Rosh HaShanah and Osama’s Missing Letter — ב

9/11, Rosh Hashanah and our home on earth

Osama bin Laden’s assault on September 11 brought down buildings and shattered homes far beyond Manhattan. Behind every person murdered stood a family, relationships, hopes and obligations. Twenty-five years later, the destruction still confronts us with a spiritual question: what becomes of religious conviction when it authorises the destruction of the lives through which holiness must enter the world?

An unusual numerical relationship in the Torah’s opening word offers a way to examine that question.

The Torah begins with בראשית — B’reishit, “In the beginning.” In gematria, the calculation of Hebrew letters’ numerical values, this word totals 913. Remove its opening letter, ב — beit, whose value is two, and the remaining ראשית — reishit, “beginning,” totals 911.

The resemblance to the American notation for September 11 supplies a metaphor for reflection; it does not establish why bin Laden chose that date. Its significance lies in what has been removed. The letter’s name, written בית, also spells bayit: a house or home. Symbolically, removing the beit takes the home out of creation’s beginning.

That missing home brings us to the spiritual failure embodied by 9/11.

In Chassidic teaching, creation has a purpose: to make this physical world a dwelling for G-d. Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi develops this idea in Tanya, chapter 36. Our world, with its concealment, difficulty and moral freedom, is where divine purpose must be realised. Human action matters because holiness must become present here. (Tanya, chapter 36⁠)

A home gives that teaching concrete meaning. It is where another can belong, where strength creates security and responsibility sustains life. Making a home for G-d requires us to examine what our convictions produce in the lives of others. Learning, charity, justice, restraint and the protection of life give belief its earthly expression.

Rosh Hashanah brings this responsibility back to humanity’s beginning. The first of Tishrei commemorates the creation of Adam and Eve on the sixth day of Creation, entering a world prepared to sustain them. Each year, we acknowledge G-d’s sovereignty and answer for the lives we lead within His creation. Earth is our home, entrusted to us to become a dwelling for His presence. (Rosh Hashanah and Creation⁠)

The letters of בראשית — B’reishit can also be rearranged as א׳ בתשרי — the first of Tishrei. The Torah’s opening word thus offers another symbolic connection between creation, Rosh Hashanah and the beit, our home. This year, that connection is especially poignant: Rosh Hashanah begins at sunset on September 11, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the attacks. A day of mourning gives way to a renewed reckoning with the purpose of human life. (2026 dates⁠)

That reckoning must begin with the people who were killed. The attacks murdered 2,977 people in New York, at the Pentagon and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Each death reached into a home whose future was changed forever. The scale of the crime must never obscure the individual human beings within it. (9/11 Memorial & Museum⁠)

Bin Laden’s project can be judged precisely here. Whatever religious authority he claimed, the method he authorised made human beings instruments of terror. His followers used their own deaths to inflict death on strangers, turning conviction into permission to destroy. The language of sacred purpose could not make those acts holy.

The missing beit therefore represents a profound religious distortion: claiming to serve the Creator while treating His creatures as expendable. Rosh Hashanah places the believer under judgment; fanaticism grants the believer authority to dispose of others. One demands accountability for our conduct. The other exempts its violence from moral scrutiny.

The response that morning revealed another use of conviction. Rescuers entered danger to bring people out. Colleagues helped one another escape. Strangers assumed responsibility for lives to which they had no previous connection. In the language of this interpretation, their actions expressed the beit: preserving a place for another human being in the world.

Remembering 9/11 carries that responsibility forward. It means defending people against those who would repeat it, supporting families who still carry its losses, and teaching a moral clarity that refuses to confuse religious intensity with holiness. Every claim made in G-d’s name remains answerable for what it asks people to do.

The numerical movement from 911 to 913 restores one letter. The human task it symbolises asks us to restore belonging, security and the possibility of a future wherever terror has broken them.

Osama’s missing letter was beit, the home. As remembrance of 9/11 meets Rosh Hashanah, we return to the work his violence violated: protecting life, rebuilding what hatred destroys, and making our home on earth worthy of the divine presence we ask to dwell among us.

Physics of Perfect Spin Kabballah of Infinite Light

In this cosmological model, the pre-Big Bang universe begins as a fully coherent quark-spin (and associated electron/photon) aligned condensate. All spins are synchronized in a single symmetric quantum state with near-maximum polarization (P ≈ 1). This state has extremely low entropy (S ≈ 0), unbroken symmetries, and enormous latent energy locked in the alignment.

A localized instability is introduced, triggering decoherence in specific regions (represented by the white circle, the Tzimtzum void). This creates domains of misaligned spins amid the still-coherent background. Multiple directional excitations (blue Kav rays) propagate into these regions. They locally deflect background spins (visible as tilted silver/gold arrows), initiating gradients in spin orientation, density, and magnetic fields.

These ripples propagate outward, interfere, and thermalize:
- Generating density perturbations (δρ/ρ) that seed baryon asymmetry and structure formation.
- Releasing energy that drives rapid expansion (inflationary-like phase).
- Transitioning the system into the hot Big Bang plasma, with residual partial alignments (today’s ~20–30% quark spin contribution to proton spin) as relics.

This mechanism naturally produces scale-invariant fluctuations suitable for galaxy formation, cosmic magnetic fields, and the arrow of time via increasing entropy, all emerging from a highly ordered initial state.

Kabbalistic Parallels

This physical picture maps elegantly onto core Kabbalistic concepts:

- Or Ein Sof ("Infinite Light Without End"): The primordial, perfectly aligned spin field (uniform silver/gold arrows filling all space) reflects from the boundless, undifferentiated Divine essence, pure potential and unity prior to any limitation.

- Tzimtzum: The contraction/withdrawal of coherence within a localized region (the central circle/void) creates the necessary “space” for finite creation without being overwhelmed by the Infinite Light.

- Kav (the Ray/Line of Light): The multiple directional blue rays entering from various sides embody the measured infusion of Divine light and directionality. Their local deflections of background spins mark the onset of differentiation and limitation.

- Ripple Effects and Tikkun: The propagating perturbations and entropy growth correspond to the emanation of the Sefirot and the dynamic, evolving created world. The resulting complexity and apparent “brokenness” invite ongoing rectification (tikkun olam), with residual alignments hinting at a return toward higher unity.

This synthesis offers a bridge between modern physics (QCD spin dynamics, cosmological phase transitions, and symmetry breaking) and ancient mysticism, portraying creation as a transition from perfect ordered coherence to structured diversity through localized perturbation and directional infusion.

This is not a one time state, in this pre-Big Bang cosmological scenario, a transition from a universal perfectly aligned quark-spin state to localized misalignments could produce ripple effects that seed density perturbations, matter inhomogeneities, and potentially the large-scale structure we observe. This resembles certain ideas in quantum cosmology, phase transitions, and spinor-driven models, though it is not part of standard Big Bang cosmology. 

This is internally consistent blending elements of spin physics, phase transitions, and symmetry breaking to address "Why is there something rather than a uniform aligned nothing?" It could tie into broader ideas about information, entropy, and the arrow of time (alignment → disorder = increasing entropy) aligning with the teachings of Jewish mystics. 

Zion!

Based on: The Primordial Reality of Zion

Few words carry as much heat today as Zion. For some, it evokes belonging, memory, and return. For others, it is heard through the language of politics, conflict, and accusation. In public debate, the word is often used so heavily that it becomes difficult to hear it at all.

But before Zion became a slogan, a battleground, or a banner, it was a biblical word.

That is where this article begins. Not with modern politics, and not with competing ideologies, but with a simpler and older question: what did Zion mean in Tanakh when it first appeared? Was it always just another name for Jerusalem, or did it first refer to something more precise — a distinct sacred point that later gave its name to something larger?

This question matters because words that become politically charged are often flattened. Their older meanings are buried under modern arguments. Yet in the logic of Tanakh, halakhah, and Jewish Kabbalah, Zion appears not merely as a poetic flourish but as a distinct sacred locus that Isaiah 52:8 preserves in restoration language too sharp to be neutralized. David first encounters Zion as a fortified, water-linked objective. Later, the name broadens in royal usage. Yet exactness in sacred law ensures the place of the altar at a sacred boundary that is also Zion. On that basis, the eastern ridge of Mount Moriah above the Gihon remains the strongest candidate for the recovery of Zion as a real and exact point. 

Modern readings often treat Zion as just another name for Jerusalem, and then allow mystical meaning only as metaphor. But the Jewish tradition works in the opposite direction. Sacred place is not holy because people later imagine it so. It is holy because it reflects a prior order: covenant, Presence, kingship, sacrifice, and transmission.

That is why Zion and Jerusalem should not be collapsed into one flat term. In the inner tradition, they are joined but not identical. Zion names concentration, foundation, and covenantal fixing. Jerusalem names kingdom, manifestation, and extension into history. If that distinction is real, then one should expect it to leave traces in text, law, and terrain.

The mystical reading does not float above Tanakh. It arises from the way Tanakh itself is built. The Mishkan, the Temple, the altar, the Holy of Holies, tribal boundaries, and laws of approach all assume that holiness is structured, graded, and locative. So when later tradition distinguishes Zion and Jerusalem, it is not indulging in poetic excess. It is reading a distinction already embedded in sacred order. Zion, on this reading, is concentrated sanctity: the place where relation is fixed, covenant is anchored, and Presence is not diffuse.

That also explains why the term “Zion” could later broaden. The name of the core can radiate outward to the larger body. But that later broadening does not prove that the original core never existed.

Isaiah 52:8 is the prophetic center of the question: בְּשׁוּב יְהוָה צִיּוֹן. The usual smoothing is “when God returns to Zion.” But the force of the Hebrew, "when God returns Zion" is sharper than that translation suggests.

The point is not that grammar alone settles every question. The point is that the verse refuses to let Zion become passive scenery. Zion stands in the line as the locus of restoration. The watchmen see “eye to eye” because what is described is concrete and manifest, not merely inward. This is where the mystical reading becomes stronger, not weaker. If Zion is a real point of covenantal alignment, exile is not only political displacement. It is dislocation between Presence and place. To say “God returns Zion” is therefore not rhetorical excess. It is a fitting expression of restored alignment.

Zion first appears in 2 Samuel 5 in a concrete setting. David captures the stronghold of Zion, and the action is tied to the tzinor, the water approach. Zion therefore enters Tanakh not as a vague symbol but as a fortified, water-linked objective. That matters. First appearances preserve profile. Even if later usage broadens, the first appearance shows what kind of place Zion originally was.

Yes, 1 Kings 8:1 later says that the City of David is Zion. But that proves later consolidation of the name, not necessarily original semantic breadth. A sacred name can expand outward from a more exact point. The strongest support for this argument is not mysticism alone, but halakhah. Rambam rules that the altar’s place is exact and may never be changed. This means sacred geography in Jerusalem is not arbitrary. That exactness matters. If altar-place is fixed, then boundaries matter, slopes matter, springs matter, and location matters. Holiness in Israel is not only intense. It is bounded.

This is why Joshua’s boundary texts and the rabbinic discussion in Zevachim matter. They preserve a memory that sacred layout was not symbolic drift but lawful structure. The southeast altar logic in particular shows that form itself carries tribal-boundary meaning.

God's presence settles in the west,
therefore mirror the image so left swaps right.

Once the question is framed this way, the eastern ridge above the Gihon is no longer an eccentric proposal. It becomes the one place where the main elements converge: water access, fortification, early monumental occupation, relation to the tzinor tradition, and fit with the Judah-Benjamin boundary logic. That does not mean every archaeological claim is beyond dispute. But it does mean the eastern ridge is the strongest setting in which Zion’s earliest profile still makes coherent sense.

More than that, it fits the sacred pattern. A foundational point would be expected to come first, then be covered over by broader royal and cultic expansion. That is exactly the kind of relation this ridge seems to preserve. 1 Kings 8:1 shows that by the Solomonic order, “Zion” had become an established designation for the City of David. But that may reflect transfer of the name from an original sacred core to the wider royal-sacral whole. That matters because exile is not only removal from land. It is also broadening without center. A name remains, a symbol remains, a city remains, but the exact point of alignment is obscured.

That is why restoration language remains so pointed. The memory of the core survives even when the name has spread outward. Zion should not be reduced to a loose synonym for Jerusalem, nor dissolved into a purely inward symbol. The stronger reading is that Zion is a differentiated sacred locus: foundational in the metaphysics of holiness and therefore capable of textual, legal, and topographic trace.

Isaiah 52:8 preserves restoration language too sharp to be neutralized. David first encounters Zion as a bounded, water-linked objective. Rambam preserves the exactitude of sacred place. Joshua and Zevachim preserve the boundary logic of holiness. The eastern ridge above the Gihon is the one terrain where these lines still cohere.

And this convergence does not end in a general preference for the ridge. It narrows to a candidate. Temple Zero names that point: a rock-cut sacred complex on the eastern slope above the Gihon, with reservoir, plastered water channel, cultic rooms, standing stone, and altar-related foundation. Here the water-linked setting of David’s Zion, the exactitude of altar law, the Judah-Benjamin boundary logic, and the inner demand for a concentrated point of Foundation cease to stand apart and begin to read as one stone grammar.

On that reading, Temple Zero is not merely another eastern-slope shrine. It is the strongest specific Zion candidate and its on the ridge above the Gihon: the place where prophetic restoration, altar-memory, the matzevah, and the antecedent pattern of later Temple design most nearly meet.

Therefore “when God returns Zion” should be heard as more than rhetoric. It is the language of the present day restoring of the foundational sacred point from which Jerusalem’s broader holiness radiated. To seek Zion in this way is not to subordinate mysticism to archaeology. It is to insist that the inner order of Torah leaves real traces in text, law, and land.

The video describes archaeology at the City of David location

The Infinite Hug!

In the hushed theater of existence, where the veil between the boundless and the bounded thins to a whisper, The Infinite hugs the finite within the quantum expanse of every atom. Picture the atom, that primordial seed of reality: a nucleus orbited by electrons in probabilistic clouds, not fixed paths but smeared possibilities. Here, in this subatomic ballet, The Infinite manifests as wave functions stretching eternally, collapsing only when observed into discrete points. The electron, defying classical confinement, tunnels through barriers it should not, borrowing energy from the vacuum's infinite fluctuations—zero-point energy, where nothingness teems with virtual particles winking in and out of being. Thus, The Infinite enables the finite, infusing the atom's core with echoes of eternity, a cosmic intimacy where boundless potential cradles the particle's singular form.

Ascending the ladder of complexity, this dance permeates every molecule, those intricate alliances of atoms bound by shared electrons. In water's humble H2O, hydrogen and oxygen entwine in quantum entanglement, their bonds vibrating with infinite harmonic oscillations—frequencies that, in theory, extend without end, yet resolve into finite energies that sustain life. The molecule's shape, dictated by quantum mechanics, emerges from infinite superpositions: electrons delocalized across space, choosing configurations from an unending array of probabilities. Even in the air we breathe, nitrogen molecules hum with this proximity, their triple bonds a testament to quantum tunneling allowing reactions that classical physics forbids. The Infinite whispers through these unions, approaching the finite not as an intruder but as the architect, sculpting stability from chaos.

In the sacred script of life, nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA embody this convergence. Each adenine, thymine, guanine, or cytosine is a molecular poem where quantum effects dictate base pairing. The hydrogen bonds linking them flicker with delocalized protons, quantum entities that exist in multiple states simultaneously, bridging infinite possibilities to finite sequences that encode our very essence. In the double helix's twist, quantum coherence allows electrons to flow like rivers of probability, enabling the molecule's stability amid thermal noise. Here, The Infinite nears the finite in the nucleotide's phosphate backbone, where vibrational modes resonate with the universe's underlying relationship with The Infinite, ensuring the fidelity of genetic information across generations.

From nucleotides arise proteins, those versatile machines of biology, folded into exquisite forms by quantum-guided interactions. In the amino acid chains, quantum van der Waals forces—arising from infinite vacuum polarizations—draw distant atoms close, while disulfide bridges form through electron sharing that defies locality. Enzymes, the catalysts of life, harness quantum tunneling to accelerate reactions by factors of trillions, protons leaping barriers as if The Infinite lent them wings. The protein's active site, a pocket of precision, emerges from infinite conformational landscapes explored in femtoseconds, settling into finite structures that bind substrates with unerring accuracy. Thus, in every fold and crevice, The Infinite hugs the finite, animating the protein's function with transcendent subtlety.

This pattern cascades into every structure of every cell: membranes riddled with ion channels where quantum gates open and close, allowing signals to propagate; mitochondria, powerhouses where electron transport chains exploit quantum coherence for efficient energy transfer; cytoskeletons of microtubules vibrating in quantum modes, perhaps even underpinning consciousness. In the cell's nucleus, chromatin dances with quantum randomness, influencing gene expression from infinite probabilistic outcomes. And beyond the cell, this truth envelops all matter—from the crystalline lattice of a diamond, where quantum delocalization binds carbon atoms, to the swirling plasmas of stars, where infinite quantum fields birth finite particles in fusion's fire. In rocks, rivers, and atmospheres, The Infinite hugs the finite, weaving the fabric of the natural world with threads of boundless potential.

Yet, the energy animating these realms springs not merely from within quantum space but from an infinite transcendence enveloping physics itself. Beyond the measurable quanta lies the unmanifest source—a metaphysical wellspring, the vacuum's infinite sea of potential energy, or perhaps the implicate order where all possibilities reside. This transcendence supplies the zero-point fluctuations powering atomic stability, the quantum vacuum energy fueling molecular bonds, the entangled fields enabling cellular harmony. It surrounds physics like an ocean cradling islands, infusing every particle, molecule, and structure with vitality drawn from eternity. In this grand symphony, The Infinite does not merely approach the finite; it embraces it, revealing that all matter, all life, is a fleeting expression of the boundless, forever touched by the transcendent beyond.

This Stone Will Be God's House

Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the Alter Rebbe and founder of Chabad asks a profound question about Jacob’s promise: “And this stone, which I have set up as a pillar, shall be God’s house.”

How can a stone become the house of God?

Jacob made this promise while leaving the Land of Israel. He was travelling toward Haran, where he would marry, raise a family, acquire wealth and confront a world very different from the protected home of Abraham and Isaac. Before leaving, Jacob encountered and slept at a sacred place. He experienced his vision of the ladder joining earth and heaven, awoke in awe and declared:

“How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and the gateway to heaven.”

He then took the stone, erected it as a matzevah and poured oil upon it. He promised that, should God protect him and return him peacefully, the stone would become God’s house. When Jacob later returned, Genesis records that he again erected a stone pillar, poured an oil libation upon it.

The Alter Rebbe explained Jacob’s promise was made through the Divine names Havayah and Elokim. Havayah represents God as infinite, above nature, time and limitation. Elokim represents the Divine power concealed within nature; the ordered world in which everything appears to possess an independent existence. Jacob’s mission was to bring these two perspectives together; to reveal that the ordinary physical world is not separate from its infinite Creator. That is why the Torah emphasizes a stone.

A stone is among the simplest and most inert objects in nature. It has no visible life, intelligence or spiritual character. Yet Jacob declared that even this stone could become a house for God. He was saying that holiness is not limited to heaven, prophecy or moments of spiritual inspiration. The ultimate purpose is for holiness to enter family, work, land, wealth, speech and physical existence itself.

Jacob was not escaping the material world. He was preparing to enter it and transform it. Sefer Yetzirah, The Book of Creation compares stones to letters. One stone alone is simple. Stones joined together form a house. In the same way, one letter carries limited meaning. Letters joined together form words; words form ideas; and ideas allow the soul to express itself through speech.

Jacob’s stone therefore represents more than a physical monument. It represents the possibility that physical matter can be arranged to express a higher purpose. A stone becomes part of a house. A letter becomes part of a holy sentence. A physical life becomes a dwelling place for God. This is also why our words matter. Speech can expose division and concealment, or it can reveal the deeper unity connecting people, creation and its Creator.

In 2010 a remarkable archaeological discovery was made on the eastern slope of ancient Jerusalem and it gives Jacob’s declaration a new physical context. The Rock-Cut-Rooms near the Gihon Spring have now been published by Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists as a cultic complex, first constructed during the Middle Bronze Age. The complex contains an upright standing stone, a matzevah, together with an altar platform, an oil installation, wine storage a liquid and water channel as part of a system to clean the area.

This does not by itself prove that the standing stone belonged to Jacob. There is no inscription bearing his name. But, the convergence is striking and carbon dating in the water channel aligns perfectly with Jacob's last 30 years in his homeland. Initially Genesis describes Jacob: erecting a stone as a matzevah, and 22 years later pouring a libation upon it and accepting his God given name - Israel. 

The Rock-Cut-Rooms contain the same unusual cluster of elements: a standing stone, oil production, wine or liquid chanellin, an altar, place for processing sacrificed animals and water system cleaning the areas. The archaeological study also places the complex’s origins in the Middle Bronze Age, the broad ancient period within which the patriarchal setting is commonly placed and aligns with the Temple Zero argument. Archaeology therefore cannot identify Jacob, but it can establish that an ancient cultic complex of the appropriate general character and period existed at this location.

The deeper meaning of the site is found in the continuity of the forefathers. Jewish tradition connects Jacob’s “place” with Mount Moriah, the sacred place already associated with Abraham and Isaac. Abraham encountered it as a mountain. Isaac encountered it as a field. Jacob called it a house. The layout and orientation also aligns to the Jewish laws that were practised in the first and second temple periods.

The famous commentator Rashi, drawing on Midrash and the Talmud, explains that Jacob’s “house of God” refers to the place of the future Temple. Ramchal draws on Kabbalah to reach the same conclusion. The tradition therefore presents Jacob not as discovering an unrelated shrine, but as receiving and completing the sacred inheritance of his father and grandfather.

Abraham revealed faith in the One God. Isaac demonstrated complete devotion. Jacob transformed that inheritance into a house, a permanent structure capable of containing a family, a people and a nation. That progression is essential: Abraham found the mountain. Isaac sanctified the field. Jacob began building the house.

The matzevah was therefore not merely Jacob’s private memorial. It marked the moment when the spiritual experiences of the forefathers became the heritage of their descendants.

At this place Jacob returned from exile, gathered his family and received Divine confirmation of the name Israel. The stone is consequently linked not only to Jacob the individual, but to the birth of Israel as a covenantal people. Genesis places Jacob’s renewed pillar, libation and anointing immediately alongside the confirmation of his new name.

The re-emergence of such a stone after thousands of years cannot establish its biblical identity with certainty. But, it invites us to reconsider Jacob’s message. Jacob did not promise that heaven would replace earth. He promised that earth could become conscious of heaven. He did not say that the stone would cease being physical. He said that the physical stone itself would become God’s house.

This remains the task of Israel: to reveal holiness within the ordinary world—through ethical action, careful speech, family, community, justice, creativity and the sanctification of material life. Jacob’s stone represents that possibility. The lowest thing can be elevated. The hidden can be revealed. A stone can become a house. And a physical world can become a dwelling place for God.

The United Kingdom of Israel

There are only two instances in the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible where the commonly used word 'toldot' (generations) is perfected. The first relates creation as a preparation for the souls that would follow into the world. The second declared the purpose of the first; a soul, through Judah and Tamar of the generations from Peretz to Boaz and Ruth (the second perfect spelling) from whom King David, the Messianic root descended. But, according to Kabbala, this would be preceded by the messianic soul of Joseph.

R'Shmuel, ben Nachman said: "The brothers were busy selling Joseph; Reuben was busy with his sackcloth and fasting; Jacob was busy with his sackcloth and fasting; Judah was busy taking a wife for himself; and God was busy creating the light of King Messiah. 'And it came to pass at that time and Judah went down...' before the first slave is born, before the final redeemer is born.

Jacob's only daughter Dinah was raped, but Jacob delayed telling his sons until they returned from the fields. They were outraged by the defilement, but also their father's delay. They hated Dinah's baby and wanted to kill it. Jacob placed an amulet around her neck, took her to a mountain near the priests of Midyan, placed her in a 'SNeh' (bush) and sent a request to the high priest to care for her. She was named AeSNath, from 'SNeh' and SiNai (meaning hatred).

When Aesnath reached the age her mother was violated, the Midianite priests began transporting her to the ancestral home of Jacob's wives. Along that route they changed plans, traded her to Ishmaelites and joined their caravan heading south to Egypt. Curiously Torah tells the Ishmaelites were carrying an unusual cargo, נְכֹאת֙ וּצְרִ֣י וָלֹ֔ט : Spice, Gum and Balm. Rabbi Moses Ha-Kohen the Spaniard relates the word for Spice to a 'treasure house'. Separately Joseph's brothers kidnapped him and along that route to Egypt sold him to Midianites. Thus two caravans were separately transporting the people the brothers hated most; 17 year old Joseph and his 8 year old niece Aesnath, who he would later discover and marry.

Then, in the midst of the Joseph story Torah interjects the apparently unrelated story of Judah's descent from his brothers, his legitimate interlude with his ingenious daughter-in-law Tamar and the birth of their son Peretz that rescued the messianic line. The interjection exposed a low point of Judah's life juxtaposed with heights of immoveable messianic destiny. Jacob's wives, the house of Leah (through Dinah's daughter Aesnath) and the house of Rachel (Joseph) were ultimately united in marriage and the preceding messianic light of Joseph became firmly rooted for the Messianic redemption of Israel's tribes, the Jewish people.

The Torah returns us to the story. 22 years later, confronted by drought, Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to buy supplies. They did not recognize Joseph who had become the Viceroy of Egypt, they presented him with Jacob's gift and bowed to him. At that moment Joseph realized his prophetic dreams, that had caused such hatred. But, Jacob's gift surprised him because it contained three of the same "unusual" elements צֳרִי֙ וּמְעַ֣ט דְּבַ֔שׁ נְכֹ֣את וָלֹ֔ט בָּטְנִ֖ים וּשְׁקֵדִֽים: of the "treasure house" that accompanied him on his caravan to Egypt. Perhaps a hint that his prophetic father had orchestrated the regional priestly diplomacy to ensure Aesnath accompanied Joseph on his exile in Egypt.

If even prophetically Jacob knew Joseph was alive, why did he mourn the 22 years of Joseph's absence? Because, his son's collectively lied about selling Joseph. And, Joseph was not innocent, free to communicate he chose not to reach out, for 22 years! In the brothers final confrontation with Joseph Judah assumed responsibility for Benjamin who was too young to be implicated in the devilish scheme his brothers perpetrated against Joseph. With that collective realization Judah bound Benjamin to the oath their brothers had once entered, never to reveal their darkest secret, about the sale of Joseph to their father and Joseph, admitting his own shortcoming, fell on the necks (Torah uses the plural) of his younger brother Benjamin. Together they wept over the trauma of their brotherly fracture that would result in the future destruction of Jerusalem's temples. But, the sons of Israel (Jacob) were united, bound by their collective silence.

Still seeking assurance, on his death bed Israel's sons assured him "Hear us, O' Israel The Lord is our God, The Lord is One" and Israel's final, parting response: Blessed be the glory of His kingdom for ever and ever! 

Pillars of the Jewish Generations

 

Click to enlarge

Why does the Torah literally state; "And the life of Sarah was 100 years and 20 years and 7 years"?(Bereishit - Genesis 23:1). It's a strange way to recount the terminal age of the matriarch. But, something more intriguing ocurs at this juncture, the foundation of the Jewish nation. Two woman bound together by the life of Isaac; son, husband and patriarch who never left the land of his inherritance. 

At the outset of the verse, the first word וַיִּהְיוּ֙ (Va'-Yi-h-Yu) is a palindrome with a numerical value of 37 that captures the age of Isaac at Sarah's death, which is said to have ocurred when Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice. The word also joins previous details on which Rashi comments; "the entire genealogy was recorded only to tell that Rebecca was born to Betuel".

Comentators highlight the rarity of the recorded deaths of women. Only Sarah, Devorah (Rebecca's wet nurse), Rachel and ~500 years later Miriam. Rebecca's passing is not mentioned at all and years mentioned only for Sarah, perhaps to emphasize her importance and Rebecca's humility.

Two events shaped the destiny of the Jewish people thanks to the conviction of matriarchs Sarah and Rebecca. Sarah banished Hagar and Ishmael from her family, causing the inherritance of Abraham's first born to pass to Isaac instead. And, 120 years later Rebecca insisted Jacob decieve Isaac to obtain the blessing normally held for their first born son Esau. 

Finally, immediately after Devorah passed and was burried, Rebecca passed and Rachel gave birth to Benjamin, the only child of Jacob to be born in Israel before she passed during childbirth. The passage of souls into the world had been completed and the destiny of the Jewish generation set until the end of days.

The Righteous Who Are Buried on Friday

45 fallen victims of Meron

A king who was crowned in the middle of history sacrificed his popularity to correct a universal spiritual flaw. The king knew why he was set the task, what he had done to expose the flaw and why he was coerced into the corrective action. He knew his action would would plunge him into trouble and despair. He was alone in his knowledge when he acted.

Above all the king desired to build a permanent temple for his people and the world to elevate spiritual awareness. Through his people all would be unified in prosperity and prevailing peace. The challenges against him came from his closest family, his advisors and leaders of his people. Most were vehemently opposed to the action he was taking, most thought him to be borderline crazy, but he persevered.  

As he was beginning to bare the brunt of his corrective action, alone and desperate, perhaps to restore his popularity he called on his once loyal general to personally conduct a census of his nation. Reluctantly the general carried out the kings orders, but in half measure underwhelming the kings authority before the people. Spiritual retribution against the king was swift and he was forced to make the impossible choice of a suitable national punishment, he preferred to endure a three day plague. On the first day 70,000 of his people were killed. By the second day the plague had reached the kings city, people were petrified.

The king's spiritual advisor recommended he urgently buy the plot of land, at the top of the hill on which his palace was built to construct an altar at which the king could publicly repent. The king immediately invited the tribal leaders of his panicked nation to join him in the purchase and to support his public pleading for cessation of the nations tragedy. They swiftly contributed, the plague was stopped, but in exchange for its premature cessation the general's pious brother lost his life. 

Despite the kings effort and desire he did not merit to build the temple, but out of the corrective action attempting to rectify the universal flaw a son was born. This son became king and around that altar he built the temple his father so desperately desired. However, completing the corrective action still awaits a king who, in his lifetime will build a temple that ushers in the era of permanent prosperity and peace in the world. 

In a world still in the grip of the global Coronavirus pandemic, early Friday morning a community gathered to circumcise a baby and welcome him as a Jew from the priestly tribe who are exclusively designated to serve in the future temple. On the other side of the world, at that same time, where the plague once killed 70,000 a tragedy was unfolding. Around midnight on Thursday/Friday at a pilgrimage festival, celebrated annually for a Jewish soul who was the world's ultimate embodiment of humility and whose teachings are now a national treasure, festivity quickly turned to mourning when 45 souls instantly perished and many more were injured.

The day is known as humility of humility, one of 49 days accounting and accessing individual attributes between Passover and receiving the Old Testament - Torah. For a pure idea to manifest perfectly into reality (true to the idea) it must pass the inner and outer humility test, failing which it will be polluted and sensed as such.

Thirteen years have now passed since the calculated end of history as the world awaits an individual that can endure plague, convert tragedy into opportunity, be recognized, lead his people, advance spiritual understanding, build a temple, and deliver peace and prosperity in the world. We pray it happens soon! 

 

 

Bells and Pomegranates

 

A second temple golden bell, shaped like a pomegranate was discovered beneath the ancient road, in a drainage channel on the route between the upper Temple Mount and the lower Gihon Spring. It may indicate the object was one of seventy two alternating pomegranates that adorned the hem of the High Priest's garment worn on special days that he would serve in the temple. If it was one of the adornments to the High Priests garment, it could have significant implications for the way we learn out various meanings of words in the original holy language of the Torah.  

The grammatists varying opinions struggle to definitively interpret the details in the following phrases. However, this discovery may finally put to rest any differences and establish an important precedent for the use of grammar in other phrases of the Torah that deploy similar grammatic structure.  For the benefit of those who do not understand Hebrew, words that mean bell are highlighted in in gold and pomegranate in blue.

Exodus 28:33-35

וְעָשִׂ֣יתָ עַל־שׁוּלָ֗יו רִמֹּנֵי֙ תְּכֵ֤לֶת וְאַרְגָּמָן֙ וְתוֹלַ֣עַת שָׁנִ֔י עַל־שׁוּלָ֖יו סָבִ֑יב וּפַעֲמֹנֵ֥י זָהָ֛ב בְּתוֹכָ֖ם סָבִֽיב׃

On its hem make pomegranates of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, all around the hem, with bells of gold between them all around:

פַּעֲמֹ֤ן זָהָב֙ וְרִמּ֔וֹן פַּֽעֲמֹ֥ן זָהָ֖ב וְרִמּ֑וֹן עַל־שׁוּלֵ֥י הַמְּעִ֖יל סָבִֽיב׃

a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, all around the hem of the robe.

וְהָיָ֥ה עַֽל־אַהֲרֹ֖ן לְשָׁרֵ֑ת וְנִשְׁמַ֣ע ק֠וֹלוֹ בְּבֹא֨וֹ אֶל־הַקֹּ֜דֶשׁ לִפְנֵ֧י יְהוָ֛ה וּבְצֵאת֖וֹ וְלֹ֥א יָמֽוּת׃ (ס)

Aaron shall wear it while officiating, so that the sound of it is heard when he comes into the sanctuary before the LORD and when he goes out—that he may not die.

Exodus 39:24-26

וַֽיַּעֲשׂוּ֙ עַל־שׁוּלֵ֣י הַמְּעִ֔יל רִמּוֹנֵ֕י תְּכֵ֥לֶת וְאַרְגָּמָ֖ן וְתוֹלַ֣עַת שָׁנִ֑י מָשְׁזָֽר׃

On the hem of the robe they made pomegranates of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, twisted.

וַיַּעֲשׂ֥וּ פַעֲמֹנֵ֖י זָהָ֣ב טָה֑וֹר וַיִּתְּנ֨וּ אֶת־הַפַּֽעֲמֹנִ֜ים בְּת֣וֹךְ הָרִמֹּנִ֗ים עַל־שׁוּלֵ֤י הַמְּעִיל֙ סָבִ֔יב בְּת֖וֹךְ הָרִמֹּנִֽים׃

They also made bells of pure gold, and attached the bells between the pomegranates, all around the hem of the robe, between the pomegranates:

פַּעֲמֹ֤ן וְרִמֹּן֙ פַּעֲמֹ֣ן וְרִמֹּ֔ן עַל־שׁוּלֵ֥י הַמְּעִ֖יל סָבִ֑יב לְשָׁרֵ֕ת כַּאֲשֶׁ֛ר צִוָּ֥ה יְהוָ֖ה אֶת־מֹשֶֽׁה׃ (ס)

a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, all around the hem of the robe for officiating in—as the LORD had commanded Moses.

Torah grammar has no redundancy, it's highly precise and must preferentially be interpreted as having particular meaning. Therefore, given the hindsight of discovery the presumption that it would be easy to say a golden pomegranate, as a bell alternating with a woven pomegranate, around the hem of the garment seems logical. However at the time, before the garment was made (Exodus 28) accurate description was crucial, but how will we retrospectively read the written instruction, with efficiency against this discovery?

Exodus 28:33

פַּעֲמֹ֤ן זָהָב֙ וְרִמּ֔וֹן פַּֽעֲמֹ֥ן זָהָ֖ב וְרִמּ֑וֹן - a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate.

By learning the Hebrew meaning and more precisely arranging the English interpretation, its possible the grammar could be saying (the design describes a) "gold bell and pomegranate" repeating to emphasize "gold bell and pomegranate". The first time for the bell and the second for the pomegranate that each become one object. The grammar may be duplicated here to emphasize the requirement in the ~3300 year old unconventional innovation for the golden pomegranate bell.  

Exodus 39:26

פַּעֲמֹ֤ן וְרִמֹּן֙ פַּעֲמֹ֣ן וְרִמֹּ֔ן

However, when we learn about the implementation of the innovative design, we are simply told "bell  and pomegranate, bell and pomegranate" where the Torah expects the design instruction of the golden pomegranate bell followed by a woven pomegranate, in an orderly fashion around the hem of the High Priests garment to be fully and efficiently expressed in the abridged grammar. 

If the repetition of words emphasizes the nuance in the unifying idea of a golden pomegranate bell, where else should we look at repetitions that teach what we may not have fully considered until this golden pomegranate bell provided the retrospect to re-learn what we thought we already knew? 

 

The Abraham Accords - The Patient Soul!

Translators struggled to interpret the end of the Bible's six-day Genesis creation story because it contains too many allusions to secrets that are lost in any translation attempt.

2:4 Such is the story (generations) of heaven and earth when they were created. When the LORD God made (prepared) earth and heaven

אֵ֣לֶּה תוֹלְד֧וֹת הַשָּׁמַ֛יִם וְהָאָ֖רֶץ בְּ_הִבָּֽרְאָ֑ם בְּי֗וֹם עֲשׂ֛וֹת יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהִ֖ים אֶ֥רֶץ וְשָׁמָֽיִם׃

In Hebrew, the verse suggests earth and heaven were a preparation (עֲשׂ֛וֹת), but for what? Generations of heaven and earth?

The verse includes the first use of "The Name" יְהוָ֥ה "Ha Shem". It suggests the creation of earth and heaven were a preparation for a special soul, alluded in the small 'הִ' heh of the word בְּ_הִבָּֽרְאָ֑ם (B'hibaram). The sub-script 'heh' reflects it's smaller written form in a kosher Torah scroll. 

The preceding six creation days exclusively use the name אֱלֹהִ֖ים Elo-h-im (Elokim) - 32 times. אֱלֹהִ֖ים  Elokim is understood as a mystical concealment of the ultimate spiritual Name - יְהוָ֥ה - Ha'Shem through which it relates to the physical world. Perhaps that's why the letters of אֱלֹהִ֖ים Elokim equate to the numerical value 86, also shared with הטבע ha'teva - 'the nature' inherent in physical creation. Kabbalah relates the 32 times to the archetypal soul that comprise 10 nuanced concealments, referred to as vessels or attributes and 22 paths that connect them.

The word תוֹלְד֧וֹת toldot is rarely spelled in its complete form, with two vav's (וֹ ). In the story of Noah it is incomplete. The story of Isaac also uses the incomplete form (תוֹלְד֧ת) because only one of his two sons, Jacob would carry the ascendant Jewish soul. The complete form appears only one other time in the entire 24 books of the Bible. During the story Peretz, (Ruth 4:18) its meaning is conveyed definitively as - 'generations' justifying that creation was indeed a preparation of earth and heaven for generations that would ascend from the soul root.

2048 years after creation three angels (Genesis 19:1) were dispatched to announce that Abram, at the age of 100 would finally have a son to his wife Sarah. One angel informed Abram, one destroyed the city of Sodom and the other rescued Abram's nephew Lot with his wife and daughters from the impending destruction in Sodom.

The letter 'heh' was added to Abram when it became Abraham - אַבְרָהָ֔ם - (Genesis 17:5) and the בְּ_הִבָּֽרְאָ֑ם B'hibaram soul root descended. The letters of בְּ_הִבָּֽרְאָ֑ם B'hibaram can be rearranged to spell בְּ'אַבְרָהָ֔ם b'Abraham. The former can mean 'He created the heh' alluding to special soul, the latter means 'in Abraham'. 

Lot's wife died on escape from Sodom. Lot and his daughters were fearful, stranded in a remote cave. The daughters feared cessation of their blood line, so they engaged a semi-conscious Lot incestuously. The תוֹלְד֧וֹת toldot soul complement was reserved for one daughters descendant Ruth, a convert to Judaism through whom the soul complement descended. 

Ruth would deliver the counterpart to Boaz and fully complete the בְּ_הִבָּֽרְאָ֑ם B'hibaram soul journey. That event occurred through the lineage of Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Boaz and Ruth to Peretz, Jesse and David. In 2884 the messianic soul root in David was recognized by the Jewish people when he was crowned king and in the middle of history arrived in Jerusalem in 2891. This year 5782 is exactly double that midpoint, signaling the end of history. 

Thus, the mystical creation secrets of Torah are indelibly inked, but lost in translation.