Her House of Seven Pillars
Prv. 9:1
Who is she who built her house carved on seven pillars?
When the British soldier and author T. H. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, wrote his memoir about life in the Arabian lands of revolt against the Ottoman Empire he named it The Seven Pillars of Wisdom - though it had little to do with the Book of Proverbs.
Lawrence may have referred to the famous rock formation by that name near where he lived in what is today’s Kingdom of Jordan.
The seven pillars of wisdom have intrigued readers and commentators for generations.
What is this detail about and what more does this tell us about the secret of this hidden goddess and her gifts to the world?
Chapter 9 begins with this inscription, as if one walks up a majestic staircase to enter her home - a temple or palace with imposing columns:
חׇ֭כְמוֹת בָּנְתָ֣ה בֵיתָ֑הּ חָצְבָ֖ה עַמּוּדֶ֣יהָ שִׁבְעָֽה׃
Wisdom has built her house,
She has hewn her seven pillars.
Prv. 9:1
Seven is a sacred number in the biblical tradition.
Some readers, such as the medieval Rashi, imagined this to be a metaphor of the seven days of creation -- Wisdom is the one who designed the Palace of Time.
Others literally imagined seven core principles - the energy centers of the wisdom tradition. The 14th Century Italian scholar Rabbi David Kimchi known as RADAK counted them:
law (din), truth (emet), peace (shalom), piety (chesed), judgment (mishpat), righteousness (tzedek), and discernment (t’vunah).
The 19th Century Hasidic master, R. Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter also known as Sfat Emet, imagined these seven ideas to be a combination of both time and inner insight:
“The seven noble traits of the human are the foundations through which holiness is drawn. When all traits are directed towards the inner divine light, they connect to the idea of the Sabbath, testifying that God created and sustains everything. This requires the Children of Israel’s actions to be done with mindfulness and connection to the inner life force. “
Sfat Emet
The Sfat Emet is known for the title of his famous book, which is based on his last public discourse, which ended with a quote from Proverbs 12:19, "sefat emet tikon la'ad” - "the lips of truth shall be established forever."
His mystical commentary here combines the notion that the house of seven pillars is the list of human qualities we each are born with and need to nourish and cultivate - as well as the gift we all got and need to take care of - the sacred Sabbath.
The wisdom of time-out each week and the elevation of each Saturday from ordinary work day status is one of the hallmarks of this entity known as Chochma - the wisdom to let go of working and getting back to being - human first, labor second.
There is something compelling about this image of a house of seven wisdom pillars at the core of our being. This also brings to mind the seven chakra system that migrated from the far east to become very familiar and useful to many of us.
While the rest of this chapter keeps warning us to look away from temptation, wisdom’s other sister, and focus on faith and wisdom, we are aware that we keep losing our way on the path to her home of the seven pillars, getting stuck with shortsighted temptation and vices that distract us from the seven-fold path of life, love and light.
Wisdom and Folly keep competing for our attention in this chapter and throughout life.
Who will choose the path of wisdom and which of us will be lured toward the other side? We see today, with terror, how entire nations can be swayed.
Either way, there is a house, with seven pillars, waiting for us to heed her call, to step through the threshold and to take on the path of sabbath spirit, all week long, to help build a more just and sacred world for all of us.
She who built this palace of time is also the Sabbath Queen.
She calls out to us:
Let go, wisely. Wise up. Welcome to wisdom.
Image: 19th Century Icon - Wisdom upon Her Seven Pillars
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Thank you for sharing those old commentaries, Amichai, which I would never have been aware of without you. It is interesting that these verses served as a springboard for the commentators to summarise Jewish ethics as a framework, rather than a list. When I say "list", I am mostly thinking of the 40+ Middot which form the backbone of Mussar. In fact, the seven traits which RADAK sets out are very close to what Friends (Quakers) call their "testimonies", although Friends never felt compelled to make sure that theirs added up to seven: Simplicity, Peace, Integrity and Equality. See also here: https://quakers-in-ireland.ie/the-quaker-testimonies/