Seven Voices

Our Sages expounded that the Torah was given with seven voices.

Source of the Concept

In several places, our Sages taught that the seven instances of the word 'voice' (kol) in Tehillim (Psalms) 29 allude to the seven voices with which the Torah was given. In a later period, the Braisa of 'Masechet Soferim' was revealed, in which our Sages connect these seven voices to the division of the Torah into seven books. Meaning, that the passage "Vayehi Binsoa Ha'aron" (When the Ark journeyed) is considered a book on its own. And if so (that these two verses in the middle of Bamidbar are a "separate book"), then the book of Bamidbar consists of three books, and together with the other four Chumashim they total seven.

In Chassidic Teachings

The Seven Sefiros of Atzilus

The Tzemach Tzedek explains on the verse "I have adjured you, O daughters of Jerusalem... that you not awaken or arouse love until it pleases" that the word "hishbati" (I have adjured) relates to both "sheva" (seven) and "shevuah" (oath). This means that the seven voices are the seven midos (emotional attributes) of Atzilus through which Hashem gave the Torah to Israel and through which He governs the world. And the words "that you not awaken or arouse" etc. allude to the first three (Kesser, Chochmah and Binah) that will be revealed in the future—when there will be a harp of eight strings (meaning that the eighth 'voice' alludes to the revelations of the future era).

The Seven Notes in the Musical Scale

The author of Mishnat Chassidim connects the verse about the Torah "she hewed her seven pillars" with the science of music: Just as the Torah is built of seven books, so is the science of music built of seven levels of voice. From low to high there are only seven levels, and as one goes up from one to seven, they are sounds different from each other, but when one comes to the eighth level, it is of the same essence and shade as the voice in the first, lowest level.

What emerges from his words is that the seven notes of music are not just a "conventional" matter but stem from the laws of nature. This means that the seven degrees in the musical scale derive from the seven Sefiros. This concept is explained in Chassidic teaching, that the seven strings of the Temple harp correspond to the seven Sefiros, and so it is in the Zohar Chadash on the verse "she hewed her seven pillars": "The voices are the secret of which it is written 'she hewed her seven pillars' - and these are the seven days of creation."

The Connection to Grammar and the Seven Winds of the World

The Maharal connects the seven voices of the giving of the Torah to the seven vowel movements in grammar. Just as at the giving of the Torah there was one voice that divided into seven (and so the Torah is divided into seventy languages), so is the breath coming from the heart divided into seven movements of speech.

The Maharal adds that the seven vowels and voices correspond to the definition of space, which has seven sides: the four directions, above, below, and the center.

And Rabbeinu Bachya elaborates on explaining the connection between the form of the vowel points and their location to the seven voices - the seven vowel sounds heard in the articulation of speech. And he connects this to the verse "she hewed her seven pillars" - that the entire Torah was "hewn" from these seven vowels, which are the root of the Torah.

See Also

• Voice
• Five Voices