#157 - The DAMAGE of Not Learning from OLD History

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


THE DAMAGE OF NOT LEARNING FROM HISTORY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


SABBATH REST FOLLOWING OUR PAST TROUBLES?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Motzoei Shabbat Chayei Sara 5773

#156 - Which Son of YOSEF?

Today is 30 Tishrei, the last day of the month of Tishrei.  However, this would not be complete without mentioning that today also is the first day of Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan, for this month, we celebrate two days of Rosh Chodesh.  Now to think of it, the phrase Rosh Chodesh literally means Head of a Month.  So, if this is the case, then why are we calling the end of a month Rosh Chodesh?  The answer is that in truth, if we were to presently be performing the Mitzva of Kiddush HaChodesh, which was the sanctification of the new month by the Beit Din (Jewish court) by declaring it as such following the testimony of two witnesses having seen the new moon, then if the new moon would have been witnessed by two witnesses and their testimony delivered on the 30th day from the 1st day of Tishrei, then this day - instead of being the date of 30 Tishrei, with the declaration of a new month, this day instead would be the date of 1 Cheshvan.  It was only if the new moon was not yet sighted or their testimony was not delivered on time, then it was only the following day that became the date of 1 Cheshvan, being the official day of Rosh Chodesh instead.  In commemoration of this in our present fixed Jewish calendar, we observe two days of Rosh Chodesh when there are 30 days in the outgoing month, the same way that two days of Yom Tov (Jewish holiday) is observed outside of Israel in commemoration of how it used to be outside of Israel when some communities were not aware of which day Rosh Chodesh was declared in Israel in the wake of an upcomimng Jewish holiday before messengers from Israel were able to inform them.

With this said, there is something unique pertaining to the connection between this outgoing month Tishrei and  this ingoing month of Cheshvan.  You see, the 12 months of the Jewish calendar correspond to the 12 Tribes of Israel.  There are various opinions as to which month corresponds to which tribe, but the correct version is what is found in the Chasidic Sefer Bnei Yissaschar, which is based on the undisputed Kabbala of the holy Arizal (Rabbi Isaac Luria), which states that Tishrei corresponds to the Tribe of Ephraim, and Cheshvan corresponds to the Tribe of Menashe.  Being that Ephraim and Menashe are the two sons of Joseph, it seems that there has to be some special connection between these two corresponding months.

In any case, today being the last day of the month of Tishrei and the first day of Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan, is thus the bridge between these two months.  Moreover, being that in this year, Cheshvan consists of 29 days (while in some years, Cheshvan consists of 30 days), today - 30 Tishrei - is the exact middle day between the first 29 days of Tishrei and the month of Cheshvan of this year.  Hence, at least symbolic,ally, this is the one day in the Jewish calendar that Joseph's sons are closest together as brothers.

Now, there is a good reason for me to say this more than just mentioning symbolisms, signs, or dates.  But first, let us mention a bit of Jewish history that has happened, or will happen, during these two months.

The construction of the first Beit HaMikdash (Temple) under the auspices of Shlomo HaMelech (King Solomon) began in the month of Iyar, and was concluded in the month of Cheshvan.  Yes, the dedication of the Temple honored neither of these two months, having waited nearly a year following the end of its construction, but rather, taking place in the month of Tishrei.  Now technically, Cheshvan should have been honored with the dedication being that the Temple was concluded on this month, but for some reason, did not happen at that time, the same way that the Mishkan (Tabernacle) was concluded during the month of Kislev, but being its dedication did not take place in this month, but rather in Nissan, so Hashem made it up to Kislev by honoring it with the future holiday of Chanuka.  Accordingly, as explained beautifully in Bnei Yissaschar, the future dedication of the third and everlasting Temple will take place during Cheshvan.

Now, this is all nice as far as the months are concerned.  But, could it be that the dedications of the first and last Temples in these months have something to do with their corresponding tribes who are brothers, the two sons of Joseph?

There is a most interesting story of how the site on which the Temple was going to be built was the place that was chosen by Hashem to be as such.  There were once two brothers who each owned fields of grain, except that one was poor with a wife and children, and the other was a rich bachelor.  At one point, each of them came up with the idea to give his brother some of his own grain - the rich brother wanted to help support his poor brother with his family, and the poor brother wanted to be friendly with his brother being that he was lonely.  Somehow, both of them managed for a while to deposit grain to each other's field, but each morning, both of them scratched their heads wondering how they wound up with the exact same number of bundled grains.  Finally, in the middle of the night, both brothers were on their way to each other, until...they met each other carrying their bundles of grain.  Both realizing what was happening, they hug each other with the greatest brotherly love, and it was on this very spot that was chosen by Hashem for the Temple to be built.

Indeed, the first Temple was destroyed due to the sins of idolatry, adultery, and murder, which tells us that two of the three sins that caused the Temple's destruction had to do with a breakdown of relationships.  However, being that when people are suffering being enslaved by another nation, there isn't much of a chance of fooling around between sleeping with other partners or killing each other, the reasons for the destruction of the Temple were no longer relevant after 70 years of exile, and then had a rebuilt Temple.  However, the destruction of the second Temple was caused by baseless hatred, the spiritual disease that hasn't left us until today, though shortly, we will have the Redemption, but the only question is in whose merit this will take place.  In any case, we are not talking about open destructive behaviors that is openly murdering people or sleeping with other people's wives, which are crimes that don't take long to perform, and then everyone is back to what they were doing unless the criminals are caught and punished accordingly.  However, hating people and showing them hatred on a daily basis becomes a part of some people's daily lives, and certainly defeats the whole purpose of why the Temple was built where it was, being the anti-thesis of all what the Temple is supposed to represent - not just as a Beit Hashem "House of G-d", but the place where the entire Jewish nation assembled three times a year, aside from the Jerusalem hospitality that was afforded to the non-Jerusalem residents visiting who stayed rent free during the Shalosh Regalim (Three Pilgrimage Festivals) of Pesach, Shavuot, and Succot.

So, it is hardly surprising that the dedications of the first and third Temples occur on the two months that correspond to the two brothers Ephraim and Menashe.  After all, when their father Joseph asked Grandfather Jacob to bless them, even though Jacob showed preference to the younger Ephraim with the greater blessing over the older Menashe with the lesser blessing, since Ephraim was the greater Torah scholar of the two; nevertheless, we see no negative reaction from Menashe, and in time, together with Ephraim, became two of the 12 tribes that inherited the land of Israel, their inheritance being named after them.  In Joseph's own life, not only at the end did he not hold a grudge against his jealous brothers who first attempted to have him killed by being thrown into the pit with snakes and scorpions and then sold him marking him a slave that eventually landed him in prison for 12 years; but quite the contrary, he supported his entire family in Egypt in the wake of the famine.  And so, it is hardly surprising that the Mishkan began being built during Tishrei that corresponds with Joseph's son Ephraim, but the Mishkan resided in Shilo, a city in the territory of the Tribe of Ephraim for 369 years.  And even when the Temple was chosen to be in the territory of a different tribe, the first Temple was completed in Cheshvan that corresponds to Josephs's son Menashe, and will be the month in the future for the dedication of the Temple.


THE JOSEPH-SABBATH CONNECTION

As especially related to this Hebrew year 5773, it has been the first time in 14 years that the sixth day of Succot, on which the Biblical Yosef, the Ushpiz (Heavenly Guest of the Succah) who is represented on this day, fell out on Shabbat.  And if this was not enough, this was also the first Shabbat on which Masechet Shabbat (Tractate Sabbath) of the Babylonian Talmud, of the 13th cycle of Daf Yomi (daily learning of a folio of Talmud) was learned worldwide.

According to Kabbala, the seven Heavenly Guests of the Succah - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph, and David (in this order according to Kabbala, not like some other versions who place them in a little different order which is incorrect) who are also called the Seven Shepherds in the Zohar, each correspond to one of the Jewish holidays of the year - Pesach, Rosh Hashana, Shavuot, Yom Kippur, Succot, Shabbat, and Rosh Chodesh - respectively (there is a different type of relationship of the three Patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob corresponding respectively to Pesach, Shavuot and Succot, but I am not going to get into explaining the connection or the difference of this in contrast to the holiday connection with the Seven Shepherds).  So as you can see, it is Joseph of the Chosen Seven who corresponds to the weekly holiday of Shabbat.  For in fact, not only is Shabbat called the head of the Jewish holidays, but is also the holiest of the holidays, even more than Yom Kippur, for as we see, there are a mandatory minimum of seven Aliyot for the Sefer Torah (Torah Scroll) reading on Shabbat (besides the Haftara Aliya), onlike on other Jewish holidays when there are less amounts of mandatory Aliyot.

With this said, it is not simply a nice relationship between Joseph and the Sabbath, but in fact, we see in the Torah that Joseph has special respect for the Sabbath - even in the idol filled country of Egypt.  You see, when Joseph's brothers, before he revealed himself to them as his brother following 22 years of separation, came for a second time to Egypt to restock their food supply, he arranged to have a reception lunch with them.  As the verse states UtVoach Tevach Vehachein "Slaughter an animal and prepare it" (Genesis 43:16) - Joseph's instructions for his meal with his brothers.  As the Da'as Zekanim M'Ba'alei HaTosfos explains, we see from here that Joseph observed the Sabbath before the Torah was given, as indicated by this verse of him wanting to prepare a tasty Shabbat meal, which is part of the Mitzva of honoring the Shabbat eating delicious meals, basing this proof on another verse in the Torah in reference to the manna that the Jews ate in the desert - "On Friday (the sixth day), they shall prepare what they will bring"  (Exodus 16:5), as the manna didn't fall down on Shabbat, and instead, a double portion of manna fell on Friday morning, half of which was prepared on Friday for eating it on Shabbat.

Now, before I continue with the words of this commentary on the Chumash (Penteteuch), I want to note that just as the above seven Biblical personalities correspond to the various Jewish holidays; so too do these seven in the same order correspond to the seven days of the week, as they also correspond to the seven active Sephirot.  Hence, Joseph actually corresponds to the sixth day of the week, while it is King David who in fact corresponds to the seventh day of Shabbat.  And hence, the question can be asked - what day of the week does Joseph really correspond to?  And so, the answer is that it depends on what context of spirituality that we are talking here.  You see, in relationship to the seven days of the week, Joseph corresponds to the sixth day, the preparation day for Shabbat, for while of course, the ultimate spiritual goal of the week is Shabbat, it is necessary that we prepare for the big day of the week, which for the most parts is done on the day before.  However, in terms of the various holy days of the year, it is Joseph of the seven Biblical personalities who corresponds specifically to the weekly Shabbat.

In terms of Joseph corresponding to the sixth day of the week, it is his descendant who is known as Moshiach Ben Yosef who is the preparation for Moshiach Ben Dovid, the main Messiah, who is the descendant of King David who corresponds to Shabbat.  But in another sense, he is unique among these seven righteous people.  For as we see, while all of the others correspond to Jewish holidays that are dependent on time in terms of the month, Joseph corresponds to the holiday of Shabbat that is strictly weekly based.  For in fact, while Shabbat is the holiest of the holidays, it is ironically within the context of the routine week, when we work six days a week, and only then do we take our weekly holiday brake.  Similarly, in Joseph's life, he was the most challenged in terms of spiritually within the context of both physical bondage and luscious materialism.  Unlike some of the others who may have run away into exile to escape being killed, Joseph had no free choice as being sold as a slave, and hence, not in complete control of himself in a free state.  However, this did not necessarily dictate Joseph's state of spiritual freedom, for while he was challenged at one point by Master Potiphar's evil wife who daily tempted the young lad to sleep with her, Joseph passed a major test that none of the other six righteous ones went through.  And then, even in his materialistic standing as second to Pharaoh, it didn't distract him from his spiritual goals, and maintained both his belief and observance of Judaism, which included the Sabbath.  True, he had his weekly work as one busy viceroy of Egypt, but he took time off for Shabbat, something that he had done for the last 80 years of his life, as opposed to the other six who at least were able to live the latter part of their lives in a more spiritual setting.  And hence, being second to the Egyptian king corresponded to his spiritual goal of specifically preparing for Shabbat, just as his descendant Moshiach Ben Yosef is the spiritual preparation for the main Messiah - Moshiach Ben Dovid, descendant of King David, for it is the Sephira of Malchut (Kingship) that corresponds to the day of Shabbat.  But as the end result, in the context of all the Jewish holidays, Joseph corresponds to Shabbat, a relationship that he rightfully earned as a result of his preparations for Shabbat, while King David corresponds to Rosh Chodesh, based on which determines when the other Jewish holidays, other than Sabbath, fall out on what day of the week, as King David was not only a physical king, but also the king in spirituality via Moshiach his descendant.

Now, continuing on with the above commentary about Joseph's preparation of his meal with his brothers for Shabbat, it mentions this in the context of the Nasi (leader) of the tribe of Ephraim bringing his offerings on behalf of his tribe "on the seventh day".  According to tradition, this seventh day is Shabbat, as the dedication of the Mishkan (tabernacle) took place on the first day of Nissan, which was also on the first day of the week.  In any case, although normally, it is forbidden for offerings of individuals to be sacrificed in the Temple on Shabbat other than the Korban Tamid (two daily burnt offerings) and Shabbat offerings.  However, in reward of Joseph honoring the Shabbat by eating meat, a descendant of his was allowed special permission to bring his animal sacrifices (although they were on behalf of his tribe, they came from his personal funds) on Shabbat, the only time that this was ever allowed on an individual basis. (By the way, this is one out of several proofs that vegetarianism based on having "mercy" on animals is forbidden by the Torah).  And then the question can be asked - why particularly the leader of the tribe of Ephraim, rather than the leader of the tribe of Menashe.  Now, while this commentator does not ask this question himself, he does mention that in the very first battle waged by the Jewish people led by Joshua, a descendant of Ephraim, in Jericho, the actual war, followed by six days of spiritual preparation by circling the city one time each and seven times on the seventh day, took place "on the seventh day" which Rashi also notes, was Shabbat.  Now the truth is, the event with Joshua took place after the offerings of the leader of the tribe of Ephraim.   However, it must be borne in mind that the offerings of the leaders of the tribes on the first 12 days following the dedication of the Mishkan corresponded to various themes of their corresponding tribe, which included events both past and future.

And in terms of the Daf Yomi of Tractate Shabbat in this present cycle, it actually began on the sixth day of the week, the day before Shabbat of the sixth day of Succot that corresponds to Joseph.  Moreover, the tractate begins with the words - Yetziot HaShabbat (refers to carrying things in and out between a private and public domain which is forbidden on Shabbat), beginning with the letter Yud, which also begins the name Yosef.  Moreover, this Talmudic tractate contains exactly 156 Dafim, and the Gematria of Yosef's name is 156 (and is the number of this post)!  And the concluding word of this tractate is the Aramaic word Ana (I), which is the Gematria of 52.  Amazingly, in Jacob's blessings for his 12 sons, the only one which does not begin with the name of the particular son is Joseph, beginning rather with the word Ben (son) - Ben Porat Yosef - "Joseph is a fruitful son", (in English though, it is translated differently than the order of the words in Hebrew) which is also the Gematria of 52.  Having said this, the word Ben, in a different context of Gematria in which the five letters that only appear at the end of a word - Chaf Sophit, Mem Sophit, Noon Sophit, Phei Sophit, and Tzadi Sophit - having corresponding Gematriot of 500, 600, 700, 800, and 900, is the Gematria of 702, as the letter Noon Sophit in this instance has a numerical value of 700, and Beit is the numerical value of two (2), which is the same Gematria as the word Shabbat!

However, this would not be complete without mentioning a story about another Yosef  in terms of Shabbat - actually, two people by the name of Yosef, both mentioned within this Talmudic tractate of Shabbat on the very same page (119a).  A rabbi known as Rav Yosef used to split wood in preparation for Shabbat.  And then it mentions the famous story of Yosef Mokir Shabbat (Joseph who honors the Sabbath) who was especially known by this title even by non-Jews due to his special honor for Shabbat by buying special delicacies for Shabbat.  Anyways, there was this rich non-Jew in town who was warned by astrologers that his positions would be taken over by the Jew known as Yosef Mokir Shabbat.  Fearing this prediction, he sold all of his possessions for a precious pearl which he placed in his hat that he was wearing.  Then one day, he passed by a river, and puff...the wind blew his hat into the river, which was swallowed by a fish.  Before long, fisherman were attempting to catch some fish at the river on a Friday, and after waiting long for their efforts, they came up with a big fish.  However, it was rather late in the day, and the Jews in town already had made their Sabbath purchases, and so there was no special demand of fish at this time of day (there was no refrigeration the way that we have it today, and hence, were afraid of loosing a day's work worth of fish).  Then, someone suggested "Hey, we know of the perfect customer - Yosef Mokir Shabbat".  Upon this, they wasted no time coming to his door with the prized fish, which he gladly paid for.  He then opened up the fish in preparing it for Shabbat, only to find that pearl that the rich non-Jew lost; following which, the Jew sold it for 13 attics full of gold dinars, making him a wealthy person.  Now, the story does end off with who is believed to be Eliyahu HaNovi (Elijah the prophet) who encountered him, telling him what the rabbis say that one who borrows to honor the Shabbat, the Shabbat repays him back, and we can all learn from this story when it comes to having faith in Hashem in terms of honoring the Shabbat via our finances.  But additionally, being that this we are presently within the 13th cycle of Daf Yomi, it is interesting to note that the particular number used in reference to Yosef Mokir Shabbat becoming wealthy as a result of his honoring the Shabbat is 13, and perhaps is even the basis, along with what I have mentioned in the past, as to why non-Jews consider the number 13 a most  unluckly number, while we Jews consider this a most lucky number.  And to think of it, this story of the fish took place on a Friday.  Indeed, following the story of the non-Jew loosing his wealth to a Jew who became wealthy on Friday and sold the pearl for 13 measures of gold, it is no wonder why non-Jews have a superstitious crush on Friday the 13th.


5773 - THE YEAR OF MOSHIACH BEN YOSEF?

Look, I am not here to make predictions.  However, there are amazing resemblances of Joseph corresponding especially to this Hebrew year; and this is aside from what I mentioned about the Daf Yomi in relationship to Joseph and Shabbat in this year.  What I am about to reveal here relates to both a verse in the Chumash and another tractate in the Mishna.

Let's being with the Mishnaic tractate called Sota.  The word Sota refers to a married woman who is accused of having an affair as testified to by (a) witness(es), and in order to determine her innocence or guilt, goes through the ordeal of drinking what are called bitter waters which would kill her if she indeed slept with a guy outside of her marriage.  Now, among the steps that led to this procedure (in Temple times) was her husband warning her not to seclude herself with the guy that she was found to be hanging out with.  The beginning word of this tractate, which describes this very action of the husband, is HaMekanei, which halachicly means "One who warns", though the root of this word carries quite a few meanings, including Kinah (jealousy), and it is true that one who is into another relationship arouses the jealousy of the siginificant other with whom he or she, who is seeking an alternate relationship, has his or her relationship with.  The reason that I mention this particular alternate meaning, though not the main halachic sense of the beginning word of this tractate, is because the word Kinah has the same Gematria as the name Yosef - 156.  In fact, we see that Yosef incurred the jealousy of his brothers due to the multi colored garment that Jacob robed him with in his preferential treatment of his son Joseph in contrast to his other sons.  Following this, his brothers wound up selling him as a slave, and at the age of 17-18, was faced with the daily temptaton of his master's wife attempting to lure him for sex with her, but amazingly didn't give in to his hormones.  The reason that I word it like this, is because the Midrash tells us that Joseph at one point was in fact ready to fall into temptation, but then the face of Jacob appeared in his mind, warning him of some spiritual benefits he could loose out if he were to give in to temptation.

Having also mentioned earlier that the sixth day of Succot corresponds to Joseph, there is a custom among a group of Jews to learn a chapter of Mishna on the seven days of Succot that corresponds to the daily Heavenly Guest, mentioning the name of the Biblical personage of the day somewhere in the corresponding chapter.  For the sixth day of Succot, they learn the first chapter of Sotah, as it mentions near the end of the chapter about Joseph buring his father, and in reward for this bearing in mind that Joseph put himself on the line to convince Pharaoh to allow him to bury his father Jacob who passed away in Egypt to be buried in Israel, it was none other than Moses who carried Joseph's bones out of Egypt.

In any case, it seems that it is in fact the entire tractate Sota that corresponds to Joseph, even as the latter part of the tractate deals with other topics, such as the topic that begins the ninth and final chapter of this tractate which are the words Egla Arufa, the calf that was decapitated by the Jewish court as a result of seeing a person found murdered, but whose murderer had yet to be found.  Our rabbis tell us that this was the last Torah subject that Jacob and Joseph were discussing before their separation of 22 years; and hinting to this, Joseph sent food and other items on Agalot (wagons) as this Hebrew word for wagons is very similar to the word Egla (calf), in order that Jacob would know for a fact that it was Joseph who sent these items to him, assuring him that his long lost son Joseph was well and alive.

Now, let us turn to the Chumash, and check out the 5773th verse, being that we are presently in Year 5773.
"They (the Jews) have been faithless to Me with a non-god, they have angered Me with their vanities; I, in turn, will be faithless to them with a non-nation, I will anger them with a nation without feeling gratitute." (Deutronomy 32:21).  Now, the beginning Hebrew words of this verse are Heim Kinuni - "They have been faithless to me", and as you may have noticed, the word faithless in another meaning that is related to the beginning word of Tractate Sota - HaMekanei.  In fact, there is something even more amazing here.  Look carefully at the FIRST five letters of this verse which are within two words - these five letters together make up the FIRST word of Tractate Sota!

And so, what is the message for this Year 5773?  I say that on a national level, we Jews have to be more careful than ever when it comes to forbidden sexual relationships, for shortly, we will be in the midst of the final stage of the war of Gog U'Magog shortly, and while in the end, Hashem will take his vengence on the evil nations for all the anti-Semitism that we suffered from their hands, this will also be a refining period for the Jewish nation, and all those who refuse to repent of their evil deeds will be done away with during this time period, while the rest of the Jews will survive (the prophecy in what is called the New Testament of 144,000 Jews surviving this period may very well be true, for even though this prediction came from the forces of the side of evil, it is nevertheless a prophecy, the same way that the evil non-Jew Bilaam who attempted to curse the Jews wound up blessing them instead along with prophecies of the future, including the End of Days.  This is only around one percent of all Jews living on this planet today - a frightening prophecy about Hashem's Chosen Nation, even though there are more than 144,000 "religious" Jews, but how we live as "religious" Jews and what Hashem defines as religious are apparently quite different, and so we need to do some serious soul searching, and truly repent of our misguided ways, even in what we call our "religious" way of living).

And of course, this would not be complete without mentioning the meaning of the name of Tractate Sota, which is based the meaning of "turning aside/away", which in the faithless, adulteress wife, it means both turning away and cheating on both her husband and G-d.  Similarly, when we turn aside from what we are supposed to focus on in serving Hashem and instead are more concerned on which baseball/basketball/football team won the game on Sunday wasting several hours on the tube watching others making the millions, and feel terrible if "our" team, as belonging to the town that one is from or lives in - instead of living in the REAL OUR TOWN in Israel even though we may not be living in the land that G-d ordered us to live in - looses the game, then in fact, we have the lost the big game in effect, for we failed to realize our true purpose in this world, and is especially disturbing to Hashem that the ones who should know better, and learned in their youth what Judaism requires of a Jew, does not act accordingly, justifying themselves by praying in the synagogue daily, which for many if not for most, it means talking to their buddy about non-holy matters or gossip during the services, which is the ultimate Hutzpa that a Jew shows to Hashem, aside from the terrible punishments in this world and the next world that occur to such a person who publicly defies the King of Kings.  And as for Jewish education of one's children, the good Torah education that they receive in the Jewish day school is often highly diluted as a result of one sitting in front of the tube watching one's favorite team instead of opening up a Torah book, which results in his children being able to better recount the names and game scores of non-Jews on game cards than the names and Yeshivos of the true heroes of the Jewish people, which of course are the righteous and Torah scholars.

And there there is what is called the political level in Israel, which is currently dictated by Prime Monster Binyamin Netanyahu, who is the antithesis of everything that his name means and stands for, bearing the name of the original Binyamin, the only one of the Jacob's 12 sons who was born in Israel, while constantly attempting to figure out ways of giving away more land to our bloodthirsty Arab enemies since his handing over of 97% of Hebron to them, including keep running overseas to Islam follower Barack Obama to vainly convince him that Israel wants to make peace with the Arabs; turning away his right eye while secretly giving orders to former Prime Monster Ehud Barak to evict Jews from their own built homes on "loose settlements" which are no more illegal than the hut structures in Arab villages that Bibi turns his left eye away from, submitted his vote to throw the Jews out of Gush Katif; doing all too little to have American and Israeli hero Jonathan Pollard released from his illegal imprisonment in the States since his giving in to the Wye Accords despite Clinton's broken promise to release the true hero of Israel; and brokeraging a deal a year ago to have over 1,000 Arab terrorists,including the murderers of Rabbi Binyamin & Talya Kahane- may Hashem avenge their blood, to be released in exchange for Gilad Shalit, who by the way, came back home on the sixth day of Succot which is especially related to Joseph, instead of threatening to kill the several thousand jailed Arab terrorists over five years ago if Gilad Shalit wouldn't be released immediately.  And for the cherry on top, he also vainly attempts to convince the world that it is to their benefit to be rid of Iran, putting on a nice act of being strong and bold in words, but is sorely afraid of this very world who will be ready to pounce on Israel the moment that it dares defend itself by attacking Iran; in short, more afraid of what everyone else will say than the actual possible attack from Iran, G-d forbid.

Indeed, this is also quite the antithesis of everything that Benyamin's full brother Yosef stood for, which included his love for Israel, and made his brothers swear to him on his death bed to take his remains with them upon their future redemption from Egypt, so he could be at least be buried in Israel, since he was sold into slavery, leaving Israel at the young age of 17, and only returned to Israel to have his father Jacob buried, and then returned to Egypt to resume his duties as Egyptian viceroy.  Actually, one does not have to go to far in the Bible to see how Joseph was a Zionist, even though he lived most of his life outside Israel.  In fact, his name Yosef has the same Gematria as the name Zion - 156.

And most unfortunately, Israel has suffered much from the hands of the literal non-nation of "Palestine"
thanks to the non-god of secular Zionism which is the anti-thesis of authentic Zionism, most especially today when the definition of the fake Zionism is giving away holy land instead of conquering even more land since 1967, even as it is most contrary to logical reasons of equity and security, because it is the Yetzer Hara (Evil Inclination) that many evil members of the Knesset are worshiping, even to the country's own detriment, because they are purposely defying the Torah, which includes the clear cut definitions of what geographical areas constitute the Holy Land of Israel.

And now for the number 73 - the last two digits of our Hebrew year, we see that this is the first two letters of the word Eglah, as in the phrase Eglah Arufa, the name of the ninth and final chapter in Tractate Sota, which is the last Torah topic that Jacob and Joseph discussed before their parting for 22 years.  Amazingly, this is also the first two letters of the phrase Eigel HaZahav, the Golden Calf that the Jews worshiped, their first national sin since the Torah was given, and nearly caused their destruction.  Of course many observant Jews ask how it was possible that Jews who just 40 days earlier, witnessed and experienced the Giving of the Torah hearing Hashem Himself speak, which included the very commandments of "I am Hashem your God" and "Thou shalt not have other gods besides Me", could turn astray so quickly.  And as we see, Moses ground the Golden Calf into ashes, and with some water, forced the Jews to drink of it to determine who were the sinners in the worship of the calf, which came with the same results as for the Sota lady who drank what is called the "bitter waters", only to quickly die as a result of her turning astray.

Yes indeed, there are many icons on T.V., literally the true American idols, that most unfortunately, even some who are called "Orthodox" Jews virtually worship, praising how well they played, how tall and handsome they look, etc, which in itself is a Torah violation of one of the 613 Commandments of the Torah "thou shalt not show them grace", though the ultimate idols- the Golden Calves - in today's comfortable lifestyle include successful careers, money, spouse with a master's degree (or many will not even consider dating if not at least with this level of college degree), T.V., spacious house with a 30 year mortgage, two cars, swimming  pool, etc., while as for Torah books, most of them are waiting for the man of the house to open them up for 20, 30, or 40 years, clearly showing quite a spiritual disproportion of the life of an "Orthodox" Jew.  Can he even recall the last words of Torah that the rabbi spoke in his weekly sermon during the past Shabbat morning services, or rather, the last piece of conversation that he had with the guy he sat next to while the  mourner's Kaddish at the end of services was being recited?  Ultimately, this depends on his priorities in life.

What can I tell you my friends?  Well, one thing that I can tell you is that regardless of how it all plays out in terms of Moshiach coming - including which Moshicah (Ben Yosef and/or Ben Dovid), the war of Gog U'Magog, and who will win the elections in the States and Israel, one thing that will be for sure is that this Year 5773 will be quite a turbulent year, and the only question(s) is/are - are we ready to make the changes necessary to be deserving of salvation for ourselves when G-d forbid, the major blow will begin this year?  Are we going to be among the one percent of the Jewish people - the 144,000 Jews living in our present generation (aside from the millions of good Jews from past generations who will be resurrected) - that will receive salvation if we decide to stop playing games and be concerned about what Hashem wants rather than what we want, even if we live in Israel; as it will be Hashem at the end who will determine the ONE PERCENT who will survive both physically and spiritually for eternity, who will be left alive to declare: Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad - the L-rd Who at one time was only our G-d (which is still literally true because even the Moslems actually worship a different god, not Hashem), is today proven to the entire world that Hashem is One and the Only One?  Regardless of whether we are more like Joseph's son Ephraim who was the Torah scholarly son, or more like Joseph's son Menashe who was the career son but still remembered no less of his obligations as a Jew, if we but turn our hearts to  Hashem, and be considered a son of Joseph, following in Joseph's ways of remaining steadfast to Hashem despite the physical and spiritual turbulences that we go through in life, just as Joseph did, include the sexual temptations that he faced daily at one point, due to which he was nicknamed HaTzadik - the righteous one, then we will certainly be on the right path to the eternal salvation, at which point, the ball games will be over forever.


30 Tishrei - 1st day of Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan - 5773


,

#155 - Sabbath 11

Any clues to what I mean by the title of this post?  Stay tuned for the answer in this post.

But first, I want to point out something that is related to the general concept of Daf Yomi.  It is true that Post 150 was focused on the 13th cycle of Daf Yomi, mentioning various things as related to the numbers 13 & 150, as well as the 13th letter Mem, including the fact that the phrase Daf Yomi is the Gematria of 150, and that the 150th and final psalm of Tehillim has 13 mentions of Hillul (one of the synonyms of the meaning praise in Hebrew), as well as the amazing Gematria of the 13th of the Shlosh Esrei Middot HaRachamim - Thirteen Divine Attributes of Mercy as recorded at the end of Micha (7:20) - Mimei Kedem, which is the Gematria of the word Gemara - 244.

Now, there is another Gematria about the phrase Daf Yomi that relates very specifically to the 13th Divine Attribute of Mercy.  Well, not exactly.  You see, sometimes, the phrase describing the study of the daily Talmud folio is called Daf HaYomi - Page of THE day.  In this case, this phrase is actually the Gematria of 155 - the number of this post.  With this said, this is related directly the 13th Divine Attribute of Mercy - the original list that Hashem dictated to Moses on Mt. Sinai in the beginning of the month of Elul, which is nicknamed Chodesh HaRachamim - The Month of Mercy.  This Attribute is the word V'Nakeh (and Who Cleanses).  Actually, since the Vav in this instance means "and", this letter is technically not part of the 13th Attribute, but rather indicates the last one on the list as we normally write a sentence when mentioning a list, ending off noting the final item on the list, "and...""  With this said, we note that the word Nakeh has the same letters as the Hebrew number for 155!  That's right folks, the Gematria of the name of the 13th Divine Attribute in the original list of the 13 Divine Attributes of Divine Mercy is the SAME Gematria as the phrase Daf HaYomi!  So as you see everyone, this 13th cycle of Daf Yomi is especially an auspicious time to learn Daf Yomi which began on the most special day of Tu B'Av, the date about which the rabbis of the Talmud declared is the time to begin learning more Torah at nights as the nights start to become longer around this time of year.

There is a question that has been asked on this.  We know that the timing of the seasons, and how long the days and nights are, are in fact based on the solar calendar.  If so, then why pick specifically the date of Tu B'Av as the date to declare as the time to learn more Torah at nights because "this is around the time that the nights become longer"?  And even if one were to say that this is because a number of happy events happened on this date, what does this directly have to do with Torah learning?  Why not already pick Rosh Chodesh Av or Rosh Chodesh Elul, the beginning of a Jewish month for that matter to start doing so?

And now an obvious question as related to this post.  What is the practical difference between the phraseologies of Daf Yomi and Daf HaYomi - or maybe there isn't?

OK, so let's get to the bottom of this.  The Daf for the first day of the week of Parshat Noach of this year - 28 Tishrei is Sabbath 11.  But normally, if I were to write about a theme on some Talmud page, rather than writing the name of the page, it would make a little more catchy title to write some theme that is mentioned on this page.  However, in this case, the whole reason for the name of the title of this post has everything to do with the name of this page.

You see, there are 2,711 pages of Daf Yomi cycle of the Babylonian Talmud.  Well, close to it, for in fact, Tractate Shekalim of the Jerusalem Talmud is included in the Daf Yomi, as there is no Gemara on Tractate Shekalim in the Babylonian Talmud.  In fact, for the first seven cycles of Daf Yomi, this Tractate Shekalim of the Jerusalem Talmud was in fact not included in the Daf Yomi, and was decided since to add this tractate to the Daf Yomi; hence, making the total amount of Talmud pages in the Daf Yomi cycle to 2,711.

Now in Hebrew, the number for 2,711 is made up of the letters - Beit, Tav, Shin, Yud, Aleph.  When these letters are rearranged, we see that we can spell this as... Shabbat Yud-Aleph (11).  So amazingly, the number of Daf Yomi pages is made up of the same letters as the name of one of its pages.  Now, this is a little nice mathematical game, or is it?

Actually, this is actually more of a scientific discovery - in fact in more than one way - as I will shortly explain.  But first, one will be curious as the contents of this Daf Yomi page.  There are actually several themes on this page, but the one concluding the explanation of the Mishna about the activities that we don't perform to begin with when it is the time to pray the Mincha (afternoon prayer) quotes a Baraita (similar to Mishna but refers to other teachings that were not included in the Mishna) that notes that just as one does not interrupt for prayer, so too one does not interrupt for the recital of the Shema, which is contrary to what our Mishna says that we interrupt for the Shema but not for prayer, the latter referring to Torah scholars who were so involved in Torah learning, that they were actually exempt from prayer, but they still have to say the Shema (which is not applicable nowadays considering the decline in the level of Torah learning compared to how it was thousands of years ago).  The Talmud answers the discrepancy between the two texts, noting that the Baraita refers to those who are involved in deciding whether to add an extra month to the Hebrew year, making the year 13 months instead of the usual 12 months, called the intercalation of the year.  This is necessary according to the Torah, since we see that the Torah calls the month on which we celebrate Passover - Chodesh HaAviv "The month of spring".  Now, unlike the solar calendar which needs an adjustment of once every four years usually to maintain the balance of its calendar to be in sync with the seasons, as the cycle of the sun is close to 365.2425 days, the Hebrew calendar on a regular year consists between 353-355 days, with an average of 11 days shorter than the solar calendar; and hence, as we have it on our Jewish calendar these days, every two or three years is declared a leap year with the month of another Adar added.

Tosfos, one of the main commentaries on the Talmud, explains that since the deciding of whether a leap month should be added to the year helped decide when the Jewish holidays would be celebrated, even the recital of the Shema, which is a declaration of Hashem as the One and Only, was able to be pushed aside to allow the Jewish court to be distraction free to make this crucial determination.

In connection to this, I would like to quote another Talmudic piece that is found in the same Talmudic Tractate Shabbat (75a):  Rabbi Shmuel Bar Nachmani said in the name of Rabbi Yonatan:  From where to we learn that it is a commandment to calculate  the cycles and constellations? As it says, "For it is your wisdom and understanding in front of the nations" (Deutronomy 4:6).  What is this wisdom and understanding  in front of the nations? You have to say that this is the calculation of the cycles and seasons.

Basically, since this science is something that the non-Jews are into, this is why this is refered to as (the literal meaning of the words "in front of the eyes of the nations".  Moreover, the Talmud declares that should one say that the non-Jews have wisdom, believe him, but if should one say that the non-Jews have Torah, do not believe him.  For while all wisdom in fact is Hashem's wisdom, only the Torah is actually called Hashem's wisdom, for the Torah is the holy part of Hashem's wisdom which was granted solely to the Jews.  Along these lines,  in the previous Daf Yomi page (Shabbat 10), we see that the Sabbath was also something that Hashem gave specifically to the Jews as a present.

In any case, in the count of the 2,711 pages of the Talmud in the Daf Yomi cycle, the Daf of Shabbat 11 is the 73th page, and Chachma (wisdom) is the Gematria of 73.  Moreover, this takes place in this Hebrew year 5773 which ends with the number 73.

Now, for our other scientific mention, which is also astronomical, has to do with the fact that the letters that spell the total number of pages of Daf Yomi are the very letters that spell one of the planets - Shabtai (Saturn).  And if this was not enough, in the entire Talmud, the one place that has a discussion about the planets, and one's destiny based on the hour related to which planet that he or she is born on, is again - in Tractate Shabbat Daf 156(a), which is actually the 155th Daf of the tractate being that all tractates of the Babylonian Talmud begin with Daf 2, and this section about the planets is part of the Talmudic discussion that is based on the Mishna on Daf 155,  and don't forget that we are on Post #155.

Anyways, the Talmud mentions that one who is born during the hour of Saturn will be someone whose plans won't come out to anything, while there are those who say that any plans that are plotted against him won't come out to anything.  Regardless of the exact outcome, this is based on the wording of the Hebrew name of this planet, as in a phrase in this very week's Parshat Noach - Lo Yishbotu - "They will not cease" which is referring to the planetary system.  In this context, Hashem was saying following everyone exiting from Noah's Ark after being cooped up for one year during the Flood and the aftermath, that unlike during the flood - the planets ceased working, and hence, one could not tell between day and night because the planetary system includes the sun and moon; from henceforth, never again will the planets cease from functioning.

Now, while we see in the Torah that the Sabbath is clearly Hashem's gift to the Jewish people, it is this phrase Lo Yishbotu, which also refers to the Halacha (Jewish Law) that non-Jews are forbidden to rest on the Sabbath - "they shall not cease", that is, cease from work, just like the planets who do not take off a day in the week from moving in the planetary system.  In fact, our rabbis tell us that a non-Jew who does rest on the Sabbath is liable to death (at the hands of Heaven).  Now, there are varying opinions as to how far it goes in terms of a non-Jew not being allowed to work on the Sabbath, whether this only applies to the actual day of the week that we observe it, or even if it a different day in the week.  There may be other questions about this issue, such as, are they simply forbidden to treat the day of rest as their own concept of rest from labor, or are they simply forbidden to observe it the same exact way that Jews observe the Sabbath with all the details of the 39 categories of forbidden labor?  Does not working for a non-Jew mean not working one's regular job where one gets a paycheck when taking off on Saturday or Sunday, or not even doing basic household chores?  These questions may be based on whether the prohibition of a non-Jew resting from work is based on one's intent, or even without intent simply because the non-Jew is making a appearance of not working looking like he wants a Sabbath to rest on just like Jews.  Thus, it would seem according to some, a non-Jew is only allowed to take on a paying job at which one's boss allows or demands that he works seven days a work, such as a restaurant; or, if he can't or doesn't want certain types of jobs, that he start his own business in which he will be able to work seven days a work.  Thus, it would seem that some forbid a non-Jew from ever going on vacation (which wasn't something that people always did until recent times being that travel was more of a pain than a luxury), aside from taking off of work because one is sick or is ordered by the doctor to take a rest to maintain one's health.

Anyways, in this phrase Lo Yishbotu - the middle five letters of this phrase does indeed spell the exact same letters as the Hebrew word for Saturn - Shabtai.  It seems that for some reason, the Torah wants to hint especially to this planet in its mention of the planets not ceasing from functioning.  In fact, the name Saturday of the day on which most of the Jewish Sabbath is observed on, is named after Saturn, but as far as Saturn is concerned, it is one of the planets with rings, consisting of nine rings.  This is quite interesting, because the Hebrew word for ring is Taba'at, which begins with the letter Teit, the numerical value of nine.

As a Midrash tells us, at the beginning of this world's creation, the Sabbath voiced a complaint to Hashem. It stated that all the other days of the week has a partner, except for itself - the first day with the second day, the third day with the fourth day, and the fifth day with the sixth day.  In reply, Hashem told the Sabbath that the Jewish people will be its partner.  In fact, there is a Shabbat Queen - Shabbat HaMalka, which is indeed spiritual like the angels.  And so in effect, we are partners with the Sabbath like a husband is partners with his wife, which began by the husband placing a ring on the wife's finger, as the beginning of Tractate Kiddushin tells us that a man weds a woman in Jewish law in one of two ways - with money (which nowadays is exclusively a ring) and a document.  In relationship to this, there is no concept of an official marriage ceremony for non-Jews to marry one another, but their official relationship in terms of not being allowed to sleep outside of their relationship is based on whether they are living together, regardless of whether they have a copy of the fine print marriage contract or not.  Now, the actual phrase that the Mishna begins with is HaIsha Nikneit "The woman is purchased", which is not meant to be demeaning by any means, but rather, how one can claim a woman to be one's wife rather than someone else, the same way that a purchase is made which makes it officially one's possession as opposed to anyone else.  And noting this, the root word in Hebrew for purchase is Kano - spelling the very Hebrew number for 155, the number of this post.

Anyways, getting back to the part of the Talmud about the planets, it does state Ein Mazal L'Yisrael "There is no fortune/constellatons for Jews".  This means that if Jews do what they are supposed to in serving Hashem, then even if there is a store of bad fortune that is meant for someone based on what hour related to its planet that one is born on, it will not affect him or her.  For after all, it is Hashem Who runs the world, and the planets are merely among Hashem's myriads of servants fulfilling His will.

With this said, we see that the number 13, while it seems to a number of bad fortune for non-Jews, is a most fortune number for Jews.  I have already written in past posts while significant this number is to Jews, including in this post, so I will leave it at that.

Now, let us get our above questions answered.  First about Tu B'Av - why is it particular on this date that we begin learning more Torah at nights based on the reason that the nights start getting longer around this time, when it fact, this is an occurrence that is based on the solar system, particularly the sun?  I heard an answer for this at one of the English speaking celebrations of the conclusion of the last Daf Yomi cycle a couple of months ago.  In reference to the fact that the new Daf Yomi cycle began on Tu B'Av, it was mentioned that Tu B'Av is the anniversary of Teshuva (repentance).  How do we see this?  Tu B'Av is 40 days before 25 Elul, the anniversary of the creation of the world, and as we know from the Talmud, Teshuva is one of the seven times that Hashem created before the creation of the world.  And as the Talmud in the beginning of Tractate Sota tells us, there is a Heavenly voice that matches one's intended mate 40 days before the creation of his embryo.  In another words, this world's continued existence is only possible due to Teshuva, for without it, the world would be too unworthy for it to continue to exist with all of its sins; and hence, the Teshuva and the world (the only planet that human beings live on) are partners with one another.  Hence, Tu B'Av is the anniversary of the creation of Teshuva.  And so, we look to improve our ways - most especially in increasing our Torah learning on this very date of Tu B'Av; and as a Midrash tells us, if one has sinned and is used to learning one chapter of Mishna (a day), he should now learn two chapters; if one Daf of Torah, he should not learn two Dafim.

Now that I mentioned Daf Yomi in terms of Tu B'Av and Teshuva, the letters that make up the number of Dafim of the Daf Yomi and the word Shabtai (Saturn - which is also used as a Hebrew name for a male), equal the Gematria of the word Teshuva!  Now bear in mind, the Daf spoken of in the days of the Midrash was more like a piece of parchment rather than the page that we turn in a book nowadays, being that the printing press had yet to print its first book.  But perhaps, the Midrash is hinting to something else - that one should not just learn the Daf Yomi for the day, and then tada...off with the T.V. night sitcom, but quite the contrary, if anything, to go over that same Daf that you learned earlier that day instead, to review it, understand it better, and remember it better.  For in fact, regardless of what you learn, it is the same Mitzva of Torah learning if you learn it once, or the 101th time, or the 1,001st time.

Now, is it Daf Yomi or Daf HaYomi?  Indeed, the phrase Daf Yomi is used most often to refer to the daily folio of the Babylonian Talmud that is learned by Jews throughout the world.  However, Daf HaYomi - Daf of THE day, carries with it its own meaning.  It means that the Daf learned on that particular day is THE page for THAT day.  Meaning, there is no such thing as that day passing by without learning the Daf meant to be learnt for that day.  If the Daf Yomi of Sabbath 11 is scheduled to be learned on 28 Tishrei, then there is no such thing as going though this date without learning this page of the Talmud, for Ki Hem Chayeinu V'Orech Yameinu - the Torah is our life and the length of our days.  O.K., I myself have a challenge at times to be able to learn a whole Daf of Talmud on a particular day depending on how the day goes between work and taking care of the baby.  But certainly, at least one should feel something is missing or needing to catch up on, without letting go of this thought until one has caught up learning the same Daf as everyone else is doing worldwide.  So at least, one can be said to be learning Daf Yomi, even if it isn't always Daf HaYomi - Daf of THE day, but the main thing is not to be distracted to the point that one feels totally behind and not even attempt to catch up until it is too late.  For this, we need to set goals for ourselves, and have two plans for ourselves, so that if the plan for Daf HaYomi doesn't work out for ever reason to always learn the day's Daf, that one can still have the plan of Daf Yomi to be said to be learning the same Gemara as everyone else, even if not everyday works it that it will be the same exact Daf, but in 2,711 days time, one will have finished the entire Talmud like everyone else because of his determination to learn the entire Talmud based on the Daf Yomi schedule.

Now, remember when I mentioned that Tractate Shekalim, though not part of the Babylonian Talmud, but rather part of the Jerusalem Talmud, is included now in Daf Yomi, something that wasn't the case for the first seven cycles of Daf Yomi?  There is special significance with this.  For first, the name/word Shekalim (coins) is the same Gematria as the word Talmud.  Moreover, the subject of this tractate, which was the annual donaton of the Machatzit HaShekel (half coin) that every adult male Jew was obligated to donate towards Temple expenses for certain sacrifices, took place during the month of Adar, the last of the 12 months that we begin counting from the month of Nissan.  Now, in a regular year, Adar is the 12th month.   However, if it is a leap year with the addition of another month of Adar, then it was in the second Adar that this took place; hence this happening during the 13th and final month of the Jewish months.  And so, the intercalation of the year, as mentioned on the Daf of Shabbat 11 involves the addition of a 13th month, for which the Torah scholars who were involved in doing this were even exempt from saying the Shema; and as we see in the first verse of the Shema, the last word is Echad, from which is the Mitzva in the belief of Hashem as One, and is the Gematria of 13.

Oh, I didn't quite finish the Daf of Sabbath 11 yet.  But what I should tell you, is that I spent quite a few hours the night before catching up on a few pages of the Daf Yomi, because if not now, then who knows when I will ever catch up.  So I couldn't do so during the work week, but when I am not working, I have a better shot of doing it right.

And before I sign out here, connecting the word in Hebrew for acquire - Kenei with the word Chochma, as they are the Gematriot of 155 & 73 respectively, there are three times in the entire Tanach (Bible) that the phrase Kenei Chachma  "Acquire wisdom" is mentioned.  The three times are found in only one book - Mishlei (Proverbs) - 4:5, 4:7, 16:16.  After all, Shlomo HaMelech (King Solomon), author of Proverbs, was the wisest person to live on the face of this earth.


Written for 28 Tishrei 5773