B”H
In
part 1 of this two-part essay, entitled The Galut As Misinterpretation of the
Mitzvot, I wrote: ” … the
desirable and correct creation and description of time is the continual
unfolding of the hidden depths of Torah and the adaptation and application of
the mitzvoth to the realities that are created as a result of proper kavvanot
and learning.” In this second part
of the essay we will, with God’s help, now see that the correct punctuation of
time is the correct punctuation and pronunciation of the Torah as we learn it
in order to find formerly unrevealed depths and to develop the הלכה.
"רק חזק ואמץ מאד לשמר לעשות ככל-התורה
אשר צוך משה עבדי אל-תסור ממנו ימין ושמאול למען תשכיל בכל אשר תלך: לא-ימוש ספר
התורה הזה מפיך והגית בו יומם ולילה למען תשמר לעשות ככל-הכתוב בו כי-אז תצליח
את-דרכך ואז תשכיל:" יהשוע א:ז-ח
The
thesis presented in this paper will be based on the simple meaning of the two פסוקים above and חלופים of a few basic gematriot that
demonstrate the points raised in this paper quite simply, clearly and
straightforwardly. The encompassing importance of חילוף cannot be overestimated, as we will, בע"ה, see.
A
caveat: we always use the גמטריות
to elevate what our minds understand to be the ‘meanings’ of the words. The widespread misuse, or more correct
to say abuse, of the גמטריות
to lend false validity to our delusions of evil or prove that our private
prejudices are true is rife throughout the “Kabbalah”.
As is
known, when words share a common value they are various aspects of one and the
same mega-concept. By showing a
number of חילופים
for a value we can see its many aspects and layers of meaning emerging. All of those meanings are always true
and mutually contained one within the others and all within any one.
Various
inflections of the word that we are familiar with in the form הגוי can be found in the scrolls [see The Dead Sea Scroll
Concordance, Volume One, the Non-Biblical Texts from Qumran, Part One, by
Martin G. Abegg, Jr. with James E. Bowley & Edward M. Cook & in
Consultation with Emanuel Tov, Copyright 2003 by Koninklijke Brill, Leiden, The
Netherlands for the exhaustive list of cites]. There are apparently anomalous
spellings of words throughout the Dead Sea Scrolls. Those “anomalies” are filled with meaning as will be
explicated, with HaShem’s help, in a book I am currently writing. The spellings
the gematriot of which appear below appear in this form in the scrolls.
Please
note that in cite 4Q417 1i17 we find the word הגוי, which, depending on the punctuation and context, can mean ‘the
People’ or ‘meditation’. The
significance of this will be discussed in brief anon.
Let us
first examine the simplest inflection of the word הגוי that appears in the scrolls. It is the word spelled thus:
הגי = 18 = חי
It
becomes immediately evident from this one חילוף alone
that as we meditate upon and learn Torah, so we live.
We can
also see that the following must be true:
הגי + האדם = 628 = חיים* = אגרת הגוי
*Unless I specifically state to the
contrary, the אותיות סופיות
in my writings are calculated as:
ך = 500
ם = 600
ן = 700
ף = 800
ץ = 900
The
Dead Sea scrolls come to teach us that ספר התורה is the Book of Life and as we meditate in it and learn it so
will our lives be. It behooves us
then to be very, very careful that we learn correctly.
Let us
come to understand who and what חוה
is. She is referred to in Torah as
אם
כל-חי and we are taught that that is
why Adam gave her the name חוה
(Bereisheet 3:21).
From
the חלוף of the word הגי above we can see that אם כל-חי can be read as אם כל הגי.
Let’s
look deeper into this matter:
חוה = 19 = הוגה = ההגו = גוי = עולם חדש = 1018** =
התגים = 19
**According to the tradition of gematria bequeathed to us from
time immemorial the letter א'
is equal to both one, as it is the first letter of the Hebrew aleph-beit and
also to 1000, thus its name. The
fact that the letter א'
is equal to 1000, as well as to one, is apparent from the fact that if we
assign values to all of the letters from א' to ץ'
we can see that ץ'
is equal to 900. Thus, returning
for another “go” around the aleph-beit the letter א' is equal to 1000 as well as one as it is the letter that comes
after ץ. Continuing this
understanding, the letter ב'
is equal to 2, 2000 and 1001; the letter ג' is equal to 3, 3000, 1002 and 2001 and so on.
חוה is אם
כל-חי, she is אם כל חגי. The gematria of her name is equal to הוגה and to ההגו
and to גוי
and to עולם חדש
and to התגים
as we have seen above. From this
we learn that our experience of all that lives, including the Gentile nations (הגוים), is entirely dependent upon our own learning of what the Dead
Sea Sect called ספר ההגי and ספר ההגו.
From the חילוף
above of the name חוה
we understand that ספר ההגו
is ספר חוה.
We must
ask what הספר
is. The gematria of the word ספר is 340 or ש"מ. Thus, the word הספר would become 345 or שמ"ה, an anagram of which is the name משה. We see now that משה is the Book. How
can it be said that Moshe did not know the Law? Moshe is the Book of the Law!
From the
consideration above we can see that the expression ספר ההגו, that is found in The Tzaddokite Fragments (The Damascus
Document) CD X,6 which is equal to ספר חוה can
also be read as: ספר התגים
because 1018 = 19 according to the rules of גימטריא, as we
have seen above. It can also be read as משה תגים. Yet the Talmud
says:
אמר רב יהודה אמר
רב: בשעה שעלה משה למרום, מצאו להקב"ה שיושב וקושר
כתרים לאותיות, אמר לפניו: רבש"ע, מי מעכב על ידך? אמר לו: אדם אחד יש שעתיד להיות בסוף כמה דורות ועקיבא בן
יוסף שמו, שעתיד לדרוש על כל קוץ
וקוץ תילין תילין של הלכות. אמר לפניו: רבש"ע, הראהו לי, אמר לו: חזור
לאחורך. הלך וישב בסוף שמונה שורות,
ולא היה יודע מה הן אומרים, תשש כחו; כיון שהגיע לדבר אחד, אמרו לו תלמידיו: רבי, מנין לך? אמר להן:
הלכה למשה מסיני, נתיישבה דעתו. חזר ובא לפני הקב"ה, אמר לפניו: רבונו של עולם, יש לך אדם כזה ואתה
נותן תורה ע"י? אמר לו: שתוק, כך
עלה במחשבה לפני.
[תלמוד בבלי מסכת
מנחות דף כ"ט עמוד ב, מאגר היהדות הממוחשבת (פרוייקט השו"ת), גרסה 10,
כל הזכויות שמורות לאוניברסיטת בר-אילן, תל-אביב, 2002]
Translation:
The Talmud in Tractate Menachot (29b) quotes Reb. Yehuda, who
said in the name of Rab: When Moshe ascended to heaven to receive the Torah
he found Hashem engaged in affixing tagin (three small upward
strokes in the form of a crown) to the letters. Moshe then asked, "Master
of the Universe, Who is forcing Your hand [that You have to add crowns to the
letters ]?" Hashem replied: "There will be a man, after many
generations, whose name is Akiva ben Yosef and he will expound a multitude of
laws upon each stroke of these coronets." Moshe asked to be permitted to
see that man, and Hashem instructed him to turn around. Moshe sat down
behind eight rows [of Rabbi Akiva's disciples in the Beth Hamidrash -
some say it was 10 rows - and listened to their discussions]. Moshe found that
he could not follow their arguments. He felt as if his strength had been
sapped, but when they came to a certain topic, the students asked Rabbi Akiva
(in reference to a law that was being discussed): "From where do we know
this?" Rabbi Akiva responded, "Halacha L'Moshe M'Sinai" -
this is an oral law handed down to Moshe at Sinai. At that moment Moshe was
comforted (since his teaching was quoted, although he had not yet received the Torah
- see Rashi). Thereupon Moshe said to Hashem: "You have such
a man and yet You give the Torah [to Israel] by me?" Hashem
replied: “Hush, this is My decree (literally, "So it has come to My
mind")." [This
translation according to: http://www.torahtots.com/torah/tagin.htm].
We can now
understand, and sympathize with, the outrage and dismay that HaYachad expressed
at the teachings of the Prushim [See: The Tzaddokite Fragments (The Damascus
Document) 5:11-13]. Having the Holy Tongue reveal to us that משה and הספר are
two aspects of one and the very same mega-existence, we begin to appreciate the
extent to which those who claim that Moshe was a person who had to learn the
depths of Torah from the Rabbis is based on utter ignorance of the truth of
Torah, who and what Moshe is, and that it is hubris that only the abysmally
ignorant are capable of. The painful truth that we have been sold a bill of
goods by Rabbis who did not understand Torah, and banked on the fact that the
masses knew even less than they, begins to sink in. We might like to deny this painful truth. Realizing that we
have been betrayed by those we trusted to be our spiritual and moral mentors
and guides is a terribly rude awakening. Admitting this truth to ourselves may
take much time; but we will never extricate ourselves from the galut if we do
not.
There are
conflicting opinions in the Pharisaic/Rabbinical literature concerning the
weight one should place on learning Torah using the gematriot. Some Rabbis did not consider the
gematriot the “tachlis” of learning Torah, for instance this famous quote:
רבי אליעזר בן חסמא אומר קנין ופתחי נדה הן הן גופי הלכות
[תקופות וגימטריאות פרפראות לחכמה]: (מסכתות קטנות מסכת אבות דרבי נתן נוסחא א פרק כז
ד"ה רבי אליעזר)
other
sources do attribute great importance to the learning of gematriot. For
instance, this lesser known, quote:
כל היודע לחשוב תקופות
ומזלות ואינו מחשב עליו הכתוב אומר את פועל ה' לא יביטו ומעשה ידיו לא ראו.
וזו היא ששנינו (אבות ספ"ג) תקופות וגימטריאות פרפראות לחכמה
ואם כן תהיה חכמת הגימטריא מצוה.
ואם היה דעת בעל ההלכות כן היה מזכיר תקופות ומזלות: (השגות הרמב"ן לספר המצוות שורש א ד"ה והתשובה
הרביעית)
Although in actuality there are
more quotes in the Pharisaic/Rabbinic sources that tout the learning of
gematriot, the opinion of Eliezer ben Chisma on the matter, as quoted above, is
by far the best known and the prevailing opinion.
We see from the Pharisaic/Rabbinic sources
which mention the gematriot that the learning of gematriot was known by them to
be associated with the learning of dikduk, t’kufot and mazalot. A number of
Rabbis are said to be experts in these matters (ben Zakkai, Akiva and ben
Chisma for instance), or are soi-dissant cognocenti (the Ramba”n, ba’al Sefer
HaChinukh, Rabbeinu Yona and Moshe de Leon are among these), but they did not
see fit to teach these matters generally and left generation after generation
of disciples unable to plumb the depths of Torah.
We have
considered some of the gematriot of some of the inflections of the word הגי above. What is הגוי, after all, if not the pronunciation of Torah? And what is pronunciation of Torah if
not the use of the punctuations as determined by the Divine Laws of Hebrew
grammar that are also the laws that rule the heavenly bodies and thus describe
time. As we saw in part 1 of this two-part essay the common gematria of the words
זמן,
מקראות and להבין is
747. We see from the
Pharisaic/Rabbinic sources that gematriot were known to them to be associated
with dikduk, t’kufot and mazalot. Whether they really knew these secrets or
dabbled in them, having merely heard about these matters from true Masters is
unknown. It would appear from
their interpretation of Torah that they were not Masters of this knowledge on
the level that those who wrote the ‘Dead Sea scrolls were’.
The central
lesson we learn from the חילופים of the
word הגי, and its inflections, is this: It is the understanding of the
Text, ההגוי, that determines everything that we experience in life הגי חי = 18 and in time זמן = מקראות
= להבין = 747.
Clearly now
that we have returned to Eretz Yisrael we must divest ourselves of the
Pharisaic teachings, the physical expression of which is the galut, as well as
the improvisations that the Rabbis concocted, which perpetuate and compound the
galut, and make an end to it impossible because they continue to generate
redoubled and compounded convolutions in space/time, which are the physical
expression of their dishonest emotions and convoluted thinking, which they take
with them when they gaze into the Torah.
We must return to the true Service, which is none other than the elevation
and purification of that which we perceive using חילופים.
Returning to a state of consciousness that is fully steeped in the Holy
Language will be a process and will, of course, take time. Yet the work must
begin and in so doing we will halt the continuing creation of distorted and
convoluted time/space.
We learn
from the scrolls that the Pharisees, as well as the Sadducees who had gone
astray, had distorted the Temple practices and did not, or could not, cleanse
the Temple of the unthinkable defilement of the Chashmona’im. We cannot ignore
the fact that these compromises, changes and distortions in the Temple service
eventually brought about the downfall of the Temple and Yerushalayim Shel Mata.
They also generated the galut.
During the
time that the Second Temple all of creation was bent and broken by the
desecration of the Temple Service and the putting of the Avodah of HaCohen Rosh
in the hands of those not only not from the line of Tzaddok, HaCohen HaGadol in
the time of David HaMelekh, but wholly perverse and whose hands were soaked
with blood. We are still living in the effects of that cosmic disaster and it
will also generate the dissolution of the Jewish enterprise in Eretz Yisra’el
if we do not return to the true way.
We are already seeing a society so warped by corruption in the State of
Israel that the state itself is becoming untenable, r”l. Our only hope for
survival here in Israel is to return to the Judaism that is contained in the
‘Dead Sea scrolls’. It is not for
naught that HaShem revealed them to us concurrent with the declaration of the
state.
We
encounter the very same concepts, considerations and lessons that we find in
the halakhic discussions and mystical trends of Pharisaic/Rabbinic Judaism in
the writings of היחד. Yet היחד present them to us with a depth, intimate understanding,
poignancy, immediacy and attainability that we do not find in the writings of
the Pharisaic/Rabbinic tradition. It is the teachings of היחד that can return us to the true Service. The Rabbis are nary equipped to do
this, as they are the inheritors of the Pharisaic tradition that contained many
interpretations inimical to the spirit of Torah. In the Diaspora the Rabbis introduced more distortions into
interpretation that were yet further afield and brought us further away from
the Source Of Truth. This was, no doubt, based on their mistaken perception of
the need for adaptation of ההלכה
to changing circumstances in the galut as well as realpolitik and power plays
among the Rabbis. This unfortunate state of affairs has left us with the
bloated and untenable religion we encounter in our own times that leaves our
Soul so very, very thirsty. These distortions, in turn, are generating the
bloated and untenable world we collectively create and are trapped in.
Because
we are not in a state of consciousness in which we perform the חלופים of the גמטריות
naturally, as a matter of course, when reading Hebrew (and that is, indeed, the
most abysmal גלות)
we do not understand many concepts in תורה properly. As a result, we are reduced to hallucinating evil and
plurality wherein none exist in reality. Moreover, because we are not aware of
the fact that it is we ourselves creating these phantasmagorias and certainly
we are not aware how creation occurs, we live in dread fear of the creations of
our renegade minds, with the accompanying imprecation and execration of these
phantoms and phantasmagorias. We blame “the goi’im” for our “tzuris”, when in
fact it is we ourselves creating them. Thus, we bring the transgression of the מצוה
אל תעשה not to curse upon ourselves.
Horrible hells are created by the mind undisciplined, untrained in the חלופים of the גמטריא.
That is our punishment for having abrogated the Kingdom of Heaven. Understand
this. Understanding this is the key to our salvation and emancipation. Only
when we realize that we are creating our own historic collective tragedy and
personal misery, without knowing how and not being able to control or stop it,
can we take pity on ourselves, and others, and pray to HaShem with a broken
heart to show us the way out. Only then do we realize how hopelessly lost,
confused and helpless we are. We were not intended to be lost in a nightmare of
our own making. Reality does not
have to be this way. We were
intended to create Gan Eden by learning and doing (i.e., being) the Torah
properly.
I
cannot demonstrate just how the correct reading of Torah is done in a public
forum such as this. There are many
Jewish scoffers, Jews who misuse the gematriot in their ignorance and
enthusiasm to push this or that agenda and, of course, non-Jewish would-be
infiltrators who want to learn about HaYachad and arrogate their wisdom, to
enter Kodesh HaKadoshim and defile the kelim in it for their own purposes. It
is enough that you have been told that this knowledge must be retrieved from
the genizah of the Jewish collective memory. It is for you to ask HaShem the rest.
May
the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be for a blessing.
Doreen
Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel 5764