50 Gates and 42 Journeys

Every bit of the Torah has meaning beyond meaning and a purpose beyond purpose. In our previous article we spoke about Egypt being a code word for the “straits (constriction) of the Sea” with the sea (YM) being a code word itself for the 50 gates of Binah. The Arizal...

Chanukah in June

It’s funny that in the portion of Naso, we read about the sacrifices that we read during the 8 days of Chanukah and in the very next portion BeHa’alothekha we read about the Menorah in Chapter 8 of Bamidbar. Obviously these two portions must be connected somehow. ...

We Were Told to Count to 50!

We were told to count to 50, yet every year we count to 49, and let G-d count the 50th day for us? But that’s not what we were told to do. As an adjunct to our last Article on the splitting of the Torah at Bamidbar (Numbers) Chapter 1 into the precise Phi...

The Hidden Message Within

At the end of the Book of Vayikra (Leviticus), just when we’re taught about the jubilee year, we reach a turning point not only in the Torah, but in the Tree-of-Life as well. An intricate and very important message to us was woven into the structure of the Torah. And...

Counting the Omer Squared

Every year for nearly 3330 years we’ve been counting the years towards Moshiach, ticking off the years from 1 to 50, and racking up the jubilee years (1 every 50 years, after the cycle of 7 x 7 is completed. And in every one of those years we count the Omer, 7 x...

Judgment Day; The Final Redemption Approaches

This weeks Haftorah portion tells us Judgment day is coming and When! I was preparing an article this week about the 4 times H’Mashiach is explicated mentioned in the Torah, but the Pesach cleaning took precedence: nevertheless, this and every Shabbat Hagadol–the...

The Shabbos Hurricane

Last Friday and Saturday a storm hit New York, hit us hard.  As we ventured out Sunday with no heat, power, or phones we learned that the fierce storm had actually been an unpredicted unnamed hurricane, the Shabbos Hurricane. The hurricane proved fatal for a few, but...