#45 - THE NINE

Shana Tova - Happy New Year to all my followers and readers!

One year ago on Rosh Hashana, little did I know that a few weeks later, I would begin a Gematriot blogspot. It is a bit ironic for me to say this; because for several years, I had dreamed of having a Gematriot website, and I knew about the concept of blogging for the last few years. However, it was at a split moment's notice as a flash in my mind shortly after the conclusion of Simchat Torah that I decided to combine these two concepts with the immediate thoughts I had in mind starting with the title "Gematriot start IN THE BEGINNING with Simchat Torah".


THE SOURCE OF THE CONCEPT OF GEMATRIOT

Speaking of which, the source in the Chumash that hints to the concept of Gematriot in Torah is found in this very week's Parshat Ha'azinu. As Rabbi Yehuda HaChosid mentions in Sefer Gematriot, that the words Ki Lo Davar Reik Hu Mikem "For it is not an empty thing for you" (Deutronomy 32:47) are the Gematria of the word Gematriot (679). The original context is referring to the words of Torah, and as Rashi comments, there is nothing empty in the Torah that you don't have reward for interpreting it. While I will not get into the whole thing that Rashi is discussing, the point I want to make here is that perhaps on a deeper level, the question that can be asked is why does the Torah have to say that there is nothing empty here? While we may not always understand why something is written in the Torah, but wouldn't we still think that if it is something written in the Torah, then there is a reason for it, no less than we see a work of Creation, even if we don't understand Hashem's reason for creating it?

The ultimate purpose of something that we learn from the Torah is not just some nice Gematriot that add up to prove a point, but that that point should teach us an instruction in our G-d given lives, as indeed that very verse continues "for it is your life, and it is through this thing that you will lengthen your years". Indeed, the very word Torah comes from the word Ho'ra'ah/Instruction, as the Torah is our instruction manual throughout life, which can increase our physical life which will of course grant us additional time to serve Hashem, but most importantly, our spiritual life which is eternal if we take advantage of the time of the physical life that Hashem gave us for this purpose.

This, my friends, is my ultimate motivation for me to continue with my Gematriot blogspot, even if I don't see comments all that often, but I know from other sources on the net that people have liked what I wrote and hopefully will serve as some positive motivation in their lives. After all, this is time consuming, and as one of the workshop instructors mentioned in last week's Jewish Bloggers Convention in Jerusalem, virtually no one makes money from blogging. So, at least in my case, it is ultimately the motivation of helping others want to learn Torah, do more Mitzvot, improve morally or ethically, that is the pay at the end of the day, besides the spiritual rewards for writing words of Torah, and spiritually and emotionally helping other Jews.


YEAR 5770 - "The Nine"

With this being said, I am now on my first post for the year 5770. The Hebrew letters for this year are Hei, Tav, Shin, Ayin. Now, if you were to read this number in Hebrew as a word, it can be read as HaTeisha - THE NINE. Another way of reading this number is placing the Hei from the front to the back of the number which can then be read as Tisha, which is another word for NINE, depending on how the word nine in Hebrew is used grammatically.

Speaking of which, the word Tisha is mentioned only four times in the entire Chumash. The first time in reference to Yom Kippur, where it says that one begins fasting on the "9th of the month" of Tishrei towards evening, hinting to two things - that there is a special Mitzva to eat extra on the day before Yom Kippur - 9 Tishrei, and that we are supposed to set some part of the end of the 9th of Tishrei as the beginning of our fast (though technically, one does not receive the stringent punishment for eating unless it is already the 10th of Tishrei). The next two mentions
of this word is in reference to the numbers of the males from 20 years and up of the tribe of Shimon shortly after the dedication of the Tabernacle as part of its 59,300 such members (interestingly, the month of Av corresponds to the Tribe of Shimon and the letter Teit=9!), and the last such mention is regarding the 5th day of Sukkot when particularly NINE special bulls were sacrificed in the Temple (interestingly, Aharon is the special heavenly guest for the 5th day of Sukkot who passed away on Rosh Chodesh Av, the month which corresponds to the letter Teit=9!).

Now, I attempted to do a little math here. What happens when you divide 9 into 5770? As it turns out, it doesn't exactly divide evenly - the result is 641 with a remainder of 1/9. It seems that the number of the previous year 5769, in fact ending with a 9, AND divides 9 evenly.
Hence, the number 5770 seems to have Chutzpa, so to speak, to declare immediately after the number 5769 that "No, I am THE NINE!" (Don't forget that in fact, ALL languages ultimately are descended from Hebrew). But as we know, it is HASHEM who created everything, and in fact the letters of the Alef Beit are the makeup of the Torah, and nothing is mere "coincidence". Could there be a message here for us?

As we go on here, we will be addressing this question, but first, I would like to point out that it is my 45th post that is called THE NINE. There are in fact two immediate connections here between these two numbers. Well first of all, 45 is evenly divided by 9 which results with the number 5. In fact, when reading the number of this Hebrew year as HaTeisha, the letter Hei is 5 and Teisha means 9, so 5 times 9 is 45. But also, adding the numbers 1 through 9 equals 45.


STARTING FROM ADAM

So, as this is my first post of the Jewish year, Adam is the first of mankind. And indeed, his Hebrew name consisting of the letters Alef, Dalet, Mem is the Gematria of 45. Additionally, the one time in the Chumash that his name is mentioned outside of Parshat Bereishit where his story is mentioned is in Parshat V'Etchanan (Deutronomy 4:32) - "From the day when G-d created Adam on the earth" - the 45th Parsha of the Torah. And if this would not be enough, his wife's name Chava (Eve) consisting of the letters Cheit, Vav, Hei is the Gematria of 19, the number consisting of the first and last of the first NINE numbers which add up to 45! Indeed, it was Adam himself who was chosen by Hashem to do the naming of all the creatures, as he also named himself and his wife. And as we know, Adam and Eve were created on Rosh Hashana.

I am very surprised how especially in the observant (Orthodox) Jewish population, the name Adam is hardly ever used, but the name Chava is given to thousands of girls. It is true that there are many more biblical male names than female names, but the reason this strange phenomenon bothers me is because when my sister was brainstorming on what name to give her newborn son several years ago, she was told by someone from the very religious Jewish community where she was living that the name Adam was not a good choice because Adam was not Jewish, as we gave only names of Jews to our Jewish children. But hold it a second! Why is the name Chava any different, unless Chava/Eve became Jewish?! And to think of it, the name Yitro/Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses who converted to Judaism whose name is the name of the Parsha of the giving of the Torah & Ten Commandments is never used (the only case I know of is of a Jewish convert who has this name!) while the names of Jewish female converts Ruth and Batya (the latter who was the princess of Pharaoh who enslaved the Jews) are given freely to Jewish women. I believe that there was a time that females - and until this day - in the mainstream Jewish community at one point - were treated as second class citizens and so were given names regardless of origin, unlike males who had to be given only names of Jewish born Biblical figures! (unless it was a name in Yiddish). I also know that in European Jewish families, including in my grandparents' family, the males were given normal sounding Hebrew names, while the females were thrown with some made up sounding Yiddish words as names which in fact have no real translation, and many Jews today wonder why these names were even given!

I would like to mention that in fact there was a kabbalistic saint of a few hundred years who
bore the name Adam known as Adam Ba'al Shem who bequeathed his writings to the Ba'al Shem Tov. So, I guess it isn't such a no-no to give the name of the ancestor of all mankind to our children after all!

And while Adam HaRishon/Adam "the first" messed up with eating the first non-kosher food (if Hashem forbids eating it, it is non-kosher food) of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge (though fruit from the tree is always kosher today minus the rodents crawling in or out of it) he still was a Tzadik/saint, who in fact repented of his sin. In any case, we see that his punishment was based on having to work hard for a living; and in his particular case, to work the ground that originally was supposed to bring forth the produce for him with no effort of working the earth on his part, and for Eve/women - pregnancy and labor pains.


TRIBE OF ZEVULUN

While on the subject of work, I should mention that today - 7 Tishrei - is the birthday of Zevulun, one of the sons of Jacob. As I mentioned before, he was the one who supported his brother Yissaschar who learned Torah all day. This means that in order to support his brother, he had to work for a living. And don't forget, when one supports another to learn Torah, it typically means that he is supporting two families, because that is how the one learning Torah all day can do that without having to work for his own family. This also means that this Zevulun has an equal share of the reward of the Torah learning of the Yissaschar; that is, each one gets 50% of that reward, and this reward is ETERNAL.

Now, here is an interesting observation. Zevulun's name begins with the letter Zayin, which equals seven, and he was born on the 7th day of the 7th month of the Jewish months that we count from Nissan (though the Hebrew year, as opposed to counting MONTHS, starts from Tishrei). Moreover, the month of Sivan, the month of the giving of the Torah which was on the 7th day of that month which fell out on Shabbat - the 7th day of the week (as it did this past year), corresponds to the Tribe of Zevulun, and the letter Zayin. Yet, isn't it ironic that the number seven, which represents Shabbat, the day of rest, should be the number most representing Zevulun when in fact, his whole mission is working, though it is for a most noble purpose, besides supporting his own family, to support Torah learning?

In life, we basically live in one of two mindsets. We either live to eat or eat to live. We either live to work or work to live. Now in Judaism, with the concept of Shabbat, we understand that the ultimate purpose of our life is the spiritual aspect of it. "Those who prepare food on Erev Shabbat (before Shabbat) will have what to eat on Shabbat" our Rabbis inform us. This statement actually has a dual meaning. Well first in it literal meaning, which actually refers to two things - preparing food before Shabbat so we will have the food ready for Shabbat as we can't do certain types of work in relationship to preparing the food on Shabbat or buy the food on Shabbat, and also we have to work during the week so we will have what to buy for Shabbat. And in a more esoteric meaning, if we prepare ourselves spiritually in this world which will be in existance for 6,000 years - then beginning in the 7th millenium of the Creation of the world, we will have the spiritual dainties prepared for us in the world to come which will be eternal. Thus, our sole purpose of our work and preparations are for the physical Shabbat (in this world), and the spiritual Shabbat (in the world to come).

With this in mind, if we have this right type of mindset, everything is worked up towards what really counts at the end, the same way as we make all types of preparations taking up many 10s of hours over the course of sometimes several months for a wedding that will last usually only for a few hours. As it says, B'chol Deracheich Da-eihu "In all your ways, know Him" (Proverbs 3:6), which the Rabbis interpret to mean that even when eating, sleeping, working, etc., we can use these activities to help our spiritual goals if we bear this in mind. And so even the mundane activities which have no end purpose to themselves become spiritually elevated if used for what we were put in this world for.

This is the ultimate prototype of Zevulun. It isn't that he is a mere accesory to the Torah scholar though the latter is certainly the one that Jews around the world may turn to when asking about matters in Jewish Law. He is in fact the one responsible for that Torah learning and teaching to others. To accentuate this point, both Jacob and Moses preceded their blessings for Zevulun over his older brother Yissaschar (and their descendants who followed in their respective paths), and in fact, Moshe mentions Zevulun's name twice while mentioning Yissaschar's name only once. Zevulun's raison d'etre for spending the bulk of his time working was to provide ample support for the Torah learning and teaching needed both for this greatest Mitzva of the Torah in itself, and ultimately to perpetuate the eternal legacy that Hashem bequeathed to us, which is made possible by having a proficient knowledge of Hashem's Mitzvot to fulfill them exactly the way He wants them to be fulfilled by knowing what the Halachot/Jewish Laws are, and for this, much time is needed to learn what they are. Otherwise, if everyone would need to work (if teaching would not provide sufficiently for a living) to make a living, how many would be left knowing all the Halachot, and would there be any Torah scholar to whom one could ask anything in Jewish Law in which he/she will have a question on in a moment's notice?

Perhaps it is not coincidence that we happen to know the birthdate of a great Torah scholar of some two hundred years ago who was the leading Poseik (decider of Jewish Law) in his time - Rabbi Moshe Sofer, commonly known as the Chasam Sofer, who was also born on 7 Tishrei (5523/1762). (It's interesting to note that both Moshe Rabbeinu and Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, the leading Poseik of the last generation, were both born on the 7th of Adar), which fell out on the 6th day of the week (also the day of the week - Friday - in which both Adam & Eve were created) which is also the case in this year. There is a story pertaining to his birth where his mother wanted the people of the town Shul to wait with their early Shabbat prayers until her son (the future Chasam Sofer) would be born. Apparently, it was shortly before sunset leading to Shabbat that he was born, signifying the fact that his birth (like his namesake Moshe Rabbeinu who brought immediate spiritual light with his birth) sanctified the end of the six day work week with the holiness of the concept of seven - 7th day of the 7th month, thus showing that we can turn even a mundane concept into something spiritual if we have the right intentions in mind, the same way that Zevulun who was also born on the 7th day of the 7th month did working for his brother Yissaschar, the scholar par excellence.

As Zevulun and the Chasam Sofer share the same birthday - I would like to point out to something that the Chasam Sofer wrote about the tribe of Zevulun as per the following week's Parshat Beracha (actually, in two weeks) which is the conclusion of the Torah that we read on Simchat Torah. He points out on the words S'mach Zevulun B'Tzeitecha - "Rejoice Zevulun in your going out", which he says refers to going out to war; meaning, that it is the merit of his supporting Torah study that will protect him and will serve as a Bitachon/trust or insurance that he will remain safe; unlike the other tribes as the following verse in the blessing for Zevulun that the "nations will call out at the mountain to sacrifice there", the nations to be interpreted as the other tribes who brought sacrifices before war, but was not such good insurance against casaulties except for the moment, unlike Zevulun's merit of the Torah study that he supported that served for him as a constant protection, as the Talmud in Tractate Sotah states that unlike other Mitzvot that protect a person only at the time that he/she is involved with them, Torah study protects a person even when not involved in it at the moment.


BLESSING OR CURSE

Along the notes of reward and punishment, Rabbi Nathan, the leading disciple of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, in his Likutei Halachot, a Chasidic commentary on the Shulchan Aruch/Code of Jewish Law, points out in relationship to Shabbat that while the 39 Melachot/categories of work that are forbidden on Shabbat stem from the curse given to Adam, if we observe Shabbat properly, then these 39 Melachot that are associated with the six days of work turn into 39 spiritual lights. As the punishment or curse of work, it is the number Lamed Teit, which is the root word for one of the meanings of the word curse (as seen in Aramaic). However, when inverted as Teit Lamed, it spells the word Tal/dew, which is Hashem's daily blessing to the world even when there is no rain, and hence, Tal Orot - the dew of lights.

The name of Lot, nephew of Abraham, is based on this word of curse, spelled Lamed, Vav, Teit. While he learned good manners and ethics from his uncle Abraham who used hospitality to bring other people to Hashem, he forsook Abraham's spiritual way of living to live a life of immorality and depravity among the evil residents of Sodom. Nevertheless, in reward for his good deeds in comparison with the rest of the town, angels rescued him along with his wife and two daughters who escaped the burning town for its punishment. Even at this, his wife who scalded him for his hospitality which he learned from Uncle Abe turned into a pillar of salt when she turned her face back to witness the punishment of the Sodom residents despite instructions to the family not to do so as they were not worthy of seeing other peoples' divine punishment. At this point, when Lot and daughters were in a refuge cave, and for all that the daughters knew, they were the only people alive on earth as Adam & Eve were at one point, they decided that they would have to continue the human legacy by sleeping with their own pop Lot, which resulted in the nations of Ammon & Moab. It's interesting to note that in fact, the names Adam & Lot have the same Gematria of 45, so these daughters actually had a point.


SEVENTY NATIONS AND ADDENDUM NATIONS

Speaking of nations, let's look at our Hebrew year 5770. The last letter of this Hebrew year - Ayin - equals 70. And as we are told in Rabbinic literature, there are 70 nations of the world. The list of these are in fact in Parshat Noach, who were descended from Noah's three children. However, Ammon & Moab are NOT among this list, and for that matter, neither are the nations of Esau or Ishmael (the Arabic race) are listed there. To come to think of it, the Midrash notes that before the Torah was given, Hashem went to all the nations of the world to give them a chance to receive the Torah. It is these very latter nations who are mentioned by name in the Midrash that the Midrash spends time talking about of Hashem's sales conversation with them about the Torah. So, when we see mentioned in this rabbinic literature of the 70 nations of the world against the Jewish nation, why do they say that are particularly 70 nations as opposed to the correct figure, or why is the cutoff count of nations in Parshat Noach and no further?

There is in fact a fundamental difference between the 70 nations, and the more recent nations of Ammon, Moab, Esau/Edom, Ishmael. This difference has to do with Abraham. You see, the 70 nations were already in existance before Abraham was born. Since then, Abraham had a spiritual influence on Lot, his nephew, though not in fact descended from him. Lot was though in a sense Abraham's spiritual son, though he turned astray and the end result was that his two daughters slept with him and two bombinos became two nations. Accordingly, Abraham's physical son Ishmael became the father of the Arabic race (along with several other sons that Abraham had in his old age, the ancestors of other nations), and his grandson Esau was the ancestor of the Edomites. And while in fact some of these latter nations became some of the Jewish nation's biggest enemies, including Amalek, whom Hashem ordered us to utterly destroy (which will be finally be accomplished in the Messianic era), there is hope that in fact, there will be room for some of the greatest spiritual accomplishments to come from them. As we see in the Talmud in Tractate Gittin, great Torah scholars who were Jewish converts descended from Haman, who in turn was a descendant of Amalek. But it can't be forgotten that ultimately, these Jewish converts were ultimately descended from Abraham, which means that even in the evil that may have descended from Abraham, ultimately it was this evil that lead to righteousness once again, even as Abraham's own father was the owner of an idol store who had his own son Abraham thrown into the furnace for defying his idols.

But the secret of these latter nations becoming nations of the status of the "70 nations" in fact has its roots. We see in the Torah that following Noah's wine intoxication that led to his son Ham preventing him from having further children, this story is immediately followed of the list of the 70 nations. Any immediate connection? The word Yayin/wine is the Gematria of 70! And wait!
What does Rashi have to say with the story of the daughers of Lot who intoxicated him with wine so they could sleep with him without his knowledge? "Wine was prepared for them in the cave (by Heavenly intervention) so two nations could descend from them". Wow! We see that in order that there should be additional nations, there had to be a concept of 70 that would allow this to happen to be spiritually included under this category of "70 nations", as opposed to the Jewish nation.

By the way, it's interesting to note that according to Halacha, one is disqualified from praying if he is drunk to the point of being with the "drunkeness of Lot", and it doesn't say the "drunkeness of Noah". Even the Halacha is here to teach us morality - not just what the strict Jewish law is. Noah was basically a very moral person, but let himself slip spiritually for once, also taking into account that he was depressed over the fact that the rest of mankind was swept away with the flood. However, Lot was already an immoral and depraved person, which resulted in him getting drunk to the point that allowed his daughters to sleep with him without any knowledge of this.

The Vilna Gaon (who passed away on the 5th day of Sukkot) points out that the 70 bulls that were sacrificed in the Temple which were divided between the seven days of Sukkot (13 the 1st day, 12 the 2nd day, etc.) which in fact corresponded to the 70 nations of the world which both symbolized an atonement for them and wishes of decreasing them as opposed to wanting to increase the Jewish nation, also hint particularly to the nations of Esau & Ishmael, and he correlates which days correspond to which one of these two nations to prove his point! Hence, we see that ALL the nations, even the ones who were not part of the original 70 nations, have a connection with them in one way or another, through use of the medium of the number 70, whether through wine, animal sacrifices, or whatever means that serves this purpose.

And thus, the Midrash points out to the specific examples of these other nations not listed among the original 70 nations when Hashem went around to ask if any of them wished to receive the Torah. These newer nations had connections with Abraham, and thus logically, there was a little better chance for these nations to be able to relate to the Torah. However, their base desires simply wouldn't allow them to make the committment needed to follow its dictates.


BIRTHPANGS OF MOSHIACH - FINAL PREPARATION STAGE

Now finally, let's get back to the title of this post - THE NINE. What is in fact special about the number nine? Even a simple Jew doesn't have to do much homework - it's right in the Haggadah - in the song Echod Mi Yodei'a. Tisha Mi Yodea - "Who knows nine?" Tisha Yarchei Leida "Nine are the months of pregnancy" Literally, Yarchei Leida actually means the months of birth. In fact, the regular word used for pregnancy in Hebrew is Heirayon. Now, while it is true that this poem was written in a poetic style to rhyme, it seems that perhaps there is a little more than just meets the eye if it is saying that this is nine "months of birth". But the birth process itself is only for, well, I never witnessed one, but to be on the safe side, I think it takes within one minute for this to happen. So, is there a message here?

I do want to point out that the square root of nine is three. The Talmud in Tractate Nidda points out that in fact there are three partners in the creation of a child - his/her parents and Hashem. The parents each provide through the genes/DNA part of the child's body makeup, and Hashem provides the ability for them to be used, like the seeing capability of the eyes, and the like. And the Talmud indeed brakes up the nine months of pregnancy into three parts of three months each as a different stage in the child's development.

As I said before about preparing for Shabbat or a wedding, or those preparations are in fact part of the Shabbat or wedding, even though the main and ultimate thing itself is the Shabbat or wedding, and our daily mundane activities which help us perform our spiritual activities also become spiritual. With this in mind, these months of pregnancy are in fact NINE MONTHS OF BIRTH. While according to Jewish Law, a child starts his years upon his/her actual birth, it is in these very months of pregnancy that the child learns the whole Torah (which an angel makes him forget at birth, but the Torah learning still has some sort of spiritual effect on the child) and the mother's focus of bearing a child puts her in a totally different frame of mind, eating more, etc., which helps the child develop to the point of being able to become independent of the womb.
Also, the Hebrew word for birth - Leida, is the Gematria of 49, which is 7 times 7, the number of days that the Jews had to prepare themselves spiritually to receive the Torah - the ultimate spiritual birth of the Jewish people - after the Exodus; and to this day, we count these 49 days annually for the same spiritual purpose.

And as I had mentioned earlier, the word Tisha, as mentioned in the Hagaddah text, has the same letters as the Hebrew number of this year. And similarly, when discussing fasting on Yom Kippur, the Torah mentions specifically the date of the NINTH of Tishrei, not the tenth, even though we fast on the tenth, as the NINTH of Tishrei is the PREPARATION day - including eating sufficiently - to be able to fast on the tenth of Tishrei, as it says "B'TISHA LaChodesh", bearing in mind this year's Hebrew number.

The Torah tells us: Sheishet Yamim Ta'aseh Ma'asecha - "For six days, you shall do your work" (Exodus 23:12). This is actually a command for us to work during the week, so first of all, we will be able to live sufficiently on our own; and also, to be amply prepared for what to eat on Shabbat. The word for "You shall do" is Ta'aseh. And yes, this word also has the same letters as the Hebrew number of this year. Very interestingly, the war of 1967 in Israel is called the war of "Sheishet Yamim". It was in the midst of this Six Day War that the liberation of the holiest area of the world took place, the celebration of Yom Yerushalayim, indeed a preparation for the ultimate Redemption.

Before conclusion, let's get back to the name of Adam for a moment. It's well known that its three letters Alef, Dalet, Mem begin the names Adam, David, Moshiach. When Hashem showed Adam the history of his descendants, and Adam saw King David's role in history with an allowance of only three hours to live, Adam granted King David 70 years from his original 1,000 years allowance to accomplish what he needed to, allowing King David in turn to be the ancestor of Moshiach.

In another sense, I believe that Adam's three letters also point out to three recent events in world history. As I had mentioned in the past, the very first word of the 24th and final book of the T'nach/Bible is Adam, beginning with a BIG Alef. If we divide the 6,000 of the world's alloted existance into 24 parts of 250 years each, we see that the year 5751 began the 24th and last such period. It was during this time that mass influxes of Jews, especially from Russia who were for the most part kept imprisoned from leaving its country for seven decades, immigrated to Israel, denoting the beginning stage of the Kibbutz Galuyot - Ingathering of the Exiles from the "four corners of the world". Next is the Dalet in Adam's name, as the beginning of King David's name. As I described in detail in my 43rd post, the fall of the Twin Towers began the process of the building of the Temple, also referred to as Sukkat David - "fallen Booth of David", the phrase mentioned in Amos 9:11. As to where else in the T'nach this pivotal point of history is hinted to as it relates to the End of Days, check out this link:
http://redemption5768.blogspot.com/2009/06/secret-behind-na-nach-nachma-nachman.html And for the last letter of Adam's name which stands for Moshiach, the final preparatory stage of the exile right before the redemption is called Chevlei Moshiach, the birthpangs of Moshiach, a period of intense darkness, paralleling the NINTH plague of darkness of the 10 plagues that struck the Egyptians before the Exodus, and the NINTH day of Av (which corresponds to the letter Teit=9) - the darkest day of the Jewish calendar, marking the destruction of both Temples. And as I mentioned in my previous post, the 44th word of the Torah - V'La'Choshech - "for the darkness" corresponds to the current 44th President of the United States, who is hinted in the Hidden Codes in the Book of Ezekiel in the section about Gog U'Magog, as being the one to fulfill the role of Gog in this most dark time in history. This above information comes from http://www.redemption5768.com/.

My friends, this is where we are at. We are now just about to face the FINAL PREPARATION STAGE for the Redemption which is very close at hand. We are in the midst of the FINAL WAR OF GOG U'MAGOG which is in fact spiritually fiercely fighting the rights to our holiest area in the world, which means attempting to have us go back to the PRE 1967 BORDERS, as Obama, 44th President of the United States has told Israel to do, which means GIVING BACK TO THE ARABS OUR HOLIEST AREA IN THE WORLD! THE NINE months of spiritual pregnancy is just about to come to a close. I had mentioned several weeks ago at the end of Blog #39 that as can be shown in the Hidden Codes, the Chevlei Moshiach - the Birthpangs of Moshiach, will be in Sukkot 5770, which is now just around the corner, at least the beginning of this most frightening stage, and unless Moshiach comes beforehand, we know that this is coming very close. PM Binyamin Netanyahu can double talk when he used to warn the world about Iran, and now calls it a weakling; and in Thursday's speech, make a nice show of his harsh talk about not messing with Israel. But I can assure you my friends, this is as far as he will go. Oh yes, he is playing as one of Hashem's puppets on string alright, though he has the free choice to do the right thing which he is spurning in his fear of what his constituents will say as opposed to what Hashem wants him to do, and he will eternally be in the dumps for how he had prevented Jewish construction following Obamastruction, leaving Jewish families in the dumps.

But I have a message for one and all. Rabbi Shimon Dahan, a well respected kabbalist in Israel, has warned of G-d forbid, an atomic/nuclear attack from Iran to be expected during this coming Sukkot. If for anything reason, things don't quite get as bad, it doesn't mean that Rabbi Dahan is a false prophet, because if something bad is prophesized and it doesn't happen, it means that Jews performed Teshuva/repentence, or it may be delayed depending on our future actions. But one thing is for certain - we must prepare ourselves spiritually NOW. NO more playing games. That's good for politicians. But the rest of us can live in a more realistic world, and money, power, etc. will mean nothing if G-d forbid, we are lucky if we can find a little food to eat or find a makeshift place for a bathroom if biological warfare make it impossible to venture outdoors, or if we are made to run and find basic supplies as the primitives do. In fact, there are even special Midrashim which I saw quoted ABOUT THIS VERY PERIOD which describes the very scenario that I just told you. And the question is, will we be worthy of surviving this period, even if it means for a short time living like an animal? It may not seem real now, but may Hashem spare us the worst and instead we should celebrate Sukkot with the greatest joy possible, hopefully with Moshiach coming, or if on his way, that our happiness of celebrating Hashem's Mitzvot should show Him that we are happy to serve Him which will be the final preparation needed for the ultimate good that will very shortly be revealed. So, along these lines, repenting our past misdeeds with a serious resolve to improve in the future, learning and/or supporting Torah study (includes wives who send their children to Yeshiva and encourage their husbands to learn Torah), keeping Shabbat by not working as detailed in the Code of Jewish Law - including eating the three Shabbat meals as the Talmud in Tractate Shabbat tells us, and treating others with kindness will ensure that Hashem will treat us with kindness in return with Hashem's help.

May Hashem seal us all for a good and sweet year with the immediate Redemption!

G-d willing, will post in the midst of next week before Sukkot, focusing on the Tribe of Levi.

7th day of the 7th month of Tishrei 5770 - Birthdays of Zevulun son of Jacob and the Chasam Sofer.