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Shelomo HaMelekh (King Solomon) famously wrote in Mishle'i 24:16 (Proverbs):

כִּי שֶׁבַע יִפּוֹל צַדִּיק וָקָם וּרְשָׁעִים יִכָּשְׁלוּ בְרָעָה

For a righteous man can fall seven times and rise, but the wicked shall stumble upon evil.

I've looked through Miqra'ot Gedolot, Perush HaGR"A, Perush Rabbe'inu Yonah and Perush HaMaLBI"M and have not seen anyone ask/answer: why seven and not another number?

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Lee
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    כי שבע. וזה כי אם תחשוב לעשות זה לא יעלה בידך כי הצדיק יפול פעמים רבות ויקום בכל פעם ופעם להדבק השגחת הש''י בו אך הרשעים יכשלו ויפלו ברעה אחת לבד: (רלב"ג) - simply measn "a lot" – Danny Schoemann Oct 25 '15 at 09:32
  • @DannySchoemann Why not any other number greater than one (or greater than, say, five if you want to get the point across that it's "a lot")? – Lee Oct 25 '15 at 09:33
  • Poking around here - I'd guess it has something to do with this answer: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/a/512/501: "Seven are the questions to always ask when studying something, according to the Tiferet Yisrael commentary on Avot 2:14" - So even if he gets all 7 wrong, he gets up and tries again. – Danny Schoemann Oct 25 '15 at 09:40
  • @msh210 I can't see what you edited in the body; but, why isn't the "tanakh" tag relevant? – Lee Oct 25 '15 at 13:58
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    @Lee We have so very many questions on books of Tanach that if we tagged them all with that tag then it would be diluted and people wouldn't be able to find questions about Tanach as a whole. – msh210 Oct 25 '15 at 14:00
  • It occurred to me that this might be connected to the Gemara at the end of Berakhot 4B: תנא מיכאל באחת גבריאל בשתים אליהו בארבע ומלאך המות בשמנה ובשעת המגפה באחת. Rav Mansour explains (12th Cycle 3/4/05) that HQB"H normally gives someone many chances. But, in times of strife (as a result of wickedness), HQB"H through Mal'akh HaMawet judges more strictly. Rav Mansour suggests this is alluded to in Qohelet 1:2 in which Shelomo HaMelekh cites the word הבל (vanity) seven times. This still doesn't quite explain the nature of the number seven though. – Lee Oct 26 '15 at 11:08
  • @mevaqesh Where does HaRaMBa"M write that? Is that to say that we're forbidden to ask any questions about Huqim? You make a good point about the lack of commentators suggesting that the answer was obvious. – Lee Nov 01 '15 at 13:53
  • @Lee He writes it in the Moreh. I don't remember offhand where. I don't think this is contradictory to examining Huqim. In the case of the Huqin God did not "have" to give us them, and since he chose to, we can learn from that choice. In the case of wording, however, if he "had" to choose one word, and therefore you cannot necessary he chose one word were to have the same question were he to have chosen the other. – mevaqesh Nov 02 '15 at 04:29
  • Lee, the silence of the commentators could also indicate that the significance of the number 7 was obvious to apply here. Answers about the significance of 7 , even fancy significance of 7, don't have to be "fancy" in terms of how they apply to this verse - as long as they apply in a very straightforward and obvious way to this verse, the universal significance of 7 could be as fancy as you want and it wouldn't contradict the silence of the commentators. cc @mevaqesh – Y     e     z Nov 20 '15 at 17:34
  • If you like an answer, consider marking it correct. – mevaqesh Aug 13 '17 at 17:24

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As noted by @DannySchoemann, Ralbag writes in his commentary to Proverbs (24:16) that in this context, seven simply means many:

הצדיק יפול פעמים רבות ויקום בכל פעם ופעם

The righteous person will fall down many times, and get up every time.

This seems to be the implication of Ibn Ezra (there) as well.

This is also stated by R. Sa'adya Gaon in his commentary to Proverbs there (R. Qafih translation p. 187-8). This is also stated by Rabbenu Netanel Beirav Fayyumi in Bustan al-Ukul (R. Qafih's translation pg. 41.)

In regards to the question:

Why not any other number greater than one (or greater than, say, five if you want to get the point across that it's "a lot")?

The answer seems to be that in the Torah, the number 7 is used to connote 'many', cf. Rav Sa'adya Gaon's translation of Genesis (4:24) (Arabic).

The question then becomes why in Torah (and the rest of Tanakh) the number 7 is used to mean 'a lot'.

The answer to that is presumably what R. Moshe Shamah writes:

In the ancient Near East, dating back to centuries before the Torah, the number seven was considered most prominent, representative of completion and perfection. (Recalling the Covenant p. 1062).

mevaqesh
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In kabbalistic tradition there is an ascent of seven levels, from the sfirah of malchut up to the sfirah of chesed. The idea behind the fall is the attempt on their part to attain the next level. A fall in this context isn't literally a fall, but a realization that they have to rise above the current level. It is called a fall because of mankind's fall due to Adam's sin regarding the fruit of the tree of knowledge.

user11308
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The simplest answer is "seven" is a generic biblical term for "many." See the curses at the end of Leviticus -- "I will give them seven more punishments." Some commentaries try to count out exactly how it makes seven; others simply say it just means "a bunch."

Shalom
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