#194 - JUSTICE Prevails, Or Does It?

After a long unexpected delay, I am back here posting.  And while the content in this post is related to the week following Sukkot, beginning from 25 Tishrei in this year- the week of Parshat Noach, as per my previous post, there is a connection here to today's Hebrew date - 27 Cheshvan - as I will soon point out.

First, the number 194 in Hebrew are the same letters that spell the word Tzedek (Tzadi, Dalet, Koof) - Justice, just as the number of this post.  In fact, Tzedek is a favorite word in the Torah, as we see that it is mentioned twice together - Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof  "You shall pursue justice" (Deutronomy 16:20), for indeed without it, without a court deciding what the right thing should be, society would not be able to function properly.

Now, for the uniqueness of the number 194, the Chofetz Chaim, in the final Sefer that he wrote in his lifetime called Sefer Mitzvot HaKatzer "Abbreviated Book of Commandments" which is a compilation of the Mitzvot that are able to be fulfilled today, he lists 77 Positive/Active Mitzvot and 194 Negative/Non-Active Mitzvot. The LAST Mitzva of the 194 Negative/Non-Active Mitzvot is not to forget what the evil Amalek nation did to the Jewish people following having left Egypt.  Now, there are two other Mitzvot that have to do with Amalek - remembering what Amalek did to us and wiping out the Amalekite nation.   And as pertaining to this latter Mitzva, the Torah states Timche Et Zecher Amalek "Wipe out the memory of Amalek", which is immediately followed by Lo Tishkach "Do not forget", the LAST words of this section of the Torah about Amalek, and the LAST words of Parshat Ki Teitze, which begins with Ki Teitze L'Milchama Al Oiveicha "When you go out to war against your enemies".  In any case, we see in Parshat Noach, the Parsha of the week following the week of the final days of Sukkot and Shabbat Bereishit, in which aside from Noah, his immediate family, and selected creatures - Vayimach Et Kol HaYekum "He (Hashem) WIPED out all of existance..." (Genesis 7:23).  For indeed, when it comes to true justice, justice is only served when the practitioners of evil are done away with it.

It took one full solar year, which ended on 27 Cheshvan - today's date, for Hashem to tell Noah that everyone should exit the ark to begin life anew, for it was on this day that the land totally dried from the flood that began a year before to wipe out the wicked race from the universe.  And while on the surface, it may seem that Hashem did a cruel thing that He even allowed all the babies in the world to die a chocking death; in fact, this was really no different from the treatment that is needed in wiping out Amalek.  For as we see when Hashem instructed the prophet Samuel to have King Saul wipe out the entire Amalekite nation, this came with clear instructions to kill even the suckling infants.  Now, while one may wonder what Hashem wanted from the babies if they can't do any wrong, it was in fact a big kindness to these babies, so they would not wind up doing evil when growing up.  So rather than doing something later that would wind them being damned in Gehinom (Purgatory), Hashem in fact did a great kindness for these babies, since after all, the main place of reward or punishment is the next world.

Now, the word Netzach, the fourth of the seven Sephirot, has both the meanings of eternity and victory. And at least when it comes to a Jewish court (Beit Din), the ultimate purpose of its decisions is related to the fact that it is only through our good deeds and following Jewish law in this world that will gain us eternity.  And in terms of victory, this is the result of a case decided by a court who decides who is the victor of the two parties, sorting out right from wrong.  And as we see in the word Netzach, the middle letter is a Tzadi, which begins the word Tzedek.

With this said, there is an amazing connection between Noach's name and Netzach, the name of the fourth Sephira.  For one thing, both names/words begin with the letter Noon and end with the letter Cheit.  For while for centuries, most people did whatever sins they wanted to do and seemed to get away with it, Hashem finally put His foot down and demonstrated the victory of good over evil in this world without waiting to punish the evildoers in the next world, even though they were going to be punished in the next world anyways since they never repented.  And as related to Noah, after he built the Ark for 120 years and and was almost ready to enter with whatever family and creatures were going to be saved, people were saying that when the time comes, they would brake into the ark with axes and hatches, since at least if they weren't going to be saved from the big Flood, they didn't want Noah to be saved either, showing how evil they were, instead of repenting of their evil ways which could have also saved themselves from being killed. Well apparently, their evil scheme could't work, because lions and bears were guarding the Ark, preventing these evil people from even attempting to dare come close to the Ark.

Now, the fourth of the 49 Sephira combinations is Netzach She'B'Chesed.  And as we see, the first letters of these Sephirot - the Noon of Netzach and the Cheit of Chesed (Kindness), spells the word/name Noach, for indeed it was with Hashem's great kindness that Noah and his immediate family were spared, for as some say, it was only with great merit that prevented even Noah from perishing in the Flood, for he himself needed help from Hashem to remain faithful to Him, unlike other righteous people who worked on themselves without needing Hashem's special assistance.  And ultimately, Hashem utilized here the concept of Netzach via His great kindness of maintaining the world without being wiped out of the universe, without bringing it to the state of chaos before Creation, and just wiped out the evil creatures who accomplished the opposite of what the world was created for to begin with, showing that JUSTICE PREVAILS.

As mentioned especially by the Vilna Gaon, the Sephirot correspond to the various Jewish holidays.  Hence, the Sephira of Netzach corresponds to the holiday of Purim, which is the holiday that highlights the commandments as related to Amalek, being that Haman, the villian of the Purim story, was descended from Amalek.  And while at the time of the miracles that happened to the Jews that led to Purim, Amalek was not wiped out, this Mitzva will be entirely fulfilled after the coming of Moshiach, after which, Amalek history will be a distant memory.  This perhaps explains why the Megilla or Book of Esther, as mentioned by the rabbis, will never be nullifed, just like the Chumash that will always be read, unlike the other books of the Tanach (Jewish Bible), for Purim celebrates our total VICTORY (Netzach) over our worse enemies who will be abolished for ETERNITY (Netzach).

Accordingly, the Sephira of Chesed corresponds to the holiday of Passover (to note, the Vilna Gaon was born on the first day of Passover).  And we see in the Talmudic tractate of Megilla a debate in a situation when there are two months of Adar in a leap year as to when we celebrate Purim.  The Halacha (Jewish law) dictates that we celebrate Purim in the second month of Adar, because the redemption of Purim is related to the redemption of Passover that is celebrated in the next month of Nissan.  In fact, a proof of this is that the name of both holidays begin with the letter Pei, and this letter begins the words in the phrase Pakod Pakadti "I (Hashem) will surely remember", the password that the sons of Jacob had as a tradition as to when the redemption from Egypt would take place, and so when Moses came to the Jewish people with these words as he heard them from Hashem, they know that their time of Redemption was coming close.

I would leave this post the way that it is, but today, I found something most disturbing on the front page of the B'Sheva newspaper (a publication of Arutz Sheva/Israel National News www.israelnationalnews.com) for the week showing a picture of "Palestinians" rejoicing over the newly released 26 terrorists on orders of Prime Monster Bibi Netanyahu who caved in to pressure from the evil, anti-Semitic John Kerry, with the headline - Eipho HaTzedek? ("Where is the Justice?").  As I have mentioned many times in the past of the concept of Hashgacha Peratit "Divine Providence", the fact that I saw this today in the wake of writing my post on the concept of Tzedek, highlights this concept that nothing is truly coincidental.  With this said, this word Tzedek as part of this headline begs to be further addressed.

Isn't it ironic? There are so many who question the existance of Hashem following the Holocaust in which six million Jews were brutually murdered in various ways, claiming that if Hashem is a "good" G-d, then how could He allow it to happen?  But it is these same liberal self-hating Jews who accuse Israel of mistreating the "poor Palestinians", when this evil anti-Torah godless Israeli government not only gives all kinds of free aid to these so called tortured people, but they imprison good Jews who are technically the closest followers of Theodore Herzl's Zionistic dream, because in this generation, these good Jews are Torah observant who are labeled "right-wing fanatics", due in part to opposing rights of Arabs on our G-dly promised Jewish homeland.

Justice?!  Has there ever been in world history a time that a government, even if it ever acted against its own people in terms of taking their money away, released enemy prisoners belonging to another nation for the hopes of "making peace"?  Nay, in many if not most cases, these enemy prisoners would be shot to death or executed at the gallows.  But you see, these Arab organizations - PLO, Hamas, Fatah - aren't stupid.  They know that the Israeli government is a most weak entity who will make crazy deals to show the world that it wants phantom peace, and will pay almost any price for it, even as the world winds up laughing and mocking Israel, ignoring its contributions as the first country in world emergency crises to fly over to give medical and financial aid.  When is the last time that any country released over a thousand enemy/terrorist prisoners for ONLY one of its own as Israel did for the release of Gilad Shalit?

Of course, Jews who follow the Torah know the real reason that this government, which will be disbanded with the arrival of Moshiach only to damn most of its members to eternal Hell, makes these crazy deals.  It is simply following the Yetzer Hara (Evil Inclination), which gets this government to do so many things against the Torah, even if it is totally illogical, including in terms of Israel's security.  This also explains why Dictator Netanyahu, who while he knows well how to dictate Jews from what they may say against this truly anti-Zionistic government to what religious Jews can open their mouth for excluding prayer on our Temple Mount, the holiest spot in the world; seems to be very concerned about what is going on in Iran in terms of telling other countries what to do to prevent Iran from continuing its nuclear program, but will not lift a finger to attack Iran himself for fear of what the world will say, do, sanction, etc. against Israel.  But you see, the world doesn't really care or aren't really afraid of Iran as Netanyahu imagines, so long as they know that Iran is planning to attack Israel, even if it means that there will be a possibility that other countries will be attacked too, because the world for the most part is also anti-Semitic, but just a little less brutal in its hatred or mistreatment of Jews than Iran is.

Of course, this post would not be complete if I didn't mention of the gross UNjustice of Dictator Netanyahu's empty promises to Esther Pollard, wife of hero Jonathan Pollard, to have the United States free him, when at least if he was already going to release terrorists upon requests and/or demands from the United States government via John Kerry, he could have made this conditional upon the release of Jonathan Pollard who revealed secrets to Israel that the United States was supposed to reveal to Israel for which he is serving a life sentence, when legally, the one charge of revealing secrets to an ally country carries a maximum sentence of 2-4 years prison time, and the ONLY reason that the anti-Semitic U.S. government is keeping Mr. Pollard in prison, which is already 28 years, is because he is a Jew, as a U.S. politician admitted.

True, Hashem still runs the show, and over time, His justice becomes apparent.  But the burning question remains - where is the justice on our part when Amalek - whose four Hebrew letters (Ayin, Mem, Lamed, Koof), the first letters of the Knesset parties Avoda (Labor) - Shimon Peres (I mean Parasite)'s party, Meretz (another anti-Torah party), Likud (Netanyahu's party), and Kadima (founded by Prime Monster Ariel Sharon and continued by Prime Monster Ehud Olmert), reigns without a massive rebellion from the public to overthrow this government, rotten and evil to the core, unlike in other countries in the Middle East where enough people take to the streets to overthrow their respective government to another one to their better liking?

But don't worry, it won't be long before the prophecy of our final Redemption will take place, because when it does, and our enemies are finally defeated by Moshiach, Hashem's justice will be apparent to all, especially in looking in retrospect of how many others did not follow the path of justice.   For it is only in a system that follows justice, can we both help and serve one each other, subduing our enemies, rather than caving in to them, that will help this world be a better and safer place to live in.


27 Cheshvan, 5774