#143 - The LEVITE Connection

If you are a vivid reader of my Gematriot blog, you probably know by now that Jerusalem is one of my favorite topics. While this is certainly most true, and I will be discussing Jerusalem once again in this post as we have just celebrated Yom Yerushalayim - Jerusalem Day just yesterday celebrating 45 years since the liberation of the Old City of Jerusalem which included the holiest area of the world - the Temple Mount, being the beginning of the 46th year, this was far from the only area in Israel that was liberated during the Six Day War. But what I just learned myself just days ago, it was particularly on the following day - the 29th of Iyar, today's date, that Hebron, the oldest Jewish city since the time of Abraham the first Jew who lived there, was liberated, which included the Mearat HaMachpela "Cave of the Patriarchs (and Matriarchs)".

In fact, the numbers 45 and 46 in particular have special significance to the two holiest cities - Jerusalem & Hebron. Without mixing apples and bananas together, I will first discuss about the significance of the number 45 to these cities, and then proceed to the number 46, and then finally, the significance of the sum total of these numbers.

JERUSALEM: 45 YEARS

While there may be those among what is called the "Ultra-Orthodox" camp who will deride the significance of Jerusalem Day because the Six Day War was fought for the large part by "secular" or "irreligious" Jewish soldiers, thank G-d, this is only a small percentage of this category of Jews. Even among the rest of this camp who aren't by any means what you would call "Zionist" rabbis, even many of them admit that this is a day that we should give thanks to Hashem for the great miracles that took place that not only allowed us access once again to the holiest area in the world, but that Jews were miraculously saved from annihilation. For all that the world knew with the advancement of some 31 million Arabs converging to get rid of the unwanted inhabitants of "Palestine" once and for all, Israel was going to be finished. However, there are numerous stories proving that Hashem wrought great miracles in this war, and though unfortunately, there were some Jewish soldiers who perished in the midst of fighting, the announcement of "The Temple Mount is in our hands" says it all. Most Jews today of virtually every sort of sect within Judaism from Hasidic to the intermarried with a non-Jew know where to stop by for the ultimate spiritual experience. And while the Temple Mount is a Halachic issue because there are certain parts of it that we are forbidden to tread upon because we are all impure of contact with the dead in one way or another, between the fact that for no apparent reason, Moshe Dayan who undid the good that he accomplished during the Six Day War by handing over the key of the Temple Mount to the wakf and the Israeli police who are forever defending the Moslem Arab's rights over Jews' rights, especially the observant Jews who are forbidden until today to even bring a prayer book or to even dare move their lips for fear of the great "crime" of praying, our happiness of the great event that happened is not complete, aside from the fact that the police, despite an Israeli Supreme Court ruling in 2007 permitting Jews to bring the Pascal sacrifice on Passover eve on the Temple Mount, prevent Jews from doing so.

At this point, I am going to mention a few significant points of this particular year 5772 in relationship to the year 5727 that Hashem revealed His miracles, allowing us to have access once again to the area of the world that all Jews praying turn their faces to, though the Israeli police have a great Yetzer Hara (evil inclination) to prevent particularly the observant Jews from praying at that very place. But first, I do want to point out something that those who have as of late read some Torah blogs will know about many sources pointing to this year being the year of our Redemption. There is even one rabbi who said that he heard from the mouth of Rabbi Yitzchak Kaduri, ZT"L, the senior leading Kabbalist who passed away six years ago, that Moshiach is coming in the month of Av of this year, just a mere two months from now. While I will not be getting into all kinds of discussions or proofs about this year being the "Messiah Year", there is no doubt that this is a most special year for a few reasons.

First, as you may have noticed already, looking at the last two digits of these two years - 5727 & 5772, they are the same numbers, but just in reverse order. Now in Hebrew, this may not be evident because these two years are using totally different letters for the last two digits; however, in terms of units of singles and tens, only THIS YEAR will have the IDENTICAL NUMBERS to the year of Hashem's great miracles that the world at large uses.

Second, as some may already be aware between information that they may have read on the subject of our upcoming Redemption and the Bible at the end of the Book of Daniel, there are two sets of amount of "days" (that is sometimes translated as years for the word in Hebrew that usually means days) as associated with the End of Days. "From the time of the placing of the desolate abomination - 1,290 years. Fortunate is the one who awaits and reaches for 1,335 years." (Daniel 12:11-12)

As proven in history, the year 5727 (1967) was 1,290 years from when the accursed Dome of the Rock was first placed on the most holy Temple Mount. At this time in Jewish history 45 years ago, we virtually had it all. Has the Israeli government done the right thing, that dome thing would have been off in no time. However, as we know in following the Torah, you are either getting better or getting worse, and not just being a "moderate". And so, as a result of not getting rid of the abomination which it had free choice to do so, it wound up authorizing handing the key of the Temple Mount to the wakf.

Now, simply subtracting 1,290 years from 1,335 years will show a difference of 45 years. And indeed, it is now exactly 45 years since that fateful time in Jewish history. There have in fact been a couple of recent significant things or changes that happened on the Temple Mount lately. First, after the longest time, the police stopped collecting the identification cards of observant Jews who wished to ascend the Temple Mount as "security" that they wouldn't pray on the Mount. And then what seems to have been a first for Jerusalem Day, Dr. Michael Ben-Ari - Knesset Member and staunch Kahane follower, came up the Temple with a couple of other people, and openly prostrated himself without fear of getting arrested and neither was he arrested, while the police did manage to arrest a few other activists who did the big "crime" of praying.

Third, considering these 45 years, the Gematria of the name of the first human being - Adam - is 45. And as the Talmud/Misdrash tells us, the dust that was used in his creation was gathered from the grounds of the future altar on the Temple Mount (this is to note that in sharp contrast, Eve was not created directly from the same source but rather as created from Adam's rib though was also created directly by Hashem). This signifies that the altar would in the future serve to atone for a person's sins when he would bring an animal sacrifice as an atonement.

HEBRON: 45 YEARS

While everyone always mentions the Mearat HaMachpela as the place where the Patriarchs and Matriarchs are buried, they seem to forget that this is also where the ancestors of mankind are also buried - Adam & Eve. In fact, there is even a story of a rabbi in Tractate Eruvin of the Talmud who came to Adam's grave to do some measurements so the Cohanim who are forbidden to make themselves impure for the dead except to bury their closest relatives would know how far back to stay away from the gravesite. Personally, I have been to the place a few times, and I don't even know who to ask as to where is the area of the gravesites of Adam & Eve, unlike the clearly marked off places for the other six who are buried.

While we may not know where Adam & Eve used to live following their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, they obviously didn't live too far away from the famous burial site in Hebron at the time of their passing some 930 years later, which means that they were living in Israel for some period in their lives. To think of it, the ancestors of all mankind used to live in Israel out of all places in the universe, and for all that we may know, we could be troding on the same paths nearby as they did (Note: The burial place of their righteous son Seth is also in Israel whose location is known).

So there you have it, Adam's origins is from the holiest city in the world, and he is buried in the second holiest city in the world. And by the way, King David, who according to the Midrash was granted his 70 years of life from Adam, first reigned as king in Hebron for seven and a half years, and then transferred to Jerusalem for the next 33 years. So in 1,000 years - the combined years of Adam & David (as Adam was originally slated to live 1,000 years following eating the forbidden fruit), this was a one thousand year turnaround. And as we see that Adam's name begins with an Aleph which is the numerical value of one and the first letter, the name of Adam HaRishon, the first of mankind, begins the 24th and final book of the Tanach (Bible) called Divrei Hayomim where the first letter Aleph is an unusual BIG letter, signifying that this letter Aleph can also be the numerical value of 1,000 as the first of letters in any given Hebrew number (from 1,000 through 1,999). And in terms of the name of the letter, Aleph (1) and Eleph (1,000) is spelled as the same lettered word, the only difference being the vowels. And so, it was King David, whose dynasty is the basis of this final book of the Bible that begins with the BIG Aleph signifying the number 1,000, ended the 1,000 years of Adam-David living as king in Jerusalem, and is the only Jewish Biblical king who is buried in the Old City of Jerusalem, also called Ir David (City of David). And in connection with this, Adam's name is the acronym of Adam, David & Moshiach, for it will be Moshiach, King David's descendant, who will make the ultimate rectification of Adam's sin, being Hashem's messenger in bringing the world to the state once again the way it was before Adam's sin.

Oh, and before I forget, the Gematria of the Hebrew word for Redemption - Geula - is 45. I think this says it all.

JERUSALEM: BEGINNING OF THE 46TH YEAR

Mentioning above that 45 is the Gematria of the name of the first human being, the following number 46 is the Gematria of the name of the ancestor of the tribe that is closest to Hashem serving Him in His holy abode on earth. The name Levi is among the most common last Jewish names that exist today, for this transcends the particular cultural groups called Ashkenazi, Sephardi, that have last names unique to that particular culture(the majority of last names with this name are spelled at the end with a "y" rather than an "i", but in virtually all Bible translations and quotes, it is the letter "i" that is used). Actually, this is probably even a more common family name than the name Cohen, for there are more Levites than Cohanim, bearing in mind that they both come from the same Tribe of Levi except that the Cohanim are all parental descendants of Aaron, who in turn was the great grandson of Levi.

It should be noted that when Israel was divided up among the tribes as to which tribe would live where, the Tribe of Levi was not assigned any particular land, being that "Hashem is their inheritance". Nevertheless, there were 48 cities that were set aside for Cohanim and Levites to reside in.

Though Jerusalem was amidst the boundaries of both the tribes of Judah and Benjamin as was the Beit HaMikdash (Temple); as the capitol of Israel and seat of the Sanctuary, it was not a private city like all other cities in Israel, aside from the cities of refuge which were the Levitical designated cities. Hence, any Jew who wished to live in this most holy city had a right to, but on condition that he would have an open home for Jews coming from other places who needed a place to stay during the Shalosh Regalim - the three pilgrimage festivals of Passover, Shavuot, and Succot.

But one thing was for sure. At any given time, approximately 1/24th of all Cohanim & Levites were staying in Jerusalem, because both the Cohanim & Levites were each divided up into 24 watches, as enumerated in the midst of the 24th and last book of the Tanach - Divrei HaYomim (Chronicles). And though the Cohanim were the main players in offering the sacrifices and other holy duties in the Temple and certain places in the Temple were off limits to anyone who was not a Cohen, the rest of the Tribe of Levi, being called Levites, also had certain functions in the Temple - some of which were exclusive to them, such as singing psalms during the offering of the daily or holiday sacrifices.

You know, Hebrew is such a beautiful language. But the reason I say this is because as the language of Lashon HaKodesh (and not Yiddish which some think is more holier to speak even in Israel, but don't realize that they are forfeiting some eternal reward for not speaking this Lashon HaKodesh "The Holy Tongue" as mentioned in Tractate Sota of the Talmud, despite their reasons of claiming that this Modern Hebrew has nothing to do with Lashon HaKodesh), there is so much Torah that can be gleaned from this language, as perhaps most evident from the Zohar, the main book of Kabbalah. You see, if you take a look at the Hebrew word of Yerushalayim, whether if it's spelled with a second letter YUD or not, notice the letter LAMED, skip over one letter backwards and you see the letter VAV, and then once more skip over one letter backwards and you see the letter YUD. Lamed-Vav-Yud = LEVI! Coincidence? The ultimate reason why Jerusalem is the capitol of Israel, which is not the same reason why a capitol is designated in all other countries, is specifically BECAUSE the Holy Temple is located in Jerusalem. It is true that King David reigned for 33 years in Jerusalem before his son King Solomon built and designated the Temple therein, but what some may not be aware is that King David together with Shmuel HaNovi (Samuel the Prophet), they located the exact spot of where the Torah wants the Temple to be located.

With this said, as I have mentioned in a past post about Jerusalem Day, the Yahrzeit of Samuel is the same date of 28 Iyar! And while in Israel, the ones attending the gravesite of Samuel, which is on the outskirts of Jerusalem, and the ones visiting the Kotel HaMa'aravi (The Western Wall) are almost exclusive, it is certainly nothing short of Hashgacha Peratit (Divine Providence) that the great miracle of full access to the Temple grounds after a 19 year hiatus occurring on what is now called Jerusalem day happened on the very date as the Yahrzeit of Shmuel HaNovi.

However, this year, I have an extra dimension to add here. You see, just like myself, Shmuel HaNovi was a Levi. In fact, in the very beginning of Sefer Shmuel (Book of Samuel), it mentions the genealogy of his father Elkanah and of his annual pilgrimages to the Mishkan (Tabernacle) in Shiloh. In fact, our Sages tell us that it was in the merit of Elkanah who mobilized the rest of the Jewish nation to come to the Mishkan that he merited to have a son who would not only be the leading judge of the Jewish people, but would also anoint the first king Saul as well as King David, ancestor of the Davidic dynasty and Moshiach, and as well as being the one, along with King David, who discovered the exact spot of where the Temple was meant to be built.

And so, the LEVITE connection to Jerusalem goes way beyond the fact of the Tribe of Levi serving in the Temple. Fifty percent off the imput as to exactly where the holiest place in the world would be designated came from a Levite, and the fact that the name of his ancestor Levi is embedded within the name of Yerushalayim shows that it is the Cohanim and Levites comprising the entire Tribe of Levi who are the designated servants of Hashem representing the rest of the Jewish nation. And as for the other fifty percent imput coming from King David, parentally descended from the Tribe of Judah, he represented the concept of Hashem as the King of Kings, Whose presence was most evident in the Temple, as well as being the ancestor of Moshiach, who will shortly be Hashem's representative from the outside to bring the Jews back to the greatest spirituality possible in this world with the rebuilt Holy Temple, where the Tribe of Levi is suppposed to serve Hashem from the inside.

HEBRON- BEGINNING OF THE 46TH YEAR

In the Chumash, the name Hebron is mentioned a total of nine times. However, many if not most will know that out of these nine times, two of these times is not used as the name of the city Hebron, but rather, the name of a person. In short, he was a parental grandson of Levi, son of Kehath, brother of Amram, and uncle to Miriam, Aaron, and Moses. However, not a word is mentioned about him having any children. Whether he was named after the city Hebron, or was given the name for another reason - we may never know. However, the fact that the Torah considers it important enough to mention his name, even though he obviously didn't have at least any male children to have them mentioned along with the children of his brothers, shows that there may be an inner connection between the city of Hebron and the Levite tribe, even though this city was located within the territory of the Tribe of Judah, just as a part of Jerusalem was also within Judah's territory.

In fact, as we see in Sefer Yehoshua (Book of Joshua), Hebron was one of the six main refuge cities that was also a Levitical city. Even though as I mentioned earlier, the Levite tribe did not receive an inheritance in Israel like the other Tribes, which was designated by a lottery system; nevertheless, the lottery system was also used to determine which part of the Tribe of Levi would reside in which city or cities of the total of 48 cities of refuge.

The first lottery used for this purpose was for the Cohanim. It's interesting to note that when mentioning this, the verse states "the sons of Aaron, from the Kehathite family of the sons of Levi" (Joshua 21:10). But the question can be asked like this. we all know that the Cohanim all come from Kehath, because he was Aaron's parental grandfather. True, the Levites from the rest of the descendants of Kehath were also assigned portions of land, as mentioned further on, but if this is the case, then the text should have mentioned something like this, "Of the Kehathite family, the first were the sons of Aaron..." instead of writing in reverse "the sons of Aaron from the Kehathite family" as though we wouldn't know otherwise from which of the sons of Levi they were descended from. So why the wording the way that it is?

You see, the very next verse mentions the first of a number of cities designated for the Cohanim, and this was none other than "Kiryat Arba...which is Hebron in the mountains of Judah". Now today, there is a city in Israel called Kiryat Arba which is located right outside the Biblical city of Hebron, but this does not necessarily mean that there was a city in Biblical times called by this name that was separate from Hebron, because this name which means "City of Four" either refers to the four big giants that were living there at the time, or the four pairs who were buried or were to be buried in Me'arat HaMachpelah of Hebron, as mentioned by Rashi at the beginning of Parshat Chayei Sarah. In any case, after mentioning earlier about Hebron being a name of one of the sons of Kehath, this would seem to explain why the text words the verse as "the sons of Aaron, from the Kehathite family"; for in fact, they were memorializing Great Uncle Hebron by taking up residence in the very same town bearing the name of their great uncle, who never had male children to carry on his name.

So the bottom line is - Hebron both in name and residents is heavily connected with the Tribe of Levi, whose name is the Gematria of 46, noting that it is now the beginning of the 46th year since the liberation of Hebron by Israel. And just as it is with Jerusalem, the Tribe of Levi is also very connected with the Tribe of Judah. In fact, this is borne out, as mentioned in the Zohar, within the blessing granted to Judah by his father Jacob on his deathbed - Ad Ki Yavo Shilo V'Lo Yikhat Amim "...until Shilo (referring to Moshiach) will come, and to him will be the assemblage of nations" (Genesis 49:10). Shilo is the Gematria of Moshe (345), and then mentioning Moshe's parental ancestors, in order of descent - Levi spelled in consecutive letters within the words V'Lo Yikhat, Kehat which is the last three letters of the Hebrew word Yikhat, and then the next word Amim bears a close resemblance with the name Amram, the only difference being the respective letters of Yud & Reish. And so, while one may wonder for a moment while the first four generations starting from Levi is hinted within Judah's blessing, what we can learn from here is that everyone has a function in serving Hashem - just as the Tribe of Levi produced Cohanim & Levites, and the Tribe of Judah produced the Jewish kings and Moshiach. Aside from this, Moshe's brother Aaron was married to Elisheva, brother of Nachshon who was the parental ancestor of King David & Moshiach, and Moshe's sister Miriam was married to Caleb who was also a parental descendant of Judah, as well as inheriting a part of Hebron of all cities in Israel as a reward for not going along with the rest of the Spies (aside from Joshua) who slandered the land of Israel to the Jewish people, resulting in their languishing in the desert for nearly 40 years until the older generation, aside from the Levites who had full faith in Hashem not believing the slanderous Spies report and so lived to an old age, died out.

As you can see, just as the name of the Tribe of Levi is spelled within the name Yerushalayim, so too is the main name of Hashem - YKVK - spelled within the name of the Tribe of Judah - in order of the spelling of the name YKVK. Indeed, BOTH the tribes of Levi AND Judah were the main ones instrumental in representing Hashem's awesome Presence and Majesty in the Holiest City of Jerusalem.

And now that I have mentioned the special significance of the numbers 45 & 46 in relationship to both Jerusalem & Hebron, adding these two sums yields the total of 91. Even among Jews who don't know how to read Hebrew all that well, it seems that virtually all of them when they see the Tetragrammaton name of YKVK - which was only pronounced by the Cohanim in the Temple, they know to pronounce it as A-do-noy (which literally means "my Master"). There are Kabbalistic explanations of the name YKVK being the higher form and the name A-do-noy being the lower form; but in short, the combination of these two names - YKVK (26) & A-do-noy (65) add to 91, which is also the Gematria of the word Amen that we answer after the end of blessings and at various parts of the Kaddish prayer. Moreover, the word HaLevi'im, which at times refers to the entire tribe of Levi consisting of both Cohanim and Levites, is the Gematria of 91; the middle letters spelling "Levi" being the Gematria of 46, and the outer letters of HEI ("the") and MEM SOPHIT (used in this instance as a letter to denote plurality) being the Gematria of 45.

THE 44 CONNECTION WITH JERUSALEM & HEBRON

As I begin this post, it was only days ago that I learned of the exact date that Hebron was liberated. But what I do want to stress here is that this took place on the 44th day of the Sephirah.

And while we just celebrated 45 years of the liberations of the Old City of Jerusalem and Hebron, though I didn't stress this in my past post on Jerusalem in relationship to its 44th year or its 44 years, as my focus was more on Obama being the 44th President and how he has or will oppose all of Jerusalem being part a Jewish city, being that the Temple is located in Jerusalem, it is associated with the number 44 in more than one way.

The name of the Mishnaic tractate that is all about the measurements of the building of the Temple is called Midot (measurements), and its first two letters is Mem-Dalet, which spells the Hebrew number 44. Also, the Hebrew word for blood is DAM, whose letters when spelled in reverse spells the number 44. In terms of the service in the Temple, if the blood of the slaughtered animal was not handled the proper way, it invalidated the animal sacrifice. There are FOUR parts of sacrificing the animal of which if one of them wasn't done the proper way, including if there was an improper intention, such as even just intending to eat the sacrificial animal beyond its allotted time, the sacrifice was invalid. These are - 1)Shechita- Slaughtering, 2)Kabbala- Receiving the blood in a vessel, 3)Holacha- Walking with the blood to the altar, 4)Zerika- Throwing the blood at the altar. As you can see, the main subject of these Divine services in the Temple involved blood - DAM, the word being the Gematria of FORTY-FOUR (44), using the number FOUR twice in the spelling of this number.

But in this year, Jerusalem Day is associated with the number 44 once again, but in a very different way. You see, the Daf Yomi (daily learning of the double sided page of the Babylonian Talmud) for on the four middle days marking the Six Day War from 26 Iyar through 2 Sivan is the learning of Tractate MIDDOT (Dafim 34-37), though ironically, this has no Gemara but only Mishnayot but is nevertheless learned as part of the Daf Yomi learning to complete the learning of the entire Seder Kodoshim (Order of Holy Items), the fifth of the six orders of the Mishna. Aside from the fact that the first two letters of the name of this tractate spells the number 44, the first and third letters of word Mikdash, the main word used for the Temple, are also the letters Mem & Dalet.

In our prayers for the rebuilding of the Temple, we pray SheYibaneh Beit HaMikdash B'Meheira B'Yameinu "May the Temple be built speedily in our days..." Now, in terms of Hebron, we see a statement in the Torah in the story of the Spies checking out Israel which makes a sudden incidental statement about Hebron that it didn't mention earlier in its mention of it several times in Genesis when Abraham the first Jew as living there - "Hebron was BUILT seven years before Zoan in Egypt" (Numbers 13:22). Without getting into all kinds of details as to how Rashi knew not to take this verse literally, he does explain this in terms of the value of the land of Hebron being seven times more worth than even Zoan, the best place in Egypt. It seems that the reason that the Torah mentions this fact about Hebron specifically here rather than far earlier in Genesis is because it wants to stress the beauty of Israel, which the Spies only used in their report only as a base to afterwards slander the beautiful land that Hashem prepared for us.

Now, one more point that I want to make about Hebron as connected to the number 44, aside from the fact that it was on the FORTY-FOURTH day of the Sephira that it was liberated in 5727, is that Hebron's other name is Kiryat Arba "City of FOUR"! As I mentioned early of the TWO reasons why it was called the "City of Four", perhaps it hints to the fact that it would in the future be liberated on the day of the Sephira that has TWO FOURS in it. Additionally, it is TWO COUPLES OF FOURS - Adam & Eve, Abraham & Sara, Isaac & Rebecca, Jacob & Leah, who are buried in Hebron, which is the "City of FOUR", literally named after these people via the number FOUR. Ohm, change the "maybe" to "it is no coincidence that..."

And as especially related to THIS YEAR, Obama who has been explained in the past as the reincarnate of the Pharaoh, king of EGYPT, who refused the orders of "Let my people go", is presently in his FOURTH year as the FORTY-FORTH president of the United States. And in terms of the secular calendar, since this is what Obama goes by - Hashem Yispor B'Ketov Amim "Hashem counts according to the writing of the nations" (Psalms 87:6), which there are those who say that this alludes to the secular calendar, May 20 is the secular date which corresponded this year to Jerusalem Day (the miracle of the liberation in Jerusalem took place in the morning, even though the date on the Hebrew calendar begins the evening before, unlike in the secular calendar that begins from 12:00 AM), marking exactly FOUR months in his FOURTH year from when he took office on January 20, 2009. I have mentioned in the past about DAM (blood) being the first of the ten plagues in EGYPT, in relationship to its Gematria of 44 and Obama being the 44th president, and his connection to Egypt. And while we are at it, his FIRST public speech overseas was in Cairo, EGYPT, where he freely and truly spoke his mind of his support of the Arabic people.

At this point, I want to mention that there has been a custom in recent years to visit the gravesite of Joseph particularly on the date of the Kabbalistic Sephirah of Yesod She'B'Yesod, as it relates most to Joseph. Now, this Sephira date (41st day of the Omer) in our calendar nowadays is the 26th of Iyar, the date that the Six Day War began. The reason that I mention this is that the gravesite of Joseph is located in Shechem, which the Arabs and the rest of the anti-Semitic world call Nablus. And it is particularly these very three places - the site of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, the Cave of the Patriarchs (and Matriarchs)in Hebron, and the plot of land in Shechem that includes the gravesite of Joseph, that were paid for by King David, Abraham and Jacob, respectively. Yet, it is most ironic that it is THESE THREE PLACES that have the strongest resistance to our claims to these places! And in this, there are three players - the Moslem Arabs of course, the rest of the anti-Semitic world - including the United States which claims that the big issue is the "settlements", and the "Zionistic" Israeli government dictatorship that is busy either filling out "peace" forms or is begging on its knees to make peace with our Arab enemies who want nothing less than the same thing that they showed that they wanted 45 years ago when they attempted to throw us into the sea, though they tell the world that the only problem is about the presently Jewish occupied "'67 borders".

Shechem was almost shut down for the Jewish Israeli public back in 1995, when (at the time that I visited Israel for the first time) in the Israeli government's attempt to appease the Arabs, members of the Israeli army bombed the Mikvah at the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva. It would be a few more years until Shechem was indeed shut down from Jewish attendance in the year 2000, at which Hillel Liberman, may his blood be avenged, attempted to save the day, but was murdered by the Nablus Arabs, who were not controlled by the elements of the Israeli army who followed Nazi orders in sealing the fate of Shechem.

Hebron used to be a little more occupied by the right kind of people - Jews who were only beginning to resettle the land after a long hiatus since the murder of 67 Jews in the town in 1929. There were major struggles in the earlier years of the State of Israel when a former dictator of the Israeli government, Menachem Begin (though better compared to today's Prime Minister dictators, it was under his leadership who threw Rabbi Meir Kahane in prison), caving in to pressure, refused to help the Jews who were still living under Arab threats and attacks, which resulted in more Jews being murdered. And then the present prime dictator of Israeli, Bibi Netanyahu, also the dictator back in 1998, gave autonomic control of Hebron to the Arabs, as though there weren't enough problems there already, leading to still more murder of Jews. Today, only 3% of Hebron is occupied by Jews, living in a virtual ghetto in a small concentrated area near the Me'Arat HaMachpelah which in itself has more parts of it that is used by Arabs than by Jews, and there are even days that soldiers of the Israeli army following Nazi orders don't allow Jews to come on Moslem holidays to the site. Moreover, the Arabs receive constant funding from Germany to continue building in this second holiest city of the world.

Jerusalem, the "City of Peace", is already a hesitant issue in terms of giving control of "East Jerusalem", which includes the Temple grounds, to the Arabs. There are some hypocrites in the Knesset, who while had no problem voting to throw Jews out of Gush Katif and parts of Gaza, which was also recaptured by Jews in the Six Day War, make a distinction- "Jerusalem is an undivisible capitol". But even at this, the former dictator of Israel - Ehud Olmert, unlike when he used to be mayor of Jerusalem when he was very supportive of the city that he was mayor of, changed his tone even about Jerusalem. Luckily, he wasn't able to finish his term (I'm just not sure if it was officially or non-officially), so he didn't have enough time to buy a new pen to put his evil plans in writing for Islam control of the Temple grounds area that is symbolized by the "Kipa" - the Dome of the Rock.

Now, back to the United States, both George Bush, Jr. - the 43rd President of the United States, and Barack Hussein Obama - the 44th President of the United States, pressured Israel to continue the peace scam, beginning with the "settlements", which technically includes Hebron and Shechem as part of the "West Bank", with hopes of the eventually division of East & West parts of Jerusalem. Now, we see a striking resemblance here - for in the Six Day War, Jerusalem was captured by Jews on the 43rd Day of the Omer, and Hebron was captured by Jews on the 44rd Day of the Omer. Without needing to associate a particular city as per a particular president, what is true is that both President 43 & President 44 have been associated as Gog in Gog U'Magog.

Now, while it has been shown in the Hidden Codes of the Torah that Obama is Gog via an equidistant spelling of his family name Obama, consisting of six letters in Hebrew, in Ezekiel Chapter 38 about the Gog U'Magog war, as you will see at absolutetruth613.blogspot.com, Bush is far more associated with Gog than Obama because his last name Bush is spelled as consecutive letters in the same Ezekiel Chapter 38. Moreover, the first two letters of the word Magog is Mem-Gimel, spelling the number 43; hence, representing the 43rd President. Now, the ultimate battle of Gog U'Magog is going to be particularly against Jerusalem, which was captured in the Six Day War on the 43rd Day of the Omer. There are additional connections of Bush as associated with Gog, but it seems that when he found out from others about the Bush-Gog association that were being made, it seems that he refrained from continuing what could have been his ultimate plans of fulfilling the role of Gog as predicted in the Bible.

Now, as we know from the Midrash, it will be ESPECIALLY AFTER MOSHIACH COMES that Gog will be fighting us in his final attempt to conquer Israel. And so, the fact is that Obama is the present president of the United States, and as per predictions in the Book Of Daniel about a leader in terms of three and a half years, it will be exactly that amount of time in the secular calendar for Obama at the eve of this Rosh Chodesh Av, the month that is being talked about of the month of Moshiach's coming this year.

As a hint to both the numbers 43 and 44 in terms of the number of this post, the number 143 can be divided as ONE (1) and FORTY-THREE (43), and so when you add up 1 & 43, the total is 44 - having mentioned both Jerualem Day (43rd Day of the Omer) and Hebron Day (44th Day of the Omer). Ending off on a good note (aside from the previous paragraph), having mentioned earlier about Jerusalem Day & Hebron Day falling out on the days of the midst of learning Tractate Middot of the Daf Yomi, the new cycle of the Daf Yomi cycle (the 13th) will begin on this coming 15th of the month of Av, a date that is traditionally marked as a day of several happy events during the course of Jewish history. And it is on the topic of Daf Yomi in terms of the following and final tractate of Gemara that will shortly be learned that will be the topic of my next post...

29 Iyar 5772 - 44th Day of the Sephira, Hebron Day