Whenever it is the 6th of Av as it is tonight, I always think especially of a prayer that we recite every day (in the weekdays in the morning, and in the afternoon of Shabbat) which begins the words U'va L'Tzion Goel - "A redeemer will arrive in Zion..." (Isaiah 59:20) which refers to the coming of Moshiach which will take place in Israel. Along with the next verse that begins V'Ani Zot Briti - "As for me, this is My Covenant..." which are the beginning verses of this prayer, they immediately precede the text for the Haftara of Parshat Ki Tavo (Isaiah 60), the sixth of the seventh Haftarot that are called the Shivata D'Nechemata "Seven Haftarot of Comfort" following the date of Tisha B'Av when some of the worse tragedies occurred on this ill fated date.
But in case you were wondering why today's date,. though it is close to Tisha B'Av, of which the rabbis declare that Moshiach was born on, should remind me of the above prayer, taking a look at the very first word U'va, which consists of the letters Vav, Veit/Beit, Aleph - these very letters make up the lettering of the date Vav Av. And since this date is three days before Tisha B'Av which is most associated with Moshiach, I should mention that in the Midrash called Yalkut Shimoni on Isaiah 52:7, it states that three days before Moshiach comes, Elijah the Prophet will announce his arrival.
As this past Shabbat, when we read the Parshiyot of Matot-Mas'ei, corresponds to Shavout, the holiday on which we received the Torah, the second of the Shalosh Regalim (Three Pilgrimage Festivals) as the second of the three Shabbatot of the Bein HaMetzarim "Three Weeks" as per Chassidishe sources, I would like to note the concluding paragraph of the U'va L'Tzion prayer - Baruch Hu Elokeinu...V'Natan Lanu Torat Emet "Blesses Be He our G-d...he gave us a Torah of truth..."
With this said, I would like to write about a period of time that is related to Shavuot - namely., the Sephira period, the seven weeks before Shavuot, as it relates to time on which we prepare ourselves to receive the Torah anew, though in fact, we receive the Torah anew each morning when we recite the Birkot HaTorah, the blessings for learning Torah on a daily basis. And as you will notice the number of this post -149, it consists of the numbers One (1) and Forty-Nine (49), zeroing in on the point on the value of time from Aleph to Tav.
It so happens that from Aleph to Tav is literally true for the Sephira period. You see, when we count the FIRST day of the Sephira, we say Hayom Yom Echad L'Omer "Today is ONE day of the Omer". The word Echad, besides the meaning of ONE, also BEGINS with the letter Aleph which is the numerical value of ONE. And then for the LAST day of the Sephira, we say Hayom Tisha V'Arbaim Yom Sheheim Shiva Shavuot LaOmer "Today is NINE and FORTY days which are seven weeks of the Omer". In this instance, we begin the words for 49 with the word Tisha (nine) which BEGINS with the letter Tav, the LAST letter of the Aleph-Beit. Coincidence? But that's not all. You see, we also have what are called the Kabbalistic Sephirot - Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, Malchut - each one which are made up of seven combinations along with either itself or another one of the Sephirot. With this said, the Sephira combination for the LAST day of the Sephira is Malchut She'B'Malchut (Kingship within Kingship), and it is the LAST letter Tav that is the LAST letter of the word Malchut. And being that this Tav is twice written at the end of the repeated word Malchut, it is reminiscent of the phrase Talmud Torah, of which both words begin with the letter TAV, being that this is the LAST day of the Sephira in the final preparations for the Torah.
WHAT HAPPENED AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEPHIRA PERIOD THIS YEAR?
This year, there is something of great significance that happened at the very beginning of the first day of the Sephira, but while I didn't have a chance in my blogging to write about until now, it is not too late to write about it. Now note, I didn't state anything about something good or holy happening, though in a way, it was a very good thing that happened, and shortly, I will show you the connection of the event as related to the Sephira. You see, I am referring specifically to the death of Mike Wallace that took place at the very beginning of the Sephira period. Yes, he was a Jew, and was known to be a most honest reporter, or was he?
But before I get into details about who this character was, let me note that as a host of a show that is called "60 Minutes", forgetting about if he lived his life as a holy Jew or not, he died in New Canaan, Connecticut at exactly 8:00 PM on April 7 of this year, corresponding to the beginning of the night of the 16th of Nissan, which is both the second day of Passover, and the first day of the Sephira period. Looking at a halachic calendar of the various times of the day from dawn to nightfall, THE EXACT MINUTE OF NIGHTFALL, THE BEGINNING OF A JEWISH DAY, ON APRIL 7, 2012 IN NEW CANAAN, CONNECTICUT WAS 8:00 PM! And mentioning the number EIGHT of the o'clock, this was also the very beginning of the week of Parshat Shemini (in Israel, though outside of Israel, that Shabbat was the last day of Passover and hence this Parsha was read only the following week, but I will mention the significance of this shortly even though Mr. Wallace's death did not happen in Israel), the name of the Parsha meaning EIGHTH, beginning with the words Vayehi Bayom HaShemini "It was on the EIGHTH day..."
Now, if Mike Wallace would have lived his life as an observant Jew, then it probably would have been noticed by some in the Jewish community of the significant timing of his passing on the VERY BEGINNING OF THE SEPHIRA PERIOD, coupled with the fact that he was a host on a show for 60 years called "60 Minutes" that is named after TIME. And in terms of SIXTY minutes or SIXTY years, the first letter of the word Sephira, which means count (noun), is Samech, the numerical value of SIXTY. However most unfortunately, not only was he not an observant Jew, which was highlighted when spotted ordering a ham sandwich in a Capitol Hill restaurant on Yom Kippur, but a most self-hating Jew between praising anti-Semitic Arab dictators from Yassir Arafat to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad president of Iran, and very grueling interviews of Israelis as per their "occupation" of land. I guess that if he was following his feelings of hatred of Jews living in Israel because they were taking up space in lieu of the "Palestinians", then you can call him an honest reporter, for he was simply reporting honestly as per his anti-Semitic feelings as a self-hating Jew.
Noting the name of the city of Mr. Wallace's death - New Canaan, it is named after the original name of Israel the way that it is mentioned in the Chumash (Penteteuch) as Canaan. Now, while this city in the States may have been named by Christians who had feelings about Israel as per the Bible, this concept of "new" or "modern" is most dangerous for Jews living a twisted "kosher" style of Judaism. This was especially noticeable among the Reform movement of Jews in the States, the branch of the original Enlightenment movement in Germany when Judaism was watered down to make is "easier" for Jews to observe, doing away with the Talmud while brainwashing Jewish children with reporting "Bible stories", snatching the holiness away from the stories of the Torah.
And speaking of the VERY BEGINNING of the Sephira period when Mr. Wallace died, let's turn to the VERY BEGINNING of the Torah, that begins with the word Bereishit "IN THE BEGINNING". The very first Rashi on the Torah asks why the Torah didn't begin with the Mitzvot (Commandments), which is the basic purpose of the Torah, but instead began with the story of Creation? He answers that this was in order that we would have an answer for the non-Jews accusing us of stealing the Land of Israel, telling them that the whole world belongs to Hashem, as Hashem can take away land from one nation and give it to another.
Now, the simple question can be asked - why should the Torah worry about what to answer the non-Jewish nations? If they are anti-Semitic, the most logical answer won't matter to them, even as they themselves are guilty of the very same things that they accuse of us Jews of and more. Even for most of them, when the Bible in the form of the Old Testament should make it most clear to them about our G-d given right to specific boundaries of Israel, they somehow make an exception when it comes to us, and stand side-by-side with the Moslem world, who for the large part don't have respect for Christians either, whose ultimate wish is for us Jews to be thrown into the sea and our Israel being taken over by the worshipers of the false Allah god (believe it or not, Allah is NOT Hashem/G-d but based on paganism). And so, why would the Torah consider what to answer people who are blinded by hatred and jealousy of the Chosen Nation?
The truth is that yes, there will be those non-Jews who will always hate us and twist things around as though we are the aggressors while Arabs attempting to rid us Jews with suicide bombings, rocket attacks, rock throwing, etc. which the biased media claims is the result of our "aggression" of the "Palestinians", even as the Israeli government dictatorship can hardly wait to please these Arabs who really belong to one of 22 countries outside of Israel by sending humanitarian aid on a regular basis to the Arabs in Gaza, along with its better treatment of Arabs within Israel, granting them all types of rights and benefits that many poor Jews to this day are not able to receive under the same financial circumstances. However, there are many people out there who wouldn't necessarily go out of their way to attack Israel with false or misleading reporting, but simply believe what they see and hear in the media. Indeed, the media is a most brainwashing tool to make people believe what the reporters want them to believe, but for many out there, if only they would be fed with the correct information, they would be far more likely to want to be on our side. Hence, there is tremendous potential of showing people of all nationalities the truth about our Torah and the Jewish people, which results at times of non-Jews deserting everything behind them to become Jewish.
With this said, there is a tremendous responsibility on the part of reporters to not only stay away from lies and prejudices in their reporting, but to actively take a leading role in promoting the truth. Sure, even if some of these reporters happen to like Jews and report the news without bias, quite often, they could either be warned or fired by their boss for promoting Zionism that hurts "Palestinians". But the point is that partly if not mostly due to the media, the Israeli government does just the opposite of what a normal country would do to protect its immediate citizens practicing the official religion of the country, and far worse, instead give in so much to the Arabs, to the extent of having released less than a year ago over 1,000 Arab terrorists for one Israeli soldier named Gilad Shalit who suffered much mental trauma for over five years. For after all, the game is about fearing world opinion, making a good impression on world opinion, but it will never make world opinion love us anymore, as an anti-Semitic reporter for the BBC, following the Disengagement of some 9,000 Jews from Gush Katif and Gaza seven years ago and the Arabs gleefully desecrating the synagogues that the Jews were forced to leave behind, said that this was land that Israel "stole" from the Palestinians for 38 years (since 1967). Now, had the Disengagement not taken place, she would probably had not wound up saying such a statement, even though in fact, Israel legally and lawfully won our Bible owned land back from the Arabs in 1967, and its government gave it back for the sake of peace even though the Arabs had proven that every time they are given land or autonomy, they continue with just the opposite of peace - more like pieces of Jewish bodies from suicide bombings.
Now, getting back to Mike Wallace, he shares the same Yahrzeit, if you will, as another vicious anti-Semite - Haman - Yemach Shemo V'Zichro (may his name and memory be wiped out) of the Purim story. In fact, when Haman discovered Mordechai studying with his students the laws of the Omer offering that was brought on the 16th of Nissan, he already realized that Mordechai's small amount of meal offering conquered Haman's offer of 10,000 Shekel to King Achashverosh to murder all the Jews. And it was just a matter of so many hours, and Haman was hung by orders of the king on the very gallows that Haman prepared for Mordechai on the selfsame date of 16 Nissan. In fact, Haman's death on this date is hinted in the Torah, for another way of reading his name is Ha-Man - the manna, which in fact ceased on the 16th of Nissan following the Jews' entry to Israel (as per the books of Exodus and Joshua).
And so for more than one reason, we see that the death of Mike Wallace, Yemach Shemo V'Zichro, a follower of Haman who also reported evil about Jews, that took place on 16 Nissan, is most significant. Oh yes, some will say that unlike for non-Jews, we are not allowed to say such derogatory terms about Jews to curse their name and memory. But I am not the first one to do this. You see, in a speech on the fifth day of Chanuka 5749, shortly after Rabbi Meir Kahane, may his blood be avenged, was banned from the Knesset following winning 12 seats for his Kach party, gave a speech to his Yeshiva (Yeshivat Ha'Rayon) in which he stated that it is an obligation and Mitzva to state after mentioning the name of Yosi Sarid, a left wing Israeli politician Yemach Shemo V'Zichro, as per the Talmud which states that one who mentions the name of a wicked person, but does not curse his name and memory, violates a Mitzvat Aseh (Positive/Active Commandment).
In any case, it has been said that the present president of Iran is a Gilgul (reincarnate) of Haman. So, it is not all that surprising that the evil Mike Wallace, who praised this most evil person who already threatened to wipe Israel off the map, should die on the same Hebrew date as Haman.
One more thing that I would like to comment about this self hating Jew is about his last name. In Hebrew, it can be spelled as Vav, Aleph, Lamed, Aleph, Samech, which is the Gematria of 98. This is also the Gematria of the word Chetz (arrow), for words of Lashon Hara (evil speech such as slander or libel) shoot far as an arrow. In Wallace's case, his evil words about Israel, including Rabbi Meir Kahane whom he villified to no end, no doubt had their share in influencing world opinion of millions of viewers of both non-Jews and non-observant Jews as himself all through his years of reporting and interviewing over a period of sixty years, acquiring such a bundle load of Aveirot (sins) consisting of a NICE, COUPLE DOZENS OF SINS FOR EACH WORD OF LASHON HORA for every broadcast or interview that he had pertaining to Jews or enemies of Jews! And since the sin of Lashon Hora is the most enormous of sins in stark contrast to the greatest Mitzva of learning/teaching Torah of which each word of Torah is worth more than all the other Mitzvot of the Torah combined, there are few Jews walking the planet who acquired more sins than Mike Wallace, whose evil words spread throughout the world instantaneously. No doubt that at this time, he is burning in Hell together with his buddy Haman. And the fact that he was not born into a religious family is no excuse - because even if he didn't the chance to learn of his beautiful Jewish heritage in his youth, at least he didn't have to go out of his way to say evil of Jews or praise of anti-Semites, having a very specific agenda instead of a more balanced opinion of sometimes one way and sometimes another way. Indeed, there are no excuses for evil people who choose very specifically to hate their own people or country within the Jewish faith. Period!
And as we know what it states in Proverbs 11:10 - U'Va'avod Reshoim Rina "When the wicked perish, there is jubilation." And while some will be quicker to tell me that this is forbidden to be applied to Jews then the lack of justice and double standards that occurs in media reporting about Jews and Israel, I certainly agree that for Jews who basically didn't lead observant lives but for the most part minded their own business,
we do not say any such derogatory statements, and perhaps not even for eating a ham sandwich on Yom Kippur. However, when a Jew who not only does not follow his faith, but smears others publicly of doing so or degrading Jews in the eyes of the world, there is no doubt that Mike Wallace had an agenda that he so chose on his own, rather than attempting to live the type of life that Hashem expects us Jews to live.
So, while Mr. Wallace may have followed what his bosses at work wanted him to say or not say, he certainly didn't give a damn as to what the Big Boss wanted him to say or not say, having not only used his time at "60 Minutes"" to slander and defame Jews, Israel and Zionism, but wasted a period of 60 such years doing so, just the opposite of the Mitzva of Talmud Torah which is based on saying words of Torah using every spare minute (or moment) possible, being represented by the "SIXTY Tractates of the Talmud" (there are actually a total of 63 tractates, but I have discussed this in the past in my blog). If Mr. Wallace wouldn't have been busy villifying Rabbi Meir Kahane so much, perhaps he would have learned a thing or two from him - literally; for Rabbi Kahane used to say that a Jewish Gehenom (Hell) is one which one realizes at the end of his life as to what a life that he wasted, in stark contrast to a Jewish Gan Eden (Heavenly Bliss) which is one that he realizes at the end of his life as to the productive life that he led.
The bottom line about Mike Wallace's death in relationship to the Sephira is that the ultimate purpose of counting the 49 days of the Sephira is for us to realize the value of time, for this is our most valuable asset for getting our foot in the Gan Eden door, but this can only be possible is if we perform the purpose for which we were sent to this world for. Yes, we were sent to this world to work, which in Hebrew is either called Avoda or Melacha. As per the first word Avoda in Jewish performance, this means serving Hashem in the general sense as Avodat Hashem; and more specifically, to prayer of offerings in the Temple, including the Omer offering that was offered on the 16th of Nissan, which we count as the first day of the Omer in the Sephira period. And it was on this very date upon the Jews' entry into Israel that the daily manna no longer was available, for from this point and on, it was meant for the Jewish people to start working the land, particularly the Holy Land, reminding us of our mission in this world while we are standing on the physical land, and that we are not always to get spoon fed like being fed the manna, which was only a spiritual preparation for when we would learn to do everything on our own, which included fighting the nations invading the land under the leadership of Joshua for seven years, rather than rely on miracles without doing anything on our part.
TISHA B'AV - RELATIONSHIP TO THE REDEMPTION AND THE SEPHIRA PERIOD
If you have noticed lately, there has been more talk than ever about this coming Tisha B'Av, or at least this month of Av, being the time for Moshiach's coming. Now, while I am not here to make predictions, there is something striking about the letters of the words used for this date that cannot be denied. You see, if you rearrange the letters of the words "Tisha B'Av", it reads Av (Aleph, Beit/Veit) 5772 (Hei, Tav, Shin, Ayin, Beit)! No other year will come out to this type of combination (except going back in history reversing the letters Hei and Beit of the year to read 2775). And as our rabbinic literature tells us, Moshiach was born on Tisha B'Av; meaning, that the potential of Moshiach coming began on this date when the Beit HaMikdash (Temple) was destroyed, had the Jews only done Teshuva (repentance). And it is true that it has been reported that Rabbi Yitzchak Kadury, ZT"L, the elder of the Kabbalists until his passing in 5766 (2006) over a 100 years old, that he told his Chavruta (learning partner) that Moshiach will be arriving in Av 5772.
One year ago, I wrote on this blog about the relationship of the Bein HaMetzarim "Three Weeks" that id from the date of the fast of 17 Tammuz until Tisha B'Av of the 70 years of the Babylonian exile following the destruction of the first Temple, and from the destruction of the second Temple until today, coming out to very close to 116 years, corresponding to the 116 years that the Jews were slaves in Mitzrayim (Egypt), Now, note that I wrote "until Tisha B'Av", which if it were to enter the equation, it would come out to more than a total of 116 years. But the reason why ironically, Tisha B'Av is not entered into this equation, even though this was the date that the worst tragedies happened to the Jewish people, is because this date because the very first date of hope, but the rest is dependent on us to change our fate for the good.
The Shulchan Orach (Code of Jewish Law) in the section of Orach Chaim Chapter 428, uses a way to recall the other holidays of the year from the first six days of Passover, being that any given holiday falls out on the same day of the week as the corresponding day of Passover, either beforehand or afterwards. And so for the first day of Passover, it corresponds to the following Tisha B'Av that falls out on the same day of the week. This is especially symbolized with the egg that we have on the first night of Passover at the Seder reminding us of the Chagiga offering (offered on the Shalosh Regalim/Pilgrimage Festivals) that was often offered together with the Korban Pesach (Pascal Offering) that used to be eaten on that very evening. But aside from this, we also eat an egg right before Tisha B'Av as food that mourners eat since we are about to mourn the destruction of the two Temples beginning on this evening (but not this year since we begin the fast of Tisha B'Av at sunset nearing the conclusion of Shabbat, which is a day that we don't display outward signs of mourning). And the significance of the egg in relationship to mourners is that since it is round, it symbolizes the world that is also round (which we knew in Judaism all along for thousands of years before the non-Jews first woke up to this being even a possibility) in which people's fortunes can change from rich to poor (or vice-versa) and from life to death.
With this said, just as the first day of Passover was the date of our first Redemption, so it can be said at least as a possibility that Tisha B'Av will be the date of our final Redemption, which can very well take place on this Shabbat which is the actual date of 9 Av (Tisha B'Av), which then means that we will not even need to fast the following day as we normally do when the actual date of Tisha B'Av falls out on Shabbat, since once the Redemption happens, we will not have any more need to fast and mourn on Tisha B'Av.
Following this, we see a pattern. You see, just as we have the seven days of Passover from the Torah of which the first and seventh days are Yom Tov (holiday) on which we are forbidden to do most types of labor as on Shabbat, and it was on the seventh day of Passover that the Jews had their final aspect of the first Redemption with escaping the Egyptians chasing after them, who drowned in the Reed Sea instead, celebrating this occasion with song, the first of the ten Songs of the Torah; so too, we see that there are seven days from Tisha B'Av through Tu B'Av (15 Av), a day of a number of happy events happening to the Jewish people in stark contrast to the ill fated day of Tisha B'Av. and as related to the final Redemption, we will be singing the tenth and final of the ten Songs of the Torah. For in fact, it is mentioned in Chasidishe sources that the final phase of the Redemption from Egypt for the Jews on the seventh day of Passover corresponds to the final Redemption. And as hinted in the Torah (Exodus 13:4): Hayom Atem Yotzim B'Chodesh Ha'Aviv "Today you are leaving (Egypt) in the month of the spring (Nissan)". Now, in Biblical times, the month of Nissan was referred to as Aviv, which is the Gematria of 15, as it hints to the 15th of Nissan, the date of the Exodus. Moreover, taking the letters of the final word of this verse - Ha'Aviv (the spring), it can be rearranged to spell B' Yud-Hei Av "in 15 Av'" (Note: While today, we spell the date as Teit-Vav rather than Yud-Hei so as to avoid spelling Hashem's name so it shouldn't be destroyed even accidentally, the actual spelling of the number 15 in Hebrew is Yud-Hei)! So as you can see - BOTH Tisha B'Av and Tu B'Av relate to our final Redemption, the same way as the first and last day of the seven days of Passover. Coincidence?
Now, just as we have the seven weeks of Sephirat HaOmer until the climax day of Shavuot when we received the Torah; so too, we have what are called the Shivata D'Nechemata "Seven Haftarot of comfort", the section from Nevi'im (Prophets) that are read on the final seven Shabbatot of the year following Tisha B'Av. As it works out this year, the seven periods of seven days each for both the Sephira period and the seven weeks in which we read these selected Haftarot begin on the first day of the week and concludes on Shabbat.
Now, as Chasidishe sources state, the three Shabbatot before (the fast of) Tisha B'Av (in this case is the 10th of Av when we actually fast) correspond to the Shalosh Regalim. Hence, this past Shabbat when we read the Parshiyot of Matot-Masei corresponds to Shavuot. Now in some years, when these two Parshiyot are read separately, Parshat Matot is read on the first Shabbat, and Parshat Mas'ei alone is read on the second Shabbat; hence, Parshat Mas'ei is ALWAYS read on the second Shabbat.
With this said, we see the list of the 42 journeys that the Jews went through in the wilderness beginning with the Exodus that is mentioned with the date of the "15th day of the first in the beginning of Parshat Mas'ei. And as I have mentioned quite a few times in the past, the word Bam that is mentioned in the verses pertaining to Talmud Torah is the Gematria of 42. So as you can see, Parshat Masei is very related to Shavuot, Zeman Matan Torateinu "the time of the Giving of the Torah".
With this said, one of the prayers that we recite following counting the Omer is the Ana B'Koach prayer, composed by Rabbi Nechunya Ben HaKanah, consisting of 42 words, each beginning with one of the 42 lettered name of Hashem. As related to the Sephira, there are seven lines to this prayer - the six words in any given line corresponding to the first six days of the corresponding Sephira week, which we bear in mind in our Kavanot (intentions) of our counting the Sephira of any particular day, and then having in mind the combination of the beginning letters of the six words on the seventh day of the particular Sephira week.
Now, what I want to do, is to list the 49 days of the Sephira along with the corresponding day of the seven weeks following Tisha B'Av (9 Av). We will see if there are any other connections of the corresponding days, just as we see a connection between the 6th day of the Omer which is the seventh day of Passover (21 Nissan) to the 15th of Av. Here we go:
1) 16 Nissan-10 Av
2) 17 Nissan-11 Av
3) 18 Nissan-12 Av
4) 19 Nissan-13 Av
5) 20 Nissan-14 Av
6) 21 Nissan-15 Av
7) 22 Nissan-16 Av
8) 23 Nissan-17 Av
9) 24 Nissan-18 Av
10)25 Nissan-19 Av
11)26 Nissan-20 Av
12)27 Nissan-21 Av
13)28 Nissan-22 Av
14)29 Nissan-23 Av
15)30 Nissan-24 Av
16) 1 Iyar-25 Av
17) 2 Iyar-26 Av
18) 3 Iyar-27 Av
19) 4 Iyar-28 Av
20) 5 Iyar-29 Av
21) 6 Iyar-30 Av
22) 7 Iyar-1 Elul
23) 8 Iyar-2 Elul
24) 9 Iyar-3 Elul
25)10 Iyar-4 Elul
26)11 Iyar-5 Elul
27)12 Iyar-6 Elul
28)13 Iyar-7 Elul
29)14 Iyar-8 Elul
30)15 Iyar-9 Elul
31)16 Iyar-10 Elul
32)17 Iyar-11 Elul
33)18 Iyar-12 Elul
34)19 Iyar-13 Elul
35)20 Iyar-14 Elul
36)21 Iyar-15 Elul
37)22 Iyar-16 Elul
38)23 Iyar-17 Elul
39)24 Iyar-18 Elul
40)25 Iyar-19 Elul
41)26 Iyar-20 Elul
42)27 Iyar-21 Elul
43)28 Iyar-22 Elul
44)29 Iyar-23 Elul
45)1 Sivan-24 Elul
46)2 Sivan-25 Elul
47)3 Sivan-26 Elul
48)4 Sivan-27 Elul
49)5 Sivan-28 Elul
O.K., did you see any connections here? I did. Well, the major tragedy of 9/11 took place on 23 Elul. And while it was by burning, rather than being murdered with blood literally being spilled, that took place for the few thousand people, the Torah called murdering "spilling of blood". You see, 23 Elul corresponds to the 44th day of the Sephira, and at least as far as the number is considered, the Gematria of the word Dam (blood) is 44. And as we all know (except for the twisted mind of the anti-Semitic Mel Gibson's father who asserts his claim that the crashing of the Twin Towers happened via a remote control), this was performed by Moslem extremist terrorists, this happening during the presidency of the 43rd president of the United States, George Bush, Jr. Following him, is the present 44th president of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, WHO IS THE FIRST MOSLEM PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!
Now, while liberal, Democrat irreligious Jews will scream that I am prejudiced, and that he is really Christian, the only part of this that is true is that outwardly, he pretends to be one to be "politically correct". Actually, there is a connection between these two religions if you can them that, because the Moslem religion believes that the false Christian god, while it doesn't consider him a god, does consider him to be a prophet.
Now, just as his predecessor, Mohammed Hosni Mubarak, former president of Egypt, the present president of Egypt's name also begins with Mohammed as Mohammed Morsi. It's interesting to note that recently, the Temple Institute came out with a video entitled "The Children are Ready", in which children are building the Temple out of sand. But the part that caught the attention of the present Egyptian president is when the father of the children sees what they built, he drops the newspaper he was reading which shows a picture of this president. Needless to say, Morsi and his Arab country had a field day protesting what they called smearing his name and all. Well, whether or not this was intentionally done, there is truth to this, for even though the Arabs living in Egypt today aren't necessarily descendants of the Egyptians at the time of the Exodus, Egypt is the ultimate anti-thesis of Jerusalem and the Temple. In fact, as we recite in one of the Kinot (dirges) of Tisha B'Av, we mention the good that we had upon our Exodus from Egypt, and then the stark contrast of the troubles that we had upon our exit/exile from Jerusale, including the loss of our spiritual benefits of the Jerusalem based Temple. For indeed, as the word for Egypt in Hebrew - Mitzrayim itself indicates, it means "limitations" as Metzarim of the Bein HaMeitarim period which I mentioned earlier corresponds to the 116 years of the slavery of the Jews in Egypt.
But it doesn't stop there. You see, even though Mohammed Morsi may be a die-harded Moslem, his last name Morsi, when spelled in Hebrew as Mem-Vav-Reish-Samech-Yud, it is the same Gematria as the name that we call the false Christian god Yeishu (316), which is actually the acronym for Yemach Shemo V'Zichro! And literally as the anti-thesis, for when we spell the number 316 backwards, it reads 613 - the number of the Mitzvot (Commandments) of the Torah! In fact, one of the 613 Mitzvot is not to return to Egypt to live.
Now, we see in the Torah that Esav, the evil brother of Jacob, who represents Edom, married a daughter of Yismael, who mother Hagar was a princess of the Pharaoh of Egypt in the time of Abraham, and himself married an Egyptian, and is the ancestor of the Arab race. And as mentioned in Kabbalistic sources, Yeishu who was an apostate Jew, is a Gilgul (reincarnate) of Esav, the first apostate Jew (being born to his Jewish mother Rebecca, unlike Yishmael whose mother Hagar was not Jewish). Moreover, it has been mentioned that Obama is a reincarnate of the Pharaoh in the time of the Exodus. And so as you can see the connections here, it is the same spiritually contaminated Egypt as it was thousands of years ago at the time of the Exodus.
Oh, a correction here. The Arabs ARE descendants of the Egyptians. In fact, they come straight from the royalty of Egypt, since their ancestor is Hagar, who was the daughter of one of the Pharaohs. And presumably, Yishmael's children and descendants are from his Egyptian wife. And so, on the spiritual contaminated side, it is not surprising that the FIRST Arab country that the Israeli government made "peace" with was with Egypt, which included giving back the Sinai to the control of Egypt, totally ignoring or forgetting that the idea is that Sinai, representing the Torah which was given on Mt. Sinai is supposed to be ABOVE Egypt literally, NOT UNDER it, for in fact, the FIRST of the "Ten Commandments" that were given on Mt. Sinai was "I am Hashem your G-d who brought you from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery", which took place on Shavuot, which corresponds to the 29th of Elul, the FINAL day of the Jewish year. Indeed, this is from Aleph, which begins the "Ten Commandments", to Tav - the FINAL letter of the Hebrew Alphabet, bearing in mind that the last letter of the words for the number 29 - Chaf Teit (Chaf, Phei Sophit, Teit, Yud, Tav) of the date of the FINAL day of the Hebrew year, is Tav. And another way of looking at this, the FIRST letter Aleph is the FIRST letter of the month of Elul, the LAST month of the Hebrew year, and the LAST letter Tav is the LAST letter of the name of the holiday Shavuot/Atzeret, on which we received the Torah, this word BEGINNING with Tav, beginning with the Aseret HaDibrot "Ten Commandments", both words ENDING with Tav.
ON THE WAY TO REDEMPTION...
It's most interesting to note that this very Shabbat Chazon - Tisha B'Av is the LAST Shabbat of the 12th cycle of the Daf Yomi cycle. Now, my next post #150 will be focused on this topic, particularly about the upcoming 13th cycle of Daf Yomi, which we hope to begin with the coming of Moshiach. But in any case, there is a connection here of the Haftora for Shabbat Chazon to the Talmud.
It is the LAST verse of this Haftora (Isaiah 1:27) - Tziyon B'Mishpat Tipadeh V'Shaveha B'Tzedaka "Zion will be redeemed with justice, and her captives with charity". As mentioned by the Vilna Gaon in his Sefer Divrei Eliyahu, the two phrases of this verse have the corresponding Gematriot of the names of the two Talmuds. Tzion B'Mishpat Tipadeh is the Gematria of Talmud Yerushalmi (Jerusalem Talmud) - 1076, and V'Shaveha B'Tzedaka is the Gematria of Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud) - 524, the latter Talmud being the one that is the more commonly studied Talmud, and whenever the phrase Daf Yomi is mentioned, it refers specifically to this Talmud.
Speaking of the number 524 as related to the Talmud Bavli, the 524th Mitzva of the Torah is for the Beit Din (Jewish court) to give false witnesses the same punishment that they attempted to get someone else in trouble with; unless it is a situation in which it is not possible to give the same punishment, such as disqualifying them from being Cohanim even though they attempted to do so to someone else, but instead receive lashes. This is the very beginning of the Tractate Makkot (which literally means beatings), and in the Talmud Bavli, consists of 23 Dafim, just as it states in the beginning of Tractate Sanhedrin that 23 judges are needed to judge cases of punishment of lashes. And as related to this period of time of the Three Weeks which technically comes out to 23 days, beginning with 17 Tammuz and ending on 10 Av when we continue to observe signs of mourning until the afternoon (however this year, unlike Moshiach comes on Tisha B'Av, we continue the mourning following the fast on the night of 11 Av, just as the fast of 17 Tammuz this year was on the following date of 18 Tammuz, making this still 23 days). Moreover, the word Makkot is the same Gematria as my namesake Shimon - 466, and the corresponding tribe for the month of Av is Shimon. Of course, the connection between the name of the tractate and the month of Av or the period of the Three Weeks is quite obvious, because this is the period of time (in terms of Av, the first third of the month) that we Jews had the worst tragedies, or "beatings". And as this tractate in the Gemara concludes with a story of how foxes were entering the ruins of the Temple when the other rabbis with Rabbi Akiva were crying witnessing this while Rabbi Akiva was laughing because this meant that the bad prophecy of this happening came true, leading to a good prophecy of the restoration of the Temple that needs to be fulfilled accordingly, with the rabbis telling him back - the concluding words of the Tractate - Akiva Nichamtanu, Akiva Nichamtanu "Akiva, you have comforted us. Akiva, you have comforted us", reminiscent of the beginning words of the Haftara for the Shabbat following Tisha B'Av - Nachamu Nachamu "Be comforted, be comforted".
And as we see a parallel here between Talmud study with justice and charity, we see a strikingly a number of similar resemblences in terms of Gematria between Torah & kindness or love of Jews. It goes something like this:
611=Torah/Gemilut Chasadim (doing acts of kindness)
395=Mishna/Parnassa (livelihood)
806=Mishnayot/La'asot (to do, to take action)
480=Talmud/Ahavat Chesed (love of kindness)/Pat (bread)/480th Mitzva of Tzedaka
244=Gemara/244th Mitzva of Ahavat Yisrael (love of fellow Jew)
Think you get the idea. So, we need both Torah learning AND loving our Jewish brothers and sisters in order to merit and deserve the final Redemption. And as we see with the learning of Daf Yomi, it has enhanced BOTH Torah learning among masses of Jews AND has increased much unity among Jews all learning the same Talmud page every day throughout the world, including through methods of technology including the internet, since its inception nearly 89 years ago, bearing in mind that the word Pedeh (redeem), similar to the word Tipadeh in the concluding verse of the Haftara for this Shabbat, is the Gematria of 89, being presently in the 89th year of the learning of Daf Yomi.
And with this, I will conclude this post. I actually intended to write my following post, G-d willing, before Tisha B'Av, as Moshiach might come on this day, and then I don't know if and when I will be blogging again as things may totally change in terms of using the internet, or be extremely busy with Moshiach's coming, because of the lack of time; but with G-d's help, I hope to write my most special post on Daf Yomi in the upcoming 150th post.
With hope for the immediate Redemption that we have been waiting for in nearly 2,000 years. Let's find ways of repenting in starting to improve in some way in both increased Torah learning and loving our fellow Jews to be worthy of the benefits of both the upcoming Redemption and the Eternal Bliss. Before it is too late - NOW is the time to start doing this to get our foot in the door for all eternity...
6 Av, 5772
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