#157 - The DAMAGE of Not Learning from OLD History

For the beginning of this post, let me quote you headline features on top of the Google page when I am in the midst of spelling out the phrase Hurricane Sandy:

"Twelve days after Hurricane Sandy, residents of New York and New Jersey are still cold and in the dark".

"The lights are still out for 350,000 victims of Hurricane Sandy 12 days after it struck the U.S., and now residents are fearful of looters".

"Hurricane Sandy was the largest Atlantic hurricane on record..."

I will get into much more detail about the real reason why Hashem brought this hurricane at this time, but one thing that must be remembered is that this hurricane came virtually AT THE END OF THE HURRICANE SEASON.  But soon, I will point out more relevant reasons of the timing that most unfortunately, many Jews who are what we would call living a "Torah life" failed to learn and refuse to learn.  More on this a little later.

But first, let us get to the Parsha of this past week - Chayei Sara, as well as the Parsha of this new week - Toldot.  We see that the word or root of the word Zaken (old), is used in Parshat Chayei Sara - Avraham Zaken Ba Bayamim  "Abraham was old, coming in years..." (Genesis 24:1), and then in the very next verse - Vayomer Avraham El Avdo Zekan Beito  "Abraham said to his servant, the elder of his house...".  Is it really coincidence that in two consecutive verses, this wording of Zaken/Zekan is used in two different ways?

The truth is that the very first time in the Torah that this wording is used in mentioned in Parshat Vayeira, where it says that V'Avraham V'Sara Zekanim  "Abraham and Sara were old..." (Genesis 18:11) in reference to their being old, not having had children yet, but miraculously, Isaac was born to them when Abraham was 100, and Sara was 90.

As the Midrash tells us, until Abraham's time, there was no such thing as aging, at least not externally. It started when Abraham noticed that people started mixing him up with his son Isaac, because of their similar looks.  We may take it for granted today, for after all, as one ages, one's hair becomes white, the face starts getting wrinkled, etc.. but none of these thing happened for over 2,000,  until Abraham had enough with people mixing up the father and son, and he requested of Hashem to make a sign that would note the different look between the two of them.  Upon this, Hashem said, "Your are right. I will begin with you."  And so it was.

Now in the following verse, the Torah describes Abraham's servant as the elder of his household.  This could possible mean one of a few things - either the oldest of the household members, which in this case means other servants; the longest one to have been Abraham's servant; or the most distinguished one of the servants.

Perhaps it can be suggested that since Eliezer, Abraham's servant, was more than just a nice servant who faithfully worked for Abraham; he actually learned Torah from him, as Rashi notes in Parshat Lech Lecha when Abraham bemoans to Hashem that since he hasn't been granted children, the closest one to carry on his legacy is his servant rather than children.  But what we do see that Eliezer was not just an ordinary servant or slave.  We see in the long chapter of him finding a marriage match for Isaac, that Eliezer prayed to Hashem that things should work out that this should happen, and it was through Eliezer that Rebecca was brought to Isaac who became the future parents of Jacob, who in turn became the parent of the 12 Tribes of Israel, and the rest is history.

Now, let us turn to the midst of this week's Parshat Toldot - "It was when Isaac was old, and his eyes were weak from seeing...".  Rashi notes as one of the reasons for why he was blind (or was hard of seeing, depending on how the text can be translated), was due to the smoke and incense that his son Esau's evil wives offered to their idols.

The question can be asked, "If this was the case, then wasn't it obvious to everyone else that prolonged smoke from incense offered to the gods could cause blindness, especially to the ones who are actually offering the sacrifices?"

While I am not here to doubt the literal meaning of the verse in terms of Isaac's physical eyes, I think that herein lies a spiritual message.  You see, earlier in this Parsha, the Torah states that Isaac loved Esau and Rebecca loved Jacob.  Now, this does not necessarily mean that Isaac didn't love his other son Jacob; though since Esau was evil, it it quite possible that Rebecca did not have love for her son Esau.  In any case, as Rashi points out, Esau went out of his way to fool his father Isaac with his halachic questions that seemed to show to what extent Esau was "strict" with Jewish observance, when in fact, he was the furthest thing removed from it.  And so, when Isaac was about to grant his blessings of the firstborn which he meant to give to Esau the firstborn as he exited Rebecca's womb before Jacob, the Torah states specifically here that his eyes were weak from seeing; meaning, he was mentally blinded about Esau's spiritual condition, due to his fatherly love for him; and though in fact, Isaac knew for a fact that Esau was an animal hunter while Jacob was the one learning Torah all day, Isaac justified wanting to give these blessing to Esau, being that for all that he knew, Esau was still a good Jew as a working man, and perhaps, Esau could have even been the role model for the future Jews descendants, since after all, not everyone has it in them to learn or teach Torah all day, since everyone was born with different talents.  However, what Isaac was clearly blinded to was the fact that Esau was an animal hunter specifically because of his evil nature, along with his other perverted acts between idolatry, adultery, murder, and stealing.  And it was only because Rebecca who took quick action knowing what was going to take place that she got Jacob, Esau's twin, to be dressed in Esau's clothes, and come to Isaac for the blessings of the firstborn before Esau could return from the fields.

But before I move on, no doubt that people reading this will ask, "But wait, it states clearly in the verse before that Esau's wives caused a bitterness of spirit to Isaac and Rebecca; and in fact, mentioning Isaac's name before Rebecca, so how could Isaac not have known what Esau was like, being that both of his wives were not simply "irreligious Jews" who didn't know better, but as Rashi notes, ALL of their actions were to SPITE and ANTAGONIZE.  At the very least, we would think that Isaac would think twice before granting these eternal blessings to Esau, or have a good talk with him first before sending him to the fields to feed him, the elderly father, from the hunted animals which seemed to be the sole prerequisite for the blessings."

But as we see, if someone loves another, he will find virtually every excuse in the world to justify the latter's not so good social behavior, or despite the non desirable results of it that surrounds him.  And so as long as Esau himself never committed a sin in front of his father Isaac, despite everything else around him, and no doubt, Rebecca his wife must have kept trying to convince him about Esau's evil ways, Isaac simply didn't want to believe evil about his own son, for after all, they gave the best Jewish education in the world to their two sons.

Now, as far as Gematria is concerned, there are at least two Hebrew words that have the same letters as the Hebrew number 157, the number of this post - Zaken and Nezek (damage).  As we see in Isaac's case, when he became old, then the damage to his eyes became obvious.  But as I will shortly explain, there is an intrinsic connection between the ideas that these two words represent.


THE DAMAGE OF NOT LEARNING FROM HISTORY

The very last place in the Chumash (Penteteuch) that the wording of Zaken is used reads like this as the regular translation "Remember the days of yore, comprehend the years from generation to generation, ask your father and he will tell you, your elders - and they will say to you" (Deutronomy 32:7).  In recent times, the latter part of this verse has been interpreted a little differently, based on how the spiritual level of the Jewish people has been in recent times - "ask your father and he will tell you that your grandfather will say to you".  Meaning, when a child who doesn't know much about Judaism because he wasn't raised with it, but has a Judaism related question that he poses to his father, his father, though he may have been raised in a religious home, doesn't quite recall or know the answer to his son's question, and so he tells him to ask his own father, the boy's grandfather in turn, for at least the grandfather has always been an Orthodox Jew, and so he should know the answer to the question.

So how was this possible?  Meaning, how come there have been many Jews who were raised in an Orthodox Jewish home who did not maintain religious observance when they grew up?  After all, you can see that their parents are still the same Orthodox Jews that they were since their youth, except that they were born in Europe and now live for the large part in greater New York from the Lower East Side to one of the heimishe areas in Brooklyn.  But the problem for the large part was that while the grandfather of today was concerned some 60 or 70 years ago about praying in an Orthodox Jewish synagogue, he didn't give the same type attention for his son's Jewish education, and simply sent him to the local public school.  Or, as it was in some cases, the grandfather of today when he used to come home from work, complained about how hard it was to be an Orthodox Jew, and so, today's father when he grew up saw no reason to continue Jewish observance if it really is so hard to be that type of Jew.

Fortunately, much has been done in the way of Jewish education in the United States in the last half century.  However, the problem with this is that with time, too many Jews who seem to be living the observant way of life have felt quite comfortable staying in what they call JerUSAlem.  And the truth is that this type of feeling didn't start in the States, but long ago in Europe, especially in Germany when many Jews, who felt the same type of freedom as we do, or used to feel in the States, waxed fat and kicked at Hashem, some who left the "old fashioned" way of life to practice a rather watered down souped Judaism known as the Enlightment movement as one time, which later was called Reform Judaism in the States.  And then there were others who simply stopped living Jewish, wanting to live more like a German than the German themselves.  In fact, some of these Jews voted for Hitler, who made the difference for him to get elected in the position that he won, and the rest is history...

Now, let me turn to a piece of Gemara near the beginning of Tractate Makkot (2b), which is in the fourth volume of the Mishna called Nezikin (damages).  There is a rabbinical debate pertaining to a situation where an ox gored someone to death.  The Torah states that the owner of the killer ox has to pay what is called in Hebrew - Kopher (ransom).  As you can see, this word is similar to the word Kapara (atonement).  Now, the first debate, or at least what was first assumed, is that there is a difference among the rabbis if this is simply a monetary payment for the damages, which is based on the value of the worth of the now deceased guy, or a fine, or atonement payment, which is based on the value of the owner of the ox to serve as an atonement for him instead of being liable to death by Heaven for allowing his ox to kill someone.  As the debate is further discussed, it is assumed that really, everyone agrees that this is a fine payment, but the only question is according to whose value is the fine evaluated - the killed guy, or the killer ox owner.

Now, according to one opinion, the value of the fine is that of the injured party, which is based on a similarity of a word mentioned in this case in the Torah, as well as another case where two guys are fighting, and in the midst of this, one of them wound up accidentally punching a pregnant woman's stomach, causing her to miscarry where it is clear in this instance that they puncher pays the value of the dead fetus to the woman - which is the wording of what is called Hashata (imposition), the placing the obligation of payment.  Now, it is interesting to note that the Gematria of Nezek (damage) and Mazik (damager) have the same Gematria, for after all, it is the damager that does the damage, or there would be no damage to begin with.  The Hebrew word for damaged is Nizak - very similar to the word Nezek, which is the Gematria of 167, which is 10 more in numerical value that the other words Nezek and Mazik.  For in fact, the three first tractates of the volume of Nezikin - Bava Kama, Bava Metzia, and Bava Batra, each consist of 10 chapters of Mishna, though at one time, these three tractates were one long tractate, but was eventually divided into what they are today due to its lengthiness.

With this said, let us note the word Hashata - which consists of the Hebrew letters - Hei, Shin, Tav, Hei.  Amazingly, if we read this word backwards, this spells the Hebrew year 5705 - the year that the Holocaust ended.  For in fact, it was only after the Holocaust ended that the value of the damage already committed could first be evaluated.  And noting that this word Hashata is mentioned in Tractate Makkot, the name of this tractate in fact relates more to the name of the volume in which this is found than all the other tractates of this volume, as it means blows, referring to the lashes that a sinner received in a Jewish court for certain sins.

Now, there has been all kinds of discussions as to why Hashem brought on the Holocaust to the Jewish people.  Certainly, if we had done everything right, this would have never happened.  But I think that there is a hint here as to the underlying reason for the spiritual decline of the Jewish people that led to the Holocaust. You see, the word Kopher, which in the context here about the goring ox and gored victim, means atonement payment, actually has another meaning to it, though it is usually spelled with a Vav in the midst of this word for this latter meaning - denier, referring to a Jew who denies Hashem or Judaism.  As in fact, there was never a time in Jewish history until the Holocaust that there were so many Jews who either spat on what is real traditional Judaism and observed instead their own brand of what they called Judaism, or totally assimilated into the goyishe lifestyle - but not because of fear of punishment as what happened with Jews in Spain back several hundred years ago, but because of the plenty and freedom that they enjoyed, and they just in essence spat on Hashem, so to speak, and totally removed Him from the meaning of their lives.  And so, though of course a significant percentage of Jews murdered in the Holocaust were what we would call observant Jews, Hitler saw no practical difference between the observant Jews, and the totally secular Jew, for in fact, Hitler was right - both of them were no less Jews, and the proof is that both types of Jews were standing side by side in the gas chambers.

However, as much as an observant Jew can voice an opinion about another Jew who is Halachicly called a Kopher, perhaps this observant Orthodox Jew may also be a Kopher, denier within the realm of Judaism, though not overtly.  You see, the Torah commands us many times throughout the Chumash to live in the land that Hashem has promised us since the days that He promised the Holy Land to our Avot (Patriarchs).  True, you can't expect someone born in one country to just pick himself up one day and move to another country.  However, the eventual decision to move to Israel for a grown up person is hardly different than the decision for a non-observant Jew who wasn't raised with a whole lot of Judaism to make the decision to live a now very different lifestyle with no more Friday night movies and Saturdays on the beach, or exotic non-kosher food in a high class restaurant with one's co-employees in the business firm.  For in fact, both type of decisions are breaking away from one's present lifestyle, and now living a very different lifestyle - both in the name of Judaism, part of what Hashem wants us to do.

But today, there is a vast difference between the non-observant Jews of today who weren't raised with much Judaism and the non-observant Jews of a hundred years ago who became that way because they no longer wished to live the Judaism lifestyle.  You see, we can't be so quick to call a Jew who hardly had much Jewish education with the name of Kopher - denier, for he doesn't even know what Judaism really is to deny it, even if he doesn't want to have anything to do with it.  However, one who was raised with a solid Jewish education, including some who ran the nine miles to receive rabbinical ordination, should know very well that the Torah commands us to live in Israel.  True, one may not be able to do this right away for a number of reasons - elderly parents who can no longer travel, health problem within one's family, G-d forbid, that requires care in a United States hospital that specializes in the treatment of this, finishing up a college degree so then one can move to Israel and start work right away, etc.  And of course, there are those who are into Jewish outreach in the States, and indeed bring many Jews back into the fold, or philanthropists who give much Tzedaka from their work to organizations in Israel, and there is a rule in Judaism that one who is involved in one Mitzva is exempt from another.  Aside from these types of reasons, one who remains outside of Israel without any sort of plan or desire to move to Israel is in fact in a sense a Kopher, for he is in essence denying the Torah commanding us to live in Israel, and all the Torah learning with the Boro Park Shtibels or Lakewood Yeshivos cannot change this outright Torah commandment, and in fact, are at least living in spiritual danger, if not also in physical danger.

And so, while one may question as to why so many observant Jews perished in the Holocaust if the whole reason was because of those Jews who were deniers of Hashem and Judaism, a good percentage of these observant Jews had their chance to do the right thing when they were told to by rabbis and other Jews to pack up and move to Israel before it would be too late. In short, they too were deniers of an aspect of Judaism - and paid a heavy price for not heeding the call to move to Israel, and in too many instances, many Jewish families were totally wiped out.   As it turned out, Hitler attempted to get rid of the far fewer Jews living in what was then called Palestine, but because of their much higher spiritual level and commitment to Judaism, Hitler did not wind up torturing or murdering even one Jew in Israel.

Now, fast forward some 70 years later.  Hurricane Sandy, the Atlantic Ocean hurricane recorded having done the greatest Nezek, hits major observant Jewish populated areas - some lost their homes with just about all their belongings, while others are only suffering from the cold and darkness due to the lack of electricity. I say "only suffering" because it is only when we see others who are suffering even worse do we consider ourselves a little lucky.  But, this was not the case with some of the Sifrei Torah (Torah Scrolls), the holiest object in Judaism, which were totally ruined from the hurricane floods.  The town of Lakewood for the most part, the home to the famed big Lakewood Yeshiva, along with dozens of others Yeshivos, was left without electricity.

And the reaction?   One writes to his fellow brothers and sisters in what is called the Torah community in Lakewood that we have to make a Cheshbon HaNefesh "accounting of the soul", to do Teshuva, not to be involved so much in Gashmiyut (materialism).   A famed Rebbetzin writes about the warning signs that Hashem gives us, the bizarre things that have happened even in the States, makes observations from both the Parsha and Tehillim (Psalms) related to the timing of the hurricane for her timely message.

However, both of these what you would call well meaning Jews who seem to truly care about learning a lesson from what Hashem is attempting to teach us actually missed the boat - big time.  Of course it's quite understandable, neither of them are living in Israel, though I am not here to judge them for their reasons for not doing so.  However, unless one is at least attempting to do everything right, it is a little hard to tell others to move to Israel if one is not doing so himself or herself.  As far as I am concerned, it is better not to write any wake up call messages if one is not going to be honest if one's own spiritual standing, because writing such messages will do far more harm than good, hiding the essence of what Hashem really wants to tell us.  These messages that the above ones wrote can in fact be called falsehood, because these messages are PREVENTING other Jews from obeying the SCREAMING MESSAGE that Hashem is telling Jews in the States "MOVE OUT OF HERE WHILE YOU CAN AND SETTLE IN ISRAEL!"  You see, the hurricane began its path close to the inlands during the week of Parshat Lech Lecha, the name of this Parsha meaning "GET YOURSELF OUT", the context of Hashem telling Abraham to leave his land, his birthplace, and his parents' home, to move to Israel - even as his aged father was alive, and Abraham would not be around for his papa's senior years until his passing.

The proof that I am correct - a mother interviewed her autistic son named Moishela who, through typing, gave over the message that the main message that Hashem gave through this hurricane was addressing the JEWS IN THE DIASPORA, noting that the United States is not a friendly country to Jews anymore.  He continued on stating that although Israel is presently run by the same type of evil people who are ruling the United States; at least in Israel, Hashem will listen to the prayers of those who cry out to Him and they will be protected.  Of course, there is much more vital information that this autistic child has for us, in lieu of the distorted sermons that others will deliver to cover up the commandment to live in Israel, but for this, you can turn to shiratdevorah.blogspot.com.  Indeed, it is as if Moshe Rabbeinu - Moishela - is speaking to us once again - except that this may be the very last authentic message that the Jewish people will receive before what will soon happen that will be called doomsday that will G-d forbid kill 99% of the present Jewish population as I wrote about in my previous post.

And so as you can see, even Jews who are supposedly living an observant Jewish way of life have not learned from the same history that happened within the last 100 years before the Holocaust when they were told to move out of Europe due to upcoming bad times.

But then again, we can look at the totally of last week's voters in the United States - who certainly did not learn from history - not only from Obama's hideous past and challenges as to where he was even born, but his handling of domestic affairs in his past four years - doubling the U.S. debt to 16 trillion - twice the amount of what it was before he came on the scene, 21 million unemployed Americans, and a few other "nice" goodies.  You can bet that some of these unemployed Americans still voted for Obama - for after all, the economy was already bad before he became president, it was really the fault of other people that this happened while he tried his best to stop it, there is only so much any one person can do, etc.  ad nauseam, though of course he only deployed major companies early on in his presidency, and pretended to care about health care for the people when in essence, he was doing just the opposite with his proposed policies.  And then of course, there are the liberal Jews who voted for him, so they wouldn't appear to be "racist".  Oh yes, we can't forget the irreligious, self-hating billionaire Jew Michael Bloomberg, who is the cause of others to sin by having worked on a bill to allow gay marriages in New York and presided over such a ceremony of two Jewish gays who work for him, having been mayor of New York City for way too long, who praised Obama for his efforts in his so called help in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy; while Guiliani, former mayor of New York City, who lowered the crime rate in the biggest city of the United States, and truly helped people in the 9/11 aftermath, criticized Obama for his obvious failure to help in the hurricane aftermath.  And so, despite Republican candidate Romney's good and clean record, Obama had a few too many votes for himself once again.  But this time, you can expect total chaos, for he now doesn't have to appear good to get re-elected, as there is no third legal term for a United States president, pending martial law that may allow him to be president for life.  And mark my words - Romney was really the winner of the United States election, while Obama is the big zero, but most unfortunately, it will take four more years for much of the American public to realize this.

Indeed, there is no logic how Obama was able to get so many more votes than Romney, with all the negative publicity that circulated about Obama during his four-year term, though there are many evil people who would rather see Obama be president once again, even to their own detriment, being brainwashed by his evil charisma, and not wishing to appear "racist".  For certainly, even if only all the blacks of the United States would have voted for Obama, he would not have had the majority of the votes.   And for the rest of the country who are strictly Democrats, they will believe whatever someone evil like Democratic president Obama will tell them, even if they would know of counterproof evidence of his statements.

The ultimate thing that makes sense here is that Hashem sometimes uses evil people to accomplish something for the long-term.  Indeed, it has been said before Obama became elected the first time that he will be THE Gog of the Gog U'Magog which will attempt to attack Israel, as prophesied in the Book of Ezekiel, his last name being encoded spelled equidistantly in this very part of the Tanach (Bible) about the Gog U'Magog war.  For in fact, he is the 44th United States President, and the word Dam (blood) is the Gematria of 44.  And as the number 44 consists of two of the number four, it makes sense that just as he was elected as president for four years once, it was meant for him to be re-elected as president for the second term of four years.  No other number will indicate this.  This means that everything happened in term of the presidency in the last over 200 years so that Obama as the 44th U.S. president will be THE LEADER to be Gog U'Magog, to come to Israel to attempt to G-d forbid cause bloodshed to Jews for "occupying" the land that the nations of the world want the Arabs to take over as Palestine.  In short, this is Hashem pulling the strings, so that while it seems that if anything, Obama should have had minus zero chance to attempt to be president to begin with due to his massive shady past, via help through the evil Democrats in charge, he marched straight to the White House, and used his evil charisma to brainwash the United States to vote for him once more.


SABBATH REST FOLLOWING OUR PAST TROUBLES?

Fortunately, the answer to this question is rather when than if.  It may take a little longer than we have long hoped for in terms of Hashem's eternal salvation, at least for the good Jews, but certainly, it will happen.

We see that in the Daf Yomi of the daily study of a folio of Talmud being in the midst of Tractate Shabbat, as with all tractates in the Babylonian Talmud, it begins with Daf 2.  Hence, while it has 156 Dafim (which I mentioned in my previous post), it ends on Daf 157.  And as I mentioned earlier, 157 is the Gematria of the word Zaken.

Now, on the phrase in the Torah - V'Hadarta Pnei Zaken - "Give respect to the old" (Leviticus 19:32), our rabbis tell us that the word Zaken is a contraction of the words - Zeh Shekana Chachma "This one who has acquired wisdom".  And indeed, one who has true wisdom, is one who is a Zaken, rather than one who is not, and hence, can cause more Nezek (damage) than good with his so called messages calling on Jews to repent if he doesn't avail himself and open himself up to the true wisdom that the Torah wishes to relate to us.  For in fact, this word Nezek has the same letters as the word Zaken, for in fact, they are totally opposites of each other, the difference between the words being the order that these letters are placed, having the same letters as the Hebrew number 157.  In fact, such a person, even with the best of intentions, can be called a Mazik (damager) which is the same Gematria as the word Nezek (damage).

Now, in the section of the Torah about the sacrifices for the various holidays, this includes the sacrifices for the Sabbath, on which we are otherwise forbidden to light a fire, unlike with other holidays, other than Yom Kippur, when we are at least allowed to light something from an already existing fire.  However, in the Temple, there were sacrifices that were brought especially for the Sabbath, for which fire was created to begin with on the Sabbath day to offer these sacrifices, being most ironic to the concept of the prohibition of lighting a fire on the Sabbath day.

Anyways, this section about the Sabbath sacrifices begins with - U'VeYom HaShabbat  - "On the Sabbath day..."  (Numbers 28:9).  Now, looking at the word HaShabbat, consisting of the letters Hei-Shin-Beit-Tav, these are the same letters that make up the Hebrew year 5702.  For it was in this year, in the midst of the Holocaust, that the discussion of the Final Solution, which was in a meeting between who were called the best and brightest of the Reich, took place.  For most unfortunately, instead of this Hebrew year being part of the rest of the final redemption, it was a time that major Jewish sacrifices took place, who were literally what we would say, lambs to the slaughter, just as the Sabbath animal sacrifices in the Temple consisted of two lambs.

Now, take the word Nezikin, which is plural for the Hebrew word for damages, the name of the fourth of the six volumes of the Mishna.  In this instance, the Gematria of the plural word is 70 more than the singular word.  This is not the case with most differences between singular and plural words in Hebrew.

Coincidence?  You see, relating the the fact that Tractate Shabbat of the Babylonian Talmud ends on Daf 157, the number being the Gematria of Nezek, and as related to the word HaShabbat in the section in the Torah about the animal sacrifices for Shabbat, which consists of the same letters as the Hebrew year in which intensified efforts via the Final Solution took place in the Nazis' attempt to murder all the Jews, let us fast forward 70 years.

Wait a minute!  Didn't I say the same thing early pertaining to Hurricane Sandy?  But let us see something here with the years.  You see, add the letter Ayin, which is the numerical value of 70, to the Hebrew year of 5702, and you now have the year 5772.  The special significance of this past year 5772 in the Hebrew calendar was highlighted with the letters of the name of the date of the saddest day in Jewish history - Tisha B'Av - being rearranged to spell Av Hei-Tav-Shin-Ayin-Beit (5772).  For in fact, it states in the Talmud that Moshiach was born on Tisha B'Av, meaning that the potential of him coming began on the very date that the Temple was destroyed, because had the Jews repented, we would have had the redemption immediately.

But amazingly, despite this special observation that was noted by many, Moshiach didn't appear on this past Tisha B'Av, or during that month of Av for that matter.  One good thing that did happen during that month was the 12th Siyum (completion) of the worldwide conclusion of Daf Yomi, and the start of the 13th cycle.  However, since there was far from sufficient repentance, and as we have seen, two many Jews in the Diaspora, despite Hurricane Sandy, still don't quite get it, and even Obama' re-election may not do much to stir Jews to do major thinking.

In fact, we see an early example of someone who didn't learn from the past, even as the Torah calls him a Tzadik (righteous person).  But first, I want to note that the letters in the word Nezikin (damages) that make the Gematria of this word 70 more than the singular word for damage - Nezek, spells the word Yayin (wine)=70.  With this said, let us see what happened with Noah following the flood.  Now, Noah was in fact a righteous person, as the Torah itself attests to.  In fact, his building the Ark for 120 years gave him the opportunity to tell others of Hashem's future plans to bring a flood to the world due to everyone's evil actions.  However, he didn't go out of his way to help people change their devious lifestyles like his future descendant Abraham did.  And so, following his exit from the Ark after being cooped up with all life that remained in the world in the Ark for a year, he saw the world totally desolate and complained to Hashem about how he felt.  In response, Hashem responded back, "You fool, you didn't pray to Me beforehand about saving the world!  You were only concerned about yourself (unlike Abraham who even prayed that the evil people of Sodom and Gomoro should survive if there would be sufficient righteous people in these towns).  Now deal with it."  However, Noah didn't learn too well from the past, and instead, dabbled with his newly planted vineyard, from which he produced wine, he drank from it, which made him drunk, left himself lying without clothes on, and his evil son Ham treated him more like a piece of ham without wishing to state here any gruesome details of what Ham did to his own father.

So, aside from the immediate not so nice after effects of Noah's drinking the wine, he was prevented from having further children thanks to what Ham did to him, and in turn, Noah cursed Ham's descendants.  Now remember, Noah was the ancestor of all mankind, being that it was only him, his wife, and his children and their wives who survived the big flood of all mankind.  So, this incident, which took place shortly after leaving the Ark when mankind started populating the world, damaged the future for mankind and the world which of course was physically done by Ham, but it was the wine that caused big damage of causing future descendants not being born; Noah being prevented from bearing a FOURTH son.  So as you can see, the two words Nezek and Yayin is what makes up the word Nezikin.  And the very beginning of the FOURTH volume of Nezikin states "There are FOUR categories of Nezikin..."

And so, Ham's descendant Obama, being President Number 44, most represents the concept of Nezikin of all the 44 U.S. presidents until now.  For indeed, spiritually, which is reflected by his physical actions and attempts, represents these four types of damagers (which are the ox, the pit, the teeth, and the fire).  In fact, the number 44 which is the Gematria of Dam (bloodshed), being added by four representing the four categories of damages, equals 48, which is the Gematria of his ancestor Ham's name.

In stark contrast, Jews use wine for the Mitzva of Kiddush, the beginning of the FOURTH statement of the Ten Commandments on Shabbat night, and in fact, there is a hint to the Gematria of the word Yayin within the Kiddush, as there are 35 words in the paragraph of Vayechu, and 35 words in the second blessing of the Kiddush which speaks about the sanctification of Shabbat, hence, aside from the blessing for the wine itself, there are 70 words to the Kiddish that relate specifically to the Gematria of the word Yayin (wine)=70.

Indeed, when we drink from the wine of the Torah, we must remember not to get drunk with what will cover the truth from being revealed (unlike in physical drunkness where people let out secrets), but rather, to approach Torah in the way that Hashem wants us to, and not overlook the big message that Hashem has for us.  For then, by proving ourselves worthy, we will be ultimately worthy of the secrets of wisdom, which in Hebrew is Chomchma=73, noting that this number 73 ends this Hebrew year, and the word Sod (secret) is the Gematria of 70, like the Gematria of the word Yayin, as it mentioned, Nichnas Yayin - Yatza Sod, "Wine enters, secrets come out".

Now that 70 years have passed since the passing of the Final Solution, corresponding to the 70 nations of the world, as well as the Gematria of the phrase Gog U'Magog it is about time that Jews leave the lands of                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    the 70 nations once and for all, most especially the land of Magog (United States) whose leader Gog will sometime within the next four years of his presidency, will fight against Israel, as predicted in Scriptures, and live in the land of which the Torah describes as "Hashem's eyes are on it from the beginning to the end of the year" (Deutronomy 11:12), bearing in mind that the letter Ayin, whose word means eyes, is the numerical value of 70, and "they will see EYE to EYE when Hashem returns to Zion" (Isaiah 52:8).

Let us truly physically and spiritually return to Zion, and then when Hashem, so to speak, returns to Zion, we will be ready for the King of Kings to grant us our eternal reward for having faith in Him instead of the world leaders and countries, being that we already made Aliya from the other lands that do not have the same type of watchful protection from Hashem that there is for Israel.


Motzoei Shabbat Chayei Sara 5773