of fourteen we are able to beget offspring like ourselves. The third period of seven years, again, is the end of growth, for till the age of twenty-one years men increase in height, and by many this time is called his prime.
ד׳
4[11] Furthermore the unreasoning side of the soul consists of seven parts, five senses, and the organ of speech, and the genital organ.
ה׳
5[12] The body again has seven movements, six mechanical, the seventh circular. Seven also are the internal organs, stomach, heart, spleen, liver, lung, two kidneys. Of equal number in like number are the divisions of the body—head, neck, breast, hands, belly, abdomen, feet. And the face, the living creature’s noblest part, is pierced by seven apertures, by two eyes, and two ears, as many nostrils, and the mouth, which make up seven.
ו׳
6[13] The excrements are seven—tears, mucus, spittle, seed, superfluities discharged by two ducts, and the sweat that oozes from all over the body. Once again in diseases the seventh is the most critical day. And the monthly purgings of women extend to seven days.