#57 - Eat 2 Live or Live 2 Eat

To those living in the United States, the number 57 is a very familiar number. Perhaps some will not think immediately as to why it is a little more than just another number, but the mention of Heinz ketchup will ring a bell. Apparently, the high profile ketchup company markets itself on having 57 varieties of products.

Perhaps this is most representive of the plentifullness and varieties of food (which will soon be a distant reality for most in the States) that can be found in the United States culture. Long gone are the days when it was for the most part a loaf of bread, a bit of produce, and basic condiments such as salt and sugar. While we made sure in my previous post that the primitive half-clothed caveman wouldn't starve after a hard long day of hunting animals, few today know what the word "enough" means.

And so today in my post, the number 57 as the number of this post will attempt to keep things in perspective, at least for the observant Jew who should know not to just take things for granted - even if ketchup is a daily staple in his/her diet.

In my previous post, I mentioned the Tribe of Asher in relationship to the Torah, particular to the Mishna, the foundation of the Oral Torah, as Asher son of Jacob waits by the gates of Purgatory, and prevents those who have learned Mishna, whose very first word Me'imatai is the Gematria of Asher's name - 501. In presenting this, I quoted the verse of Jacob's blessing for Asher in relationship to oil. As Asher is the Tribe that corresponds to this present month of Shevat, it was on the first day of this month that Moses began his series of final discourses that comprises the Book of Deutronomy, which is also called Mishneh Torah.

Unlike all of the other tribes who have a corresponding month, Asher is the only one who was also born during the month that he corresponds to. While I have seen more than one date listed as his birth - 2 Shevat or 20 Shevat - I believe it is the 2nd of Shevat. The reason that I say this is based on how the letters of the Alef Beit are shaped. You see, the letters Beit=2 & Kaf=20 look somewhat similiar. The difference is that unlike the Kaf which is a circular letter, the letter Beit has an indent on the bottom right of it. Now, the problem is that when people copied information in the pre-printing days, mistakes were the norm. It seems that perhaps the Beit was not clearly written well enough to distinguish from the circular Kaf, and so in time, the date of 20 Shevat as Asher's birth was written. However, a circular letter as a Kaf would be hard to mistaken, since there is no need to make any indentation mark that may not be written well. Hence, it seems to me that the correct date would be 2 Shevat, but that the letter Beit was not written indented well and could have easily been mistaken to read a Kaf when copied over; but the other way around would be virtually impossible.

I also have a personal reason for why I say this. You see, the 2nd day of Shevat was the 36th day from my wedding day of 26 Kislev - the 2nd day of Chanuka. Besides the connection of the "2nd day" between the two dates, the number 36 as it relates to Chanuka are the number of mandatory candles lit for the Menorah (besides the eight serving candles that light their respective night's candles). The prefered way of lighting the Chanuka Menorah is using olive oil, which was the special item that Asher, whose birthday is 2 Shevat, possessed in his inherited part of the Land of Israel. In fact, in other years when there are only 29 days in Kislev, the month which begins Chanuka, the date of 2 Shevat indeed is the 36th day from 25 Kislev - the 1st day of Chanuka. But in any case, what distinguishes the 2nd day of Chanuka from the rest of the days, is that it was particularly on the 2nd day after the Maccabbees lit the Menorah on the day before, that it was first evident that a miracle was happening being that they put only enough olive oil in the Menorah to last for one day. Hence, whatever way you look at it, there is a unique connection between Asher's birthdate and Chanuka. This is also bearing in mind that it is the beginning of the 36th Parsha of the Torah - Beha'alotcha - the conclusion of the Torah reading on the last day of Chanuka - that speaks of the Menorah that Aharon, ancestor of the Maccabees, lit, which could only be lit with the purest olive oil.

There is a practical difference between the original Menorah of the Tabernacle/Temple and the Chanuka Menorah. While today's Menorah consists of eight candles, the Menorah of the House of G-d consisted of seven candles. The number of this post is 57, which are the Hebrew letters Noon & Zayin; and in turn, are the beginning letters of the words Zayin Neirot - seven candles, which was what the Menorah that the Maccabbees lit consisted of.

Well now, it is a few days after 2 Shevat (I could't write this post sooner); but as we are in the month corresponding to Asher, perhaps we can make some kind of play with today's date of 5 Shevat.

At the end of the Book of Leviticus, it mentions the process of the Mitzva/Commandment of Ma'aser Beheima "Animal Tithes". As the Mishna details, the herdsman allowed the herd to leave the gated area one by one, and as every 10th animal was walking out, he patted it with red paint so he would know which 10 percent of the animals were to be designated as tithes. Anyways, the verse reads: Kol Asher (literally means what or that, but could also hint to the Tribe of Asher who is connected with the month of Shevat) Ya'avor Tachas HaShavet "whatever passes under THE STICK" (Leviticus 27:32). In Hebrew, the word for "the stick" which was used to apply red paint to every 10th animal is HaShevet. You can read this word as Hei=5 (the letter) Shevet, which is today's date.

The ultimate idea of tithes was that everything belongs to Hashem, and so even if one worked very hard to maintain his animals and spent much time and resources feeding and nurturing them, he still had to remember that really, he is only an employer in this world doing what Hashem wants. Of course he was entitled to have benefit from his livestock, but the way it worked with tithes is that either they were given to Cohanim, Levites, the poor, or designated food to be eaten by the owner only in the city of Jerusalem.

Ultimately, we have to remember that really WE are the ones under THE STICK of Hashem, and that our only justification of being above the animals is that we are actively serving Hashem; otherwise, we are far lower than the animals. At least these kosher animals after all is said and done are being used for the purpose of various Mitzvot/Commandments, even if the animals themselves don't know about serving Hashem. And just like at a moment's notice, the designated animal that is painted red will soon be a sacrifice to Hashem, Hashem chooses who will soon be leaving this world, which is not always dependent on how long we have been in this world. Indeed, although we are not now during the High Holiday season, this reminds us of the prayer called "Un'Taneh Tokef" in which we recall how we pass by like animals in the field for Hashem to count every single one of us when our fate is sealed for the better or worse on Rosh Hashana
or Yom Kippur.

Another way to remind us of our ultimate mission in life - that is, living for the right purpose of serving Hashem, rather than living for our pleasures of which eating is the most basic one - is through the use of Gematria. Now notice that I did not say - "our ultimate mission in life is eating to live". While as in the title of this post - eating to live is far better than living to eat, it's not the eating itself that accomplishes what needs to be done - eating just helps one have the energy to accomplish his/her mission, no less important than spending time stopping by to pump some gas or fuel in the car to allow one to continue driving on the road for work or home.

In Kabbalistic sources, we see that when Hashem created the world, it wasn't just a bunch of magical words that created everything in this world. Actually, Hashem pronouncing words is what actually created everything, but the mechanism behind this were the Alef Beit used in Creation. For example, when Hashem created stone, He created it using the letter of the Alef Beit that is the Hebrew word for stone - Even, consisting of Alef, Beit/Veit, Noon. It was these letters through Hashem's will that created stone, and these letters are its vitality that allows it to continue existing.

In another aspect, there is a purpose of us - particular Jews - eating food in this world. While for non-Jews who will simply not live if they don't eat, we Jews can actually accomplish spiritual things by eating the food in a few different ways. First of all, the food does give us the energy to do Hashem's Mitzvot. Secondly, saying Berachot/blessings before and after eating involve praising Hashem for the food and keeping us in line reminding us that everything we eat and own really belongs to Hashem but that He grants us things for the sole purpose of serving Hashem. Thirdly, the eating itself can accomplish spiritual things, and to this, there is more than one aspect.

In Kabbalah, we see that there are sparks which sometimes includes reincarnates of people in the food; and eating the food, especially when we say the blessing on the food which helps most when having Kavana/concentration on the words of the blessing, helps "redeem" these sparks or reincarnates of people who have to be atoned for. And then regarding Shabbat, there is a special aspect of eating on this holy day that helps honor enhance Oneg Shabbat/pleasure of Shabbat; and hence, buying extra delicious food is part of honoring the Shabbat. Now, part of this is that we enjoy Shabbat ourselves by eating tasty food, even as we see in the Talmud & Shulchan Aruch/Code of Jewish Law that there were various rabbis who prepared different things on Friday in honor of Shabbat, including the food; and also that we are supposed to even taste the food that we cooked for Shabbat beforehand to make sure that they were cooked good. But even with all this, we have to have in mind that we are honoring Shabbat, and of course honoring Hashem. This is not to mention that there is also a special aspect of eating on Yom Tov/Jewish holidays, just as Jews used to eat peace-offering sacrifices during Temple times in honor of the holidays.

In fact, just about every single Jewish holiday is distinguished by its own set of food. Passover - Matza, Shavuot - dairy, Rosh Hashana - honey, various fruits and vegetables, symbolizing wishes for a sweet year, Chanuka - latkes or Sufganiyot/jelly donuts in Israel, Purim - hamentaschen. And I almost forgot - we have Tu B'Shevat coming up in a week from Shabbat which is celebrated with eating various fruit, including fruit that we haven't eaten yet this season which requires an extra blessing of Shehecheyanu.

Sometimes, it's a little easy to be carried away with an array of tempting holiday food that puts us in a jovial mood; especially when with family and friends. Some homes may have some 57 different types of food during the course of a holiday meal. But one does not have to go far. In the first blessing of Bircat HaMazon/Grace after Meals - "for He is a G-d who feeds and sustains everything". The word for feeds in Hebrew is Zan - Zayin, Noon, which is the Gematria of 57.

Aside from the blessings before and after a meal, there are those who have a custom to say Psalm 23 at the meal, especially on Shabbat. I don't think too many people need any kind of introduction for this most famous psalm, which is most known to Christians, and is also recited in the prayer services of one's hardest moments in life followed the passing of one's beloved relative. As a most universal prayer, King David views G-d as One who takes care of him, even in some most trying moments in life.

In this psalm, there are 57 words and 227 letters (I am referring to Hebrew of course). As far as the number 227 is concerned, this is the Gematria of the word Beracha/blessing. No doubt that this psalm is the bridge between the food and the blessings.

Speaking of blessings, the very first tractate of the Mishna & Talmud is called Berachot/Blessings, which I touched upon in my previous post. As the very first tractate, it is the blessings, thanking Hashem for all that He gives us, that first and foremost remind us of Hashem, and then we can be in a proper frame of mind when doing all of Hashem's other Mitzvot. But if this were not enough, there are 57 Mishnayot - paragraphs of the Mishna in this very first tractate of nine chapters. More specifically, Chapters 6-8 deal almost exclusively with the blessings on food, taking up on third of the Mishnayot and pages of the Talmud in this tractate. While the earlier part of the tractate deals with the reading of the Shema and daily prayers, perhaps it is the blessings on food that is the ultimate merge between the spiritual and the physical as is Psalm 23 which consists of 57 words and the amount of letters that equals the word Beracha/blessing (227).

Speaking of the word Beracha, the last of the 54 Parshiyot of the Chumash is called V'Zot HaBeracha, which is sometimes called Beracha for short. Hence, where the Chumash, the foundation of the Torah She'Bichtav/Written Torah which consists of the 613 Mitzvot leaves off with the word of Beracha, is where the Oral Torah, the detailed explanation of the 613 Mitzvot, picks up with the theme of Berachot.

I had mentioned in the past that this last Parsha of the Chumash consists of 41 verses in a different context. Well, the number 41 is the Gematria of Eim/Mother, and it is the mother who physically nurtures the baby to be a grown up adult - both as a pregnant woman and then as a nursing woman, continuing her household chores as Chef Mommy. Hence, this last Parsha called Beracha also hints to the concept of food, as evidenced by some of the blessings that Moses gave to the Tribes mentioning food in relationship to the Land of Israel that the Tribes would soon conquer and inherit.

And so on this note, we are getting to the blessing for the Tribe of Asher. Both in Moses' blessing & in Jacob's blessing, the concept of food most relates to Asher - particularly through the concept of oil, representing richness which was a blessing that this tribe had. In Jacob's blessing, "From Asher will his food be richly saturated, and he will provide dainties of a king". The word king in Hebrew is Melech, which is the Gematria of 90, and kabbalistically, the letter that represents this birth month of Asher which corresponds to his Tribe is Tzadi, which is the number 90. Indeed, we say in the beginning of almost every blessing - Baruch Atah Hashem Elokeinu Melech Haolam "...KING of the world".

Speaking of the letter Tzadi, it is the 18th letter of the Alef Beit. And as the verse that is recited - in the midst of the thrice daily recital of the Ashrei prayer (Psalm 145) - which according to Halacha/Jewish Law if recited without concentration, is repeated from that verse on, states: Poteiach Et Yadecha U'Masbia L'Chol Chai Ratzon - "You open Your hand and satisfy the wants of all living things" (verse 16), the word Chai/living is the number 18. Moreover, the letter Tzadi itself is etymologically related to the word Tzad/hunt (yes, we know this is what the caveman does to survive) which is related to food when one kills an animal to eat.

And the name of the heavenly food that the Jews ate in the desert for 40 years was called Man/manna (it seems that this is root word of the word money) which is the Gematria of 90, one of the topics of next week's Parshat Beshalach, which is always read in this month of Shevat. In fact, there are those who recite this part in the Torah about the manna (Exodus 16:4-36) every day as a Segula/assurance for Parnassa - making an ample living, having in mind that it is Hashem who provides us with sustenance. It was at the time when the manna first fell down that Moses composed the basic text of the first blessing of Bircat HaMazon/Grace after Meals in which most versions of this text include the above verse of Poteiach Et Yadecha.

Now in the first part of the above verse of Asher's blessing, the Hebrew word for oily, fatty, or richly saturated is Shemeina, having the same letters as Mishna, as we mentioned as a special connection to Asher. Now, in the physical sense, the word Parnassa/sustenance or making a living, is the same Gematria as Mishna (395)! In this sense, the Tribe of Asher is the bridge between Mishna study and making a rich living that will allow one to continue learning Torah with ease if he does not let his work get to his head (remember, the word head in Hebrew - Rosh, has the same letters as Asher!). And along these lines, the word Pat/bread has the same Gematria as Talmud (480). Hence, we see from here that everything in the physical realm has its counterpart in the spiritual realm.

This is reminiscent of two other Tribes of which I spoke of in the past regarding a partnership of Torah study. Yissaschar was the brother-tribe who learned Torah all day, and his brother or fellow tribe Zevulun supported Yissaschar, so Yissaschar could continue his Torah learning. This meant that Zevulun would share 50% of Yissaschar's reward for Torah study (though a Jew following in Zevulun's lead still at least needs to learn Halacha/Jewish law that will teach him how to live a Torah way of life despite his work schedule).

And thinking of this week's Parshat Bo, one cannot help but notice that there are at least two Mitzvot that involve eating - eating the Passover sacrificial lamb and eating Matza, both of which were/are obligatory on the first night of Passover (outside of Israel, a second Seder which includes eating Matza is performed on the second night of Passover as well), along with the Maror/bitter herbs which was/is a kind of a supplement to the Passover meal. Here you have it - carbohydrates, protein and vegetation, most of one's daily sustenance for a well balanced meal.

But don't wait for the last day to start buying Passover food. Today, I bought special Kosher for Passover food for my wife's cat. According to the Torah, one is forbidden on Passover to even own Chametz - leavened food/products - even if one himself/herself is not able to eat it, but an animal can eat it. Only if it is spoiled enough that even a dog cannot eat it (sorry, no dogs in my place!), then one does not transgress the prohibition of owning Chametz on Passover.

5 Shevat 5770

#56 - TIME 4 Redemption

Imagine if we would be living on a desert island without anyone else but ourselves as the only person. How would we ever know about the various units of time - day, week, month, year?How would we know on our own as to how to classify a unit of time?

Perhaps if we would have a little patience and we were fascinated by the moon, we would see a monthly cycle of how the moon appears growing larger and then disappears as it is shrinking in size. If we would have even greater patience, we would see and feel a yearly cycle of changing seasons.

However, in terms of living a daily life of hunting for food, eating and sleeping, it would be the day of what civilization knows as 24 hours that would be the most practical way of measuring time, because this would be associated with the most basic element of survival - food. While sightseeing the moon would be a nice hobby, it wouldn't serve any practicality other than perhaps a little light, but one would feel safer inside his cave from the wild animals at night. Hunting for animal hides would be a yearly chore to protect one from the cold, but they would be useless in the summer. However, with the sun shining, or at least even if it rains it's not dark like it is at night - it wouldn't take long for the caveman to realize that it is the unit of day - with the daily cycle of the daytime consisting of natural light useful to hunt for food, and the nighttime being useful for sleeping, that is the most important unit of time.

Believe it or not, the half clothed primitive caveman seems to have far more common sense than people in the United States who used to live the American dream (the numbers of such people will be less and less as the years go on with non-born American citizen, a.k.a. President Obama permanently ruining the United States' economy) who have looked forward to do their yearly Christmas shopping only to bankrupt their pockets and lives to make a bunch of people happy most of whom could hardly care for their yearly gifts. It's only once they see the big number - at least in the four digits, that they face reality only to stuff that particular monthly credit card statement in their pockets not wanting to think that they are not living a dream except a dream of fantasies that are way beyond their affordable budget.

Speaking in terms of Torah, all units of time are very significant because all of them deal heavily with Halacha/Jewish Law - daily prayers, Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh, yearly holidays. However, the immediate survival as a Jew is in daily living - recital of the Shema twice daily, prayers three times a day, blessings on food, other necessities of life, sights and sounds. What I just described here comprises the very first Mishnaic & Talmudic Tractate Berachot, the name of which means blessings; as well as a good chunk of the first part of the first of the four sections of the Shulchan Aruch/Code of Jewish Law - Orach Chaim, which means the path of living. It's only after this that the Mishna and the Jerusalem Talmud dedicate the rest of their first volume to the laws of agriculture followed by the laws of Shabbat, and the Babylonian Talmud and Code of Jewish Law continue straight with the laws of Shabbat; and then all these Jewish works continue with the laws of Rosh Chodesh or Jewish holidays.

At this point, I would like to mention that my focus of the various units of time in this post is on the day, and the Hebrew word for day is Yom which is the Gematria of 56, and this is my 56th post.

Among the earlier laws of the Orach Chaim section of the Code of Jewish Law, it speaks of the daily obligation of learning Torah. Various rabbis offer preferences as to what should be learned, especially if one is pressed for time. However, for the serious Torah scholar, no daily session of learning goes by without studying the meat of Jewish learning and foundation of the Code of Jewish Law - the Talmud, which is the detailed explanation of the laws in the Mishna - dealing with the source of the laws in the Torah/Chumash, their reasons, how to learn out what the correct law is, the varying opionions with their logical explanations behind those opinons, etc. Aside from the aspect of laws, a significant percentage of the Talmud consists of explanations of events in the Bible, moral and ethical lessons, and other fascinating "trivia". Hence, one who is not so fascinated with one part of the Talmud won't be too bored for long, and will appreciate the Torah for what it is consisting of many different facets of learning.

Today, there are countless schedules of Torah learning - from the Bible to the Talmud to Jewish Law. They may be in a list, in a calendar, or can be found on the internet. However, aside from the yearly Chumash and weekly or monthly Psalms, few other learning schedules existed before a 100 years ago.

What seems to have broken the ice is the concept of Daf Yomi, the (double sided) daily page of the Talmud - particularly the Babylonian Talmud, which takes seven years and a few months to complete to learn 2,711 pages. This was instituted by Rabbi Meir Shapiro, and began on Rosh Hashana 5684/1923. Today, there is hardly an Orthodox synagogue that does not have a schedule of learning Daf Yomi, or some class on the Talmud.

Normally, when we quote the Talmud, we are referring to the Babylonian Talmud, compiled in ancient Babylonia/Iraq which was by far the more popular of the two types of Talmud. Ironically, while the Jerusalem Talmud was composed at an earlier time, and is relatively shorter (though it is believed that there was much more that was composed but was lost), it didn't gain nearly the same attention, except for the attention of the bigger Torah scholars. If one were to compare the two Talmuds, he will see that the Jerusalem Talmud has harder language to understand, and being that it wasn't learned all so much, many writing/printing mistakes crept up and remained over a millenium of years.

Interesting enough, while it is called the Jerusalem Talmud, it was not even written in Jerusalem, but in Tiberias. Yet, it was called the Jerusalem Talmud in honor of Jerusalem that the rabbis hoped to live in once again with the rebuilt Temple. This was also keeping in line with the verse "Torah will issue from Zion, and the word of the L-rd from Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:3).

Bearing in mind that for so many centuries, most Jews in Europe and Middle East countries were poor, few could hardly afford a big library, and few copies of the Jerusalem Talmud could be found amidst copies of the far more popular Babylonian Talmud in the local Shteitel. Yet, all through the centuries, there were those few rabbis who attempted to make sense of what the Jerusalem Talmud has to say.

In modern times, many more Jews became much more affluent - especially in the United States, many Jews from non-observant homes became observant with a thirst for Jewish learning, and various modern technologies have been quite helpful in aiding a beginning student to learn Torah, especially the Talmud in the form of Daf Yomi - starting with audio cassettes, moving on to telephones, and moving fast forward to the internet. This is besides more modern translations of the Talmud in book form in English - the most understandable and comprehensive being the Artscroll translation (refer to http://www.artscroll.com/.) Five years ago, the team working on this project celebrated the completion of this most important Jewish work after 15 years of studious labor, consisting of 73 book volumes - both in bigger and smaller sizes. (I have the complete set in the smaller size).

Getting back to learning schedules, there are daily schedules regimens of study in the Bible, Mishna, Talmud, Zohar, Code of Jewish Law, Mishne Torah of Maimonides, Chasidic & ethical works, etc. Few have the time, money, expertise, and willpower to learn all of these things based on the written suggestion of learning for any one day.

With this being said, one would wonder if there is a daily schedule of learning the Jerusalem Talmud like there is for the Daf Yomi of the Babylonian Talmud. Even if there is such a thing, how relevant could it be if one barely has time to learn the daily Daf/double sided page of the Babylonian Talmud?

Yes, my friends. There is such a thing. But while the Jerusalem Talmud was composed before its counterpart, it took some 56 years, four months and two weeks from the original Daf Yomi -until daily learning of it by few more than seasoned Talmudic scholars would begin on Tu B'Shvat 5740/1980, instituted by Rabbi Simcha Bunim Alter, the 5th Gerrer Rebbe, also known by the title of his work, Lev Simcha. No doubt that many of his Chasidim or followers learn what is now known as the Daf Yomi of the Jerusalem Talmud, but now coming close to 30 years since, there has been quite a bit of a revolution and revival of learning this almost forgotten Talmud. Aside from tractate Shekalim which is included in the Daf Yomi of the Babylonian Talmud as the latter Talmud doesn't include this tractate, only now are the Jerusalem Talmud's pages getting to be a little more familiar. Five years ago, the Artscroll team wasted no time continuing on straight from finishing the Babylonian Talmud to starting translation on the Jerusalem Talmud. Various tractates have already appeared, including the first two Mishnaic Tractates of Berachot & Peah.

In terms of learning this via the internet - turn to http://www.yerushalmionline.org/. You can listen for free to taped English lessons of the Jerusalem Talmud. Slowly but maturely, the "word of the L-rd from Jerusalem" is spreading.

So nu, what is the punchline here you may ask? Why am I focusing particularly about the Jerusalem Talmud in this post?

Well my friends, as I am writing this, tonight begins the 8th cycle of the Daf Yomi of the Jerusalem Talmud - 17 days shy of 30 years ago when it began on Tu B'Shvat and on a Shabbat, as it will also occur as this year. (On a personal note, today's date beginning the 8th cycle of this Daf Yomi instituted by the Gerrer Rebbe known as the Lev Simcha, is the 32nd day from my wedding which took place on the 26th of Kislev. The Gematria of Lev/heart is 32, besides representing the part of the body that represents love which no doubt is the word in English that is based on the Hebrew word for heart. And there is a special Mitzva in the first year of marriage for a husband to give Simcha/happiness to his wife. This is addition to the fact that the very first Mishna, as learned on this first day, mentions the story of Rabban Gamliel's sons who came back from a Beit HaMishteh - wedding feast - as translated by Tosfos Yom Tov on Mishna Eruvin 8:1)
In terms of this year, there are a couple of very significant points to point out here. Firstly, as the completion of the 7th cycle or the beginning of the 8th cycle nears 30 years of worldwide Jerusalem Talmud Daf Yomi learning, the Mitzva of Talmud Torah is described as Lilmod Torah U'Lelamda - "To learn Torah and to teach it". The Hebrew for both learning and teaching is etymologically related to the word for the Hebrew letter - Lamed, the number for which is the Gematria of 30. As we see in the Talmud, there were sages who reviewed their learning every 30 days. Also today, you have schedules for learning smaller Jewish books to be learned in 30 days, including reciting the Book of Psalms on a monthly basis.

Secondly, we are in the midst of the 43rd year from the liberation of the holiest place on earth - including the Old City of Jerusalem consisting of the Temple area of the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, which occured on 28 Iyar 5727, on the 43rd day of the Sefira count from Passover until Shavuot. Considering the fact that the 7th cycle of the Jerusalem Talmud Daf Yomi began on the last day of 5765, the day before Rosh Hashana, the fact that this new cycle of the Jerusalem Talmud occurs in the midst of the 43rd year of the liberation of Jerusalem that took place on the 43rd day of the Sefira - as a four year and four month cycle, sounds to me nothing short of Hashgacha Peratit/Divine Providence!

It's hardly surprising that Hashem allowed it to be one of the Gerrer Rebbes who instituted this learning of Jerusalem Talmud. When one of the previous Gerrer Rebbes who moved to Israel was asked in the earlier days as to why he was supportive of the Zionistic dream of living in Israel when most of the early Zionists were not religious, he replied that Israel is still the Holy Land, and it still retains its holiness. Today, the Gerrer Chasidim are one of the largest Hasidic groups. Also, unlike resistance of serving in the Israeli army from much of the more religious looking groups, there are some Gerrer Chasidim who serve in the Israeli army in following the Torah of wanting to help protect the Jewish people from our ever blood thirsty Arab enemies.

As I had mentioned as per Post #29 about Jerusalem Day & my recent Post #53, the word Gadol/BIG is the Gematria of 43; and on Chanuka, we describe the holiday miracle as a Nes Gadol - "A BIG miracle". And as it is beginning of the 8th cycle of Jerusalem Talmud Daf Yomi in this 43rd year from the events of Jerusalem Day of the 43rd day of the Sefira, it should be noted that the Maharal of Prague comments that the number eight is a number represents what is
beyond nature describing miracles, which includes the concept of the 8 days of Chanuka, as even Shabbat is still within the realm of the natural weekly cycle of seven days. However, the number eight as it represents the Brit Mila/circumcision that takes place on the 8th day of the baby boy's birth supercedes the Shabbat of the seven day week, on which day the activities of circumcision would otherwise be forbidden if not in the context of a Mitzva or is after the 8th day of the baby boy.

With this being said, it is especially the number eight that represents miracles - that is, Hashem's displays of His actions that are beyond the normal standard of living, even though nature is no less of Hashem's abilities of exercising his show of strength and power. But what this represents is that for special reasons, Hashem will go far beyond what normally happens within the realm of nature to accomplish what would otherwise not normally happen. Indeed, the Jews winning the Six Day War by gaining much territory in Israel - including the holiest area in the world - as a small clan in sharp contrast to 31 million Arabs attempting to drive us to the sea when the world media was talking about the end of the modern state of Israel was no less than one of the BIGGEST miracles that took place in perhaps hundreds of years, and this in front of the whole world much of which was Anti-Semitic.

As a quick reference to this week's Parshat Vaera, the 4th Aliyah as learned by many on the 4th day of the week begins Hashem's wonders and miracles of beginning striking the Egyptians who refused to let the Jewish leave their country. And the day that the Jerusalem Talmud Daf Yomi began in 5740/1980 was Shabbat Parshat Beshalach, when we read of Hashem's final miracles dealing with the Egyptians being given their final blow following chasing the Jews literally to the sea which happened on the 4th day of the week; and upon the Jews exiting the sea and the Egyptians drowning, the Jews sang the Shirat HaYam/Song of the Sea on that momentous Wednesday morning.

Many refer to delving deeply into learning the Talmud as diving into the Yam HaTalmud - "Sea of Talmudic learning". The Torah, as most exemplified by the Talmud, is most deep, and the more one learns it, the more new insights one will gain by learning it seriously on a regular basis.

And what can be said as the all time BIGGEST miracle besides the survival of the Jewish people is the survival of the Talmud, as there were various Talmud burnings by Anti-Semitic Europe at one point of Jewish history. Fires took their toll, but the opposite force of nature - the "Sea of the Talmud" brought out the best of Torah students who had passionate fire within themselves to learn the Talmud amidst great poverty and Anti-Semitism.

And as another connection between Jerusalem Day & the Jerusalem Talmud, just like the miraculous events of Jerusalem Day in 5727/1967 took place on the 4th day of the week, so too does this 8th cycle of the Jerusalem Talmud Daf Yomi begin on the 4th day of the week. I hesitate to say Wednesday begin the Jewish day starts at night, so the 4th day of the week on the Jewish calendar begins on Tuesday night. However, the Shir Shel Yom/Psalm of the day of the week for the 4th day is recited in the Wednesday morning prayers - which is Psalm 94. As I had mentioned in the past, while the (First) Temple was destroyed on a Sunday, the Levites did not sing the usual Psalm 24 for Sunday but Psalm 94. A few words shy of completing this Psalm, the enemies barged in to destroy the Temple.

While it may not have been obvious until today why the Levites found themselves sing a Psalm from a different day of the week except for the fact that under the pressing circumstances of the enemies on the verge of destroying the Temple while fighting the Jews, the Levites may have been confused about what day of the week it was even though it was Shabbat the day before; it seems that since the events of Jerusalem Day when the announcement was made "The Temple Mount is in our hands!" took place on Wednesday, from the very source of announcement of troubles for the Jewish people - as per the contents of Psalm 94 - was the source of salvation that was to take place some 42 years ago in the midst of masses of Jews returning to Israel once again.

Hence, this 8th cycle of Jerusalem Talmud Daf Yomi beginning on THIS SAME DAY OF THE WEEK as the number eight in particular represents the concept of miracles highlights this concept in terms of how Hashem was good to us in recent times after nearly two milleniums of suffering. The fact that Jews have been suffering much in Israel in the last some 42 years is for the most part caused by their own Jewish enemies within the Judenreit government who started capitulating to our Arab enemies from handing control of the holiest area of the world - the Temple Mount, only like a couple of years after the BIGGEST miracle of hundreds if not thousands of years took place. Until this time, it was for the most part troubles from the non-Jews who controlled us both outside and inside of Israel until we had it all in '67 which instilled fear in the Arabs, but Moshe Dayan with his physical and spiritual blindness in his eye coupled with his hatred of authentic Judaism showed goodwill to the Wafti who have since for the most part along with the Kapo/Nazi Jewish police control the Temple Mount on which non-observant Jewish tourists trample on all parts of it in violation of the Torah, while observant Jews who are careful about the parts that are forbidden to be entered due to our impurity from the dead, are forbidden to even bring a prayer book or move their lips that can denote praying in any way; and hence, this control to the Arabs who now had less fear of us thanks to this eventually led to the Yom Kippur War just a few years later.

But perhaps just as great as a phenomena is that this is the FIRST cycle of the Jerusalem Talmud Daf Yomi that that ever began on the 4th day of the week. Now normally in a schedule of learning like for the regular Daf Yomi of the Babylonian Talmud, in the course of seven cycles, each day of the week will have a chance to be the day on which the new cycle begins, unless it was scheduled as such that each cycle will always fall out on the same day of the week. However,
do bear in mind that there is one difference between this schedule of learning Jerusalem Talmud Daf Yomi and schedules suggested for other Jewish works. This Daf Yomi schedule excludes Tisha B'Av & Yom Kippur - the two big fast days of the Jewish calendar. Hence, with a variable of 8-10 days in the midst of the learning cycle that do not include learning for that day, it's possible that within seven cycles, there will be more than one that will start on the same day of the week, as indeed it happened this way. Thus, this is the FIRST TIME EVER that this schedule began on the 4th day of the week. And if this was not enough, the concluding day of this cycle (unless lost Jerusalem Talmud material is discovered after Moshiach comes) will also be on the 4th day of the week, ending on Wednesday - 23 Nissan 5774/2014, which also marks the birthday of the institutor of this Talmud Jerusalem Daf Yomi (unless we base our calendar on the monthly sighting of the moon after Moshiach comes)! Yes indeed, this 8th cycle is the learning cycle that is associated with miracles and Jerusalem.

Speaking of the Shir Shel Yom/Song of the DAY, it's fascinating to note that aside from one of the letters of Shin in this phrase, the remaining letters spell Yerushalayim & Yerushalmi (as in Talmud Yerushalmi/Jerusalem Talmud)! After all, the Levites did their singing in the Temple of Jerusalem. And as for the remaining letter Shin which is the Gematria of 300, we see an inconsistency of the count of the original Levites in the Torah where it lists them as a total of 22,000, but counting the totals of the three Levite familes, the total comes out to 22,300; hence a difference of 300. Our rabbis explain that these 300 where also Bechorim, the first-born, the category who were originally going to be the Cohanim to serve the Jewish people, but lost this right with the sin of the Golden Calf. However, these 300 Levites retains their status as ones who served in the Tabernacle, but as first borns, were not eligible to redeem some of the 22,273 firstborns from the other tribes who now would no longer be eligible to serve in the Tabernacle.
This was the first practice of the Mitzva of Pidyon HaBen, redemption of a first born who is a male whose neither parents are the children of a Cohen or a Levite, which is now performed by giving five coins of a certain value to a Cohen.

Connecting the concept of REDEMPTION and JERUSALEM in another way, a few verses earlier than what I quoted before in this post from the Book of Isaiah reads (1:27) - Tzion B'Mishpat Tipadeh, V'Shaveha B'Tzedaka - "Zion with be REDEEMED with justice, and her captives with charity". A famous Gematria from the Midrash Talpiyot - the first three words of the verse is the Gematria of Talmud Yerushalmi/Jerusalem Talmud (1076), and the last two words of the verse is the Gematria of Talmud Bavli/Babylonian Talmud (524). It has been explained that it is the Jerusalem Talmud that will redeem the Land of "Zion", and it is the Babylonian Talmud that will redeem the "captive" Jewish people. Hence, we see here a clear connection between the Jerusalem Talmud and redemption of Jerusalem as well as other parts of Israel back in '67. The truth is that the Daf Yomi of Jerusalem Talmud began since the Jerusalem Day events almost 13 years earlier, but the fact is that these two concepts of Torah & the Land of Israel are most connected with one another, because the ultimate place that is meant for us to live a Jewish life is in Israel, as recounted numerous of times, especially the Book of Deutronomy, the content of which Moses began on Rosh Chodesh Shevat, which will fall out this year on Shabbat, the very first Shabbat of the 8th cycle of the Jerusalem Talmud Daf Yomi.

It has also been explained that the total Gematria value of the verse in Isaiah 1:27 is the number 1,600, the square root of which is 40, that is, 40*40. As we know, Hashem dictated the Torah to Moses in 40 days time, and it is the Talmud that represents the Oral Tradition with its detailed laws and explanations as Hashem handed down to Moses. In the 40th year of the Jews living in the desert, Moses began his final series of sermons as the Book of Deutronomy, another name for which is Mishneh Torah - the first word Mishneh which can be read as the letter Mem=40 and Shana/year. Also, the Mishna, which is the foundation of the Oral Law, begins with the letter Mem and ends with a (final) Mem, having a Gematria of 40. And finally, it was Rav Ashi & Ravina of the 40th generation of receiving the Torah beginning with Moses who wrote down the Babylonian Talmud. On a personal note, I am in my 40th year, and I am looking forward to this Shabbat/Rosh Chodesh Shevat which marks the date when Moses began his discourse of the Book of Deutronomy in the 40th year of the Jews living in the desert.

And just when you thought it was over - the Gematria of Sefer Devarim/Book of Deutronomy is the same Gematria as each of the words Yerushalayim/Jerusalem and Yerushalmi (as in Talmud Yerushalmi) - 596! Indeed, the fact that the first Shabbat of the 8th cycle of the Jerusalem Talmud Daf Yomi is Rosh Chodesh Shevat, the very date beginning this final book of the Chumash - Sefer Devarim, highlights this point. Moreover, the word Mishna or Mishne - as in the other name for this Sefer as Mishne Torah - when this word's letters are rearranged can be spelled Shemonah/eight! Now I should note that except for five places in the Bible, the word Yerushalayim is spelled without a second Yud, making the usual Gematria to be 586; however, we normally spell this word these days with two Yuds.

It's interesting to note that in Chasidic sources, Rosh Chodesh Shevat - the NEW month of Shevat - is considered to be the Rosh Hashana - the NEW year - of Torah She'B'Al Peh/Oral Torah of which the Mishna & Talmud/Gemara form this basis. Hence, especially for those who are busy with work during the week, this coming Shabbat on which this special date falls out on and will be the first Shabbat in this 8th cycle of the Jerusalem Talmud Daf Yomi can mark a reNEWal of learning either Mishna and/or Gemara, even if not particularly in the Jerusalem Talmud.

There is another word that is similar to Shemonah/eight - it is Shemen/oil. The date of the beginning of the 8th cycle of the Jerusalem Talmud Daf Yomi is 27 Tevet. As I had mentioned in my previous post, Hashem told Moses to take for himself Shemen Zayit Zach - "Pure olive oil", the beginning of Parshat Tetzaveh in which Aaron the first Cohen Gadol/High Priest is commanded to wear EIGHT priestly garments. The word Zach/pure has the same letters as the Hebrew letters for the number 27 - Chaf Zayin. And then Psalms 133:2 reads "Like the GOOD OIL upon the head running down upon the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down over his garments". As we know, the word for this month Tevet is etymologically related to the word Tov/good. Hence we see a connection of the number eight as it relates to its similar word Shemen/oil with this date of 27 Tevet - pure & good. Wow!

And so what is the connection of the Cohanim over here? Well first, there is a hint to Asher, son of Jacob at he relates to the Mishnayot, as it states in the Midrash that Asher himself waits by the gates of Gehinnom/purgatory and doesn't allow those who learned Mishnayot to enter. As in Jacob's blessing for Asher - M'Asher Shemaina Lachmo... "From Asher will have richness (literally means fatness or oily) and he will provide delicacies of a king" (Genesis 49:20). First, his name Asher is the same Gematria as the first word of the Mishna - Mei'ei'matai - 501 ("FROM WHEN do we read the Shema in the evening"?)! Then the next word Shemaina, which literally means oily, has the same letters as Mishna. And then as a sign that can hint to Daf Yomi, as the Talmud's explanations is based on the Mishna, the following word Lachmo/his bread is the same Gematria as Daf/folio or page - 84!

Now, as the months of the years have a corresponding Tribe, it is the Tribe of Asher that corresponds to the month of Shevat, which is also the birth month of Asher! Hence, this Shabbat is the first one of the 8th cycle of Talmud Jerusalem Daf Yomi that begins the month of Shevat that corresponds to Asher, bearing in mind that the word Shemaina has the same letters of Mishna and Shemona/eight and Lachmo is the Gematria of Daf - that is, the first Shabbat of the 8th cycle of this Daf Yomi on the beginning of Shevat - Rosh Chodesh Shevat!

Now fast forwarding to Moses' blessing for the Tribe of Asher, Rashi mentions that it was the daughters of the Tribe of Asher who were married to the COHANIM GEDOLIM/HIGH PRIESTS and kings, who were annointed with olive OIL! Small wonder then that the very beginning of the Mishnayot after asking the question of the timing of the evening Shema immediately answers that the timing began from when the Cohanim entered to eat their Teruma/priestly portion of food, following having gone to the Mikva/ritularium near the end of the day due to an impurity, and waited until nighttime to eat this food. The Talmud goes into detail as to why the Mishna mentioned specifically this fact when it could have just stated that the time begins from Tzeit HaCochavim, when the stars come out!

And connecting the concept of kings, BIG, and the Shir Shel Yom for Wednesday, the concluding verse of this day's Shir Shel Yom that we say nowadays is (which concludes with the first three verses of Psalm 95) - "For Hashem is a big G-d, and a big King over all the gods". May we live to see the big day when "Hashem will be King over the entire universe" (Zechariah 14:9).


5770 - TIME OF REDEMPTION?

Technically, you can call it a DAY for reading this 56th Post. However, while I am posting the following in this same post as it is connected with the above theme of redemption, it is its own special topic that should trigger a worldwide interest into what may very well be the year of the end of our exile as it seems to have been mentioned by Moses himself based on a Talmudic explanation on last week's Parshat Shemot - which I discovered from learning the weekly quotations of the Talmud based on the Parsha in the Torah Temimah Chumash which I started from Parshat Mikeitz, the Parsha of my wedding week of a few weeks ago, as well as a word in the same Parshat Shemot having the very same letters as the year that I am referring to, with unusual cantillation notes.


YEAR OF REDEMPTION 5770 - HINT #1

Let's begin with the first encounter of Hashem with Moses at the burning bush. As recounted in Tractate Berachot 9b, and paraphrased by Rashi, at one point of the conversation attempting to convince Moses to go help redeem the Jewish nation, Hashem said as a name of His "I Shall Be As I Shall Be". Meaning, that Moses should tell the Jews that just as I will be with them in this servitude, so too will I be with them in future servitudes. Perhaps if it was a human being who would have said this, these would be very comforting words. However, the fact that Hashem worded it this way meant that the fact that there would be future times of sorrow for the Jews indicated that indeed their future descendants would have troubles. While Hashem indicated that He would be with them with their future suffering, Moshe would hear none of this. After all, why give them bad news in advance especially when they were presently suffering. In the Talmud's very words of Moshe's reply - Dayah LeTzarah B'SHAHTAH - "Enough suffering IN ITS TIME".

Now in response, Hashem did accept Moses' argument and agreed that Moses could just mention about Hashem's assistance in their present suffering. We can ask here "If Hashem knew beforehand that Moses would offer his argument and at the end would not reveal Hashem's full response, then why did Hashem even suggest it"? But for the moment, let's focus on the last word of Moses' response as written exactly in the Talmud - B'Shahtah "In its time".

The literal meaning of that context is referring to that present time of the suffering of the Jews in Egypt. But a little rearrangement of this word - the same way as we did it earlier in this post for the word Mishna from Shemaina and Shemona - will reveal what I believe to be the year of the end of the suffering of the Jewish people today. What year will this be in? IN - after the letters of this word after the Beit which means IN in this context, when rearranged as Hei Tav Shin Ayin - 5770, THIS YEAR! That is, Moses was in effect saying, "ENOUGH OF THE JEWS' SUFFERING - IN 5770"!

I always wondered when it states in Midrashic literature that the "first redeemer (Moses) will be the last redeemer". We know that Moshiach will be from the Davidic dynasty of the Tribe of Judah while Moses came from the Tribe of Levi. True, one of the names referring to Moshiach is Shilo which is the same Gematria as Moshe - 345, but clearly, it is NOT Moses who will be THE Moshiach?! Is it just a game of Gematriot here, or what does the Midrash really want to tell us?

While it may be suggested that a spark of Moses's soul will be in the Messiah, we also know that Moses himself as his own identity will be among the first to be resurrected in the Messianic era, but this only answers the question from strictly a kabbalistic point. However, the original source in the Midrash telling us about the first redeemer being the last redeemer is not a kabbalistic source to hint to this kind of matter, and as a source of explaining things on a different level, there has to be some other sort of connection and explanation.

No doubt, Moses as the first redeemer led the way for the final redemption. After all, if Jacob knew the time of the redemption but Hashem didn't allow him to say it to his children, then certainly Moses himself as the orchestrator of the Jews' first redemption had to have known the time of our future and final redemption. However, there was a big difference here between Jacob and Moses. For whatever reason, Jacob was ready to reveal that final date. However, Hashem did not wish for his children to know because then it would have been hard for the Jews with that knowledge to wait so long until now. In contrast, while Hashem gave the chance for Moses to reveal that information, Moses knew that it wouldn't be in the Jews' best interest to know how many thousands of years it would be until the final time.

Perhaps Hashem was testing Moses here about his sensitivity for the Jewish people. While Jacob wanted to be a good Jewish father and reveal some secrets, Moses looked at the bigger picture of not only what would be best for the present nation of Jews, but for their future descendants. In the long run, Moses felt this information would be quite harmful, and the Jews would not eagerly await for Moshiach as a Jews is supposed to as one of the 13 principles of Jewish faith as listed by the Rambam/Maimonides, whose Yahrzeit always falls around the reading of Parshat Shemot, in which this dialogue between Hashem and Moses took place. Hence, it was only after Moses raised his concern about mentioning future sorrows for the Jews -and his concern about THE MENTION OF THE YEAR OF THE FINAL REDEMPTION - as if to say, "It's enough that the Jews will suffer until the end of exile IN 5770. Why mention this?"
In response, Hashem told him only to say to the Jews "I Shall Be has sent me (Moses) to you". That is, Moses showed himself to be worthy of being sent by Hashem Who wanted to show his support for the Jews in their time of trouble, as Moses exemplified from an early age by his actions and his sensitivity for the Jews' feelings.

Now, while Rashi quotes from the above Talmudic source, he does not quote exactly the way it is worded in the Talmud. He paraphrases this as "It's enough for them in THIS suffering". The main word of B'Shahtah is replaced with the word Zu/this, not quoting the Talmud exactly as it is written. What's the deal here?

Perhaps Rashi wanted to hint to the month in which we will be redeemed. In place of B'Shahtah, he uses the word Zu - the letters Zayin & Vav. Now, in the Tnach/Bible, we see the name of the month in which construction of the first Temple began in the "Month of Ziv" (I Kings 6:1) (NOTE: Rashi was given his name Shlomo from the Haftara for Parshat Teruma which mentions the name of Shlomo HaMelech/King Solomon, as he was born in the week of that Parsha). As the Bible mentions that this is the 2nd month, and we count the months from Nissan, this is the month of Iyar (my birth month).

Now typically, the word Ziv which means shine, is spelled with a Yud in the middle of this word. However, the Bible spells this word without a Yud; hence, just spelled as Zayin & Vav, just like the word Zu that Rashi mentioned in reference to the redemption from Egypt, and as I pointed out, a reference to the time of our upcoming redemption.

Hence, as the Talmud already hinted to the year of the redemption - 5770, it seems that Rashi wants to mention the month of our redemption, which he seems to hint to the month of Iyar that is called by the name Ziv in the Bible, and Rashi spells the same word as Zu - using the same two letters for the word as without Hebrew vowels!


YEAR OF REDEMPTION 5770 - HINT #2

Following Moses' dialogue with Hashem and giving encouragement to the Jews, he faced head on with the king and enslaver of the Jews himself. Pharaoh not only did not listen to Moses' plea to "Let My people go!", but made it ever harder for the Jews who used to at least be given their daily rationed portion of food, and decreed that now would have to fetch their daily food
themselves. He mocked them for complaining that their work was too hard and that they were too lazy to work. As part of the slavery system, selected Jews were appointed to be policemen over their brethren to see to it that the remaining Jews would complete their daily work. Unlike most other situations, these Jews policemen were not only not Kapos, but they took the beating from the Egyptian taskmasters on behalf of their fellow Jews not wishing to make their job harder than it already was. In response, these Jewish policemen complained to Pharaoh stating Lamah TA'ASEH Choh LaAvadeicha "Why DO YOU DO this to your servants" (Exodus 5:15)?

While there are many instances that this word TA'ASEH is used in the Bible, and as I had mentioned in Post #45 in the beginning of this Jewish year of 5770, this word as associated with doing work on the six days of the week represent preparation for Shabbat; and that in like kind, the six thousand years of the world's existance correspond to the six days of the week, and that we are just on the brink of the redemption that will take place before the end of this time. Also, as rearranged, the letters of this word can be rearranged to be the number of this Jewish year 5770, which can also be read as HaTeisha - the nine, or an alternate way of rearranging these letters as Tisha - nine, depending on the masculine and feminine wording for the number nine in Hebrew. As mentioned in the song called Echad Mi Yodea in the Haggada, nine represents the nine months of pregnancy. And as we know, the period right before Moshiach's coming is called Chevlei Moshiach - "birthpangs of Moshiach".

So too here, the timing of this story of the Jewish policemen approaching Pharaoh was right before the end of the Egyptian exile. In fact, the final day of Hashem's dialogue with Moses as the burning bush as recounted in the Midrash was the 15th of Nissan, the date in which exactly one year, the Jews would be leaving Egypt, and it was an average of one plague a month for the Egyptians that took place, so the 10 plagues didn't take longer than a year, which happened right after the events concluding this Parshat Shemot.

Now, all of this is fine and dandy. After all, I found a second word related to this Parsha that also can have its letters rearranged to spell this year 5770. But did this just pop up in my head, or did I notice something unusual here?

Unusual is right. This very word Ta'aseh that can rearranged to spell this very year Hei Tav Shin Ayin - 5770, is found with a rare cantillation note. These are shaped like two bananas at the bottom of the word, unlike when it usually looks just like one banana. The usual note is called a Meircha. This particular one is called a Meircha Kefula/Chefula "A DOUBLE Meircha". (Note: Don't have a translation for Meircha at this time). At least in the Chumash, this is a rarity. As a past Ba'al Koreh/Torah reader for some 15 years, I can tell you that this is found no more than a handful to a dozen times in the Chumash. With this being said, this cantillation note makes this word Ta'aseh a very noticable word.

But this is only half of the story. There are five letters of the Alef Beit that are spelled a little differently at the end of a word. These are Kaf/Chaf, Mem, Noon, Pei/Fei, and Tzadi. Hence, there are two forms, or DOUBLE forms of five of the letters of the Alef Beit. The Midrash tells us that these five letters as double forms hint to the redemption using these letters spelling two similar words in five different places in the Bible. Without getting into a whole long Midrash here, we have right here in Parshat Shemot where Moses as Hashem's messenger gave the sign of the upcoming redemption from Egypt using the words Pakod Pakadti "I have surely remembered you", using the letter Pei in spelling the same basic word as a DOUBLE form, which shortly follows the part of the dialogue of Moses' not wishing to mention future troubles of the Jewish people, making him worthy of being the Jews' redeemer, with Hashem giving him the secret code that Joseph told his brothers that would indicate that it was time for the redemption from Egypt.

And so this all fits in together. The first redeemer or redemption and the last/final redeemer or redemption are in effect a double form of G-d's wonderous miracles of redemption. As stated "As in the days when you left the land of Egypt, I will show you wonders (in the final redemption)" (Micah 7:15). The Jewish policemen were in effect telling Pharaoh. "Wait a minute. You are going too far. The excess pressure that you are now applying to us belongs to the time right before the final redemption (in 5770, G-d willing), which will be the Chevlei Moshiach."
(Note: I had mentioned in the past about what I found in the Hidden Codes of the Torah in relationship with Sukkot 5770 being the time associated with Chevlei Moshiach. Indeed, Obama who has been shown in the Hidden Codes to be Gog U'Magog, was nominated for a Nobel peace prize on the last day of Sukkot - exactly eight years after the start of the war of the United States with Afghanistan which rabbis declared to be the beginning of the war of Gog U'Magog -even though he had only been president of the United States for several months without a long track of peacemaking in contrast to how most other people are selected for the prize. This may be the biggest significant factor that will give him the green light to fight Israel in the near future with the alliance of the other nations who nominated him for the "peace" prize.)

Indeed, the Jews were originally supposed to suffer in Egypt for 400 years according to Hashem's original plan, so to speak (though He knows the future and knew exactly what was going to happen). However, the Egyptians went too far as to afflicting the Jews. While in Hashem's estimation, the Jews may have deserved to have suffering, and so allowed the Egyptians to be the rod of punishment, they went way beyond what they were to do in Hashem's deserved allowance of afflictions. Hence, the Jews went only through 116 years of suffering.

Having mentioned a little earlier about working on the six days of the week as a preparation for Shabbat; a long while earlier, Moses as he was brought up in Pharaoh's palace, suggested to him to allow the Jews to have a day off from work - the Shabbat - so they could adequately rest up for another hard week of work without being totally worn out. Pharaoh in fact agreed to this, but now, he did away with this, and this is what was the ultimate complaint to Pharaoh. He wasn't even following the natural order of nature in terms of a work week anymore. Why was his old policy of the work week excluding Shabbat changed to a new format which would make it virtually impossible for constructive work to continue? But Pharaoh remained stubborn and shortly met his downfall until he felt forced to let the Jews out of Egypt.


CONNECTING THE DOTS

And we see a word connected with both of the words having the same letters as the number of this Jewish year 5770. Following Moses' concern about revealing future troubles to the Jewish people, Hashem responded KOH Tomar K'vnei Yisrael... "SO shall you say to the Children of Israel..." And then in the Jewish policemen's complaint to Pharaoh - Lamah Ta'aseh CHOH (KOH) La'Avadeicha "Why do you behave SO with your servants"?

Indeed, we see in this week's Parshat Vaera - in the 4th Aliyah - that this word KOH is written twice in a row - the last word of one sentence, and the beginning of the next sentence. In the first verse - Hashem's message for Pharaoh is that he didn't listen until NOW (KOH) to let the Jews out of Egypt. Then immediately, Hashem states "KOH - SO says Hashem..." proceeding to talk about striking Egypt with the first plague of blood, the beginning of Hashem's punishment for the Egyptians until they would let the Jews leave their country.

As the word KOH is also the number for 25 - Caf Hei, could it be that the date of the future redemption as per Rashi's comment earlier will be the 25th of Iyar of this year? Only time can tell, but there is one more thing that I want to mention here regarding redemption in relationship to this year.

In the earlier part of this post, I quoted the verse from Isaiah stating "Zion will be redeemed with justice, and her captives with charity". Now, this is the concluding verse of the Haftara that is always read on Shabbat Parshat Devarim, also called Shabbat Chazon after the first word of this Haftara, on the Shabbat before Tisha B'Av, the date of the worst tragedies of the Jewish people, but also marks the birth of Moshiach. In a figurative sense, it means that the potential of Moshiach coming began immediately even with the destruction of the Temple on this date. In any case, we see that the very first words of the Haftara of the Shabbat after Tisha B'Av, Shabbat Parshat V'Etchanan, also called Shabbat Nachamu after these words of Nachamu Nachamu, the first of seven Haftarot, the last ones of the Jewish year, that are called Shiva D'Nechemata - the seven Haftarot of comfort.

As noted in the past, the word Tisha/nine as in Tisha B'Av, indeed spells this very year 5770! The following word B'Av can either be read as the literal translation, in (the month of) Av, or the 2nd of Av, and as I mentioned earlier in this post, (the potential of) Moshiach was born on Tisha B'Av upon the destruction of the 2nd Temple. In any case, while we may not be able to pinpoint the exact date of the redemption or what stages of redemption will take place when, we do have here very strong indications of this year 5770 marking the end of our suffering in exile and leading right into the redemption. Do remember that these four letters Hei Tav Shin Ayin as spelled in different orders in the words Shahtah & Ta'aseh can spell ONLY this very Hebrew year 5770 (can also spell the number 775 as Tav Shin Ayin Hei, but the year 775 from Creation was way before even the first Jew was born) in the slated six thousand years of the world's existance - the Ta'aseh Melacha - the preparation of spiritual work needed for the Messianic redemption on a global basis, and our personal service to Hashem preparing for our eternal reward.

May we live to witness the final redemption in this 8th cycle of the Talmud Jerusalem Daf Yomi representing a special time of miracles as represented by the number eight - let's hope sometime within the next eight months of this most special year 5770!

27 Tevet 5770 - Beginning Day of the 8th Cycle of the Jerusalem Talmud Daf Yomi Study.

P.S. In honor of the Gerrer Rebbe who instituted the Daily Study of the Jerusalem Talmud, I want to point out to a couple of hints in the Torah to the Gerrer Rebbe's family name of Alter and the name of Gur (the Hebrew word used for Gerrer) which are mentioned right near each other. In Genesis 26:2, Hashem tells Yitzchak/Isaac - Al Tered Mitzraima "Do not go down to Egypt". The first four Hebrew letters of this phrase in Al Tered spells Alter, the family name that the first Gerrer Rebbe used replacing the family name of Rothenberg. Then, the first words of the very next verse are - Gur Ba'Aretz HaZot "DWELL in this land (of Israel)", in which the first word is the very name of this Chasidic movement, which is presently based in Israel! While the 1st Gerrer Rebbe (Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Alter) himself never made it to Israel, he certainly set the tone for a future time when the Gerer dynasty would be relocated in Israel, which has been very influential for several decades spreading the teaching of Talmudic study in Israel.

There is a story told of Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Alter, the 3rd Gerrer Rebbe who was the present Rebbe at the time that Rabbi Meir Shapiro founded the original Daf Yomi learning of the Babylonian Talmud, that very first night of beginning this scheduled study on Rosh Hashana 5684/1923, he learned the first Daf/folio of Tractate Berachot as is the usual custom of the Gerrer Chasidim to take a brake in the middle of prayers to learn for an hour, and then gave a Chasidic sermon based on that first page of Talmud!

#55 - Everything Comes from the ONE

Technically, this is a continuation of my blog from two posts ago #53 - The Best Chanuka Gift That I Ever Received. Well, it is true that my best Chanuka gift was my wife Yael whom I married three and a half weeks ago on the second day of Chanuka as my bride, or in Hebrew - Kala, which is the Gematria of 55, and this is my 55th Post. Also, my wife's name Yael is the Gematria of 110, which is two times 55.

Today is the Yahrzeit of the Rambam - 20 Tevet. As the spiritual and physical physician par excellence, he writes in his magnum opus, the Mishneh Torah, about being on the MIDDLE path - in terms of character traits and behavioral habits. The reason that I mention this particularly is because I am reminded of the two MIDDLE Parshiyot of the Torah - Tazria & Metzora - which are the 27th and 28th Parshiyot of the Torah. When you add 27 and 28, it equals 55. My past birthday beginning my 40th year was on Shabbat when these two Parshiyot were read. The beginning of the first of these two Parshiyot - Tazria, begins with Hashem's instructions to Moshe - Isha Ki Tazria "When a woman gives birth...", detailing the laws of the childbearing mother in terms of becoming pure. As Kala/bride is the Gematria of 55, it was just one out of a number of signs that I was going to marry my bride in my 40th year. And as I concluded my 53rd post, another name for a bride is Malka/queen, the Hebrew word which can be read as Mem (the letter) which equals 40 and the remaining three letters are the same that make up the word Kala. Hence, this word Malka also signifies that I married my bride in my 40th year.

Also today, according to the worldwide schedule of learning one chapter a day of the Mishneh Torah - a compendium of all the Halachos/laws of the Torah - authored by the Rambam/Maimonides, marks the conclusion of Hilchot Ishut/Laws of Matrimony, consisting of 25 chapters, which began on 26 Kislev/2nd day of Chanuka, the day that I got married.

In the Rambam's memory, it's worthwhile to point out the four Mitzvot/Commandments which form the basis of Hilchot Ishut - 1) To marry a woman with a Ketuba & Kiddushin. 2) Not to have relations with a woman without a Ketuba & Kiddushin. 3) Not to hold back food, clothing and relations from one's wife. 4) To beget children from one's wife.

Now, let me write here the first Halacha that the Rambam writes in this set of laws: "Before Matan Torah - the Torah was given - a man would meet a woman in the street, if there was a mutual agreement between the two to get married, he would bring her to his home and have relations with her, making her his wife. However, since the Torah was given, the Jewish people were commanded that if a man wants to marry a woman, he needs to first acquire her in front of witnesses, and only afterwards does she become his wife, as it says, "When a man takes a woman, and comes on her (intimate relations)" (Deutronomy 22:13)."

The Rambam in the following laws then details what the Torah means by "taking a woman" - not simply by holding her arm until coming home and being in bed with her. Perhaps this is one of the best demonstrations of why we need to follow the Torah She'be'al Peh/Oral Torah, to understand what the Torah/Chumash really means when it says something that we have to follow. You see, taking denotes possessing, which is typically done with giving money - in this case, giving a ring of at least minimal value to the bride, and/or with a document, which in this case is the Ketuba.

Noting that there are 25 chapters in Hilchot Ishut, it brings to mind what Hashem told Abraham when He promised him children - KO Yihyeh Zar'echa - "SO shall your children be" (Genesis 15:5), where the word KO - Kaf Hei - is the Gematria of 25, and the ultimate spiritual purpose of marriage is to have children.

Along these lines, the middle number between 1 and 25 is 13. Going back to the beginning of time with Adam & Eve, it states, "One will cleave to his wife, and they will be ONE flesh" (Genesis 2:24), leading to having children, and Echad/One is the Gematria of 13.

And speaking of the number 13, as can be found at the end of Shacharit/morning prayers in most Siddurim/prayerbooks, are listed the 13 principles of faith, based on the Rambam's Mishna commentary on Sanhedrin 10:1, most of which can also be found in the very beginning of his work Mishneh Torah entitled Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah - "Foundations of the Torah", which includes the Mitzva of believing that Hashem is One - with no partnerships or trinities.

And just as the creation of birth is due to the concept of "ONE flesh" where the Hebrew word for one is 13, so is the 13th and last of the Rambam's principles of faith about Techiyat HaMeitim/Resurrection of the Dead which is in essence the rebirth of the person who once lived before he passed away, and will be resurrected in the future.

Now, adding the the first and last of the above numbers - 1 and 25 - they add to 26 - which is the Gematria of Hashem's main name which we are forbidden to pronounce - the name of Yud Hei Vav Hei - which we may refer to when learning Torah as Hashem or Yud Kei Vav Kei - and as A-do-noy in our prayers. Indeed, the very beginning of the Rambam's work which begins with Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah starts with four words - Yesod HaYesodot V'Amud HaChachmot - "The foundation of foundation and the pillar of wisdoms" (referring to the belief in the existance of Hashem) in which the beginning letters spells the above name of Hashem.

And speaking of beginning with the number 26, so was the beginning of my married life - or my wedding day - on the 26th of Kislev, on which the worldwide schedule of learning one chapter of the Mishneh Torah, beginning of the volume of Nashim/women, the name of which is the Gematria of my wife's Hebrew name Yael Miriam, and more specifically the beginning of Hilchot Ishut/Laws of Matrimony.

And as I had mentioned in previous posts, the phrase Sefer Rambam can be spelled equidistantly once in the entire Chumash, where every following letter is the 5770th from the letter before that, noting that we are in the year 5770, and I am in my 40th year - bearing in mind that the word Mishneh can be spelled as a contraction of Mem (the letter) which is the Gematria of 40 and Shana/year(s)! This is bearing in mind that when people quote "the Rambam", unless specified otherwise, they are referring specifically to the Mishneh Torah, as the Rambam wrote a number of other works as well, including his commentary on the entire Mishnah.

And in the Mishneh Torah, there are 83 sections of laws. Accordingly, there are exactly 83 days from 20 Tevet - Yahrzeit of the Rambam through 14 Nissan - BIRTH of the Rambam in this year of 5770 (in some years when they are Jewish leap years, there is an extra month of Adar during this period of time). Hence, the first of these days which is the Yahrzeit of the Rambam corresponds to Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah, the laws that includes the belief in Hashem and His Oneness, as well as the belief in Moshe being the greatest prophet as well as the Torah as being handed down by Moshe which can never be changed or exchanged for a different "Torah" or "Bible".

And for those who learn the seven Aliyot of the Parsha on the corresponding day of the week, the 4th Aliya of Parshat Shemot as learned today as the 4th day of the week of Parshat Shemot mentions of Hashem calling out to Moses, using his name twice - "Moshe, Moshe" (Exodus 3:4). Being that this Parsha always falls out around the Yahrzeit of the Rambam, perhaps this double mention of Moses' name hints also to the Rambam whose name was Moshe. Indeed, there is a famous saying, "From Moshe (Moses) until Moshe (Maimonides) there was none that arose like Moshe (Maimonides)". In fact, there is a story told that on the night that the Rambam completed his Mishneh Torah, Moshe Rabbeinu appeared to him, looked at his work, and wished him well for the halachic work that he had just completed.

As the NAME of the Parsha - and as the NAME of the 2nd Book of Moses bearing the same name - is Shemot, which means NAMES, I want to point out that the phrase Sefer Rambam has a connection to this. You see, the word Sefer/Book is the Gematria of Shem/Name (340). Noting this, the work of the Rambam - Mishneh Torah - begins with hinting to Hashem's NAME using an acronym. And the NAME "Rambam" is an acronym for the words Rabbeinu Moshe Ben Maimon. And just like we never call Hashem by his real name, so too, we always refer to the Rambam by his title, rarely by his actual name. Also, the title of Hashem referring to G-d, which literally means "the NAME", can be spelled backwards to read Moshe!

In modern times, the Jewish people has been referred to by a title Am HaSefer - "nation of the book". The word HaSefer "The Book" in this context refers to the Bible. It can also be said that this word in Hebrew can be read as a contraction of Hei (the letter) which is the Gematria of 5, and Sefer, as there are the Five Books of Moses, and the word HaSefer is the Gematria of Moshe/Moses (345). Hence, we are called "Nation of Moses", or for that matter in terms of spelling Moshe's name backwards to read Hashem, we are ultimately called "Nation of Hashem"!

As I had mentioned early on in this post about marrying my wife on Chanuka, the word Am/nation shares the same Gematria as the words Nes/miracle & my wife's first name Yael (110). As we know, on Chanuka, there is a concept of Pirsumei HaNes - publicising the miracle of Chanuka, particularly by lighting our Menorahs in such a way that people from outside in the street can see them being lit in one's home or building. Accordingly, Am HaSefer can be reread as Sippur HaAm or Sippur HaNes, as Sippur/story is etymologically related to the word Sefer/book. That is, story of the nation of Israel or story of the miracle. And indeed, the Bible is full of telling the story of the miracles of the Jewish people - their existance to begin with, the miracle wrought for them, and how they survived as a nation despite what the other nations have attempted to do to us, under which the same circumstances, no other nation being defeated in the past have survived as a nation - including the Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks and Romans, the very nations who attempted to either enslave us, hinder our progress, do away with us, change our religion, or rule us with an iron fist.

Concluding on a good note, as we mentioned the special connection of the Rambam with this Hebrew year 5770, ending with the number 70, the Rambam passed away in his 70th year. As the title of his magnum opus Mishneh Torah is also another title for Sefer Devarim/Deutronomy, it's interesting to note that the beginning of this Biblical book states that Moshe Rabbeinu "explained the Torah", upon which Rashi notes that Moshe explained it to them in 70 languages. The purpose of this of course was so that everyone would understand what the Torah is saying. Accordingly, the Rambam's ultimate goal of his Mishneh Torah, as he mentions in his introduction, is to make the laws of the Torah to be understood amidst the difficult and confusing wording of the Talmud.

And just like the giving of the Torah, which was the sole reason for the world's existance from Creation and continued existance, happened near the end of the 49th "Jubilee" cycle of 50 years (see Post #48); so too, the birth of the Rambam occurred near the end of the 49th century from the Creation of the world in 4895 (1135), who was destined to write a halachic work which is quoted by virtually all Torah scholars when discussing the Talmud or Halacha/Jewish Law, and without Halacha, a Jew cannot be a good Jew without following the Laws of the King, which are the details of the Taryag Mitzvot/613 Commandments, the basis of the laws of the Mishneh Torah.

Bearing in mind that the 20th of Tevet is the Yahrzeit of the Rambam, when Moshe Rabbeinu pleaded for forgiveness for the Jewish people for the sin of the Golden Calf, he told Hashem that if he wouldn't forgive them, then "erase me from Your book (the Torah) that You wrote". Now the Hebrew Sifrecha "Your book" can be read as two words Sefer Chaf - "Book 20" or the 20th book. While there are only five books to the Chumash as Hashem dictated to Moshe, there are a total of 54 Parshiyot, the 20th of which is Parshat Tetzave, in which Moshe's name isn't mentioned once as a reflection of what Moshe said here, but hinting to Moshe's Yahrzeit of 7 Adar which always occurs around the time that Parshat Tetzave is read (see Post #20), it begins with V'Ata Tetzave - "You (Moshe) shall command the Children of Israel, and they should take for you (Moshe) pure olive oil beaten to its finest for light to be lit as a continuous light", hence hinting to the concept of a Ner Tamid, a light continously lit in a synagogue or study hall, as well as lighting a candle for a person's Yahrzeit. Perhaps as the 20th Parsha, this is another hint to the Yahrzeit of the Rambam which was destined to occur on the 20th of Tevet.

And as it says about the birth of Moshe in this week's Parshat Shemot which is always read around the time of the Rambam's Yahrzeit - "She (Moshe's mother Yocheved) saw that he (Moshe) was good". Rashi explains that when he was born, the house where he was at was filled with (spiritual) light. This is bearing in mind that we always read this Parsha where it mentions this in the month of Tevet, the word for which is etymologically related to the word Tov/good; and as mentioned in the Midrash, his mother named him Tuvia - "Good of Hashem".

The Rambam truly lived up to his name - Rabbeinu Moshe (Ben Maimon), the first two words having the same Gematria as 613, as is the same as Moshe Rabbeinu, who was BORN and MARRIED in this week's Parshat Shemot, the one who transmitted the detailed laws of the Torah - which are based on the 613 Commandments (see Talmud Makkot 23b), from the ONE and Only - Hashem Himself.

20 Tevet 5770 - Yahrzeit of the Rambam/Maimonides

P.S. The time posted for this blog is 6:20 AM. This comes to mind the 613 Commandments of the Torah, as mentioned in this post, as well as the Sheva Mitzvot D'Rabbanan - the "Seven Commandments of the Rabbis", adding up to the total of 620 commandments.

#54 - No Politics, Just Right

Writing today on the middle day of the month of Tevet; while many got quite excited about a "blue moon" occuring at the time that the Christian New Year began, something that doesn't occur all that often, it has to be remembered that it is the moon of the planetary system that represents the Jewish people. The full moon - occuring on the night of the 15th of the Jewish/lunar month, represents the ultimate spiritual and material living standards of the Jewish people, as it occured in the days of King Solomon, who was the 15th generation from Abraham the first Jew.

And speaking of us Jews, we are represented as the 12 Tribes of Israel, and accordingly, as mentioned in my previous post, each of the 12 Jewish months are represented by a particular Tribe. Thus, this month of Tevet is represented by the Tribe of Dan. And as significant to this post, Dan is the Gematria of 54, and this is my 54th post.

As it turns out, it is this time of year, always falling out in the month of Tevet, that we read Parshat Vayigash - as we read last Shabbat - which details the names of the children of the Tribes of Israel/sons of Jacob, and Parshat Vayechi - which we will read this coming Shabbat - in which Jacob gives his blessings to all of his sons.

In last week's Parsha of the mention of Jacob's children and grandchildren who journeyed to Egypt, Dan of all the sons of Jacob had only one son - Chushim. Even at that, we see that in Parshat Pinchas, where the ancestors of the Jewish people who were close to coming to Israel are mentioned, Dan's son's name is listed as Shucham.

What't the deal here? I have yet to come across the answer to this. However, both of these spellings, when rearranged, can spell very significant words. The letters of the name as listed in Parshat Vayigash - Chushim, can be rearranged to spell the word Moshiach, and the letters of the name as listed in Parshat Pinchas - Shucham, can be rearaanged to spell the word Chumash.

First, I will address the latter letter spelling of Dan's son's name - Shucham, which respells the word Chumash. As we know, there are 54 Parshiyot in the Chumash as read during the Sabbaths of the year. Hence, as Dan whose name is the Gematria of 54, had one son whose alternate name is Shucham, which in turn can be rearranged to spell Chumash which consists of 54 Parshiyot. How amazing!

Now, the original name of Dan's son - Chushim, respells the word Moshiach. Any special connection between Moshiach and Chumash? For one thing, the joy of Moshiach's coming, which will happen very shortly (it is known that Moshiach met with Rabbi Yitzchak Kaduri of blessed righteous memory some six years ago, and he lives somewhere in Israel), will be tremendously great. Perhaps the greatest spiritual joy that the Jewish people have as a whole is the annual celebration of completing reading the Chumash - the 54th Parsha - in the Sefer Torah on Simchat Torah, which literally means "happiness of Torah". Hence, it is through Simcha that we accomplish our greatest spiritual accomplishments.

In the order of the traveling tribes in the desert, it was the Tribe of Dan, as the last head of his division of tribes (which included Asher & Naftali) who travelled in the desert, who was Me'asef L'Chol HaMachanot (Numbers 10:25) - the one who was the gatherer of all the tribes. Rashi explains that this refers to this tribe finding lost articles of the Jews who were travelling and returning them to their rightful owners, which is one of the 613 Mitzvot/commandments of the Torah.

A couple of questions can be asked here. First of all, why was the Tribe of Dan in particular the one who merited to be in this position of fulfilling this Mitzva of returning lost articles? Secondly, why should it be of all the Tribes of Israel that Dan should be the one through whom these concepts of Moshiach & Chumash be hinted?


CHUSHIM - THE UNSONG BIBLICAL HERO

While the Torah/Chumash has nothing special to comment about this Bible figure, the Midrash has a whole story on Dan's son as pertaining to Jacob's funeral as it took place in this week's Parshat Vayechi. Imagine the scenario that took place. Jacob, the father of Joseph who was viceroy of Egypt for the last 26 years, passed away at the age of 147. During the course of 70 days of being embalmed and being mourned for, dignitaries of the Canaanites and the Arabic nation who heard of Jacob's passing, knowing that he was the father of the Hebrews, came in order to fight Jacob's family. While Jacob passed away in Egypt, Joseph as following his father's commands saw to it that he would buried in Israel, particularly in Hebron where he already owned a burial plot for himself and his wife Leah alongside his parents and grandparents in the Mearat HaMachpela "The Double Cave".

All of a sudden, in the middle of the funeral, right before Jacob is supposed to be buried in the plot, here comes his twin brother Esau, who is 147 year old, but not stopped by old age to attend, and contests Jacob's right to be buried in the plot. He claimed that it was his own plot, rather than Jacob's, to be buried in it, despite the fact that Jacob had already buried his wife Leah there. Mind you, this is taking place in front of the dignitaries of various Anti-Semitic nations who were ready to attack Jacob's whole family.

Surprise, surprise. Maybe if telephones, faxes, or internet would have been around in those days, at least Jacob's family would have known beforehand of Esau's complaint to be prepared for an answer, or get together the necessary documentation to prove Jacob's rights to the burial plot. But they had no awareness of Uncle or Great Uncle Esau coming to protest until the last minute, and it didn't occur to them to bring with them the deed of ownership document that Jacob wrote out when he paid Esau good money so Jacob would be the one in the last reserved spot to be buried there. This is besides the fact that Esau took Jacob's money that was given to him in lieu of the burial plot and now demanded the burial plot that now belonged to Jacob, coming to show how much of a thief this Uncle Esau was like Uncle Laban was to Jacob. Hence, there was an immediate discussion as to what to do, and the best thing that the sons/brothers came up with was for the athlete runner Naftali to run back to Egypt to fetch the document.

Meanwhile, Dan's son Chushim who was a bit hard of hearing, didn't quite know what was going on. When he asked what was happening and was told of the latest news, he would hear none of this. He wasted no time walking right up to Grand Uncle Esau, and gave a blow to Esau's head, knocking his unconscious. Following this, Judah, the strongest of Jacob's sons, drew out his sword, did the deed, rather than fetch for the deed of ownership, and Esau's head rolled to where he had asked to be buried.

Imagine what was happening here. Anti-Semitic kings and warriors ready to attack Jacob's mourning family were right by the side, who were no doubt friends with the Edomite nation that Esau founded. As it is, Pharaoh originally did not want Jacob to be buried outside of Egypt, but Joseph had to blackmail Pharaoh to get his wish (won't get into the details of this in this post). And Esau, despite his past evil behavior, was still the uncle and great uncle of the family. But none of this mattered to Chushim. All he knew was that the honor of Grandfather Jacob was being disgraced by the delay of him being buried, and that evil Esau - uncle or no uncle - had no right to interfere, certainly when he had no contractual proof to his bogus claims.

Perhaps it can be suggested that in was in spiritual terms that Chushim was a bit hard of hearing. Yes, he was hard of hearing that we have to answer the claims of an aged individual. Yes, he was hard of hearing that Jacob's son had to bring "proof" that they were in the right instead of Esau which would delay Jacob's funeral. Yes, he was hard of hearing of anything else that would sound "politically correct".

The problem with the mourning sons/brothers was that they were afraid that an attack - verbal or physical - on their uncle Esau, would bring on themselves an attack by the Anti-Semitic nations who were there ready to attack. Even Joseph and Judah, for the moment, felt paralyzed with fear of what would happen if Esau's claims were not "logically" answered. And so, they felt that the only solution would be to get the actual document that would prove who was right, even if it mean delaying the funeral for a week. At least during this time, the nations wouldn't fight them because Esau, their ally, was waiting for an answer.

And this, my friends, is what the Midrash teaches us - not just more "Bible stories", but lessons that we need to learn from this. Future leaders - Nachshon, Pinchas, Matisyahu - among others, also made an initiation that led to salvation, cessation of death, and the will to fight for religious freedom and rights. What they did didn't necessarily cause them to be so popular overnight; in fact, Pinchas for example was threatened by some Jews who were incensed with the fact that he "murdered" a leader of the Tribe of Shimon when the latter openly had sex with the Shiktza Midianite princess. But Chushim, displaying characteristics of Moshiach, having the same letters, faught for what was right - in Hashem's eyes - regardless of how UNpolitically correct it would look like. He was one who had no fear of the then UN - United Nations.

And so will it be when Moshiach will arrive shortly. He won't care about today's United Nations, their bogus claims sandwiched and bagged in chocolate covered "logical" claims of the Arab "Palestinians" of the 100 pieces of the Biblically promised Israel pie to the Jews, or how we "mistreated" the "poor" Palestinian people. He won't care of what even the modern Orthodox rabbis will say, many of whom will no doubt at first claim that he isn't Moshiach, or that we have to "wait and see" what will happen - the same ones who wasted no time denouncing Yigal Amir - the supposed assassin of Yitzchak Rabin (when it really was someone else who fired the fatal shot) - when for the most part these same high paid rabbis kept quiet about Rabin's plans of starting to dismantle parts of Israel, and not once did it ever bother them enough to complain about how Rabin murdered nearly 20 Jews who came with weapons to help their brethren fight their Arab enemies at the Altalena incident in 1948. And my message to these so called rabbi leaders is that if they will in any way, shape, or form will even doubt in public about the real Moshiach when he arrives, they will not merit to live to see the good Messianic days, and they will bask in eternal shame from purgatory to watching everyone else enjoying their well deserved rewards.

No doubt that in reward of Dan's son Chushim who displayed self-sacrifice in defiance of the watchful eyes of the Anti-Semitic leaders and possible criticism of members of his family for his attempted killing of Grand Uncle Esau, Hashem rewarded him with some descendants who would be eternally recorded in the Bible Book of Records.


OHOLIAB, CO-ARCHITECT OF THE TABERNACLE

While Bezalel was in fact the main architect of the Mishkan/Tabernacle, Hashem saw to it that one other person would make a permanent marking in the Torah in the same line of work. Known as Oholiab Ben-Achisamech, Rashi comments (Exodus 35:34) that as coming from the Tribe of Dan, it was this tribe that was the lowest of the tribes being that he was from one of the maids of Jacob (Bilhah), Oholiab was equated with Bezalel from the Tribe of Judah, the greatest of the Tribes, in terms of the construction of the Tabernacle.

It's interesting to note that some of the Ethiopians who emigrated to Israel claim that they are descendants of the Tribe of Dan. While their claims of being Jewish weren't quite bought by the rabbis in Israel, and they had to go through a formal conversion (a good portion of them aren't observant Jews until this day though they claim to have always been Jews) to be considered part of the Jewish people, noting their black color of skin - (though not quite with the same features that regular black Africans have), it is not so surprising why they are considered of lowly status, even from over three thousand years ago. After all, why else were the maids of
Jacob considered as such, even as they fathered one third of the Tribes of Israel? Most likely, these maids were from the Canaanite nations who were black as part of Noah's curse to his son Ham, their ancestor (see Post #48).

For all we know, all of us Jews today - including the ones with the light skin color - could be descendants of the Canaanites, at least as far as Rashi is concerned. Rashi on the verse (Genesis 50:13) mentioning of Jacob's sons being the ones carrying his bier points out that particularly it was Jacob's sons, and not his grandsons, because he ordered that no Egyptian nor one of his grandchildren who were all from his son's Canaanite wives (apparently there weren't enough members from his own family who were available as marriage partners for all of his 12 sons unlike for the Patriarchs who all found matches among their family cousins) should carry his bier, as those other nations were descendants from the accursed Ham.

Hence, the Torah wants to teach us that we should never look down at someone for what seems outwardly to be something to be looked down upon. After all, if not ourselves, we may come from someone of a similar background up the family tree. Everyone has potential for greatness in some way. It isn't necessarily the popular black singers or sports players who are good blacks. Actually, most of the good blacks can be found among simple people who work hard to feed their family and get their children to have a good college education. If we should measure people in any way, it is by their behavior. And while many Americans may go crazy about good white Christian singers and movie stars, many of these American idols and stars are truly a piece of white trash - like Jacob's trickster uncle Laban whose name means white - because their behavior between how they treat their wives while sleeping with other married women due to their fame and wealth is what truly defines them, and their devotion to the church goes only so far as to confess their sins at best.


SAMSON - THE STRONG HERO

Perhaps his name Shimshon/Samson isn't as popular as the rhyming name Shimon, but Samson from the Tribe of Dan maximized his potential as a strong physical person. Born as a Nazirite, he never cut his hair as mandated in the Torah. It was through his hair that he had supernatural strength, which he used in fighting the Philistines who were oppressing the Jews. While he had two failed marriages with Philistine women who paid lip service to Jewish conversion but still felt close with their Philistine nation and betrayed Samson, and was hated by some Jews who felt he endangered their lives by attacking the Philistines, his love for his Jewish brethren is what was his motivation behind his guirella attacks for some 20 years.

Yes, Strong Samson also had a weakness - his tempation for the Philistine women. The Mishna in Tractate Sota notes that he was punished by his eyes being gouged out by the Philistines for using his eyes looking at Philistine women when his inner spiritual strength should have matched his outer strength. Nevertheless, the Book of Judges gives him the most writing space of all the other Judges as to the record of his life. He was a fighter, warrior and hero of the Jewish people not to simply show off, but because of his great love for Jews - yes, the poor oppressed Jews who were mistreated by the Philistines.

Hence, it is not surprising that Jacob's blessing for his son Dan in this week's Parshat Vayechi, as explained by Rashi, is totally focused on his descendant Shimshon. In fact, the Midrash points out that at first, Jacob thought that Shimshon was going to be Moshiach until he saw in the end of his prophecy about him that he would be defeated by the Philistines at the end. Indeed, Shimshon was following in the footsteps of his ancestor Chushim son of Dan, whose name having the same letters of Moshiach, who in turn acted in the future Moshiach's footsteps.

And speaking of Samson and his heroic efforts in line with his ancestor Chushim, there is a website www.samsonblinded.com that tells the truth the way it is - criticized even by many who consider themselves "right wing" because the information that the webmaster writes doesn't sound "politically correct". While you are at it, you can check out this site's blog and download the book that is called Samson Blinded. And while I am at it, I have a rabbi friend who writes along the same lines at WWW.VAADHARABBONIM.COM.


THE END RESULT

And as we mentioned earlier in this 54th Post, Chushim's other name Shucham has the same letters as Chumash. And looking in the 54th and last Parsha of the Chumash - in comparison with the last Parsha of the first book of the Chumash - Bereishit - where Jacob gives his blessings, Moses gives his blessings to the Tribes of Israel. And the last word of the 54th Parsha, the last word of the Book of Deutronomy, the last word of the Chumash is the word Israel (the nation). Interesting to note, in Jacob's blessings, Dan - whose name is the Gematria of 54 - is one of the few sons in whose blessing the name Israel is mentioned. Then in Moses's blessing to his tribe, he mentions the phrase Gur Aryeh "lion cub", the very same phrase that Jacob used in his blessing for Judah. And as we mentioned earlier, their respective descendants were the main architects of the Tabernacle.

A closer look at Rashi on Moses' blessing for Dan reveals that it's all about the conquered territory in the Land of Israel that Dan possessed. Despite this tribe's lowliness of how they may have looked, hard of hearing, tempation of women, and to top this off with idol worship even as they were fighting the nations for more land of Israel, they had a most wonderful quality of loving the land of Israel. They weren't satisfied with what was given to them in the conquest of the land in Joshua's days. Deep down inside, they wanted more of the G-d given land, which would be theirs if they would just but conquer more of it to make it their own.

Yes, the Danites weren't afraid of world opinon. Like their ancestor Chushim and their fellow member Shimshon, they just went ahead and fought the fight, and more than earned their share of the pie. Very unfortunately, their idol worship as recounted in the Bible led to their eventual downfall when exiled among the 10 Tribes, but they had nationalistic pride, something that is very wanting today in today's generation. Note what I said - in TODAY'S generation. Two or three generations ago, the modern day Zionists as what they are known as, even as many abandoned their immediate family's religious observances, had a strong feeling of living in their own Jewish land, even at the cost of great sacrifice, some of whom got hung on the gallows by the Anti-Semitic Britians, instead of attending the universities that other Jews from religious homes turned to for the great life in Germany until the Holocaust.

Fortunately, both Rabbis Meir & Binyamin Kahane of blessed righteous memory, may Hashem avenge their blood, showed the way of nationalistic pride without regard to what they world will say. To Rabbi Meir Kahane, a Jew, regardless of skin color, was just as much of a Jew as Kahane. And in the same way, every part of Israel was part of Israel, regardless of the bogus or so called logical claims of the nations or the modern day Philistines couched as the name Palestinians or their dream land of Palestine. True, even as many of these Zionists who built what is known as the State of Israel were anti-religion and anti-religious, but as far as Kahane was concerned, we have to be thankful to Hashem that we have our own land to live on once again.

It's most interesting to note that the name of Rabbi Meir Kahane's son who followed in his footsteps, Binyamin Zev, are the beginning words of the 6th Aliyah of this week's Parshat Vayechi, which is learned by some today as the 6th day of the week. It was the tribe of Binyamin whose ancestor was the only Sabra born in Israel of the 12 sons of Jacob, who merited to have a good portion of Jerusalem and the grounds of the Temple as part of the tribe's portion in the land. Noting that earlier this month was the Yahrzeit of Binyamin Kahane & his wife Talya on 5 Tevet, who were murdered by Arabs while he was driving nine years ago, he once spoke, as I heard him in person, about chasing out the Arabs from the land, and not just looking to build new settlements. In his last speech before his murder, he addressed the soldiers in the Israeli army - which is very unfortunately controlled by the present Communist run government - and told them not to obey orders of holding back from fighting the Arabs when need be. How much his words helped is hard to tell, because in the last two wars held in Olmert's dictatorship, the soldiers did only as much as they were ordered to do, and nothing more. If the soldiers - at least the religious ones - would have took matters in their own hands, and instead of stopping the war, would have increased their fight, we would have far less problems today.

Yes, the Torah is NOT about politics. It's about JUST doing the job RIGHT - nothing less and nothing more. I have not hesitated in this post or in previous posts to speak my mind, even as I am living in Israel, regardless of the Shin Bet checking on Jews writing against the current Israeli dictatorship on the internet as I know happened to a friend of mine who was denied Israeli citizenship as a result, because what I am saying is only what the Torah is saying, as Kahane worded it as best as possible to attempt to get the job done. Yes, it is Dan the "gatherer of the camps", the group who gathers the lost articles and returns them to their rightful owners, the ones who tend to a matter in Judaism that needs attention - regardless of what is popular or not, and set things aright regardless of who will boo us or fight us - whether it is neighboring Egypt, Iran, United States or United Nations.

It is Moshiach, as we note our yearning for his coming with the final verse that Jacob says in his blessing of Dan "For your salvation, do I hope for, Hashem" (Genesis 49:18) at the end of the daily recital of Ani Ma'amin - 13 principles of faith which includes in our belief in Moshiach's coming at any day - who will demonstrate and ultimate succeed with his goals of doing the deed, fighting the fight, and living the life on the land that is ours and ours forever. And it is in the last Parsha of the Chumash where basically the blessings of Moshe for the Tribes of Israel is either about their particular portion of land or events that took place on the land which included fighting their enemies until the end - not halfway battles and then talking concessions which is the popular stance of the Arab loving government and the Kapo-Nazi Jewish Israeli police throwing Israel's most devoted citizens in the dungeon and force stripping its young religious teenage girls who dared to show their love of the land like the Zionists slaved for - ending the events of Moshe's life with Hashem telling him that He will show him the land that he would not merit to enter.

While Moses and Kahane weren't able to finalize their dreams, it is up to us to complete our part in our last moments of exile before Moshiach's arrival. The end of the Chumash speaks of Moshe's accomplishments and his successor Joshua who later boldly and bravely conquered the land as per Hashem's orders. His name in Hebrew - Yehoshua - is related to the word Yeshuah/salvation and the word for the Hoshanot/salvation prayers that we recite on Succot when we circle the bima/prayer post once for the first six days and seven times on the 7th and final day called Hoshana Rabba, paralleling Joshua's encircling the first city of his conquer Jericho once for the first six days and seven times on the 7th and final day following which the city of Jericho was conquered.

This is bearing in mind that the word Hoshanot includes the letters of the number of this year - Hei Tav Shin Ayin - 5770, the real year counting from the Creation of the World, NOT based on the years counting from the birth of a failed Yeishu - the letters of which begin the words Yemach Shemo V'Zichrono - may his name and memory be erased (NOT Yeishua as nicknamed by self hating Jewish missionaries) the first of the failed Messiahs and failed salvation leaders. We are now awaiting the future Joshua - the future warrior who will fight both spiritually and physically for our rights as the Jewish nation, when we will soon once and for all, live the spiritual and physical utopian standards of living as represented by the full moon.

15 Tevet 5770