Six, Twelve, and Thirteen

Why does the Torah specify the showbreads must be aligned with two rows of six, forming twelve?

The answer explains the physical meaning of both 6 and 12 – and, by simple addition, the spiritual power of adding one more to achieve 7 and 13, respectively.

Here’s the verse:

And thou shalt bake of it twelve cakes: … And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the Lord.

What do these numbers signify?

The answers are found in the Torah – in the ways those numbers are used elsewhere.

The number 6 is first found in creation – it is what happens when man works a full week (taking the 7^th day off). 6 represents the most any one person can make by themselves. Thus, Noach was 600 years old when the flood started – he first did all he could. Isaac was 60 years old (in the Torah, the decimal place is less important than the cardinal number) when he fathered children. Leah’s full set of sons numbered 6. All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, who came out of his loins … all the souls were sixty six. The people leaving Egypt are numbered at 600,000 – they had, in population, fully developed in Egypt. Even Pharoah’s chariots are numbered at 600 – the full achievement of an industrious nation.

The number 6 is even a pun! It is the same word (sheish) spelling “linen.” And linen, in the ancient world, was the most refined and exalted product that could be made from plants, the result of a very significant investment of human labor. Linen is first mentioned in the Torah when Pharoah dresses the newly-promoted Joseph. Joseph was being made responsible for the sum of all creative power of Egypt, the richest land in the ancient world. Joseph, dressed in “6”, was the embodiment of maximum human labor.

Which means that the showbread’s rows of six represented man’s full effort (bread required more human labor than any other foodstuff of the age).

Leading us to the number 12: If 6 is the number of a week, a person’s full creative potential, then 12 represents the sum of a person’s lifetime. How do we know that? Because G-d says so:

G-d said, “My spirit shall not abide in humankind forever, since it too is flesh; let the days allowed them be one hundred and twenty years.”

And from then on, the number 12 is the number of mankind’s full creative potential. Hence Ishmael has 12 sons and nations – generations before Jacob achieves the same output, creating the 12 tribes of Israel. Sarah, Aharon and Moshe all have “12” in their lifespans, having achieved all that was possible for them to do, creating the foundation stones for all who followed them.

Even the courtyard of the tabernacle contains “12” – the courtyard was 100 in length, with 20 columns. That curtain was the dividing line between man’s realm and the divine presence.

Why does this matter? Because both 6 and 12, representing the fullness of what man can achieve, are symbolically powerful because they are one number short: they represent the physical sum of our world. But in the Torah, the numbers 7 and 13 are our world when G-d is added to what we can achieve without Him.

Hence 7 is the number of Shabbos – the spiritual capper to a physical week. I wrote on 7 here. 7 is our world with G-d included!

And 13 is very much the same idea. I explain it here, but in summary: 13 is the age at which Ishmael is introduced to G-d by being circumcised. We offer 13 bulls on the festival, Sukkot, when the people are closer to G-d than any other. 13 is the number of the Attributes of Mercy (Ex. 34:6-7) we invoke as individuals and as a nation in order to welcome G-d’s presence. Jealousy (the word kaneh) for the relationship between man and G-d is mentioned precisely 13 times in the Torah. Which is quite interesting, because the word for jealousy, kaneh, is used to describe a husband’s jealousy of his wife (the sotah ceremony) precisely 13 times as well! Jealousy is intrinsically linked to love, ahava (whose numerical value is … 13!) Not surprisingly the word for “kiss” in the Torah, nesheq is also found precisely 13 times in the Torah!

A nation that is loved by G-d is a nation characterized by the number 13. Love itself, of course, is also an intangible (but invaluable) addition to the physical and mundane creations signified by the number 12.

All of these, of course, contain solid symbolic meaning, helping us to understand the initial question: the showbread was arranged in rows of 6 to signify the most we can do in a week – and 12 to represent the sum of our individual or national potential within our lifetimes. And then… we offer them to G-d, inviting G-d’s presence to bring us to the full complement of 13.

[creativejudaism.org. email iwe@religiousliberalism.org to receive by email]