#3 - What happened in the YEAR 2000?

So you may ask , what does this have to do with Gematria? Maybe you were thinking of Y2K that we had nearly nine years ago (and some guys out there were worried as to where they were going to be at the split second the calendar year would turn from 1999 to 2000).

Well, once upon a time, in the YEAR 2000 from Creation, our rabbis tell us that Avraham Avinu, at the age of 52, began his mission of spreading the belief in one G-d in the world. We are told that the 1st 2000 years represented a time of Tohu & Bohu representing concepts of utter emptiness, and the world lived solely on Hashem's gracious kindness, and while there were individual righteous people like Adam, Noach, etc., and they even learned Torah, there was no one who really went out of their way to show everyone the right path when almost everyone else who worshipping idols and all. While the Torah was not officially given yet, Avraham Avinu who learned Torah went out to tell everyone the truth about Hashem which began the next era of 2000 years of Torah learning.

Sounds nice, but where is the Gematria here? Don't have to go far - literally. It's the first letter of the Torah - BEIT - that is one of the few places in the Sefer Torah that it is spelled as a larger letter. While the usual numerical value of Beit is 2, if a letter as part of a number is put in front of the rest of the number-word, it becomes a unit of thousands. For example, this Hebrew year 5769. Usually, you will see people spell it at Tav Shin Samech Teit which is literally 769, so you wonder how it is 5,769. In reality, if a Hei is placed in front of it, while it's usual numerical value is 5, in this case is becomes 5,000. So the correct way of spelling the year is Hei - some put an apostraphe to indicate it's a unit of thousands - Tav Shin Samech Teit. Thus, the big Beit here is the Beit with the apostraphe which make it 2,000 (it still retains it's value here as 2, but the Torah has more than one way of indicating something in the same context). Now, as Rashi points out, the first word Bereishit can be spelled as two words so to speak - B'shvil - for the same of...Reishit - first. Both the Torah & B'nei Yisrael-our nation are called firsts. Thus, it was only when Avraham in Year 2000 from Creation started his holy mission did the Torah and Avraham as the ancestor of the Jewish nation have meaning for which purpose the world was created to begin with; while the 1st 2000 years were mere preparation, but the world had no purpose of its own during that time, and the few righteous individuals did little more than have their daily routine in their comfort zone but were not in the world at LARGE. The LARGE BEIT thus teaches us this as Beit or Bayit means home, and in the Jewish Year 2000, which is Beit with an apostraphe, the world started serving its purpose of being a home of Hashem's presence to be felt by the world at large.

Now a word on where Avraham is hinted to in creation. After going thru the first week of Creation, it then goes into detail about the creation of mankind. "These are the generations/happenings of heaven & earth when he created them" "When he created them" means B'Hibar'am. The Midrash tells us that the letters in this world when rearranged can be read as B'Avraham - B'shvil Avraham - for the sake of Avraham, that is, the world only had purpose in being created to begin with only because Avraham fulfilled the ultimate mission for which the world was created for. It's also interesting to note that in this word, the letter Hei is spelled small. This is hinting to Avraham's name whose name was originally Avram, but eventually had a Hei added to his name.

You see, we learn something BIG from a BIG letter- something which seems to be a small matter, but speaking volumes. We must not sit back and just be a "nice Jewish boy". The greatest Mitzva-Commandment is learning Torah. But the greatest part of this Mitzva is teaching Torah 2 others. Sometime it starts off with teaching just one other Jew, now involving two Jews in doing what the world was created for. In the due course of time, it becomes a thousand times more - 2,000 and more. For me, while it may seem easy to type something here from my own home, it's still far easier for me to learn Torah on my own without ever reaching out to another Jew - while I'm still fulfilling the greatest Mitzva of the Torah, in which EACH word of Torah is a BIGGER Mitzva than all the other Mitzvot of the Torah! It means a greater part of the eternity reward - forever! Then certainly, teaching Torah to others - not only by word of mouth which is certainly very effective, but it can also be done by writing Torah - reminiscent of the last Mitzva of the Torah to write a Sefer Torah, which today is fulfilled by most by acquiring Holy Books and learning Torah, is all the much greater. And even if you don't know that much Torah, there are many ways of reaching out to other Jews leading them to the Torah way - inviting them to Shabbos meals, introducing them to a Torah class in person or thru the internet, showing in public how to be a proud Jew, etc. Indeed, while the internet has been used for all kinds of terrible things, when used the right way- it can be a tremendous Bracha-blessing, for which purpose the internet was revealed in this world in recent times for preparing the world for the upcoming greatest spiritually which we will - with Hashem's help - soon experience with Moshiach's coming which we hope for in any day now, as we are supposed to believe.

So is there any connection in Creation particularly to the (in)famous year of 2000 that was once affectionately termed Y2K? Also, how do we see the connection between the horrible event of 9/11 and the events that took place shortly before the Exodus from Egypt? And how do we see in the very verse of Yishmael - the ancestor of the Arabs - having his Bris Mila, in this week's Parsha Lech Lecha, having a connection with Gush Katif being handed over to his descendants? Be sure to come back here soon - the hints in the Torah to these matters will shock you!

P.S. It may come with a followup special blog edition concerning Obama, nation Yishmael's ultimate "Pere Adam" nightmare, hinted with the year(s) of his...we don't want to say everything yet, but more importantly, what you can do about this!

Motzaei Shabbat Lech Lecha/4 Cheshvan, 5769