skip to main |
skip to sidebar
The letters of the name of the son who died, Nadav, constitute the words "four sons" - "dalet," four, and "ben" - son. The Torah spoke about four sons, Adam and his three sons, and their souls were collected in Nadav and Avihu. The name of Avihu also hints at Adam because it can be read as "avi hu" - he is the father.
Whatever Adam did wrong, these also did wrong. And what was it? - Strange fire, the other woman, the first Eve, called Lilith. Adam was united with Lilith before Eve, so he said about Eve, "She will be called a woman" - she, but not the other, Lilith.
The Sages called Adam "restoring his circumcision" because of his prior connection to Lilith, with whom he gave birth to multiple demons. A man (ish) and his wife (ishah) constitute a real fire of love together – if God puts his name between them. But without God's name, it forms just fire, "ash," and this is the strange fire of Adam.
Nadav and Avihu were the greatest people of their generation, but they repeated Adam's mistake and did not get married. In addition, they were drunk with wine – and that again was the sin of Adam, on the opinion that Eve gave him grapes from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad, having made it into wine. Wine has a dual nature, but Adam leaned on the physical side of it.
Additionally, Adam tried to bring everyone, good and bad, into God's presence, which was a mistake that caused his own exile, and later also other exiles. In this, he was not alone, for Moses and King Solomon also tried to bring too many people to God.
Art: Adriaen Jansz. Van Ostade - An Elderly Man Seated Holding A Wineglass
“This month will be to you the head of all months...”
Just as the head has in it the image of the complete body and controls it, so too the month of Nissan has in it all other months. Each month has a “key phrase” that corresponds to one of the 12 permutations of the Name of God. This is reflected by the Gematria of the Nissan key phrase and the Gematria of the names of all other months combined being one and the same, 1952.
This was the gist of the complete exposition that came to me from Rabbi Menachem Kranz, whose lectures on Kabbalah can be found at the Jewish Heritage Foundation site. So here it is.
Mark, I thought you would enjoy this דבר תורה, I am amazed by how well it fits so I have said it by my Shiur before פרשת החדש for a number of years already, so enjoy.
We read on this שבת the פרשה of ראש חדש and the תורה says as follows, החדש הזה לכם ראש חדשים ראשון היא לכם לחדשי השנה I saw in the ספר אור מלא a beautiful רמז to how we can see that this month of ניסן is the ראש, head of all the months, the head has inside of it all the of the of the rest of the body inside of it, but only on the potential level, so somehow we have to be able to see in the month of ניסן a hint to all of the rest of the months.
If you look in a lot of סידורים in נוסח ספרד, like the Artscroll all hebrew siddur, by מוסף for ראש חדש you will see that it brings down to have in mind a different one of the 12 permutation for the שם הוי"ה by every month, (a 4 lettered word should have 24 permutations but since there are 2 of the same letters so it cuts the amount in half, and that's why there is only 12 permutations for the שם הוי"ה) and they come from different פסוקים from their acronym. The first three all start with the letter י, the next three ה, the next three the letter ו, and the last three permutations start with the letter ה.
The month of ניסן it says comes from the acronym of the פסוק: ישמחו השמים ותגל הארץ ירעם הים ומלאו, the first letters of the first four word spells out השם's name in order, but yet in here is a רמז for all of the rest. As follows, if you start from the second letter and count the first letters it comes out in the order of הוהי and from the set that begins with the letter ה which corresponds to the month of תמוז that's the order of its permutation. Now if we start counting from the third letter we get a permutation in the order of והיה which is the permutation that is for the month of תשרי which is the first of the ones that start with a ו, and lastly if we start from the fourth letter we have the order of היהו which is for the month of טבת the first of the last three which start with the letter ה. So all in all we have seen the a רמז here for the four main month, they are also the four month that the seasons are called by like תקופת ניסן and so on, as they are the heads of the permutations that begins with the different letters. Now if we would add up the גימטריא (numerical equivalence) of the those four months they equal to 1944, add to it another 8 to represent the other 8 months that aren't the main ones, it all equals up to 1952 which is the גימטריא of the whole פסוק. ישמחו השמים ותגל הארץ ירעם הים ומלאו. So we see here how the month of ניסן is the ראש of all the חדשים and they are all hinted in the פסוק that represents the month of ניסן.
We'll go word for word,
ישמחו=364
השמים=395
ותגל=439
הארץ=296
ירעם=320
הים=55
ומלאו=83
Together they equal 1952
Now let's count the four main month ניסן=170
תמוז=453
תשרי=910
טבת=411
Altogether it equals 1944, now add 8 to it which represent the other 8 month, and you have exactly 1952.
For someone to come up with this it had to be with רוח הקדש. It amazes me every time I go through it, it just fits so perfectly. May we finally see the גאולה as it says בניסן נגאלו ובניסן עתידין לגאול!
Art: Alfred Sisley - The Small Meadow In Spring
Here are the pages of the original for reference, click on them to see full-size.
Adam was created from the earth outside of the Garden of Eden, and later God brought him in. Why is this so? Would it not be better to create Adam from the earth of the Garden, which was obviously of better quality? However, the reason for this is that Adam was destined to make a mistake that would cause him to be exiled from the Garden. Had Adam been created from the earth of the Garden of Eden, then later, after his mistake and exile, he would not be able to repair the damage he has done.
When the Snake seduced Eve, he injected in her bad spiritual qualities that led to a mixture of good and evil. Now she would give birth not only to righteous individuals, like she and Adam, but also to evil people. There are connections between the seventy nations of the world, the seventy members of Sanhedrin, the seventy years of exile, the seventy years of the “spiritual sleep” of the exiles, and seventy or eighty years of a man's life, hinted to in the psalms, “the life of a man is seventy years, and with strength – eighty.” They deal with the mixture of good and bad, and that explains why circumcision happens on the eight day, which is free from the influence of seven/seventy.
Art: Francesco Curradi - The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise
Here we have the secret of the name of God Adonai and the number 100, as we have learned before.
Connected to this is the story of the four Sages who entered the Garden of Mysteries. Since Adam made a mistake, and we are still enjoying its fruits, these Sages decided to correct this. They may have wanted to correct the error itself, or they may have wanted to repair its consequences in the soul of Adam, which includes all souls of humanity till today.
The mistake of Adam was in giving the crown of Rulership to the Cosmic Man, Zeir Anpin before he was ready for it before the consciousness of the Supernal Father was given to him. Therefore, the only way to fix it was to enter the consciousness of the Cosmic Man, elevate it, and fix his crown from the inside, thus fixing everything. Anybody who wants to effect this correction needs to interact with the four mentalities of the Supernal Father, possessing Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge.
Each of the four Sages wanted to correct one mentality, which was wrong since each needed to correct all four. The three of the Sages made a severe mistake while attempting this and got harmed in the process. Only Rabbi Akiva entered in peace and left in peace. He was, in fact, capable of correcting all four mentalities, but the angels pushed him away. God protected him from the angels – because Rabbi Akiva could fix all four mentalities, even though he only did one. Arizal explains the mistake of each of the Sages, the greatness of Rabbi Akiva, and the strength of God expressed in the number 100.
Art: Sandro Botticelli - Three Archangels
People have asked about sources, and here are a few. "Medrash Says" talks about the story of Zuleika and her friends all falling in love with Joseph. (Jami has it in more poetic details).
Jami can be read on google books - I am showing the first page, and not all pages can be accessed anyway.
Gilgulei Neshamot by Rabbi Meir of Fano is the source for Zuleika/Rahav/Yosef/Yehoshua connection, but I could not right away find that place - so I am showing something else I found about Rahav. I have the original of that book also, but I am posting the translation.
Jami (1414-1492) described the story in his poem Yusuf and Zuleika. The Medrash story about all Zuleika's friends cutting their fingers is retold as follows:
The poem now pursues the Scriptural account of the life of Joseph, or Yussuf, whose supernatural beauty is, however, described as being the especial gift of God, and recorded to have been so great that no woman could look on him without love. Zuleika, therefore, only shared the fate of all her sex. Some writers say the ladies who clamored so much against her for her passion were, when he first entered the chamber where they were all assembled, in the act of cutting pomegranates, some say oranges, and in their admiration and amazement cut their fingers instead of the fruit! Yussuf is considered the emblem of divine perfection, and Zuleika's love is the image of the love of the creature toward the Creator: some go so far as to say that we ought to follow her example, and should permit the beauty of God to transport us out of ourselves. The rapid change from prison to high estate of Yussuf they consider a type of the impatience of the soul to burst its fetters and join its Creator. Yussuf was always surrounded with a celestial light, typical as well of the moral beauty and wisdom which adorned his mind. He is sold as a slave, and Zuleika becomes his purchaser, to the great rage and envy of all her rivals, amongst whom was included the Princess Nasigha, of the race of Aad. The beautiful Yussuf now enters her service, and, at his own desire, a flock of sheep are given to his special keeping, his admiring mistress wishing, by every indulgence, to attach him to her. The nurse of Zuleika is the confidante of the passion which she cannot control, and which, at length, in an imprudent moment, she discloses to its object himself. His father, Jacob, or the angel Gabriel in his likeness, appears, to warn him of his danger, and he flies, leaving his mistress in an agony of despair, rage, and grief. She thus exclaims: Is this a dream?—another dream,
Now continue with the poem,
Like that which stole my senses first,
Which sparkled o'er my life's dull stream,
By idle, erring fancy nursed?
Was it for this my life I spent
In murmurs deep, and discontent—
Slighted, for this, all homage due,
From gen'rous, faithful love withdrew?
For this, no joy, no pomp have prized;
For this, all honors have despised—
Left all my soul, to passion free,
To be thus hated—spurned-by thee?
The story of Yusuf and Zuleika ends when Zuleika, old and imprisoned, sees Yusuf in his kingly attire. She runs to him, and Yusuf, recognizing that she is the true love, marries her. Zuleika becomes young again through a miracle.
The Sefer Gilgulei Neshamot tells that the reincarnation of Joseph was Yehoshuah, and the reincation of Zuleika was Rahav, one of the four most beautiful women in history. Yehoshuah married Rahav, making the poet correct.
