The number “seven” represents the time to create the world, the cycle of seven years to the land’s fallow year, and at other places in the Torah, the period of mourning, or shaming, or healing. Each of these things is compared, by the use of the same number, to the creation of the world.
It has meaning in the negative sense as well: G-d threatens to take “sevenfold” revenge on anyone who kills Cain; Isn’t G-d telling mankind that to take another life is like destroying the world?
A Jewish servant works for seven years, and then he is allowed to lock in the rest of his life – he is now allowed to commit himself, to make himself a perpetual servant.
Similarly, when Jacob bows seven times to his brother Esau when they reconcile, those seven bows (coupled with the presents, the repeated statement that Jacob is Esau’s servant and that Esau is “my lord”) can be understand as Jacob giving back the blessings that he had stolen. Jacob is making full restitution for wronging Esau in the first place. Jacob creates a new reality, and uses “seven” to do it.
So if “seven” represents the myriad forms of creation, then what does the addition of another seven mean?
Pharoah’s dream had 7 corns on one stalk, mirroring the menorah with 7 branches on one stalk.
Might all of the above tell us that the first seven might be for the physical realm, and the second seven would be for the spiritual realm? Egypt representing the physical, and Israel representing the spiritual?
Similarly, the tahor animals, capable of spiritual elevation (and thus are kosher) were saved from the Flood, by “seven and seven.”
If so, does “seven sevens” represent the fullest potential in every sense? Could this be why Jacob worked for 7 years for Leah, and then 7 more for Rachel – to achieve his fullest potential?
Couldn’t we also say that the seven years of plenty and famine in Egypt represent a full transformation of both Egypt and Israel?
And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and there shall be unto thee the days of seven sabbaths of years, even forty and nine years. (Lev. 25:8)
Might the “seven sevens” of the Jubilee be connected to the idea of a complete re-setting of the land and people, both physically and spiritually?
“Seven and seven” (in this case, multiplied) is also the number of days between leaving Egypt and the events at Mount Sinai.
Consider the context: After centuries of what could best be described as divine neglect, the Jews found themselves thrust into a crash course on how to be close to G-d, to receive the Torah. We relive this experience between Passover and the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) every year, as we count seven sevens from the time of the Exodus until the time the Torah was given. Is this not connected to all of the other “seven sevens” in the Torah?