Reply To: Echad Mi Yodea

Halevi – Just to “sweeten” your pshat a little – R’ Avrohom Gurvitz shlit”a in his Hagodda explains that the point of the piyut is to convey an important message to us. There is a famous psychological game about word association, where you say the first thing that comes into your head when you say a certain word. Different people associate different things. When I hear “one”, the first thing I think of is “two”. The paytan is telling us that Yiddishkeit should be first and foremost on our minds, not something secondary. “One” should automatically identify with HKB”H. “Two” should connote the Luchos. Etc. Therefore this is not a list of counts, it is just explaining how the connotations of any number should be how they relate to Yiddishkeit.

Question: What is Yiddishkeit about “nine months of labour” or “seven days of the week”? [I don’t think it refers to Day 7 – Shabbos – as far as I know it means the Seven Week Days!)