And I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey; to the place of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. (3:8) The seven nations that inhabited the Land of Israel stand in direct opposition to the seven attributes.² For instance, opposite the love of G-d are the Canaanites, who represent the love of other things. Opposite fear of G-d,³” – the fear of Isaac. A reference to G-d, from Genesis 31:42. are the Hittites.⁴ relates to the Hebrew hit, which means “to be terrified.” This is true of them all. And since love should be only for G-d, and for those whom G-d wishes to make beloved, the land is called the “Land of the Canaanites.”⁵ Zos Zicharon, Emor

footnotes: ² I.e., the seven traits that are associated with the seven lower sefirot: Chesed – love, Gevurah – fear, Tiferet – balance, etc. ³ Literally, “pachad Yitzchok ⁴ The word Hittite ⁵ Apparently, the Baal Shem Tov means that the intrinsic nature of the Land of Israel is the love of G-d; thus it is called the Land of Canaan. However, before the Jewish people took possession of the land, this love was distorted into love of other things (materialism, licentiousness, etc.). With the Jewish people’s presence in the land, this trait was uplifted. Rabbi Nathan of Breslov, in Likutey Halachot, Milah 3:5, writes that the seven Canaanite nations that inhabited the Land of Israel correspond to the seven days that a Jewish male child must pass through until his circumcision on the eight day. Cutting off the foreskin, which symbolizes the forces of concealment and animalism, is similar to the defeat of the seven nations, and the uplifting of love to its Divine source.