#178 - DELIGHT in the Land of Life

To begin with post, I will quote the first Rashi on Parshat Shelach, though it is the Parsha from last week, "Why was the section about the Meraglim (Spies) (Numbers Chapters 13 and 14) placed next to the section about Miriam (Numbers 12)?  Since she was smitten as a result of speaking badly about her brother (Moses), while these wicked people (the Spies) saw but did not take a lesson from this (quoting from Bamidbar Rabba 16:6)".

It is true that in fact, the beginning events of Parshat Shelach in which Moses sent twelve men to Israel to check out the land for the rest of the Jewish people took place on today's date - 29 Sivan, so aside from learning the Parsha with Rashi last week, those who want to find out more details about what was behind the evil plot of 10 of the 12 Spies, excluding Joshua and Caleb, can refer to the Talmud in Tractate Sota 34b-35a, aside from the various Midrashim which show that while these Spies may have been good people at one time, they became rotten to the core; and worse, they caused a good percentage of the Jews to sin and disbelieve in Hashem's Promised Land.  True, there are those rabbis who claim that the Spies had good intentions in the sense that they preferred to stay outside of Israel so they could continue to grow spiritually as they were presently living in the desert, unlike the way it would be when coming to Israel when they would be physically working the land, except that this was not Hashem's intent, but this type of interpretation clearly takes way from the real meaning of the story as presented by Rashi and the Talmud, as this is what you call in Yiddish to "drey a kop".

In fact, if one reads this story the right way, it is quite crystal clear that the rabbis that we should be specifically listening to are those like Moses, Rashi and the Talmudic rabbis, and not those who want to interpret it their way to fit their agenda, even as the rabbi or rabbis that I have in mind in the last paragraph ironically have or had not been into promoting the Mitzva of living in Israel, but this is besides the point.

Now, let us pretend that we are living among the Jews in the desert at this time when the Spies were sent and returned at the end of 40 days.  There were 10 Spies who first spoke of the beauty of Israel, and then gave their biased report of Israel, claiming that it simply wouldn't be possible to conquer the land being that there were too many strong people living there.  Now, never mind the interpretation of the Talmud that states that in fact, they were claiming in essence that the present residents in Israel were stronger than Hashem, so to speak.  But clearly, you know that Moses already has told everyone in the past about Hashem promising this land to us, along with Joshua and Caleb reinforcing this message.

Of course today, everyone will wonder how everyone in this story were so stupid, and cried their faces off while they were just about to enter Israel, when under the leadership of Moses, they certainly wouldn't have to worry about fighting the evil, idolatrous inhabitants that Hashem ordered to kill.  Certainly, all of us tell ourselves that we would not never be this stupid, right?

Well, before judging the generation of Jews who physically heard Hashem declaring the (first two of the) Ten Commandments (so to speak), and in fact fainted from such a revelation, though only 40 days later, some of them worshiped the Golden Calf, let us see who was this "entire congregation" who led the rest of the people to cry out their faces.  Rashi says that the "entire congregation" was the Sanhedraot, the Jewish top courts.

So here you have it.  It seems that the ones in charge of rousing the people to mourn the "bad news" was none other than Jewish judges who were well learned in Torah, for not just anyone was picked to be in this position.  Hence, since Moses was way above the spiritual standing of the average person anyways, the people could in the long run relate better to these Jewish judges; and hence, if they who decide Jewish law felt that it would be a mistake to move on to Israel, then who they - the people - were to say differently?

However, this is exactly how the people, the "innocent" sheep, fell from their spiritual heights.  True, they knew that is was Moses who came down from Mt. Sinai with teachings of the Torah, but for most of the people, Moses was more like their "good sermon rabbi".  After all, even after Moses delivered the fresh laws that he learned from Hashem, it was ultimately the judges who solved the practical solutions of people coming to their courts with their arguments or queries based on these laws.

But especially this time, Hashem did not buy their excuse.  You see, there were those who were always criticizing Moses, and not just Korach, Dothan and Abiram either.  Rashi mentions how there were those among the Jews who regularly looked to criticize Moses' every move.  In fact, there were even those who accused him of adultery!

Now, before I relate this above story to what is happening today, give me a little time to explain the significance of the number of this post - 178.  We all know the famous personality of yesteryear - the famed Chofetz Chaim, the title of Rabbi Yisroel Meir HaCohen of Radin, whose title is the name of the first of his many compositions that he wrote in his long lifetime,  in turn, taken from a verse in Psalms (34:13) "Who is the person WHO DELIGHTS IN LIFE.."  Now, the word Chofetz or Chafetz (depending on Ashkenazic or Sephardic pronounciation, respectively), which means delights (as the verb) is the Gematria of 178.  And while I am not relating this word to any other in terms of Gematria at the moment, there is some more information that I want to note about this word.  You see, there are five times in the entire Chumash that the wording, or similar wording of this word is used.  In fact, the first two times, the exact word Chafetz is used.  However, while in four other times, this wording is used in reference to wanting, or not wanting, a woman; there is only time in the Chumash that this word is used in a different sense - in the story of the Spies.

To be sure, this righteous word - Chofetz, the first word of the title of a rabbi who not only wrote the book on the laws of forbidden speech, but practiced what he preached, was spoken by Joshua and Caleb to the people in their last attempt to get the people not to pay heed too the bad news from the Spies, immediately after tearing their clothing upon hearing some Jews saying to one another to return to Egypt.  As they put it, "If Hashem DELIGHTS in us, then he will bring us to this land and give it to us, a land that is flowing with milk and honey" (Numbers 14:8), proceeding further telling them not to rebel, only to be the attempt targets of Jews wishing to stone them.


HOW THE STORY OF THE EVIL SPIES RELATE TO TODAY

While unfortunately, a few too many Jews who look observant apparently don't think that living in Israel is part of following the Torah, believe it or not, this is not among the worse problems that Israel faces today.  True, if a few more millions of Jews were to be living in Israel today, chances are is that the evil forces in power would be outvoted by some religious party, which would hopefully follow the Torah via the Kahane style and immediately boot out all our Arab enemies overnight.  The sad truth is that a good percentage of Jews today are not observant of the Torah, and without even putting Israel into the equation, there is a major spiritual holocaust that is happening today with assimilation and intermarriage, especially in the United States; and worse, there are some who are raised thinking that they are Jewish being that their father is Jewish or that their mother "converted" to Judaism, which has led to halachic problems later for those who wish to embrace the Torah way of life.

However, with all of these problems and more, what most resembles the situation of the Spies is not what it outside the Land of Israel, but what is inside.  Never mind the secular Jews who live in Israel, some of whom have emigrated to Israel as the "dream of Theodore Herzl" or the "dream of Ben-Gurion".  At least some of these Jews have actually sacrificed the potential comforts of their former country, especially the United States which is viewed as the land of opportunity, especially in the business world.

What I am referring to is basically both the Knesset dictatorship, the un-Supreme Court, the Juden-rat police, the retreater IDF; AND - some of the rabbis who either openly say things against the Torah and Israel, or refrain from saying the right things in defense of the Torah and Israel.  And perhaps the biggest irony of it all is that it is mostly some of the "Zionist" rabbis who are supposedly in the forefront of promoting living and working the land, but yet, openly contradict their praises of Israel by siding with those who are the lookout to give all "settlements" as defined by the hating Jew world.

Of course, it is not just some of these so called Zionist rabbis.  There are other Jews who are called observant because of the beanie on their heads and are known to be "Shomer Shabbat", who openly say things against the Torah and the rabbis; and in leadership positions, do things that harm the Jewish people.

This is not the first time that I have touched on this subject.  However,  in this post, I will show how the forces of evil are literally spiritually and/or financially chocking Torah observant Jews in the name of "Zionism" and the "State of Israel".  This has been especially the case in these last few days, few weeks, and few months - since the last elections in Israel in which the second largest Knesset party Yesh Atid consists of two traitor rabbis along with its head Yair Lapid who is out to both to damage Israel spiritually as well as financially; in which Naftali Bennett whose party "Jewish Home" received too many seats instead of even one seat for "Power to Israel" party headed by Dr. Michael Ben-Ari, Shlita, because too many Ashkenazic rabbis gave orders to vote for the party headed by the successful rich tycoon Ashkenazic Bennett instead of the party of the "Kahane fanatic" Sephardic Ben-Ari; and in which Elazar Stern, the IDF leader with the observant head beanie covering, who helped throw out the Jews from Gush Katif and then had the Chutzpa to work on punishing the Hesder Yeshivot who have a problem of learning Torah and working in the army if they had any participation of going against the kickout of the Gush Katif Jews, who became a member of the Knesset dictatorship via the HaTenuah party, and continues with his rhetoric of defaming the rabbis, which is punishable with the eternal loss of a share in the world to come.

Now, I have not come here to defame Jews or Israel.  The problem is not with the masses of Jews living in Israel who are being controlled by the evil edicts of the Knesset - though it would help if there was a massive rebellion and an overthrow of the evil regime reigning in Israel.  The problem is not with the Promised Land which has so much to offer both spiritually, as well as financially - especially in the field of technology.  The problem is with those who have the power to declare the Kahane truth, that is, the Torah truth as espoused by Rabbis Meir and Binyamin Kahane, may G-d avenge their blood; but not only do they not do this, but quite often, say the opposite of the Torah.

In fact, the sin of these type of people are just like that of the Spies.  Actually, this is not true - their sin is FAR WORSE than that of the Spies.  For while the sin of the Spies was making Hashem sound like a weakling, and so they simply didn't want to have to deal with the land, as we see when we reverse the letters of the name of Parshat Shelach to read Chalash (weak), these so called Zionists who also shame the early Zionists who truly sacrificed helping Israel be a reality for Jews - are disgracing Israel even FAR WORSE, for they are already in the Land, and yet - they dare talk about giving parts of it away.  They dare talk about giving more rights to the Arabs while in the same time talk about taking away rights from Jews.

At least with the Spies, they were afraid to venture forward, but it isn't like they gave away something good that they already had in their hands.  Now, as for the Spies, they died a horrible death for having caused such disbelief in Hashem and Israel among the masses of Jews.  Of course, it is hard to fathom how under the leadership of Moses that so many could be truly naive to think that the Promised Land was not the type of "land of milk and honey" that they were promised.  But today, despite this story and reading about it every year in Parshat Shelach, the so called observant Jews who give a hand to the evil dictatorship in Israel continue this evil - in the Promised Land itself, but somehow, tend to disassociate the story of the Spies from what they are doing themselves which is FAR WORSE being that they are misbehaving in Hashem's Holy Palace.

Who would have dreamed 50 years ago that part of continuing the Zionist dream would consist of giving the key leading to the holiest place in earth to the mufti - the Temple Mount, and Jews being prevented from daring to even move their lips in prayer on this spot while Moslems can do what they want on it; giving autonomy of our second holiest city Hebron to the murderous Arab Moslems; giving away the Sinai in exchange for a piece of paper that is hardly worth more than the vain promises of peace from Egypt who since secretly aided our other Arab enemies with weapons to continue fighting us; throwing Jews out of Yamit and Gush Katif in the name of security while in fact helping our enemies be ever so closer in attacking us?  And yet, this was allowed, time and again - by some the rabbis and so called "religious" leadership, who could have instead taken the right steps of actions if they really wanted to - by beginning the process of eliminating the evil in the land, including burning down all non-kosher eateries, refusing as a group to further pay taxes pending a regime change, taking up arms themselves to prevent Jews from being kicked out.  Sounds too fanatical, eh?  But don't worry, not only are we the only country in the world who would never do such things to defend the rights of our citizens, but nay, some of the rabbis and leadership have said that the government is doing the right thing, or that it is the "sin of the State" and so we must follow orders, that we must not use "violence", etc.

And today, while Prime Monster Bibi Netanyahu declared another construction freeze - this time "in secret", while hardly waiting to give even more of G-d's Promised Land away, the various anti-Torah and anti-Israel Knesset parties - Yesh Atid, Jewish Home, and HaTenuah - while different in names, are essentially the same thing, just like three medications - among many others - that my late grandmother was poissoned with by the medical and pharmacy establishments, which were actually three of the same medications under the guise of three different names.  Yes, these Knesset parties, whose members all receive the same annual six digit figures, have declared a war on Torah and Israel, instead of a war on our Arab enemies.  After all, as our rabbis tell us, those who are merciful to the cruel will wind up being cruel to the merciful.  And so, members of the above three Knesset parties have declared LESS funding to the Haredi Yeshivot in their vicious hatred of Torah observant Jews whose Torah learning is actually causing the miracles of the thousands of rocket attacks doing hardly any harm to Jewish bodies considering the amounts of attacks, but is totally denied by the disbelievers of the Torah some of whom are living a double standard, saying words of Torah while spitting on the Torah.  And for what - because Haredi Jews don't want to be part of an army who are dictated to do things against the Torah such as army women publicly singing which has nothing to do with the security of the country, but if anything, causes spiritual harm that can seriously threaten the security of the country; an army who is ordered to run away from Arab children throwing rocks at them instead of taking offensive action; an army in which some Haredim who had joined were lied to about their special religious privileges and only "rewarded" for their efforts by being provided with a big screen T.V. in their room which is a big no-no for them?

Of course, this would not be complete without mentioning Bennett's recent evil edict of declaring LESS funding even for these nice Hesder, Zionist Yeshivot which have encouraged serving in the army.  Of course, this makes even less sense, at least from the Zionist viewpoint, when in fact, the ones from the Zionist Yeshivot today make up a significant percentage of the army.  But although Bennett has a choice of doing good, but is doing evil instead, this is a clear message from Hashem that the modern Zionist dream is one big lie, for it doesn't even include an army today that is truly willing to fight its enemies, and does mostly everything but, and even in an actual time of war, hesitates to put their best offensive in the front which is a ground attack, and then the whole war thing is abruptly stopped upon demands from Arabs and other anti-Semitic leaders.  Moreover, it is the same people who voted for Bennett's party, many who voted for this party especially because of Bennett while they conveniently forgot that a few short months earlier he was ready to start his own party until he was promised his sweet deal of heading the Jewish Home party - who are now being punished for trusting in Bennett instead of Hashem via voting for the only authentic Torah party promoting Kahane idealism - the Power to Israel party, having ignored Kahane's statement "It is either Kahane or Arafat" which is more applicable than it ever was even though the physical Kahane was already assassinated two times over and the physical Arafat already died due to AIDS thanks to his homosexual behavior.

As for Gematriot, it has already been noted that Yair Lapid's name is the same Gematria as the name the Lawgiver Moshe - 345.  As for the stark contrast between the two despite the same Gematria, this is nothing new, just as the name of Esau, the ancestor of the nation whose specialty is murder, is the same Gematria as the word Shalom (peace) - 375, and just as the word Nachash (snake), the name of the creature which caused the downfall of mankind is the same Gematria as Moshiach - 358.  You see, just as Moshe Rabbeinu both spiritually and through his merit - also physically provided for the Jewish people; in stark contrast, Yair Lapid is both spiritually and physically, financially hurting the Jewish people.  In fact, it was in the merit of Moshe particularly than the Mahn (manna) was provided for the Jewish people, and it is the name of this special food that the Jews ate in the desert for 40 years that is quite similar to the word money.  Moreover, this is taking place especially in the 90th year from the start of the learning of the Talmud via Daf Yomi, the Talmud being the main study of Torah for Jews aside from the Chumash for the last 1,500 years, and the word Mahn is the Gematria of 90.  And in turn, the word for 90 in Hebrew is Tish'im, which is the same Gematria as V'Ahavta L'Reiacha Kamoch - 820, "You shall love your friend as yourself", which was most followed by Moshe Rabbeinu, while most violated by Yair Lapid, who is not an observant Jew to begin with.

As for Elazar Stern, we don't have to go far.  This week's Parsha is called Korach, named after Moshe's cousin who rebelled against him, accusing Moshe of usurping the leadership for himself and giving the Kehuna (Priesthood) to his brother Aharon, while in fact, everything Moshe did was due to Hashem's orders.  And today, Elazar Stern, whose name Elazar is the same Gematria as Korach -308, is also a rebeler not only against one rabbi, but against almost all of the rabbis - except maybe for some left wing rabbis who would vote for him any day.  But perhaps what makes this ironic, at least in this week's Parsha, is that there is an earlier Elazar, Aharon's son who eventually took over the position of Cohen Gadol following the passing of Aharon, who is specifically instructed to melt down the pans that Korach and his gang used carrying incense, and use this to cover the altar.  Yes, this Elazar was the son of Aharon who was a true peace maker and the father of Pinchas who had no fear killing Zimri, the leader of the tribe of Shimon who consorted with the Midianite princess.

And while we are at it, let us examine Elazar Stern's family name.  Now, the name Stern is a very common Jewish family name.  But in this heretic's case, being that he has had positions of leadership in the army and the Knesset, we can see what it really represents for him.  Noting the names in Hebrew, the word Satan can be found in order of its letters in Stern's name.  And to be a little more technical, spelling his family name as Yiddish which can include the letter Ayin in the name, this name can then be dissected into two distinct words - Satan Ra (evil Satan)!  For after all, if Elazar Stern is not a follower of the rabbis, aside from his following - rather than being a follower - of left-wing rabbis who voted for him; then obviously, he has to be a follower of someone or some entity who represents his anti-Torah views.

And as his comparison with Korach, there were those Jews who were fooled by Korach, despite the consequences of the sins of the Golden Calf and the Spies, for after all, Korach was quite learned in Torah, and he showed some Jews a way of thinking that they weren't exposed to before, giving them a chance of thinking of the possibility that perhaps his own cousins Moshe and Aharon were the ones who were political here, which was in fact the furthest thing from the truth.  In fact, in was in the midst of this week in which we read Parshat Korach, that Elazar Stern was having a debate with Ayelet Shaked, Knesset member of the Jewish Home party on Israeli T.V.  Now mind you, Mrs. Shaked is a secular Jewess from Tel Aviv, but to her credit, has some love, or at least professed love, for Israel.  Now, if you didn't know who was the "religious" one, you would think from hearing the two of them debating that it would have to be Mrs. Shaked.
Now, I don't know if this is more ironic or more pathetic, but what is Mrs. Shaked supposed to think of Judaism after hearing skull cap wearer Elazar Stern badmouthing anyone and everyone in the religious world whom he disagrees with because they don't believe in exactly what he believes, aside from his past history of showing his anti-Zionism via the Gush Katif Disengagement and his harassment of the Hesder/Zionist Yeshivot whose students fought against or didn't take part in throwing out their own brethren from their homes for 38 years?

And now for the nice rich, handsome looking Naftali Bennett (I just gave him an Ayin Hara? Good! He deserves it for his crimes against the Jewish people and Israel!), his last name in Hebrew, as I have mentioned in the past, can be read as Ben Teit "son of Teit", for the letter Teit, the NINTH letter and the numerical value of NINE, represents both darkness, the NINTH plague of Egypt, as well as the NINTH day of the month of Av (Tisha B'Av), whose kabbalistic letter is TEIT.  And indeed, it was on the night of Tisha B'Av that the Jews were cry babies following believing the propaganda news from the Spies, which caused this day to eventually be an annual date of mourning for the destruction of both Temples that took place on this date.  Now, it should be noted that the Second Temple could destroyed specifically because of the baseless hatred of Jews that was spurred by Lashon Hara (evil speech), which was also the sin of the Spies who spoke evil of the land of Israel.

With this said, the Gemara in Tractate Sota (34b), in recounting about the Spies, who were representatives of their respective Tribes, notes that it has a tradition of the meaning of the names of only one of the 12 Spies, that is, the names of the spy and his father of the tribe of Asher, noting the evil of this spy in connection with the meaning of these names.  Then, the Gemara notes that while it doesn't have a tradition about any of the names of the other Spies, it will give the meaning of another of the tribes -that of the tribe of Naftali  - Nachbi in terms of CONCEALING the words of Hashem, and Vaphsi (father's name) in terms of STEPPING OVER the attributes of Hashem.  So, the question can be asked, if the narrator of this piece of the Gemara is already going to be giving over meanings of other names of the Spies not being received by tradition, then why just do this for one of the tribes, when it should it do it for all of them across the board, or at least for a few of them if not possible for all of them, using his analytical mind, which is most needed in the debatical discussions of the Talmud?

As the Kabbalistic Arizal, Rabbi Isaac Luria, notes, the generation of the Jews of the future Redemption are reincarnates of the generation of the Jews who left Egypt.  And so, while this may not necessarily be a matter of reincarnation per se in terms of Elazar Stern or Naftali Bennett, the hints to these evil people in the Torah are so crystal clear especially in this generation which is awaiting this long awaited Redemption.  It cannot be a mere coincidence that the Gemara wanted to make its own analysis particularly of the names of the spy from the Tribe of Naftali, for this hints to Naftali Bennett's lack of faith in Hashem, just as the root of the problem of the Spies was their lack of faith in Hashem.  Moreover, there were a few too many Jews who voted and relied on Naftali Bennett as their "big hero", the same way as the Jews who sent these Spies to check out the Promised Land for them, even though Hashem's promises are truly the only promises that can be relied upon.  Perhaps some of these Bennett-lover Jews wished to fool themselves thinking that thanks to Bennett, there won't be a Palestinian state, even though days before the election, he clearly stated that Jews should not be occupying "privately owned" Arab land, which would mean that Jews could be kicked out of certain "settlements".  Perhaps even some of these rabbis who didn't care about what Kahane had to say before 10, 20 or 30 years ago, who said to vote for Bennett's party, wished to fool themselves that Bennett is a true "right-winger".  But NOT ONE of these Bennett/Jewish Home voters could fool Hashem; and now, the consequences of their anti-Kahane actions are now only STARTING to unfold.

There is one more thing that I want to note between this trio Lapid-Stern-Bennett, even though there are others, including left wing rabbis in the Knesset, who have a share in the evil that these three are committing.  Earlier, I mentioned Lapid in terms of money, finances that he is stealing from the citizens of Israel and attempting to put into his own pocket and the pockets of the Turks who are demanding money for damages that they say Israeli soldiers did to them on this ship when it was they who first attacked our soldiers, one of whom is still in a coma until this day, the anti-thesis of the spiritual money, the manna, whose name in Hebrew is the Gematria of Mahn - 90.  This is also the Gematria of the word Melech - King, bearing in mind that Lapid rebels against the King of Kings, even though he may have never learned of Judaism.

As per Elazar Stern, whose name Elazar is the Gematra of Korach's name, there are 95 verses in Parshat Korach.  In turn, the word HaMelech (the King) is the Gematria of 95.

If it rings a bell, the word HaMelech is a famous word - in Megillat Esther that we read on Purim.  In fact,  there are even some Megilla scrolls whose every column (except the first that begins with Vayehi Bemay Achashveirosh...) begins with the word HaMelech.  There is a Midrashic interpretation on this that though of course it literally refers to Achashveirosh the king in the Purim story, it allegorically refers to The King - Hashem of course, Who was the real One Who was behind the scenes to cause everything the way they happened for the success of the Jews at the end.  Now, Purim is in the middle of the month of Adar, which Kabbalistically corresponds to the Tribe of...Naftali!

You see, Lapid who never learned about Judaism and has been outright anti-religious, is connected with the concept of rebelling against a King.  Now, though Lapid knows about others believing in Hashem and His Torah, he is either an atheist or a disbeliever in the Torah, so as far as he is concerned in our eyes, Hashem is just one more king, one more Torah authority, that he has absolutely no use for, and that is why the concept of Melech as the Gematria of 90 as related to Lapid is without the prefix letter Hei- "the", for Lapid never lived in an observant environment to know who "the King" is to begin with.  However, as per Stern and Bennett, they already learned about Judaism in Yeshiva, and have lived at least some basic observant level of Judaism, and so for them, misbehaving in the palace of THE King of Kings is far, far worse, for they know of Hashem who is The King, Who has given His orders in His Torah; and nevertheless, they openly rebel against Him - whether it is holding back some funds from places that promote the GREATEST command of the King of Kings - Torah learning, or criticizing rabbis - and it doesn't make a difference if these rabbis are Kahane lovers or not - as far as Stern and his ilk are concerned, are rabbis who are teaching the Torah, but because they don't confirm exactly as the "heilige" Stern thinks, these rabbis are lowlifes in the "Stern Torah".  Personally, I have more use for another Jew who has the same last name - Howard Stern, for though he may make fun of Judaism, at least it's partly out of ignorance being that the seasoned radio host never had an education in Judaism; and moreover, doesn't hide about what he thinks in being political, saying it exactly the way he feels regardless of threats of lawsuits.   I think that in this matter, Elazar Stern has much to learn from Howard Stern!

Just getting back to one point that I made a little earlier pertaining to Tisha B'Av as the ninth of the month of Av.  Just as I mentioned earlier while the concept of nine as a number that is related to darkness and Tisha B'Av is related to Bennett as shown via his family name, and that his first name Naftali is the name of the tribe that corresponds to the month of Adar, the corresponding tribe to the month of Av is Shimon.  I guess it didn't take long for some to figure out what I want to say here - the big darkness that has been looming over the last few decades from the Knesset has been none other than current President Shimon Peres the parasite, who not only had and has been on the forefront until today attempting to make peace with our sworn avowed Arab enemies at any cost, but unlike virtually all the other members of the Knesset, never served a day in the army, but somehow, snaked his way into politics thanks to his extreme left-wing views that has made him a major hero in today's totally twisted view of modern Zionism.   Of course, Egypt, the biblical land of Mitzrayim in which the 10 plagues, including the plague of darkness, has been the major springboard for Shimon Peres, the modern villain of Tisha B'Av, to continue the suicidal "peace" process.

Oh yes, there is a Gematria as per the number 178 besides the word Chofetz.  You see, the Gematria of the two words together -  EMUNAH (102) - faith, such as faith in Hashem instead of people, popularity, or power, and KAHANE (76), equals 178.  This is aside from the fact that both the Chofetz Chaim and Kahane were Cohanim, the group that Korach desperately wished to disband as a universal group of Jews "since all of them are holy".  True, but because most unfortunately, some of the holy Jews stooped to a low spiritual level by worshiping the Golden Calf, as a result of their of faith in Hashem and in Moshe their leader, the Kehuna (Priesthood) was transferred from the firstborn to Aharon and his descendants, as well as other spiritual privileges for the rest of the tribe of Levi, whose entire Tribe always had faith in Hashem, by refusing to fall for the whims of Pharaoh building palaces, and were thus spared the slavery of Egypt allowing them to learn Torah all day, circumcising their newborns in Egypt and in the windy desert unlike the other tribes who didn't, and didn't worship the calf or buy into the Spies' propaganda which spared them from death in the desert and lived to enter the Promised Land - thanks to their total faith in Hashem, which today is known as the Kahane way, which will be the ONLY way that Jews in Israel will be able to get back on their feet, if this will ever happen, before Moshiach comes.  For ultimately, the only army that we are obligated to serve in according to the Torah is in Hashem's army, both in following His commandments AND in an army that will TOTALLY fight our enemies that is conducted according to the commandments of the Torah without fear or giving a hoot of anyone else booing us for "massacring the Palestinians".  It is only in this way that we will truly DELIGHT IN THE LAND OF LIFE.

P.S.  Since I wrote out this post, via Hashgacha Peratit (Divine Providence), I came across a Torah sheet with the teachings of Rabbi Yitzchok Ginsburgh.  Perhaps I had the Divine inspiration to write this post based on the word Chafetz at the same time that this rabbi gave a lecture on last week's Parshat Shelach which included his thoughts on the usage of this word in the Parsha.  I am not going to get into a whole long thing now from his words.  But in brief, he noted that the verse that mentions this word Chafetz - Im Chafetz Banu Hashem "If Hashem DELIGHTS in us..." has a total of 58 letters, and the Hebrew number for 58 has the same letters as the word Chen (grace), for Hashem giving us the Land of Israel is an expression, or the result, of Hashem, so to speak, having found grace, or favor in us, as "the bride" in His eyes, as hinted in the words in this verse Chefetz Banu, as the word Banu "in us", is also the Gematria of 58.

One more point that this rabbi spoke pertaining to the word Chafezt as connected to the section in Parshat Shelach about the Mitzva of Challah, separating a piece of dough from the bread that one is baking and giving it to a Cohen (today, in the absence of the Temple as pertaining to the laws of ritual purity, we only remove the piece of dough, and then burn it instead of giving it to a Cohen), this section about Challah begins mentioning "when you come to the Land", a phrase or something like it that is not always mentioned about other Mitzvot of the Torah as related to Israel.  With this, there are 178 letters in this section about Challah, just as the word Chafetz as mentioned earlier in the Parsha pertaining to coming to Israel is the Gematria of 178.

And as I have mentioned in the past, the word Challah is the Gematria of 43, and as we know, the liberation of Jerusalem, the capitol of Israel, which included the holiest area in the world, leading to Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day), took place on the 43rd day of the Omer.  Moreover, one of the 63 tractates of the Mishna is called Challah, and the very last word of this Mishnaic tractate mentions the word Jerusalem. Coincidence?


29 Sivan, 5773