#2 - GEMATRIOT of GEMATRIOT

Yes, my friends - you read right. There are indeed two Gematriot to the word Gematriot - 669 & 679. And they are both - RIGHT!

(To have a better appreciation of this - please read my first/previous post)

You see, unlike most words in Hebrew, Gematriot can be spelled in two ways: Gimel-3 (Yud-10) Mem-40 Teit-9 Reish-200 Yud-10 Alef-1 Vav-6 Tav-400. The first Yud in parenthesis is the difference between the two spellings - Gematriot equals 669 without the Yud, 679 with the Yud.

As mentioned in my first post, at the end of some Chumashim - there is listed the amount of letters, words, verses, Parshiyot & Parshiyot (for those of you who already read my first post, you know that this is no typo). By each amount, there is a verse quoted from the T'nach (Bible) that is given as a sign to remember the particular number. For the 669 Parshiyot - the verse is "Lo Techsar Kol Bah" "Nothing is lacking in it" in Parshat Ekev (Deutronomy 8:9), the original context refering to ERETZ YISRAEL (LAND OF ISRAEL). The Alef in the word "Lo" and the word "Techsar" equal 669. Interestingly, there is only one other place in T'nach that the phrase "Lo Techsar" is mentioned (Kings I 17:14)- in the story of Eliyahu HaNavi during a famine who promises a woman that her containers of flour and oil "will not be lacking" - and here is the punchline "UNTIL THE DAY THAT HASHEM BRINGS RAIN". Well, as we know, we start saying on the Shmini Atzeres holiday following Sukkot - "Mashiv HaRuach U'Morid HaGeshem" we praise Hashem as being the one who brings down rain. In Israel, we finish reading the Torah on the day that we start praising Hashem for the rain, but outside of Israel, the prayer of rain and finishing the Torah are held on separate days.

Hope you see the connection here - it is ONLY IN ISRAEL where "Lo Techsar - nothing is lacking" WE FINISH READING THE TORAH - which is "Lo Techsar" - nothing is lacking, having all the spiritual nutrients of flour & oil - ON THE DAY THAT WE PRAY FOR RAIN (and Torah is compared to water), unlike outside of Israel where the finishing of the Torah is not done on the day that the prayer for rain is recited!

Now for 679, we are told that this equals the phrase in Parshat Ha'azinu (Deutronomy 32:47) "Ki Lo Davar Reik Hu Mikem" "For there is nothing empty for you" the original context referring to the Torah.

So now, the two phrases hinting to the different Gematriot of the word Gematriot are quite similar - "There is nothing lacking" & "There is nothing empty". Is there a real difference between the two phrases?

Let's start with the second phrase first to get a better understanding. This is the phrase that is equal to the higher number 679 - equalling Gematriot with the Yud in it. As we know, the letter Yud is the smallest letter of the Alef Beis - the Hebrew letters, looking like a mere dot; in a spiritual sense, refering to the simple Yud-Yid, the simple Jew who never had the opportunity of learning the Torah unlike many other fortunate ones. It is the simple Jew who on Simchat Torah can show what being happy with the Torah is really like - because for someone who is learned in Torah, it should be obvious why he is happy. But the fact that a Jew who doesn't know much about its contents is yet happy about it shows the true essence of a Jew and the truth of the Torah which is felt by even the unlearned. In fact, it is this very type of Jew that can influence others to be closer to Yiddishkeit - the beauty of Judaism, in a way that sometimes even a big Torah scholar may not be able to. Very significantly, the Yud is the first letter of Hashem's main name that we are not allowed to pronounce. It is no wonder why if even one letter in the Sefer Torah is missing or defective - the Holy Torah Scroll is invalid to read from, and is considered Kosher once again only once the letter is corrected.

It is worthwhile to note that one of the reasons why so many of today's unlearned Jews have an indifference to Judaism at best is because of the negative protrayal of the Judaism that had been painted for them when they were young. Being in temple only on the High Holidays when everything is serious (the Bar Mitzva in the temple was more of a Bar than a Mitzva), being allowed inside only when presenting their paid ticket, seeing a bunch of old people praying to whom they didn't feel they could connect to; and then the rest of the year hearing their parents talking about their Holocaust days wondering where G-d was even as they escaped from the hellish death camp; thus, all this leaving nothing but bad memories of what they perceive Judaism to be. I know of a rabbi who told the High Holiday crowd attending his synagogue that rather than them coming on these holy days, he would rather see them on Simchat Torah - to see how happy a Jew can really be with his Judaism.

Bottom line - not one letter in the Torah is empty - being without a purpose - every letter - every Jew - has a contribution to make to teach a lesson, to offer something constructive to the table. And even if it seems that a word of the Torah is missing a letter, but this is how Hashem has it spelled in the Torah - as signified in the word Gematriot without the Yud - " it is not lacking" - this too is for a reason, as we see a number of words in the Torah when spelled without certain letters that are normally spelled with - this is to teach a lesson or signify something when we notice something "missing" unlike if it were spelled with the usual full spelling without noticing anything special.

NEXT TIME: What happened in the year 2000?

28 Tishrei, 5769

#1 - Gematriot start IN THE BEGINNING with Simchat Torah

Shana Tova!

Well, it's not Rosh Hashana, at least in the usual sense. But it is the Rosh Hashana - the New Year of the Torah reading cycle - starting IN THE BEGINNING from Bereishit. Just today (in Israel, where we keep just one day of the Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah holiday) I had the great fortune of being the Chatan Bereishit - having the Aliya of the first portion of the Torah, something I had once many years ago. So, I feel it's a new beginning for me, and so may it be for all of you!

Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik ZT'L writes that the importance of Siyum HaTorah (celebrating the completion of Torah learning) on Simchat Torah is NOT because we are finishing the Torah with V'Zot HaBeracha - but because we are starting a new cycle of the Torah with Bereishit. Thus, it's a special time to start on the right foot (and we begin reading the Torah anew from the RIGHT side of the scroll!) with Chiddushei Torah - new insights in Torah learning - which we are told by our holy rabbis to write down for others to make a positive influence on their lives.

For many years, I have come up with many Gematriot - the numerical value of given letters, words, etc. with some Torah insights; and in the last few years, with discoveries in the Hidden Codes of the Torah as well. But last night on Simchat Torah, learning the Shulchan Aruch - the Code of Jewish Law - on Simchat Torah, I came up with something that seems to be so simple, yet so strikingly amazing, that I never noticed before!

You see, the number of the chapter on the "Order of Simchat Torah Day" in the Shulchan Aruch Orach Chayim which deals with Halacha - Jewish Law in everyday life, including the Shabbat and Jewish Holidays is Number 669. Now, you will notice at the end of some Chumashim (the Five Books of Moses that we sometimes call the Torah) where it mentions the number of letters, words, verses, Parshiyot (portions-similar to the Hebrew word), and Parshiyot. It's no typo - there are two contexts of Parshiyot. You see, the Parshiyot that's normally talked about are the particular portion(s) that we read for a specific Shabbat. However, in the more technical sense, a Parsha/portion of the Torah is how it appears in the Sefer Torah (Torah scroll) that we read from. As Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses) wrote it down as dictated by Hashem (G-d), spaces are left between one portion and another Some have longer spaces while others have shorter spaces. If the Torah is not written with spaces in between the portions as they are supposed to appear in the Sefer Torah - it is NOT a kosher Sefer Torah! Now with this being said, the total number of such Parshiyot in the Sefer Torah are 669, the very number of the chapter - Chapter 669 - in the main book of Jewish Law - Shulchan Aruch, that deals with the laws of the Simchat Torah holiday when we finish reading the Sefer Torah!

The Commentary of the Ba'al HaTurim on the Chumash which gives all kinds of Gematria hints and comparisons of verses with the same wording, ends off his commentary on the Chumash with the mention of 669 portions of the Torah having the Gematria of the word - Gematriot! Isn't the Torah trying to tell us that the whole makeup of the Torah has to do with numbers?!

Now for some out there who aren't all that much into this kind of thing, and are basically only interested in the Talmud & Jewish Law, that's fine. Indeed, it is most important to know what the Jewish Law is to be a good Jew and serve Hashem. But it has to be admitted that these type of Gematria discoveries have brought many closer to the Torah - especially proving that indeed the Torah is none other than from Hashem himself - and not a man made book. In fact, the Rambam - Maimonides tells us that a Jew who does not believe that the Torah is from Hashem as opposed to being man-made (Moshe just wrote down what Hashem told him to write) does not have a share in the world to come. The well known Aish HaTorah organization & learning centers worldwide http://www.aish.com/ has these Discovery lectures that reveal some of this type of information including Gematriot & Hidden Codes that show that it is Hashem Who is speaking to us, not some man-made religion.

Now, for those who are quite keen with the Gematria scene may tell me that they know the word Gematriot to equal a different number: 679. So, who is saying the right thing here?

Stay tuned for an explanation in our next post...

MOTZAEI SIMCHATORAH/23 Tishrei 5769

P.S. The time that is shown for this post is 4:07 PM. As this is the FIRST post, the last word of the FIRST chapter of Psalms is Toeveid, which is the Gematria of
407. Moreover, the word Oht/Letter, which is the basis of the concept of Gematriot, is also the Gematria of 407.