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Question 11.9.13:
Symbols: What is the significance of the number 9?

There's not much on the number '9'. Nine is 10 sefiros minus malkhus -- the lowest, which is in a way more inherent in the connections between the other sefiros than as a sefirah itself. Or, minus keser which is beyond the other 9, being "really" the malkhus of the 10 sefiros on the plane above. Kabbalists understand the length of the "9 days" as being about the exile of the Shechinah, which was the source of the physical exile that the tragedies comemmorated began. And since the Shechinah is the sefirah of malkhus, we get 10 minus 1. Lastly, in the song at the end of the seider, it's the months until a baby is born.

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