At the end of last week’sParsha, Moses was in doubt about the success of his mission and even confronted God when he said vzv ogk v,grv vnk h-t rnthu, “And he said, O Lord, why have you harmed this people?” (Exodus 5:22). God reassured Moses when he said that he will take the children of Israel out of Egypt with a mighty hand (See Exodus 6:1). What is interesting to me is what I have found encoded in the above phrase. As noted in my book, I always like to find certain important words, like as encircled above, vhrnv, Moriah, which is the location of our HolyTemple. What is the message that we find encoded in this wordhere? If we look at our history, our glorious temples have been destroyed and in fact we always pray for the rebuilding of the HolyTemple (BaisHaMikdosh). Perhaps Moses question is really our question. Why have we suffered so much? The answer is that God is faithful to give reward and only God knows why some prosper and why some suffer. The calculation is with God. As noted in our Torah, God did take out measure for measure against our oppressors and we were taken out with a strong hand. Moreover, with aid of Gematria we see that something on the surface that looks negative (ie. Why have you harmed this people?) is really positive. The Gematria of the above encoded phrase is 1217. Another phrase with the same Gematria can be found in the Ten Commandments which states,vk ,ca hghcav ouhu, “and the Seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord” (Exodus 20:10) According to Rabbeinu Bachya, our suffering in Mitzrayim(ancient Egypt) was really an affliction of Lovevcvt ka ihruxt. The goal of this suffering was really to give us the inner peace that the Sabbath brings us. We see peace actually encoded in the above phrase as the encoded words spell vuka, shalva, meaning inner peace. This teaches us that our suffering of our work week turns into the inner peace when we observe the Shabbos. We also see an allusion to God uplifting us where we connect the two Parshas of Exodus and Vaeira. The Torah says the following ohekt rcshu : umrtn oardh , “He will drive them from his land: And God said” (Exodus 6:1-2). The encircled letters in reverse spells ourn, marom, which means high, exalted. In fact, we see this word used by King David who says,‘v okgk ourn v,tu, “And you remain exalted, forever, God” (Psalms 92:9). It is interesting to note that this Psalm is dedicated to the Sabbath day and it is actually part of our Sabbath liturgy.
Getting back to the theme of the Parsha, it is one of sin and retribution. As noted previously , the Parsha of the week influences and controls weekly events. This week, Pharaoh and his people are punished measure for measure for enslaving and treating the children of Israel harshly.As Pharaoh noted at the end of the Parsha , “God is the righteous one and I and my people are wicked (Exodus ).”A top news story as noted on CNN was entitled “Humble Pie” (1-27-06). It basically showed all of the famous and powerful people being humbled and admitting their sin. This week we also saw the humbling of James Frey, who was literally fried by Oprah Winfrey when she made him admit that his best selling memoir, a million little pieces, was basically a lie. Oprah also noted that she regretted defending his book and felt duped. Indeed, our Torah is a witness that there is justice in the world and the ones that sin will be punished by the One Above. This week also the victory of Hamas in the Palestinian elections. We also see who our peace partners really are. A bunch of gun toting thugs and terrorists. The pictures on TV, newspapers and internet showed militants brandishing their guns in celebration of the landslide victory of Hamas over Fatah. This week’s Parsha tells us not to worry. Although things may look gloomy, God metes out justice and if these people want war, God will fight for us and give us true peace so that we can celebrate with God on the Shabbos day.
A refuah shlaima to my father, Yaacov Zev Ben Malka Blima who is recovering from a stroke at Vanderbilt Nursing Home.
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