#169 - Our Good Fortune

While non-Jews may be scratching their heads today wondering if today will be a bad lucky day, since both today's secular date and the last two digits of the secular year is 13, today's Hebrew date, at least as the birthday of Asher son of Jacob - 2 Shevat (Note: Other versions may show the birthdate as 20 Shevat, but this seems to be an error based on the copying of the letter Beit=2 which can at times be mistaken for the curved letter Kaf=20 if not written down carefully, but the other way around would be unlikely since it is far easier to curve and less time consuming than spelling out a letter as squared), may suggest quite the opposite.  In fact, to accentuate the number 13 for non-Jews today, as the present month in the secular calendar is the first month of the secular year, the Hebrew word for the number one is Echad, which is the Gematria of 13.  So in fact, if bad news happens to a segment of non-Jews today, especially to Christians, I wouldn't be surprised.  And why do I specify Christians?  You see, we Jews have been commanded to believe in One G-d, as in the verse of Shema - "Hear O Israel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One" (Deutronomy 6:4).  However, in the Christian religion, they interpret this verse with Hashem's/G-d's name mentioned three times in a row followed by the word Echad "One", as three gods in the form of the Trinity.  Now, there are some rabbis who say that for non-Jews, there is nothing wrong for them to believe in this, since after all, it is only Jews who are commanded to believe in only One G-d - "Hear O Israel".  But in any case, we see that the number 13 is a well respected bad luck number, especially in the United States where you will not see the number 13 in elevators.

As it turns out this year, the 2nd of Shevat falls out on the first day of the week, which is called by the Torah as Yom Echad "Day One", rather than Yom Rishon "the first day", as the way that the following days are worded as "second day", "third day", etc.  in the account of the story of Creation in the beginning of the Torah.  The reason for this is to denote that on this first day of Creation, Hashem alone existed without any other creatures,  as the angels, or at least some of them, were created only on the second day.

O.K., so what is so special about today's date just because it is the birthday of Asher?  You see, the meaning of his name is based on the word fortune - Osher, which in this case begins with the letter Aleph rather than the letter Ayin, which denotes a wealthy person, though no doubt that the similarity of these two words are no coincidence.  In fact, this name Asher follows in the footsteps of the name of his older brother Gad from the same mother Zilpah, for the name Gad means luck, particularly good luck, which in Hebrew popularly means Mazel Tov.

It seems that the English word good is based on this name Gad, which besides its good connotation, is most similar in sounding to this name.  And while we are at it, G-d's name is English is also very similar to the word good, as G-d is perceived by many only as a "good G-d", explaining while some people after the Holocaust stopped believing in G-d, since to begin with, they only perceived Him as a "good G-d", for "how could G-d allow such evil to have happened?", which is basically avoiding the soul searching that they never even attempted to see where they went wrong, instead of blaming it on G-d, or on chance.

In Judaism, however, while we also perceive Hashem as a "good G-d", it isn't because only "good" things come from him, while bad things are in the domain of someone else in terms of making decisions.  As noted in the ninth chapter of Tractate Berachot, one is obligated to bless Hashem for the bad, the same way that one blesses Him for the good".  While it may not be obvious to us at first, but as we believe in the Hereafter where we will enjoy eternal bliss for our good deeds, and the corresponding punishments in Hell, what we suffer in this world is nothing compared to the next, and moreover, suffering can expunge our sins if we just but repent for them.  Accordingly, if we don't exactly enjoy the "good life" despite our good behavior, then it probably means that we have something real good waiting for us Upstairs.

With this said, we can then understand what our true good fortune is.  As Jews, we are indeed most fortunate, despite the challenges of anti-Semitism and all, to be the Chosen People, for we will forever be the closest to Hashem, as we will feel the ultimate pleasure that can only be felt in the spiritual sense.  But the secret to this happening is the greatest Mitzva in terms of both spiritual benefits and rewards, which readers on this blogspot should know by now - the learning and teaching of Torah.

This is all nice, but what does this have to do particularly with Asher.  After all, he wasn't even the son of one of Jacob's wives Leah or Rachel, a son of one of his maidservants, as the maidservants are not considered to be on the high spiritual level of Leah and Rachel.

Forgetting about anyone's particular background, at the end of the day, what ultimately counts is how one himself or herself performed in this world.  To note, all of Jacob's 12 sons were Tzadikim (righteous people), despite the fact that most of them had a part in selling their brother Joseph whom they were jealous of.

In any case, we see that there is a unique connection between Asher and Mishna study.  Now, what Asher did special to have this connection, I don't know.  But what I do know is that the Midrash Talpityot tells us that Asher stands at the entrance of Gehinnom, and saves those who know Mishnayot from entering..  And there is a hint to Asher's connection to Mishna, for in the blessing that Jacob gave him, it states - Me'Asher Shemeina Lachmo "From Asher will there be fat bread..."  The letters of the word Shemeina (fat) can be rearranged as the word Mishna.  Moreover, the name Asher and the very first word of the Mishnayot - Me'eimatai, have the same Gematria - 501!

 Moreover, rearranging the letters of Asher's name, the word can be read as Rosh (head), and indeed, the very first word of the Mishnayot is the Rosh - head word, which bears the very same Gematria.  And this is significant for one more reason - for the first word is not merely the first word as opposed to the second word, but is the HEAD word.  For this very first word Me'eimatai means "from when", which focuses on the importance of time, as in the particular context, the question is from what time on does one have the obligation of reciting the Shema in the evening.  And as related to the Mishna as a whole, taking the first letters of the names of the six orders (or volumes) of the Mishna - Zayin for Zeraim (Seeds), Mem for Moed (Holiday or Appointed Time), Noon for Nashim (Women), Noon for Nezikin (Damages), Koof for Kadashim (Holy Things), Teit for Teharot (Purity Things), these six letters can be read in order in the form of two words - Nekot Zeman "take the time".  That is, use your time wisely and learn Mishna, for the Mishna is the Rosh (head) of the Torah She'B'Al Peh (Oral Torah) which includes the Gemara/Talmud, Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law), and all other Jewish law related books.

Now, let us note the number of this post - 169.  The square root of this number is 13, but believe it or not, writing Post 169 today is totally coincidental on my part as per today's secular date, but it has everything to do with today's Jewish date and the theme of this 169th Post.

As you may recall from a few months ago when I wrote my 150th Post about Daf Yomi celebrating the beginning of the 13th cycle, I wrote extensively about the special significance of the number 13, and as related to the Oral Torah.  Now, while I am not going to start repeating everything that I mentioned earlier, one thing that should be mentioned on this post is that the letter Mem is the 13th letter of the Aleph Beit.  It is this letter that begins the word Mishna, Moed - the name of the second order of the Mishna which is especially related to time, the ultimate message of the Mishnayot that I just wrote above, and is the first and last letter of the Mishnayot, just as the word for the letter Mem consists of the same two letters - the Mem and the Mem Sophit.

Now, I will write about the number 42, another number that I discussed in my special Daf Yomi post, but today, it is especially related to the words Asher (and Rosh).  Noting the number position of the letters of the Aleph Beit in which Aleph is the first letter and Tav is the 22nd letter, let us add up here the position numbers of the name Asher - Aleph is 1, Shin is 21, and Reish is 20.  The sum total of these three numbers is 42.  And as the very first (two) Mishna(yot) deals with when the Shema is recited in the evening (and morning), this is learned out particular from a verse that is mentioned in the Shema - V'Shinantam L'Vaneicha V'Dibarta BAM... "You shall teach them (the words of Torah) to your children and speak of THEM (the words of the Shema) when you sit in your home, when you walk on the way, when you lie down, and when you rise".  Anyways, the word Bam (them) is made up of the letters of the number in Hebrew for 42 - Mem & Beit.  And though the word Bam in the context here is technically referring to the Mitzva of Shema, the words of the Shema itself are words of Torah, and is included in the Torah that we learn in the time that we have without other matters to deal with regardless of where we are or when.

It has been noted that the letters of the word Bam begin the words Bereishit - the very first word of the Torah beginning with a Beit, and Me'eimatai - the very first word of the Mishna beginning with a Mem.  And as for the connection of the number 42 particularly with the study of Mishna, we see hints to this by the number page 42 in both the Talmud and the Zohar.  In the Talmud (Sanhedrin 42a), it states that the war of Torah can be found with one who has bundles of Mishna; and in the Zohar (Bereishit 42b), it mentions the special connection that one has with Hashem for learning Mishna.

And as I mentioned about the number position of the letters of the name Asher, there is another special connection here with the Mishna.  First to note, there is a custom to learn chapters of Mishna that begin with the letters of the name of the deceased.  With this said, there are 22 letters of the Aleph Beit, and the Gematria of the words Me'eimatai - the first word of the Mishnayot, and Asher is 501.  Adding these two numbers 22 and 501, the total is 523, and lo and behold - there are exactly 523 chapters of Mishna!  (Note:  Some may notice that it looks like that there are 525 chapters, but this includes two chapters that aren't part of the Mishna per se, but from another source which is the 6th chapter of Avot and the 4th chapter of Bikkurim).

Now, there is another ROSH involved here.  You see, it was on ROSH Chodesh (beginning of month) Shevat, this date which was just this past Shabbat, that begins Sefer Devarim (Deutronomy) in which Moses begins his final address to the Jewish people that lasts over a period of 36 days until his passing on 7 Adar.  Now, the special significance of this fifth and final book of the Chumash (Deutronomy) is that this particular Book hints to the concept of Torah She'B'Al Peh, for it was Moses who orally spoke to the Jewish people about the Mitzvot, as opposed to the previous three books in which Hashem spoke to Moses.  For from Hashem, we have both the Written Torah and the Oral Torah, but in terms of traditiion being passed down from one generation to the next, once the Chumash was written down, the purpose of having Torah scholars teaching the people is explaining to them what the Torah says, which is the whole concept of the Oral Torah.

With this said, let us first note the very first word of Deutronomy - Eileh (these), which is the Gematria of 36,  and as we know, the Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud) consists of 36 tractates (excluding Tractate Tamid which includes Gemara on only some of the chapters of this tractate).  Moreover, the word Bavli (Babylonian) is the Gematria of 44, and Deutronomy begins with the 44th Parsha of the Torah.  Now, let us see how the beginning of this verse makes sense Eileh HaDevarim Asher Diber Moshe El Kol Yisrael "These are the words that Moses spoke to all of Israel..." Now, the word immediately following Eileh HaDevarim "These are the words" is Asher (that or which), which is essentially the same word as the name Asher, except that the name Asher bears the vowel Kometz under the Aleph, while the other word Asher bears the vowel Patach under the Aleph.  It is true that the regular word Asher is written thousands of times in the Torah because after all, it is a key word used in speaking, but the fact that we see that this word which is essentially the same spelled word as the name Asher immediately follows the first words "These are the words" is most significant here as related to above about Asher's special connection to the Mishna, the HEAD of the Oral Torah.

Moreover, not only is the birthdate of Asher within this month of Shevat, but so is the whole month of Shevat  that corresponds particualarly to the Tribe of Asher, as mentioned in the Chasidic Sefer "Bnei Yissaschar",  And as mentioned in this Sefer, Rosh Chodesh Shevat - the date that Moses started his final address to the Jews, is considered the ROSH Hashana of the Oral Torah.  What a powerful statement here!  You see, in the beginning of the Mishnaic Tractate Rosh Hashana, it mentions four (or five) dates in the year that are called Rosh Hashana.  In fact, the fourth of these is Rosh Chodesh Shevat, which is considered the Rosh Hashana for trees according to Beit Shammai, though in fact according to Halacha (Jewish Law), we follow Beit Hillel who holds that the observance of this Rosh Hashana for trees to be on Tu B'Shevat (15 Shevat).  However, in Torah, it isn't simply that one rabbi is right and the other one is wrong; for in fact, both rabbis or the Yeshivot of these rabbis were on very high spiritual standing, and it wasn't just their simple "opinion", but their decisions in Torah were based on following the Torah rules, includes the 13 methods through which the Torah are interpreted.  And hence, we have the rule Eilu V'Eilu Divrei Elokim Chayim "Both these and these are the words of the living G-d", so while in fact, it is only possible in this physical world to follow the Torah decision of one of the two rabbis, the words of both of them are equally Torah words.  For in fact, even the Torah decision of the rabbi which is not accepted as Jewish law has lessons to learn from.

Having mentioned this, we can see a hint to what I just wrote.  You see, the last of the 36 tractates of Talmud Bavli begins with the word Shammai, the beginning of Tractate Nidda, in which both Shammai and Hillel give their opinions in the particular text of the first Mishna of this tractate.  And as I mentioned earlier that Deutronomy begins with the 44th Parsha of the Torah, bearing in mind that the word Bavli is the Gematria of 44, this Book's first word Eileh (these) being the Gematria of 36, can very well hint especially to the 36th and final tractate of the Talmud Bavli - Masechet Nida - which begins with the word Shammai, the name of the rabbi whose Yeshiva held that the ROSH Hashana for trees is on ROSH Chodesh Shevat, THE VERY DATE that begins the Book of Deutronomy!  So while in essence, Beit Shammai may very well be correct in determining the date of the Rosh Hashana for trees, just as the other three Rosh Hashanas occur on the Rosh Chodesh of other months; for practical reasons, the Halacha follows Beit Hillel who say that the Rosh Hashana for trees is observed two weeks later, which is dependent on the development of the trees in terms of certain aspects in Halacha.

And speaking of the Talmud (Mishna/Gemara), the word Hashana (literally means the year) as in the phrase Rosh Hashana is the same Gematria as the acronym Shas, which is also the Hebrew number for 360, as Shas is made up of the beginning words of Shisha Sidrei (Mishna) - the SIX ORDERS of the Mishna.  So, the phrase Rosh Hashana can also hint to the "Head of Shas", which refers back to the first word of the Mishna - Me'eimatai, which is the Gematria of the name Asher - 501, whose tribe corresponds to the month of Shevat, during which on Rosh Chodesh, the head and first of Shevat, Moses began his final sermon, signifying this very date to be the Rosh Hashana of the Oral Torah.  Now, subtracting 360 from 501 is 141, the Gematria of the word Mitzva, the word in the Torah which at times refers to particularly the Mishna.

Now, on this past Shabbat which coincided with Rosh Chodesh Shevat, we read Parshat Va'eira in which the first seven of the 10 plagues that smote the Egyptians took place.  In some years, Rosh Chodesh Shevat occurs during the week of Parshat Bo, in which the final three plagues took place.  With this said, when we mention the 10 plagues in the Haggada for Passover, we also read an acrostic of so to speak three words that make up the first letters of the ten plagues - Detzach Adash B'Achav.  As it turns out, the total Gematria of these 10 letters is 501, the same Gematria as the name Asher, the Tribe of this month of Shevat, in which we always read of the 10 plagues in the Torah, or on the Shabbat before Shevat, which is called Shabbat Mevarchim Shevat.  For in fact, the word Shevat can also be read as the same letters as Sheivet - rod, for Moses had used his rod to bring the plagues on the Egyptians.

Strange. Wasn't it Hashem Who brought the plagues?  So, how did Moses using his rod do anything in bringing the plagues that happened only through Hashem's will and power which was not within regular nature but in the form of a miracle.  If anything, wouldn't it have been better if Moses didn't do anything after giving his warning to Pharaoh to let the Jews go if he didn't anything himself, but only Hashem?

First, we learn a lesson here is that even though Hashem can do whatever He wants whenever He wants, but we also have to do our part.  For after all, while Hashem can easily provide, that is provided that we do our part to deserve Hashem's benevolence.  And so, the rod that Moses used symbolizes this concept, along with the Jews having observed Mitzvot as related to the Korban Pesach (Pascal sacrifice) in order to be worthy to leave Egypt, even though it was Hashem's wish that they leave anyways, but He gave the Jewish people merit through which they could earn their way out of the land of slavery.

As it turns out, it was more than just a plain rod.  There is a whole story about this truly "magic wond", but basically it began from Adam, having originally received it from Hashem, who passed it down from generation to generation until Jethro got a hold of it and planted it in his backyard, but no one, including Jethro, was able to remove it from the ground, until his son-in-law Moses came by and lifted it out.  Moreover, these very letters beginning the names of the 10 plagues were written on this rod.

This is all very nice, but in fact, the actual word in the Torah used referring to this rod is the synonym Mateh.  When rearranging the letters of this word, we can read it as Ha (the) Mem-Teit (49), that is, hinting to the 49 levels of impurity that the Jews in Egypt had sunk into, and had they stayed just a little longer, they would have been spiritually too far gone into the 50th level of impurity.  Now, along the lines that I mentioned earlier, as the rod that Moses used represents doing some action to be deserving of Hashem's miracles; so too, as much as Hashem was ready to perform miracles, He still gave the chance to Pharaoh to give permission for the Jews to leave the land without need to perform any miracles.  Of course Hashem knew beforehand exactly what was going to be, and even as Hashem admitted Himself, He hardened Pharaoh's heart in order to be able to perform His miracles in front of the world.  So this being the case, this rod was used to bring the 10 plagues, which resulted in Pharaoh following the 10th plagues to not only simply allow the Jews to leave, but to have them leave in haste in fear of further retribution from Hashem.  This then resulted in the Jews leaving Egypt, and then went through seven weeks, or a 49 day period, to remove themselves from one level of impurity a day in order to be able to properly receive the Torah.  And the Torah, being that it consists of the Written and Oral Torah, the Oral Torah - though not written down for the public for some 1500 years, was finally written down to preserve the Torah from being forgotten in the midst of the Jews being oppressed and exiled by the Roman empire, and the Mishna - the root of the Oral Torah, begins with the words Me'eimatai - the Gematria of 501, the very same Gematria as the letters on the rod that brought about everything else.

As it turned out this year, Rosh Chodesh Shevat, the beginning of the month that corresponds to the Tribe of Asher fell out on Shabbat when we read about the first seven plagues in Parshat Va'eira; and the birthday of Asher - 2 Shevat, fell out on the first day of the week of Parshat Bo in which we read about the final three plagues.  In any case, as I mentioned in Post 167 (Dec '12), there is a custom among some Jews to learn one or more Mishnaic tractates corresponding to some theme of the corresponding Parsha.  Hence, the Tractate learned for Parshat Va'eira is Masechet Makkot, whose name which is translated as plagues in the context of the Chumash (blows or lashes in the context of the Mishna), and in this year, this Parsha was read on Rosh Chodesh Shevat, as related the concept of Eileh HaDevarim ASHER and the Sheivet (rod) on which the letters of the Esser Makkot (10 plagues) were inscribed from Hashem whose total add up to the Gematria of the name Asher.

And so, nearing the end of this post, let us dissect the number of this post - 169, as two numbers: one (1) and sixty-nine (69).  For in fact, the phrase Yom Echad (Day One) that I mentioned in the beginning of this post as referring to the first day of the week in which the birthdate of Asher fell out on this year, is the Gematria of 69, and so the number 169 - which is the square root of 13, which in turn is the Gematria of the word Echad (one) which in turn begins with the letter Aleph=1, can be read as "One" and "Day One".

And being that this is the week of Parshat Bo, in which we read about Yetziat Mitzrayim (the Exodus) that is the cause of our celebration of Passover, let me note something from the Haggada of Passover.  The next to the last song in the Haggada is called Echad Mi Yodea "Who knows one?"  This is a song that mentions some theme that is related to the first 13 numbers, the number one which is "our G-d in Heaven", and the number 13 which refers to the 13 Midot HaRachamim "Divine Attributes of Mercy".  Noting that the first word of this song that is part of the name of it - Echad, which is the Gematria of 13, it is perhaps understandable why this song mentions particularly the first 13 numbers.  Perhaps another reason for this is that this corresponds to the 10 plagues that struck the Egyptians to let the Jews leave the country, and the Gematria of the name of the Parsha in which the Exodus took place - which is three; hence: 10+3=13.

And I believe there is a third reason.  In the actual text of this song, the Divine Attributes of Mercy are referred to by an Aramaic word Midaya.  With this, let me note the name of the section of the Haggada which is all about telling the story of the Exodus - Maggid.  This is based on the word Aguda (bundle), in which a bunch of parts are bound up together as one.  In any case, the middle two letters of this word are the letters for the number 13 in Hebrew - Yud and Gimmel.  Now, noting the first and last letters of the word Maggid, these are the letters for the number 44 in Hebrew, which are the first two letters of the word Midaya, referring to the THIRTEEN Divine Attributes of Mercy!  Moreover, the first of the 10 plagues that began the long process of having Pharaoh agree to let the Jews go was Dam (blood), using the same two letters that spell the number 44.  And as a parallel, Deutronomy begins with the 44th Parsha of the Torah in which Moses tells the Jews the stories that took place with them during their stay in the desert, in order that they should learn from the past to be better Jews.  In fact, the word Midaya can be broken down into two numbers - 44 as spelled Mem-Dalet and 11 as spelled Yud-Aleph, for Moses began his final sermon on the first day of the 11th month (Shevat), beginning the Book of Deutronomy which consists of 11 Parshiyot.

As for the number 13 as related to the words Magid/Aguda, we see within Deutronomy near the end that upon Moses writing 13 Sifrei Torah (Torah scrolls), one for each of the 12 tribes, and one for all of Israel; he gave the one for all Israel to the Tribe of Levi to be kept in the Sanctuary, so that should there ever be a question as to what a certain letter should be in one of the Sifrei Torah of the Tribes, then this 13th Sefer Torah would be checked for the correct lettering.  So as we see, it is particularly the NUMBER THIRTEEN that maintains the unity and balance of the Jewish nation.  And in terms of time, in order for our Jewish calendar should have the seasons synced with the months, we add an extra month every two or three years, being the 13th month of the year, so that Passover can always be observed "in the month of spring".  So once again, we see how the NUMBER THIRTEEN plays a major role in maintaining balance between matters.

Finally, in certain versions of the Aleinu prayer, the final prayer in every prayer service, in which we acknowledge Hashem as the King of Kings, and that one day, the whole world will be worshiping only Him, there are exactly 169 words.  For in fact, the very last word of this prayer is Echad, which is the Gematria of the number 13, the square root of 169.  And while we are enjoying OUR GOOD FORTUNE, the greatest fortune of all -the Torah, even in our final days of exile, we will soon forever enjoy OUR GOOD FORTUNE without problems from the outside world when, as the verse that concludes the Aleinu prayer reads "Hashem will be King over the entire world; on that day, Hashem will be One, and His Name One".


2 Shevat, 5773 - Birthdate of Asher ben Yaakov Avinu

P.S.  Our Good Fortune - and my good fortune.  The time posted for this post is 1:13 PM, these two numbers - 1 and 13 - being written quite a bit about in this post.

#168 - Saving the Best for Last

Just about all of us have done it, especially when it comes to our favorite desert - it may be ice cream of which we eat the chocolate last because it tastes best, or with a cupcake of which we eat the top pudding last.

Of course, when it comes to the Torah, we know that the greatest Tzadikim (righteous people) featured in the Chumash (Penteteuch) are Moses and Aaron.  However, there is someone related to them who is quite unique.

In this week's Parshat Va'era, the Torah lists particularly the families of the first three Tribes.  Now, Rashi points out that the reason why particularly the first three Tribes is because Jacob in his blessings to the Tribes, gave them more like rebukes for past misdeeds, and so to make it up to them, these three in particular are the featured tribes in this Parsha.

Even without this, the Torah perhaps would have recorded the details on at least the family of the Tribe of Levi, since the Torah mentions Moses and Aaron as brothers in them midst of this, as in the context of the Parsha, both of them came to Pharaoh to demand the Jews' exodus from Egypt.

In any case, getting into details about Aaron's family, there is a whole verse that mentions his son Elazar marrying and being the father of Pinchas.

And when in the Torah is Pinchas mentioned again?  At the end of Parshat Balak, we see that Pinchas took a spear and thrust it into the bodies of Zimri Ben-Salu, leader of the Tribe of Shimon and Kosbi Bat-Tzur the Midianite princess.   Following this, in the beginning of the next Parsha that is named after him, Hashem rewards him for his courageous act, by awarding him with the eternal Kehuna (priesthood).

Now wait a minute.  If Pinchas was the son of Elazar and the grandson of Aaron, as recorded as such in the beginning of Parshat Pinchas, then how come only at this point was he awarded with the Kehuna, as though he had no connections with it beforehand?  Isn't it true, as we all know, that a person is a Cohen particularly if one on his parental line is descended all the way up to Aaron?

The truth is that yes, Pinchas was in fact excluded from the Kehuna at the time of the dedication of the Tabernacle,and it was only Aaron and his sons who were sanctioned as Cohanim, and from henceforth, all children born to them would be Cohanim.  However, Pinchas was not included since he was born to Elazar BEFORE his father, uncle(s), and grandfather were anointed as Cohanim.

Now, after all is said and done, we see that it was meant for Pinchas to be a Cohen only once he performed the brave act that stopped the sexual braziness cold turkey.  However, why did Pinchas in particular have to "prove" himself before he could become Cohen as the son of Elazar and the grandson of Aaron?

Now, let us rewind the Jewish history tape to the time that the brothers Shimon and Levi killed the town of Shechem for not protesting the rape of their sister Dinah.  Aside from their father Jacob questioning their behavior at the time, but in fact cursed their anger that brought them to kill the Shechem inhabitants  in his blessings to his children on his deathbed.  So the question can be asked is, did in fact Shimon and Levi do the right thing?

The truth is yes, Shimon and Levi did the right thing, but not for the right reason.  You see, as Jacob mentioned to them in what was more of a rebuke than a blessing, it was this same anger that brought them to their treatment of Joseph that led to his being sold as a slave.  And so, while Jacob could have lived with their "radical" behavior, it was what brought them to kill the inhabitants of Shechem and their anti-good treatment of Joseph - their anger.  And so, Jacob wishes for his sons Shimon and Levi, as the future Tribes, not to have a portion in the land.

Now, what do see as the end result?  Shimon is awarded land within Yehuda's territory but not as his own area, and Levi is assigned cities to live in, but not as territory that he owns, but rather, as reward or payment for the tribe fulfilling its levitical duties.  We also see that unlike Zimri, as descendant of Shimon who avenged forbidden sexual sin, himself dumped himself right into it; Pinchas, as a descendant of Levi, also avenged forbidden sexual sin.  So, why the difference between the two?  If anything, this is quite ironic, for Shimon, as the older of the two brothers, took vengence, and so we would say that it was Shimon who initiated this; but instead, we see that it was Levi who took the reward at the end, even as Jacob criticized his anger as well.

The truth is that Shimon also received his reward for the good deed - his was the picture of Shechem on the flag as an everlasting rememberance of what he did.  However, his tribe was no better than any of the others when it came to serving Hashem, except for the tribe of Levi, of whom not even one resorted to idol worship and in full faith, circumcised their babies regardless of the circumstances in Egypt and in the desert, and in fact, totally escaped the Egyptian slavery since they never went out to help Pharaoh build as they refused to leave their Torah learning, and so, were never made into slaves.  Hence, even though both Shimon and Levi demonstrated their anger at a later point at Joseph, showing that their deed of slaying the evil inhabitants of Shechem was not with pure motives, since all of Levi's descendants were pious people, it wound up that the only rectification that they needed for Levi's not totally sincere motives was for another member of the tribe to be in a similar situation, but do it totally for the right reason.

And this was Pinchas.  It was more than avenging a sister's rage out of anger.  To begin with, Pinchas didn't want the Jewish people to be endangered by the actions of Zimri, the leader of the tribe of Shimon, as was already beginning.  For all he knew, if Zimri wouldn't kill him in self-defense, then others, especially from the tribe of Shimon, would want a price on his life.  And so, when he killed the evil Zimri, it was done purely for the right motives.  Hence, now that Pinchas acted out of Mesirut Nefesh, giving of one's self, and in cases like this, taking a chance of being killed, he rectified the incomplete part of Levi's good deed, and in turn, he received the reward of now being a Cohen along with his descendants, which he wasn't awarded with earlier along with his father and grandfather, for he didn't meet earlier qualifications in terms of inheriting the priesthood.

Moreover, as Rashi notes, while Shimon the tribe consisted basically of poor people, including teachers and scribes, along with the land that they had only within Yehuda's territory, Levi wasn't awarded with land because "Hashem is his inheritance", and in terms of livelihood, had an easier and more respectiful way of earning it with the tithes giving to his tribe by the rest of the Jewish people as commanded by Hashem for their service in the Temple.

And as for poor Shimon, aside from the picture of Shechem on the tribal flag, that was the extent of that.  In fact, our rabbis tell us that because of what Zimri, leader of Shimon, did, his tribe was the ONLY tribe that did not merit having any judges or leaders of the Jewish people.  And as for the city of Shechem itself, that got included within Joseph's territory, and for good reason.  As we know, Joseph passed the sexual temptation test that his master's wife attempted to seduce him with, and so, it was only fitting that he be awarded, and be buried himself, in the city that was conquered avenging the sexual sin of raping sister Dinah.

Now, this is all nice, but what does this have to do with Gematria?  I already mentioned about Shechem in terms of Gematria in my previous post, and so I have no reason to repeat it here.  However, the Gematria that I am referring to is to Pinchas.

To begin with, both the name of this week's Parsha, and the name Pinchas which first appears in this Parsha, have the same Gematria - 208.  It is also quite significant, because of all the names of the members of the first three tribes that are mentioned in this Parsha, Pinchas' name is the last, signifying the good deed that he would do in the last year that the Jews were in the desert before entering Israel, which is the last year that takes place in the Chumash.

Now, as Pinchas was especially rewarded for his deed to protect the holy covenant as related to sexual purity, noting that the first three verses of Parshat Pinchas describing Pinchas' reward is recited before a Brit Mila (circumcision), it is most worthy to note that his name is the same Gematria as the name Yitzchak.  And as we know, Yitzchak was the first born Jew and the first one to have his Brit Mila performed on the eighth day as commanded in the Torah.  In fact, in the beginning of this week's Parshat Va'era, it states Va'era El Avraham V'El Yitzchak V'El Ya'akov "I (Hashem) appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob", and accordingly, the name Yitzchak is also the same Gematria as this week's Parshat Va'era!

Now, taking a look at Parshat Pinchas, it consists of 168 verses (and this is my 168th post).  And if we note about Yitzchak, he was the  21th generation by parental line from Adam & Eve, the ancestors of mankind,  who was the first person to have his Brit Mila on the eighth day.  And if we multiply these two numbers 21 & 8, the total yields 168.

But there is more to this magic number.  Noting that the latter half of Parshat Pinchas is all about the daily, Sabbath and holiday offerings in the Temple, there are exactly 168 laws in Hilchot Temidin U'Musafin - which includes the laws on these offerings - in Mishneh Torah of the Rambam (Maimonides).  And knowing about Pinchas' brave act, aside from the fact that he was rewarded with the Kehuna which would now make him eligible to offer sacrifices in the Sanctuary, he in effect offered his life on the line with his heroic deed of killing a leader of one of the tribes   In fact, the Sefer Torah is read more times from this Parshat Pinchas than any other Parsha in the year, because first of all, we read the offerings of Rosh Chodesh on every Rosh Chodesh (except for Rosh Hashana which is technically Rosh Chodesh Tishrei), and the holiday offerings are likewise read on each of their respective holidays.

And while this number itself may not be so familiar to everyone, there are 168 days in a 24 week period, and as we well know, there were 24 shifts of Cohanim (as well as Levi'im) who took turns serving in the Beit HaMikdash on a weekly basis.  In fact, while originally, there were four shifts from the two sons of Aaron - Elazar & Ithamar each; eventually, considering the fact that there were many more Cohanim from Elazar than Ithamar - the division was made as 16 shifts from Elazar while only eight from Ithamar, bearing in mind that presumably, Pinchas was Elazar's only son.  In fact, there are Cohanim today that can trace their Kehuna lineage all the way back to Pinchas.  And in this year, there are exactly 24 weeks from this week during which we read Parshat Va'era until the week of Parshat Pinchas, bearing in mind that the names of these two Parshiyot have the same Gematria.

And having mentioned earlier about the city of Shechem, while featured on the flag of the Tribe of Shimon while the city itself was given over to Joseph, Rashi notes that Pinchas was also descended from Joseph.  But in Pinchas' case, it wasn't simply a blood connection, but a spiritual connection as well, because Pinchas defended the concept of spiritual purity which Joseph worked hard on to attain between the sexual temptation that he went through and being careful later on not to look at the women throwing congragulatory things at him upon becoming viceroy of Egypt.  And speaking of which, the letters of the name of the holiday of Pesach are included in Pinchas' name, the holiday that celebrates our exodus from Egypt that was precipitated by the start of the Makkot (plauges) that Hashem struck the Egyptians with towards this goal as detailed in this week's Parshat Va'era that first mentions Pinchas' name.

Finally, let me not forget to do the same thing with the number of this post as I did with the numbers of my previous two posts - reverse the number.  Hence, reversing the number 168 becomes 861, which is the Gematria of both the words Beit HaMikdash (Temple) and the name Matisyahu - my second Hebrew name that I named myself nearly five years ago.  The connection here to the Beit HaMikdash is quite obvious as there were a total of 168 days in a 24 week period during which one of the 24 watches of both the Cohanim and Leví'im took turns serving in the Beit HaMikdash.  And as for Matisyahu ben Yochanan Cohen Gadol who like Pinchas, slew a deviant Jew in his zealousness to maintain Judaism for the Jewish people when he saw him offering a pig on an altar in the latter's attempt to attract Jews to join the goyishe ways of the Syrian Greeks, and started a revolution that led to the holiday of Chanuka upon rededicating the Beit HaMikdash.  However, he wasn't the first one to have the name Matisyahu.  You see, this was the name of the 14th watch of the 24 watches of the Levi'im, and to note, the name Pinchas is first mentioned in Parshat Va'era, the 14th Parsha of the Torah.   And speaking of watches, it was none other than King David, whose name is the Gematria of 14, who finalized the 24 watches of the Cohanim and Levi'im.


25 Tevet, 5773

#167 - The Number in Reverse

Technically, this post can be considered a continuation of my previous post as it relates to Esther, or popularly called Queen Esther.

However, unlike last week when the number of the post was simply reversed to reveal the Gematria of Esther's name, the number of this post in itself has a special significance to Megillat Esther - in more than one way.  That is, the number itself, and when it is reversed.

O.K., without further ado, if you have your Tanach version of the Book of Esther that mentions the number of verses in any given book, that there are 167 verses in this Megilla.  And while there may not seem to be any special significance to this number to begin with other than this nice factoid, let us reverse this number to 761.  Last week, I mentioned that the name Esther is the Gematria of 661.  Now, if we include her title HaMalka (the queen), which is the Gematria of 100, then 661 plus 100 is presto!  The magic number 761.

Coincidence?  Perhaps this would be shrugged off as such.  But first, as I mentioned last week, the Megilla mentions the concept of V'Nahafoch, things becoming reversed, such as instead of the enemies of the Jews attacking them according to the letters that King Achashveirosh sent on Haman's request, the Jews were allowed to defend themselves via a second letter that the king sent out following Haman's execution, and at the end, the Jews won without loosing a single person, getting rid of some 75,000 anti-Semites.  And so, the reversal of these numbers, the number of the verses of the Book of Esther to be reversed to be the Gematria of the author of this book, is hardly surprising.

Another prime example we see of reversing a number - even bearing in mind that these numbers that we read here is not a number as it is spelled in Hebrew - is 613 and 316.  Well, virtually all of us know that there are 613 Mitzvot (Commandments).  The reverse of this number is the Gematria of the name Yeishu - referring to the false Christian god who as a Jew, totally rebelled against the Sages of his time, some of whom are among the rabbis mentioned in the Mishna.  Being the total renegade that he was, he started a movement, a religion, an anti-Jewish cause that led to the murder of millions of Jews who were executed in his name within the last 2,000 years.  He rebelled against the entire Torah that consists of the 613 Commandments of the King of Kings, and so, it is most fitting that such a name as Yeshu as he is referred to by our rabbis, being that the letters of this name - Yud,Shin,Vav - are the beginning letters of the words Yemach Shemo V'Zichro - may his name and memory be erased, this phrase which is also used for other wicked people, is the exact opposite Gematria number (316) of what represents the wishes of the King of Kings via his Torah.

Now, speaking of Mitzvot, and the number 167, let us turn to something that is connected to both of these.  But first, a little introduction.  You see, a number of years ago, as I was reciting Psalm 119 in Tehillim, the longest chapter in the entire Tanach, which consists of 176 verses, I noted something absolutely phenomenal.  If I am not the first person, or the first person named Shimon, who ever discovered this, there is no doubt that very few people today, even with the name Shimon, know of this.  I am referring specifically to Verse 167 -  Shmara Nafshi Eidotecha V'Ohaveim Meod  "My soul has observed Your testimonies, and I love them very much".  Now, there are various words in this psalm as synonyms for the word Mizvot "commandments", such as "testimonies".  Anyways, I noticed that in this five Hebrew worded verse, that the first letters of the words of this verse are the same letters that make up the Hebrew name - Shimon!  That is right, my friends, it is this entire verse of only five words and the first letters spell this name.

Now, the order of these letters in this verse are Shin-Noon-Ayin-Vav-Mem, and the letters in order for the name Shimon is Shin-Mem-Ayin-Vav-Noon.  Of course, we can't expect everything to come out "just right", or in the same order, but the fact that these are the same letters are good enough for my namesake as far as I am concerned.  But what makes this more significant is that this Psalm 119 is arranged as eight verses each beginning another letter of the Aleph-Beit in order.  Hence, this verse is the seventh, or the next to the last verse of the eight verses that begin with the letter Shin, the next to the last letter of the Aleph-Beit.  Aside from this, the only practical difference in the order of letters between my name Shimon and the letters beginning the words in this verse are the reversed positions of the letters Mem & Noon, the other letters are the same number position, including the Ayin as the 3rd letter, and the Vav as the 4th letter in both.

Speaking of my name Shimon, it takes up another special significance in both the Parsha of this week - Parshat Shemot, and the next Parsha of next week - Parshat Vaeira.  You see, in the list of the names of the Tribes in the beginning of this Parsha, which is also the beginning of the Book of Exodus, though the name of this Book (and this week's Parsha) is Shemot, which means names, the name Shimon in this verse, whose first two letters spells the word Shem - NAME, the only one of the Tribes whose name is like this, the name of the SECOND son of Jacob and Leah - is the SECOND word of the SECOND verse of the SECOND Book of the Torah.  Now, if this was not enough, in Parshat Vaeira, the name Shimon, amidst the Torah's account of the families of the first three Tribes, in the first of the two mentions of this name in the verse (Exodus 6:15), it is the SECOND word of the SECOND verse of the SECOND Aliyah of the SECOND Parsha of the SECOND Book of the Torah!  Yes, you counted five of the word second in this past sentence.

Now, I have wondered for some time as to the significance of this.  Yes, Shimon was the second son of Jacob and Leah, but why is the connection of the number two so strong with Shimon?  Why isn't the number one the same way with Reuven the first son, or the number three with Levi the third son.  Well, it is true that  the name Levi, who is the THIRD son, has THREE letters and he had THREE sons.  We also see with the name of Gad, the name of the SEVENTH son of Jacob who is mentioned, is the Gematria of SEVEN, and had SEVEN sons.  But in Shimon's particular case, it is the unique position of his name in terms of the number two in the first TWO Parshiyot of the SECOND Book of the Torah.  Certainly, there has to be some reason here.

I am reminded of a piece in the Haggada of Passover that mentions five pairs of the number two, just the way that I mentioned here about Shimon's five SECONDS.  As we know, the Egyptians were bombarded with 10 plagues before Pharaoh gave the green light with no interference for the Jews to leave.  Anyways, there is a verse quoted that hints to the 10 plagues.  Now mind you, this verse that I am about to mention is one of two verses in the entire Chumash (Penteteuch) that consists of ALL 22 letters of the Aleph-Beit.  The verse- "Or, has G-d ever attempted to come take a nation from the midst of another, with trials, signs, wonders, war, a strong hand, an outstretched arm, great manifestations, like all that Hashem your G-d had done for you in Egypt in front of your sight?" (Deutronomy 4:34).  Now, from five phrases in this verse - "With a strong hand", "With an outstretched arm", "With great manifestations", "With signs", "With wonders", each denoting two plagues, the Haggada states that "These are the 10 plagues that the Holy One Blessed Be He brought upon the Egyptians in Egypt".  With this said, the Hebrew word for plagues is Makkot, which is the Gematria of the name Shimon!  Moreover, there is a custom among a certain group of Jews to learn one or more Mishnaic tractates that is somehow related to the weekly Parsha.  And the very tractate for Parshat Veira - in which the name Shimon is mentioned in the five positions of the number two - is Tractate Makkot!  Now, this is bearing in mind that in Parshat Veira, only the first seven plagues took place, but I think that the connections here as pertaining to my namesake Shimon are pretty obvious.

Now, let me explain the underlying explanation of all this in terms of Shimon.  As a way of introduction, the weeks in which we read the first six Parshiyot of Sefer Shemot (and in Jewish leap years, the first eight weeks) are called Shovevim, the acronym of the Parshiyot - Shemot, Vaeira, Bo, Beshalach, Yitro, Mishpatim, which means "wayward", referring to the Jews in the Tanach for having strayed from the path of Hashem.  But in Kabbalistic terms, this is a time period to espeically repent and atone for sexual sins.

With this said, let us backtrack to Sefer Bereishit (Genesis) in the midst of Jacob and his family when his daughter Dina was rapped by Shechem, who was either named after the city Shechem in which he lived or the city was named after him, being that his father Chamor was the mayor of the town.  In any case, as per his anti-Semitic Chutzpa, Chamor attempted to get Jacob's family to agree to do business with and intermarry into his and the town's residents.  Jacob's children agreed - at least outwardly - to do so, but not before the whole town receiving circumcisions, to which they all agreed.  At the highlight of being weak as a result of their circumcisions, Shimon and Levi, avenging their sister's rape, slew all the men in town (who deserved being killed according to the Torah for not protesting the rape).  While Jacob protested what seemed to be their rash behavior, we see that in time, the picture on the flag for the tribe of Shimon is the city of Shechem.

In terms of Gematria, the words Shovavim (wayward) and Shechem have the same number value - 360.  Additionally, both of these words begin with a Shin and end with a Mem Sophit.  As we see, Shimon and Levi killed the men of the town of Shechem following their circumcisions of the organ that is related to sexual desire.  Now to think of it, circumcising themselves if anything would have decreased their sexual desires.  However, their intentions were literally 360 degrees away from the right reason.  Their sole reason for doing so was for the long term physical benefit - especially the reason of Chamor and his son Shechem, which would include defiling the rest of Jacob's family, since this town had no intention of doing so to follow in Hashem's ways, and so they did not become Jewish as a result of the circumcisions.  And so, aside from the physical act of Shimon and Levi killing these wicked people, this was also spiritually in a symbolic way conquering the evil inclination of sexual desires, especially that this whole thing started from Shechem the person following his own sexual desire, and of all people, to rape a young Jewish woman.  Accordingly, the period of time that is termed Shovavim which focuses on repenting for sins related to sexual desire, especially as prompted as a result of looking where we are not to supposed to, is most related to the evil Shechem, whose name is the same Gematria as the word Shovavim, who raped Dinah as a result of looking where he was not supposed to.  And so, just as Shimon and Levi wiped out the men of the town of Shechem, the town having the same name as the evil Shechem, so too we are supposed to especially wipe out our evil inclination for forbidden sexual desires during this time period of Shovavim.

Now, this time period of Shovavim is most related to the concept of Egypt and the Exodus.  In the time of the Exodus, Egypt was the most immorally misbehaved country on earth, which included their base sexual desires, and in the Tanach, are compared as such to a Chamor (donkey), the very name of the father of the evil Shechem!  In fact, our Sages tell us that had the Jews remained in Egypt just a little longer, they would have forever been spiritually enslaved to the 50 levels of Tumah (impurity) which included both idolatry and sexual immorality.  As it is, they were already entrenched in the first 49 levels of Tumah, and that is why they needed a 49 day preparation period between the Exodus and the Giving of the Torah to properly receive
G-d's Word.

Now, we see a connection between Shechem's rape of Dina and Egypt's enslavement of the Jews in terms of a particular word that is used for both.  As mentioned in the beginning of this week's Parsha, it states "They (the Egyptians) placed on him (referring to the Jews) taskmasters, in order to AFFLICT him with their burdens" - Lema'an ANOTO Besivlotam.  On this wording of afflict, the commentators explain that part of the Egyptian slavery was having the Jews buils structures in areas where they would easily tumble; hence, making the Jews feel that they weren't even accomplishing anything, unlike when one toils on a project that lasts, no matter how hard it was to accomplish it, at least at the end one feels satisfaction that something was accomplished.  Similarly, in describing the Shechem rape, the Torah states Vayishkav Otah VAYEANEHA, which literally means "he slept with her, and  he AFFLICTED her".  Rashi notes that sleeping with her was done the natural way, and afflicting her was done the unnatural way.  The part of the Shechem rape which was not natural - which is not a way that procreation is performed, and hence, not accomplishing anything lasting, is described by the same basic term of afflicting as for the non-accomplished work that the Jews were forced to perform.  Accordingly, part of the Shovavim repentance period is repenting for the sin of wasted semen, which did not enter the area of procreation, and hence, nothing was accomplished with the purpose that semen is supposed to be produced for.

Now, in the Hidden Codes of the Torah, we see a most phenomenal thing.  The word Shovavim is spelled the shortest equidistantly in the Chumash - as every 29th letter - in the FIRST ALIYAH OF PARSHAT SHEMOT, the beginning of the six Parshiyot of Shovevim!  In fact, in this word, as spelled backward every 29 letters, the first of these letters which is Mem appears IN THE VERY VERSE that speaks of the Egyptians afflicting the Jews with the non-accomplished word, beginning the word Miskenot - treasure cities, the very item that the Jews built that didn't last.  Then, the letter Yud begins the word Yeanu "they afflicted them" in the next verse, where it states that the more the Egyptians afflicted the Jews, the more the Jews multiplied and spread out, symbolically signifying the fact that despite the fact that the Egyptians attempted to spiritually defile the Jews as much as possible, the Jews maintained their basic Jewish traditions, including the laws of family purity, which involves curbing one's sexual desires for the period that the wife is considered in a menstrual state for nearly two weeks until using the ritualarium, and hence, the children that they bore afterwards were conceived in a holy and pure state.

Now, having mentioned that both the words Shechem and Shovavim being the same Gematria also begin and end with the same letters, this is also parallel to the order of the letters of the name Shimon as spelled as the first letters of Verse 167 in Psalm 119, which begins with a Shin and ends with a Mem as well.  But there is more.  We see that when Jacob first came to the city of Shechem, he is describes as Vayavo Ya'akov Shalem Ir Shechem  "Jacob came complete to Shechem" (Genesis 33:18), where the word Shalem (complete) also begins with a Shin and ends with a Mem (Sophit).  As Rashi notes on this, Jacob was complete with his body, complete with his money, and complete with his Torah.  Now, as for his body, aside from the physical sense, there is no doubt that this is also referring to the spiritual sense, for Jacob as a most righteous person used his body for all the right things, and hence, his body, as a spiritual being, was complete as well, for as he testified about himself to Reuben his firstborn, his very first drop of semen was for the formation of Reuben.  Imagine, Jacob lived for the first 84 years of his life without any sex, in stark contrast to his evil brother Esau who slept with women right and left at the young age of 15; and moreover, Jacob never had what is called a nocturnal pollution, or in simpler English, wet dreams.  And so, he himself was spiritually unaffected with the impurities of this town Shechem, and hence, had no problems himself moving there, though it resulted with his daughter's rape.  His high spiritual standing, in stark contrast to Shechem, is symbolized by the fact that both words Shalem and Shechem begin and end with the same letters, showing that  Jacob was the opposite spiritual match, as completely spiritual in holiness versus the total looseness of the evil Shechem who used especially a Jewish girl for his unbridled sexual activities.

Speaking of the above words having the same Geamtria as 360, so is the name of the letter Shin also the Gematria of 360 - Shin,Yud-Noon.  After all, all three words - Shin, Shechem, and Shovavim, begin with the letter Shin.  Now, as we see as the first word of the above verse in Tehillim - Shamra "has observed" or "has guarded".  We see that when it comes to behaving sexually morally, the terms referring to this are  - Shemirat HaBris "Observing the covenant (of the sexual organ)", and Shemirat HaEinayim "Guarding one's eyes" from looking at what is sexual tempting.  Similarly, when it comes to observing Shabbat, it is called - Shemirat Shabbat, and we see that the word Shabbat begins with a Shin as well.  For after all, this is when we read the Parshiyot of the Torah, and just as the period of Shovavim is a time of especial repentance, so too is Shabbat (though it is meant to be done before Shabbat to be completely spiritually prepared for this holy day), and as we see,  the words Shabbat and Teshuva (repentance) are similar to one another.  And so we see, both the words Shovavim and Shabbat begin with a Shin.

Now, getting back to Shimon, it is interesting to note that his birthdate is 21 Tevet (some versions have it as 28 Tevet, but in my strong opinion, this latter date is a mistake as the letter Aleph=1 in Rashi script looks quite similar to the regular script for the letter Cheit=8; and hence, the discrepancy), which always falls out either during the week of Parshat Shemot, as it is this year, or Parshat Va'era, the two Parshiyot that show special significance to the name Shimon.

Another close relationship between the name Shimon and the Parshiyot of these weeks is that when adding the amount of verses of the first four Parshiyot of Sefer Shemot - 124, 121, 105, 116 - they add up to 466, the Gematria of the name Shimon.  Now, the end of the last of these four Parshiyot - Parshat Beshalach - which is about the story of Amalek coming to attack the Jews and our war against Amalek - is read on Purim right before the Megilla reading which consists of 167 verses.  Now, in the 167th verse of Psalm 119, in which the first letters of the words spell the name Shimon, Mitzvot are referred to as "testimonies".  Considering the various names for the Mitzvot, there are reasons why the Mitzvot are given these different names, as they represent different types of Mitzvot.  We see that "testimonies" refer specifically to the Mitzvot that commemorate an event, which of course includes the story of Purim, in which Haman, a descendant of Amalek, attempted to have all the Jews in the world murdered on one day.

Now, after all is said and done, there are a couple of questions that need to be asked as per Shimon's attack on Shechem.  We see that in time, the picture of Shechem was the picture for the flag of the Tribe of Shimon, but how come the city of Shechem itself was not part of this tribe's territory, but rather, part of the territory of the Tribe of Joseph, or particularly, of Ephraim?  Also, we see that the leader of the Tribe of Shimon in the time of Moses publicly took the Midianite princess to sleep with her, only for both of them to be killed by Pinchas for this sexual crime.  But, is this the reward for Shimon who killed the inhabitants of the town of Shechem avenging his sister Dina's rape?  It's true that people have free choice, but why should such a thing happen to Shimon of all the tribes, when it was only Levi as well who helped Shimon kill the evil people who didn't protest against the rape?  For these questions, and much more, stay tuned to my next post.


18 Tevet, 5773

#166 - Is It Purim Today?

In the last 2,000 years, non-Jews never seemed to have enough working on getting rid of us once and for all,   unless in some cases - we would, G-d forbid, convert to their religion.   But in many cases, like in the Purim story, too many of them hated us so much, that they seemed to have too much impatience to even attempt to murder us spiritually.  One who is very familiar with Jewish history will know that over the course of time, there have been various Jewish communities who had their own date, aside from the regular Purim, that they called Purim as well for having salvation from their enemies.  While these other dates of salvation never had the official status of Purim in Jewish law, we are obligated to thank Hashem for His miracles for saving us from danger, and there is a concept of celebrating the annual date that this happened on by having a meal celebrating the occasion.

Perhaps the one such "Purim" that must resembles THE Purim of the Jewish people is that of the town called Mezibuz which would in the future be the town in which the Ba'al Shem Tov would lead his Chasidim.  This event of the Jews being saved took place in the year 5408 in the midst of the Cossacks murdering Jews in hundreds of towns in Europe, but this town was saved thanks to a couple named Mordechai and Esther.  To this day, there are groups of Chasidim who will not say the usual Tachanun (supplicatory prayers) that are normally recited on a regular day, being that this is considered a day of happiness.  

It has been noted that the year 5408 is hinted in the Megilla (Book of Esther) in which the letter Cheit=8 of the word Chur (hangings of white) - (1:6) and the first letter Tav=400 of the word VaTichtov (she (Esther) wrote) (9:29) being unusually large, adding up to the number 408.  While there are those who say that this year, as the year of the Cossacks murdering Jews, is hinted in the Megilla, I beg to differ.  For first of all, why would a tragedy such as this one be hinted in the Megilla like this when the Purim story is about salvation of the Jews from our enemies, quite the opposite of a tragedy?  And besides, what is the connection between the two?  However, noting the salvation of the Jews in Mezibuz through the help of a Jewish couple in the year 5408 having the same names as the two heroes of the Megilla that brought about the original Purim, it makes sense to say that this particular event of salavation is hinted in the Megilla.

Anyways, the reason that I mention this now is because it was on today's date - 11 Tevet - that this event in Mezibuz took place.  In fact, I had first mentioned this three years ago on this date, at the end of the first post that I wrote following my marriage.  But today, I have something else to add to the table in relationship to this.  

First, mentioning the month of Tevet, this month is mentioned in the Megilla as the month in which King Achashveirosh married Esther.  Though normally, it is forbidden for a Jewish women to live with a non-Jewish person, even on pain of death, this was a most unusual set of circumstances which happened to allow for the salvation of the Jews as we read further on in the Megilla.  The reason that it happened in this fashion is because it reflected the unworthiness of the Jews, who indeed not only participated in the feast of Achashveirosh beforehand which was forbidden according to Jewish law even if the food would have been all Kosher, but to make matters worse, they disobeyed Mordechai when he told them not to do so, and to top it off, there were some of them who even had the Chutzpa to first blame Mordechai for being threatened with total annihilation of the Jews by Haman following Moredechai's refusal to bow down to Haman.  It was eventually thanks to Esther's declaration of a three day fast with Mordechai's approval, leading to the Jews to sincerely repent, that things changed, which led to the reverse situation of instead of the enemies of the Jews prevailing over the Jews, the reverse happened - V'Nahafoch Hu - "It was turned around - the Jews prevailed over their enemies" (9:1).

Now, it has been customary on Purim to joke around, and some give over what is called "Purim Torah" which may at times involve Gematriot that may not make much sense.  But in all seriousness, I have something to mention here based on this concept of V"Nahafoch "being turned around" that is used on Purim.

You see, the number of this post is 166.  Now, turning this number around, the number is 661 - the Gematria of the name Esther.  And after all, it is not only the name of the woman of the Purim story, it is also the name of the Megilla - Megillat Esther or Book of Esther.  Next, we will employ a method used in Gematriot called AtBash, in which the first letter Aleph is substituted for the last letter Tav, the second letter Beit is substituted for the next to the last letter Shin, etc.  Hence, taking the four letters of the name Esther - Aleph is reversed to Tav, Samech is reversed to Cheit, Tav is reversed to Aleph, and Reish is reversed to Gimel.  Now, let us note the numerical values of the reversed letters - Tav=400, Cheit=8, Aleph=1, Gimel=3, and so 400+8+1+3=412.  First, you will notice that the first two letters here Tav and Cheit are the same two letters that are enlarged in the Megilla hinting to the year 5408 in which the salvation of the Jews of Mezibuz took place.  Now, the perfect word that is the Gematria of the sum total of 412 is Bayit (house/home) which is also the name of the letter Beit, as well as having the same letters that spell the Hebrew number 412.  

The word Bayit especially relates to women, for they are the mainstay of the Jewish home - Akeret HaBayit, and as a rabbi in Tractate Shabbat in the Talmud noted, he called his wife - his house.  And so, in this case, it is most appropriate to call Esther with this appellation, for she is indeed the Akeret HaBayit whose call for fasting and repentance led to the salvation of the Jews, and in effect, was both the spiritual and physical mother of the Jewish nation, being that she also saved them from physical annihilation.  

And in case those who are non-observant Jews who want to pick on "Orthodox" Jews for looking down on women, there could not be nothing further from the truth.  True, there will always be individuals who don't treat their wives right, or look down on women in other ways.  But in Judaism, one is born Jewish ONLY due to his or her Jewish mother.  And the reason why women are not included in the 10 person quorum for communal prayer services is not because they are of lesser status, but because they have the most important job of raising our Jewish children, because if they would always be called to help "make a Minyan" in the synagogue, how well could they take care of their young ones who need constant care.  This is why they are also exempt from most Mitzvot (Commandments) that are dependent on time, including the hearing of the Shofar on Rosh HaShana, believe it or not.  If anything, it is "Conservative" or "Reform" Judaism, which should not be called Judaism, that looks down on women, because its rabbis, who are only called as such because their congregations know less than they do, as Rabbi Meir Kahane, HY"D was wont to say, allow for one who is born only from a Jewish father to also be considered Jewish.  And the fact that they allow men and women to sit together in prayer services in stark contrast to how it is in even Modern Orthodox circles where the genders sit separately at such times does not show that they believe in equal rights for women, but if anything, quite the contrary.  You see, how well can the men concentrate on their prayers when they are seeing women in front of them, aside of them, especially in such circles where the women aren't even dressed modestly for prayers in the temple?  In such surroundings, women are treated more like sex objects, at least in the minds of the men who are supposed to be in temple to pray.  However, in Jewish law, this is all completely forbidden, as we are supposed to have all our thoughts concentrating on the King of Kings to whom we are supposed to be talking to.  

To set the record straight, we see that when the Jews first came to Mt. Sinai, the very first words that Hashem said to Moses on BEIT Sivan (2 Sivan) following their encampment were - KO Tomar L'Beit Ya'akov "So shall you say to the HOUSE of Jacob" (Exodus 19:3) which the rabbis say refer to the women, who were addressed even before the men in preparation to receive the Torah.  And notice the word used here in reference to the women - BEIT (house) which is the exact pronunciation of the name of the letter Beit.  And as we see in the Sefer Torah - the very first letter of the Torah, which is a Beit, is enlarged.  

And as we see in many salvation stories of the Jews, the women are involved in one way or another.  As in the redemption from Egypt "It was in the merit of the righteous women", which included both Moses' mother Yocheved and sister Miriam who helped Jewish mothers give birth despite orders from Pharaoh to murder the Jewish baby boys.  In the story of the Jews being saved in the times of Judge Devorah, it was a woman named Yael who killed Chief General Sisera.  And in the Chanuka story, Yehudis daughter of Matisyahu killed the general with whom Jewish women before getting married were forced to sleep by orders of King Antiochus.  And how can I forget?  When Sara saw how Hagar's son Yishmael taking a shot at her son Isaac, in which he used his bow and arrow in his vicious attempt to get rid of Isaac "as a game", even as Abraham was hesitant to throw out his older son Yishmael from home, Hashem told Abraham to "listen to her (Sara's) voice, for it will be through Isaac that your descendants will be established".  

IN TRACTATE MEGILLA

To note, I am presently in my 43rd year.  The Hebrew number for 43 is Mem-Gimel.  These are the first two letters of the word Megilla, which is also the beginning word of Tractate Megilla.  And noting that today's date is 11 Tevet, the date of the salvation of the Jews in Mezibuz due to the help of a couple named Mordechai and Esther as in the original Purim story, this tractate begins with Megilla Nikreit B'Yud Aleph "The Megilla is read on the 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th, not earlier or later".  

Now, while today, we only read the Megilla on the 14th or 15th of Adar, depending on where we are living; in former times, being that Jews in villages were not always able to be in the city where a Megilla would be readily available, there were given a special allowance to read the Megilla up to three days before the holiday of Purim, depending on the closet market day beforehand which was always on a Monday or Thursday.  For them, the 15th of Adar was never an option because this date to read the Megilla is reserved strictly for those who live in walled cities, unlike villages, and the Megilla was never read on Shabbat. 

In observation, we see that when the tractate begins noting the dates on which the Megilla could be read, it doesn't mention the dates as being of the month of Adar, as the Mishna always does in other places, such as the beginning of Tractate Shekalim when it mentions that the annual coin collection for the Temple funds began on the first of Adar, rather than simply saying on the first of the month, even though this was the only month of such collections.  Is there a reason for this?

I never saw an answer to this, but it seems that Tractate Megilla may also be hinting to the salvation event that happened in Mezibuz that took place on the 11th of a month, and as the Mishna begins, "The Megilla is read on the 11th..." though in fact, we only read the Megilla publicly during the month of Adar, but the hint to the year of the more recent salvation is hinted in the actual Megillat Esther.  

Now, in the Babylonian Talmud, just as the first letter of the Tractate is a Mem, the very last letter is a Gimel, hence, spelling the Hebrew number 43 just as the first two letters of the word Megilla.  And how does this Tractate conclude in the Talmud?

""Moses spoke the matters about the holidays of Hashem to the Children of Israel" (Leviticus 23:44).  This tells us that it is a Mitzva to read the section of the Torah about each holiday in its own time.  Our rabbis taught in a Baraita (other teachings that were like the Mishna, but not included in the Mishna): Moses instituted for the Jews that they should inquire and expound about the matters of the day, which includes the laws of Passover on Passover, the laws of Atzeret (Shavuot) on Atzeret, and the laws of the Chag (Festival, referring to Succot) on the Chag."

Now, let us go back to the Atbash letters corresponding to the letters of Esther's name: Tav, Cheit, Aleph, Gimel.  Taking the letters Tav and Aleph, they begin the words Ta'anit Esther - which is the Fast of Esther which is observed the day before Purim (unless it is Shabbat in which case it is observed on the Thursday before) and the letters Cheit and Gimel which spell the word Chag, as in Chag Purim "holiday of Purim" on which we read Megillat Esther.  Moreover, as in the final words of Tractate Megilla in the Talmud which is Chag B'Chag - the word Chag is the Gematria of 11 and the word B'Chag is the Gematria of 13.  And as we see, the two possible dates for Ta'anit Esther are the 11th and 13th of Adar, and the word Chag (festival/holiday) being the Gematria of 11, concludes the Tractate in the same way that it began the Tractate stating that the Megilla is read on the 11th...Coincidence?

I would like to conclude with something that is mentioned in the Chasidic Sefer B'nei Yissaschar about the beginning of Tractate Megilla (Chodesh Adar, Ma'amar 6, 1st paragraph).  He notes that these five possible dates of reading the Megilla is comprised of a total of 120 hours, corresponding to the 120 days that Moses the lawgiver was on Mt. Sinai.  And as it states in the Megilla - Keemu V'Keeblu HaYehudim "The Jews fulfilled and accepted" on themselves, which in the immediate context of the Megilla, refers to the Mitzvot as related to Purim, but in a more general way, that they reaffirmed their commitment to the Torah that began from Mt. Sinai at which they accepted the Torah.  And as we see in Jewsh law, the Megilla needs to be arranged in a line writing format in the same way as it is with a Sefer Torah, the Five Books of Moses.  To add to this, Moses lived for 120 years, and as he was born on 7 Adar, his Brit Mila (circumcision) had to have taken place a week later on 14 Adar, the very date of Purim on which most Jews read the Megilla!  Moreover, the words Megilla and the name Moshe both begin with a Mem and end with a Hei, the same that the name of the month of Purim - Adar, and Esther's name both begin with an Aleph and end with a Reish.  

The bottom line here is that we see that just as the women were first addressed before the men upon their arrival at Mt. Sinai, and it is the letter Beit that represents the woman of the house that begins the Torah, so too do we see in Jewish law how the laws of the writing lines for the Megilla which is named after a woman - Esther, are the same as for writing a Sefer Torah.  

And indeed, the name Esther hints to the modesty of the Jewish woman, for "all the glory of the King's daugher is inside" (Psalms 45:14), just as the name Esther is based on the meaning of something that is hidden, just as the miracles that took place in the Purim were hidden miracles, in order that the Jews, though at first unworthy, would merit the salvation that they badly needed, but was ultimately in the merit of Esther who knew what it would take to save the day.  And as we call the Megilla as Megillat Esther, as the word Megilla is based on the word that means revealing, we are revealing the hidden miracles of Hashem through reading the Megilla on Purim, the same way that by reading the Sefer Torah, we are making aware to the Jewish people of their obligations to Hashem.  And by following in Hashem's ways, instead of being worried about politics from King Achashveirosh's feast to the political party in the Knesset to vote for without being "fanatical", then and only then will we merit Hashem's salvation, for a human being can only acccomplish what Hashem allows him to accomplish, but part of it is based on our behavior, which includes having full faith and trust in Hashem, despite the current trend of behaving the opposite.  Yes, Esther was hesitant in approaching the king to help save the Jews, though he was her husband, for fear of being killed if she came to him without being called, but after Mordechai explained to her about her important mission, facing the truth, she was willing to do what it took to save the Jews, even if it would mean her immediate execution.

Before concluding, there is a connection with this week's Parshat Vayechi with Purim.  In Jacob's blessing to his youngest son Benjamin "Benjamin is a devouring wolf'; in the morning- he will devour spoils, and in the evening- he will split the booty" (Genesis 49:27), Rashi notes that the morning time refers to King Saul, first king of Israel who was parentally descended from Benjamin who won war after war, and the evening time refers to his descendants in turn, Mordechai and Esther, who took over Haman's possessions as given to them by King Achashveirosh.

One thing that we see here is that the one verse in this Parsha that has a reference to the story of Purim is in the verse that begins in Hebrew - Binyamin Ze'ev.  Does this sound familiar?  It should to anyone caring Jew who doesn't live in a box - this is the Hebrew name of Rabbi Meir Kahane HYD's son and successor who took over from his father following his assassination, who faithfully continued spreading the Kahane teachings and activism on behalf of Jews and Israel for 10 years - noting that his second Hebrew name Ze'ev is the Gematria of 10, until he was also assassinated by one or more cursed Arabs, which resulted in his wife Talia being killed as well in the vehicle that they were in at the time that this happened some 12 years ago on the 5th of Tevet, 5761 (Dec. 31, '00).  You would think that after this happened, noting that their funeral(s) were among the most attended in recent Jewish history, that a good percentage of at least the "religious" or "right-wing" Jews would wake up as to who is the only ones who represent the truth in the Knesset.  Never mind the ones who don't want to vote for anyone seeing the big sham and shame that has happened over the years with all the crooked politicians, but many who supposedly want to vote for those who will claim will help Israel aren't truly sincere - including those who vote for parties from Likud (except for some who vote for Feiglin's party within Likud, but I won't get into this now) to the Jewish Home.  A true sincere Jew who knows about Kahane and what he represented - which is 100% unadulterated Torah - will vote ONLY for one, or the party who includes one who truly represents the Kahane idealism.  And for this coming election - the ONLY one who truly represents Kahane - with ZERO compromises, including as per the issue as to what one would do if one were given orders from the army to evict Jews - is Dr. Michael Ben-Ari, Shlita (along with Dr. Aryeh Eldad, but I am pinpointing on someone who is an observant Jew who can truly represent Kahane), and so it is ONLY his party - "Strength to Israel" - that one is permitted, and OBLIGATED, to vote for according to Jewish law (I am not talking about the ones in the Hasidic world who only know of their Rebbe and never even heard of Kahane).  This means that one who knows this - even in the back of their mind which was pushed there because of avoiding "fanaticism", but one does not want to vote for a "fanatic" or doesn't want himself/herself to be labeled as such, will one day have to give a reckoning to the Boss upstairs as to why he or she chose to have a part in the continuous murdering and injuring of Jews by our Arab enemies that is constantly inspired by the concessions that the rotten apples of the Knesset offer them, being that everyone else or all other parties in the Knesset are compromising in one way or another - EXCEPT for a Kahane based party.

I know, I may sound a little more than a bit "fanatical", but one must remember that Rabbi Meir Kahane, as much as he may be labeled as such, NEVER advocated killing the Arabs in Israel, but merely to transfer them to one of their 22 countries.  But the problem with the ones who are against Kahane is that when push comes to shove, they would for the most part exile Jews from their homes before daring to do the same to Arabs, just as it happened in the disgraceful Gush Katif expulsion named with the sly term "The Disengagement", which was performed by some who would never dream of eating non-Kosher, breaking the Sabbath in a non-life threatening situation, or even removing their skullcaps, but had different standards when it comes to our Holy Land of Israel and treatment of our fellow Jews, some who did so for fear of either going to prison or loosing their army benefits and all, forgetting or not believing that Hashem is not going to give them a thing less if they do the right thing, and that it is far better to suffer a bit in this world, then to be damned to hell for eternity.  

Yes indeed, we have much to learn for the women of our Jewish history.  But instead of doing the opposite of what Hashem wants in fear of what the non-Jews will complain about us, let us do what Hashem wants so He will do the opposite of what our enemies want to do to us, the same way that Mordechai & Esther, and Kahane & Kahane, Inc. did, and then, we will not even feel that we will have the need to worry about what "the world will say" when we go full force forward to occupy every part of Israel following the banishment of our Arab enemies from "the West Bank" which is 100% part of the Holy Land of Israel, including around 80% of Jordan which is also part of Israel but apportioned by the evil British as part of  "Palestine" to the Arabs, without any apologies to the world.

11 Tevet, 5773

P.S.  Noting the timing of this post - 4:37 PM, this is the very time of the 24 hours or 1,440 minutes, and on the same day of the week - Sunday, that a Jewish girl was born - none other than my daughter Tamar, who was born some 54 weeks ago.  I pray and hope for my daughter Tamar to grow up and be the courageous woman that Esther was in her spiritual and physical help of saving the Jewish people.   And as mentioned within the last Mishna of Tractate Megilla, the story of Tamar in the Torah, which involves her one time affair with Judah, is both read and translated, unlike other parts in the Torah that are shameful for the Jewish people or the person mentioned in the context of the story that were not translated in public, for Tamar's act of being with Judah was for righteous reasons, which in turn lead to her being the ancestor of King David and Moshiach, may he come speedily in our days, our ultimate salvation.  Amen!

#165 - How do we read 12-21-12?

So, it seems that the world didn't end after all on Friday; or for that matter, nothing especially spectacular seemed to take place about a new consciousness that was supposed to take place between 11:00 AM and 11:11 AM.  Of course I am not quite sure as to what time zone - this time period of 11 minutes was referring to, but is there any truth to the supposed end of the calendar or prophecy of the end of the world of the idolatrous Mayans?

Apparently, Rabbi Matisyahu Glazerson, Shlita, on the forefront of discovering hints of current events in the Hidden Codes of the Torah, thinks so.  But don't get me wrong.  I am not saying that the world is in fact going to end shortly - at least not for another 228 years.  On the contrary, we are awaiting for the very period of time in history that the whole world has been waiting for during the past 5772 years - the era of Moshiach, in which the world will eventually become the way it was before the sin of Adam & Eve, including the high spiritual level of consciousness.  In any case, the Mayan calendar is far from the only source in the non-Jewish world as to things changing in the universe in the near future.

Now, noting the Hebrew date of the now dysfunctional 12-21-12 at 11:00 AM - 8th of Tevet, this marks the day that the translation of the Torah into Greek, particularly the Penteteuch, was completed, upon orders of King Ptolemy of Egypt to 72 Torah scholars.  While the Torah was in fact translated into 70 languages by Moses, without getting into detail about how this was done, this was the first openly disseminated translation let loose to the outside world.  Hence, this date of 8 Tevet is considered a sad day in Jewish history, because this led to the non-Jews misusing the Bible to turn against us in the future, both by using it as an excuse to murder us physically as well as spiritually by attempting to baptize us, G-d forbid.

The Talmud in Tractate Megilla tells us, "If one tells you that the non-Jews have wisdom, believe him.  If he tells you that the non-Jews have Torah, do not believe him."  In fact, it is meant for the non-Jews to delve to science, mathematics, etc. to benefit mankind; but when it comes to G-d's word, aside from the Seven Noahide Commandents, the Torah belongs exclusively to the Jewish people.  And so, distortion of the Torah by non-Jews is nothing short of destructive, because the Bible as they call it is not addressed to them, and without the meaning of the Oral Torah, it is quite shallow without knowing what Hashem meant with His word.

Now, let us take the numbers of the 12-21-12, and we will see that these three numbers add up to 45.  Interestingly, as this date (with the time of AM, because the nighttime is already the next Hebrew date) fell out on Friday, the day of the week on which Adam (and Eve) were created, and the Gematria of Adam's name is 45.  Moreover, his name is the very first word of the 24th and final book of the Tanach (Jewish Bible) called Divrei HaYomim (Chronicles).

In any case, I think that without getting ourselves mixed up with the calendars of other idolatrous societies who were into human sacrifices, the ultimate act of murder in the name of religion, let us get straight down to our own beautiful Hebrew calendar.  As we know, Adam was created on Rosh HaShana, the 1st of Tishrei, which is the beginning of the New Year.  Hence, the date of Adam's creation is 01-01-0001, for it was in the Year 1, following five days of world preparation by Hashem in the Year 0, that mankind began its service to G-d, on the very first day of Year One.  And if we add the three number ones in the Hebrew date of Adam's creation, we have the number three, the Gematria of the word Av (father), for Adam is indeed the father of all mankind.  Oh yes, the numbers of no other date in the history of the world will add up to the small value of the number three, for it was on THIS DATE of the world's existance that Adam was created, and according to our Sages, begot children on this very date for the very first time in world history.

Now, let us continue reading the Book of Chronicles, and before we know it, we will be reading exclusively about Jewish history.   Don't think that we need to start reading histories of other nations to point to the truth, when we already have our Torat Emet - Torah of Truth.

Oh, by the way, I will be eagerly waiting for the date of 8 Tevet in seven years from now.  You see, this date in 5780 - Hei, Tav, Shin, Pei - the acronym of the words Heyei Torah She'B'Al Peh "Will be the Oral Torah" - will mark the beginning of the 14th cycle of Daf Yomi, G-d willing, - and ultimate Tikkun (rectification) of what took place on this date 2,000 years ago regarding the disabuse of our Torah - when we will begin learning the Babylonian Talmud worldwide for the 14th time, a date that Torah Jews should most anticipate looking forward to, as it is the Oral Torah that ultimately marks our exclusive relationship with Hashem.  Hope to see you all then before my 50th birthday, G-d willing.


10 Tevet 5773

#164 - Learning Greatness from THE YOUNG

As it turns out, though I hoped to have written this post and the previous post during Chanuka, today is the first day of the week of Parshat Vayechi.  You see, in the last few Parshiyot, since the brothers of Joseph sold him in their jealousy of him, and the story of the one night stand between Judah and Tamar, the focus of the Torah has been on Joseph for the most part.  It even continues in the final Parsha in which father Jacob lives, and gives his blessings to all of his children; however, not before he blesses Joseph's children.  And even at that, he didn't simply bless them as Joseph's son; Jacob went ouf of his way to show how Joseph's younger son Ephraim was destined for greater greatness than the older son Menashe, by criss crossing his arms to place his right hand, considered the superior hand, on Ephraim's head.  As Rashi notes, the major greatness coming from Ephraim was his descendant Joshua who would lead the Jews to Israel

In any case, we see a phenomenon that doesn't happen many times in a lifetime in the Jewish calendar.  I am referring especially to what we see in this Hebrew year 5773.  I am referring specifically to the three dates in the Jewish year that celebrate or highlight three great righteous Jews - Joseph, Ephraim and Joshua - all falling out this year on Shabbat.  Aside from the fact that even if it would be a different day of the week that all of these three dates would fall out, the chances that all three of them falling out on the same day of the week isn't usual, and so, when they all three dates fall out on Shabbat, this is a special significance as it relates to the particualar year in which they fall out on.

To explain - the three dates are 20 Tishrei - which celebrates Joseph - the Heavenly Guest of the sixth day of Sukkot; the 7th day of Chanuka - on which we read the offerings of the leader of the Tribe of Ephraim; and 26 Nissan - which is the Yahrzeit of Joshua.  Now notice, I didn't give the Hebrew date per se for the day celebrating the Tribe of Ephraim.  You see, between the months of Tishrei and Tevet - on which we celebrate the final days of Chanuka, the months of Cheshvan and Kislev occur - the only months in our Jewish calendar today that can have either 29 or 30 days, unlike the other months that are fixed with the numbers of days in the month.  And so, depending on whether Cheshvan is 29 or 30 days, we will celebrate Chanuka a day earlier and later.  And then, the last day of Chanuka will be on either 2 Tevet or 3 Tevet, depending on whether there are 30 or 29 days to Kislev, respectively.  And so, while in some years, 2 Tevet may be the last day of Chanuka, and in some years, falling out on Shabbat, which happened three years ago, the first Shabbat of my marriage; in this year, while 2 Tevet also fell out on Shabbat, it was not the eighth/last day of Chanuka, but rather the seventh day of Chanuka, something which has not happened in many years.

In any case, we see that we always read on the 2nd of Tevet - the offerings of the leader of either Menashe (when Kislev has 30 days) or the offerings of the leader of Ephraim (when Kislev has 29 days), noting that both Tribes are from Joseph, being that we begin reading from these tribes on the final two days of Chanuka.
And so, as you can see, this is how it is possible that especially this year, all three days celebrating part of a generation line can fall out on the same day of the week.

Another amazing phenomenon here is that on this past Shabbat Chanuka, there is a direct connection between the regular Parshat Miketz and the Maftir, the final Torah reading before the Haftara.  I had mentioned this before, but without going into all the details, we see in Parshat Miketz where Joseph orders a meal prepared for him and his brothers.  The rabbis note that this was Joseph honoring the Shabbat with a delicious meal, and so, in reward for doing so, his future parental descendant, the leader of the Tribe of Ephraim, was given special allowance to offer his offerings, unlike none of the leaders of the other Tribes who also offered special offerings on behalf of their Tribes following the dedication of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) on Shabbat, as per the Maftir of the day being the seventh day of Chanuka "On the seventh day, the leader of the Tribe of Ephraim..."  Now wait a minute, does the "Seventh Day" refer specifically to the seventh day of the week - Shabbat, for we see that the Torah continues with the "Eighth Day", the "Ninth Day", etc.  Yes, these 12 days were the first 12 days of Nissan, and a leader of one of the Tribes brought his offerings on one of these days.  But as our Rabbis tell us, the first of Nissan was also the first day of the week.  And so , the "Seventh Day" of Nissan was also the seventh day of the week.

In fact, the readings of the offerings of these leaders on Chanuka perfectly paralleled the days of the week this year, just as it was at the dedication of the Mishkan, making this year on Chanuka unique.  And as Chanuka represents the lights of the Menorah - and hence called Chag HaUrim "Holiday of Lights", the first day of Chanuka was also the first day of the week this year, and as we know, it was on the first day of the week, the topic of the very first five verses of the Torah, that light was created; the word Ohr (light) being mentioned five times.  In fact, it has been said long ago that the 25th word of the Torah is Ohr, the first mention of this word in the Torah "Let there be light", hinting to the 25th day of Kislev, the beginning of Chanuka.  And correspondingly, being that the eighth day of Chanuka also falls out on the same day of the week as the first day of Chanuka, it is most noteworthy to note that we read about Aharon, the first Cohen Gadol (High Priest) being commanded to light the Menorah on this final day of Chanuka, which fell out on the first day of the week this year, the day of the week on which light was created.

AND JOSHUA?

Yes, Joshua, though not mentioned in the Torah readings of the Parsha or the Maftir of Chanuka, has a direct relationship to this Shabbat Chanuka of this year, not just because he is a parental descendant of the leader of the Tribe of Ephraim - Elishama Ben-Amihud - who offered the offerings on behalf of this Tribe, as we will shortly see.  Acutally, we do read about Joshua in the Haftara of Chanuka.  But wait - this is not in the Book of Joshua, but rather,  in the Zecharia section of the "Minor Prophets" (Trei Asar).  Correct, but it is about a different Joshua, the name of the present Cohen Gadol in the context of the Haftara.  There are in fact no coincidences, as Joshua, the most worthy descendant of Joseph and Ephraim, having received the Torah directly from Moses and the one who led the Jews to Israel, and helped them fight and settle their territories, also has a strong connection to the concept of Chanuka, who fought the enemies who dared challenge the Jews' right to live in Israel, just as the Maccabbees fought the Syrian Greek enemies who attempted to prevent the Jews from practicing Judaism in Israel.  But shortly, we will see another amazing connection of Joshua to especially this Shabbat Chanuka of this year 5773.

As I mentioned in my 156th Post about Joseph, Tractate Sota, which is about the adulterous woman who is tested with the bitter waters upon her claim of innocence, is very much related to Joseph.  We see that there is a custom among some Jews to learn a specific chapter of Mishna on the seven days of Succah corresponding to the Heavenly Guest of that day.  Hence, the first chapter of Sota is learned on the sixth day of Succot that corresponds to Joseph, since it mentions in this chapter about Joseph burying his father, and then his own coffin being taken out of Egypt by none other than Moses.  Moreover, the last chapter of this tractate, as its beginning words, are about the Egla Arufa, the calf that was decapitated in lieu of finding the murderer of one found lying dead who was obviously murdered, the very last Torah topic that Jacob and Joseph learned together before Joseph was sold by his brothers.

In any case, this chapter begins with the word HaMekane, which literally means "One who has warned" his wife who has been spotted around talking with some other guy, in an attempt to prevent her from fooling around further, and certainly, that she should not be sleeping with anyone else but her husband.  Now, as I already mentioned in my previous 156th Post about Joseph, the 5773th verse of the Torah begins with the words Hem Kinuni V'Lo El  "They have provoked Me with a non-god...", the first five letters of this verse being spelled exactly at the very first word of Tractate Sota!  Hence, the corresponding Hebrew year 5773 to the 5773th verse of the Torah is very much hinted about the concept of Joseph, who chose not to fall into temptation when confronted with the daily persuasions of his master's wife.

Having mentioned this, the word Mishgal, which refers to sexual intercourse, is the Gematria of 373.  Now, dissecting the letters of this Hebrew year- Hei, Tav, Shin, Ayin, Gimel, the last three Hebrew letters of the year is the Hebrew number 373.  And indeed, Joseph who conquered his evil inclination for sexual intercourse with a forbidden woman, as well as not looking at the women who threw all kinds of congragulatory things at him following being appointed viceroy to Pharaoh in this Parshat Miketz, is given the title HaTzadik "the righteous one".

This is all fine and dandy.  However, there is one place IN THE ENTIRE TANACH that the word HaMekane, the exact way that the word is spelled as the first word of Tractate Sota - unlike the combination of the first five letters from two words that spell this word - is spelled.  This is in Parshat Be'ha'alotcha (Numbers 11:29), the context in which 70 people were appointed to be prophets as assistants to Moses.  Meanwhile, Eldad and Medad, two of these prophets, were in the midst of saying prophecy, which our Rabbis say, was about Moses dying and Joshua leading the Jewish people to Israel.  Upon this, Joshua was infuriated about what they were saying about Moses dying, and exclaimed "My master, Moses, incarcerate/get rid of them (depending on how the last word is translated)".  Moses replied back to Joshua, beginning with the word HaMekane "ARE YOU ZEALOUS for my sake..."

We see here something most interesting.  The SOLE time in the entire Tanach that the word Hamekane is used is in reference to Joshua, the descendant of Joseph and Ephraim, this word being the very first word of Tractate Sota that is most associated with Joseph.  And we see that although Joshua could have took pride in the prophecy, feeling that he would be Moses' successor, he was also humble to much of the extent of Moses' humility, and would not hear of any statement that degraded Moses even to his own benefit, even in the form of prophecy.  Hence, Joshua didn't fall into the temptation of haughtiness, just as Joseph did not fall into the temptation of forbidden sexual relations or forbidden looks at women.

Now, I have something to tell you that you will not see anywhere else.  Having mentioned about the trio Joseph-Ephraim-Joshua in relationship to Shabbat of this year, I will mention something about Daf Yomi that is related to Shabbat.  Yes, we are presently learning Tractate Shabbat of the Daf Yomi cycle, but I am referring to something else that is related to Shabbat and Daf Yomi.  You see, three Daf Yomi cycles ago, the beginning of the 10th cycle of Daf Yomi, began on Shabbat - 3 Iyar 5750.  Now, counting all the Shabbatot from that Shabbat until this Shabbat Chanuka 5773, if one were to learn one Daf per Shabbat, it would wind up that one would begin learning the first Daf of Tractate Sota of the Babylonian Talmud on this Shabbat Chanuka - 2 Tevet 5773!

And while this may not sound like such a big deal to some critics, there is another thing that I would like to refer you to.  You see, Rabbi Sholom Yehuda Gross, Shlita, who in his own way, didn't fall into the temptations of the politics and scams of the Kashrut industry like so many others have, and has revealed the truth of it all, especially about supposed Kosher meat which is almost non-existent especially in the United States that is due to the hanky panky business between the slaughtering and kashering of meat which aren't done correctly for the most part, causing just about all Jews - even very religious ones - to eat non-kosher meat howbeit unwittingly, has promoted the learning of Zohar, the main book of Kabbala, in recent years, in preparation for the upcoming Redemption, and to merit Jews of life in the world to come.   Anyways, one of his most recent projects pertaining to learning the Zohar was his division of the Zohar into 2,711 parts, to be learned one section a day corresponding to one of the 2,711 days of the Daf Yomi cycle of the Babylonian Talmud.

With this said, I took a look at what the corresponding Zohar section for the first Daf of Talmud Sota, and lo and behold, "Rabbi Shimon (Bar Yochai, author of the teachings of the Zohar) opened his discourse "Joshua Bin-Noon was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses laid (his hands on him)" (Deutronomy 34:9)" going on into a whole discussion comparing Moses to the sun and Joshua to the moon, and then about Joshua's wisdom.  So as you can see, the corresponding Zohar to the first page of Talmud Sota that is very related to Joseph is all about Joshua, direct parental descendant of Joseph, pertaining to his appointment as the new leader of the Jews following Moses' passing, just as his ancestor Joseph was appointed viceroy to Pharaoh in Parshat Miketz that was read on Shabbat Chanuka of this year.  And bearing in mind Joshua's zealousness for Moses' honor using the word HaMekane as Moses described him, being the first word of the tractate that is very related to Joshua's ancestor Joseph, we see that following in Moses' footsteps of humbleness is what ultimately earned him the right to take over the leadership from Moses.  Coincidence?  Now, here is the link to this section of the Zohar that is marked with Sota 2 in Hebrew  http://ha-zohar.net/ZOHAR-SHAS/18-ZOHAR-SHAS-masechet-SOTAH/18-ZOHAR-SHAS-masechet-SOTAH-daf-2.pdf.  And of course, those who are interested in learning the daily Zohar corresponding to the Daf Yomi of the Talmud can refer to here   http://dafzoharyomi.com/?page_id=19.

THE RECTIFICATION OF EPHRAIM'S ZEALOUSNESS

Turning to the end of Parshat Vayechi - we see how Joseph reaps Nachas from his descendants, to have seen great-grandchildren from his younger son Ephraim (Genesis 50:23), as noted in the verse - Vayare Yosef L'Ephraim Bnei Sheleishim "Joseph saw three generations from Ephraim".  But if one were to take this literally, and not see the vowels, one could read it as "the children of THIRTY", for the word Sheleishim here without the vowels could also be read as Sheloshim as the same letters.

Now, just as the 12 Hebrew months have a corresponding Tribe, so do they have a corresponding letter.  With this said, the month of Tishrei's corresponding Tribe is Ephraim, and corresponding letter is Lamed - which is the numerical value of 30.  This is besides the point that Ephraim's father Joseph is the only one of the 12 sons of Jacob who are among the Heavenly Guests of Succot, whose holiday takes place in the midst of Tishrei, Ephraim's month.   And it was at 30 years of age that Joseph became viceroy of Egypt, when he also married Osnat, who bore him his two children Menashe and Ephraim.

In Jewish history, though the Jews finally were able to leave Egypt following 116 years of slavery, members of the Tribe of Ephraim apparently misinterpreted Hashem's count of 400 years of the Jews being "in a land that is not theirs", for the land of Israel didn't belong to the Jewish people as of yet though our Patriarchs and Matriarchs lived there, anymore than was Egypt.  You see, Hashem told Abraham that it would be 400 such years.  Now, the 400 year count began with Abraham's son Isaac's birth on the future date of Passover, which would be exactly 400 years later when the Exodus took place.  However,  these Ephramites, in their eagerness to leave Egypt, interpreted these 400 years as beginning from when Hashem spoke these words to Abraham, which was 30 years before Isaac's birth.  Hence, taking matters in their own hands, they proceeded to leave Egypt 30 years before the future Exodus, but were met with war along the way out, and were all killed.

No doubt, these Ephramites had good intentions, and besides attempting to escape the physical slavery, they knew that they would also be escaping the spiritual impurities of the Egyptian idols and promiscuous behavior.  Indeed, the Tribe of Ephraim is related to the number 30 via the letter Lamed as related to the month of Tishrei.  With this said, it seems that this incident of the Ephramites escaping 30 years before the right time is hinted in where the Torah words the descendants of Ephraim that Joseph saw as B'nei Sheleishim, which can also be read as B'nei Shloshim, "the children of thirty", who attempted to rush the redemption from Egypt 30 years before its time.  And then in the very next verse, we see that Joseph told his family that Hashem will redeem them and bring them up from Egypt to the land of Israel.  It seems that perhaps, Joseph foresaw the unfortunate incident that would take place from his descendants in their rush to leave Egypt, and so to let his whole family know, it would be Hashem that would give them a sign as to when this redemption would happen - the code words of Pakod Yiphkod that Moses used when Hashem appeared to him in the Burning Bush telling him to begin his role to pave the way for the upcoming Exodus.

With this said, it seems that Joshua, aside from his humbleness in not wanting to hear of prophecies about Moses dying and himself leading the Jewish people to Israel, did not want the same fate to happen to himself as it happened to members of his Tribe Ephraim who jumped the gun 30 years early in their zealousness for the redemption.  And so, even though he realized that he was hearing prophecy, he didn't want to have any part in hasting the prophecy or attempting to gain leadership any sooner. If it was meant to happen, then it could happen without any such prophecies, and so, Joshua wanted to do away with the ones who said this prophecy.

And in conclusion, as Jacob said of Ephraim in contrast to Menashe - Ulam Achiv HaKaton Yigdal Mimenu "But his (Menashe's) younger brother will be greater than him", the word HaKaton "the younger", is the Gematria of 164, which is the number of this post.  But it would be Joshua, the descendant of the younger son Ephraim, who would be THE ONE to lead the Jewish people to their promised land, the ultimate rectification of the over zealousness of the Tribe of Ephraim, in the proper manner of leadership in its time which Joshua learned and practiced quite well.

And since this 164th Post is related to Chanuka, I want to mention a nice Chanuka thought that I came up with many years ago as related to Gematria.  As there are eight days of Chanuka, let us multiply each number of the day of Chanuka times its own number, like this:
1*1=1
2*2=4
3*3+9
4*4=16
5*5=25
6*6=36
7*7=49
8*8=64

So, I have dissected the number 164, the number of this post into the smallest number one (1) and the biggest number (64) in this number chart.  But now, add up the eight totals here like this 1+4+9+16+25+36+49+64=204.  And what is the number 204 - the Gematria of the word Tzadik, righteous one, which is the ultimate description of Joseph, who is the main topic of the Parshiyot that we read during Chanuka.  And just as Joseph avoid the temptations of the physical body when forbidden, so too, we celebrate Chanuka as the victory of Judaism over the philosophy of the Syrian Greeks who worshiped the human body as the main thing in life.  And though the word Guf (body) ironically is the Gematria of the name of the holiday Chanuka (89), we can transform our bodies into vehicles of holiness via our Neshama, our soul, and when we re-arrange the letters of Neshama, it can read the number Shemona (eight) which is the number representing the concept of miracles beyond nature that is confined to the human body, and the name Menashe, the name of the oldest son of Joseph, the Tribe whose leader brought offerings on behalf of on the "Eighth Day" that we begin reading about on the eighth and final day of Chanuka, that totally represents Joseph's righteousness.


10 Tevet 5773