Miketz – KabbalahSecrets.com

The Dawn of Time

Our next Chanukah gift is that of the dawn of time, the moment before physical existence, before G-d created Heaven and Earth. At that moment there were no limitations, there were no tikkune, no klippot nor negativity. It was a time when everything was One (אחד), the state of Binah.

It was the time of the Light of Love (אהבה). Picture your most joyous moments, when you felt truly loved or when you felt your love for someone deep in your soul and fresh in your heart. Imagine being surrounded by that love. Intensify it. Imagine it enter your being and replacing the cells and organs of your body until your body is completely replaced by light and you are One with the Light, connected to everyone and everything in their clean pure state. This is the time of dawn.

In recent articles we have connected the Shema with the Torah’s first verse and 42-letter Name of G-d that is encoded in it, and we have begun to explain how to use them to plug into the beyond, the consciousness that existed before the Creation of the Torah, to tap into that dawn of time entry point. Before the Torah’s first verse existed there was the primordial Aleph (א). There was the point where the light of the primordial Aleph (א) met the Creation of the Torah. It was the dawn of time, the fount of Ohr Haganuz, the light of Moshiach.

On the other side, it is an Endless Light, an Endless Sea of Light. At the time of Creation the portal stood open for only 36 hours. Every year on the 25th of Kislev that portal opens for 8 days, 36 candles.

We want to go back to the moment before G-d created the Heavens (Zeir Anpin) and the Earth (Malchut of Zeir Anpin), collectively before physicality. We want to go back to those first 9 letters of the Torah (ברא–שית–ברא) before Elohim established the 6 dimensions/directions of Zeir Anpin. We want to go back to the moment before 1216, we want to go to 12:15am when everything was in its potential state, unmarred, unlimited and endless without dimensional boundaries. This was the moment that King David, along with a long line of tzaddkim before and after him, awoke each night, at precisely 12:15am to begin their deepest studies and connect to the most powerful Light.

The dawn of Creation happened at precisely 12:15am, a moment before physicality began at 12:16. The reason is that at 1216 physicality conjoined with the spiritual realm. 1216 is the sum of the cubes of the Yud(י) and the Vav (ו) in G-d’s Name (יהוה), or 10³ and 6³ which equals 1000 + 216. As explained previously, a cube is the most basic expansion necessary to create 3-dimensional space, which is the basis for physicality as we know it.

The 1000 in 1216 represents the primordial Aleph (א) and the spiritual realm of Binah, while the Vav (ו) of numerical value 6 is representative of Zeir Anpin (the 6 directions) and cubing it (216) is the symbolic formation of the 3-dimensional world. Combining the two is like adding water to concrete powder, we get cement. Therefore 12:15 was the last purely spiritual moment before physical existence came into being. Like the 15 steps to the Throne of Heaven, like the 15 steps in the Pesach Seder and the 15 cubits that the flood waters covered the Earth, the number 15 (יה) is representative of the pure spiritual part of in G-d’s Name (יהוה), representing the upper sefirot of Chochma and Binah. It is the gateway to the Endless.

The value 216 is always representative of (Gevurah). The 1000 in 1216 shines mercy into our existence to temper that Judgement. The World to Come is above and beyond the level and effect of Judgment. In the realm of Understanding (Binah) judgment as we know it is not necessary.

The world of physicality is the world of Tikkune (תיקון‎), which has the numerical value of 1216; it has unavoidable judgement built into the system. The Mercy comes from knowing how to connect to G-d’s Names and having a pure desire and the consciousness to do so for selfless reasons. One of those merciful back doors built in helps us overcome our personal and global tikkunim through the first 4 words (18 letters) of the 1000-letter Shema prayer in that “Shema Ysrael Adonai Eloheinu,” which have the spiritual value 1215.

We can also connect to the mercy and endless light through our meditations at Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh (קדוש) (קדוש) (קדוש) during the highest and deepest point in our daily prayers, which is also equivalent to 1215 when the kolel for the letter and words is subtracted, as the Arizal was oft to do.

Rav Abulafia, of blessed memory, advised that we can also do it by using the “Combination of the letters,” of numerical value 1215 to support and overcome the bending of the “70 Languages” of the 70 branches of the Tree-of-Life. The Zohar tells us that we are on the trunk of tree, and it is our duty and right to support it. It is not just any combination, so we will be highlighting the right ones as appropriate.

And speaking of letters, it is because of this connection to the spiritual realm, to the World to Come, that the first 9 letters in Genesis (ברא–שית–ברא) have a complete gematria value of 1215, as do the 11 unique letters (בראשיתלהםוץ) in that same first verse of Genesis 1:1, which itself is connected to the secret of the 11 ingredients of the incense. These overlaps between the two worlds maintain a secret access opening available to us, a portal to the Endless Light.

Light was Day and it originally began at 12:15am, but after the sin of Adam 6 hours of Ohr HaGanuz was set aside for us to tap into during Chanukah and preserved for us for the 1000 years of Binah/Moshiach consciousness to come. Because of that our solar clock shifted 6 hours forward and daylight dawned 6 hours later at 6:15. It was no longer the same light though. It became physical light and our solar clock began ticking. Eight (8) days divided by the 36 candles is 8/36 or .222 and given 1000 years for each of the 6 Alephs (א) embedded in the Torah’s first verse and for each of the corresponding 6 days of Creation until the Sin, we have the 6000 years. The clock to Ohr HaGanuz is thus and always was 6000-222 or 5778 years.

Using a more concealed and more revealing gematria cipher, we see that (12 x 15)/(12 + 15) = 6.666…, a metaphysical hint of that Vav(ו) and proportion that would shape the Tree-of-life that would give structure to our world.

Just before physicality came into being, all the energy of the Vav(ו) that would momentarily enter our world in order to create its 3-Dimensional structure existed in potential. Thus, the pre-physical Vav(ו) contained all the energy levels from 1-6, or 1+2+3+4+5+6 which sums to 21 and 21 squared, the square platform on which physicality would be raised, is 21 x 21 = 441, the value of emet, Truth.

In a previous Chanukah gift we discussed giving “Truth” to Jacob and how that Truth defined the boundaries of Israel. 12:15 is the moment of truth. The time 12:15 can be broken down to 12 hours and 15 minutes. Since we are talking about the dimension of Binah, the 12 hours being equivalent to 43,200 seconds is an obvious and direct connection to the 432 HZ frequency of Binah. When we add to that the 900 seconds that is 15 minutes, we have 12:15 equal 43,200 plus 900, or a total of 44,100 seconds, which harks back to 441 being the numerical value for the Hebrew work emet, Truth.

In truth, the true way to earn the World to Come is through studying the Torah, and the deepest understanding available to most of us is through the Zohar. The following excepts connect us to that understanding and the process of Ohr Haganuz and its differentiation with the physical light of the Sun.

אוֹר הַגָּנוּז

The Torah portion of Miketz is always read on Chanukah and we learn in the Zohar Miketz portion 14:233 as it quotes Malachi 3:20 “ ‘But to you who fear my Name, the sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in its wings,’ Come and behold: The Holy One blessed be He, will cause to shine upon Israel the sun, which from the day the world was created, He concealed from the wicked in the world, as it is written…”

Zohar Miketz 14:234. “The Holy One, blessed be He, stored that light, for when it first came out, it shone from one end of the world to the other. But when He looked upon the generations of Enosh, the generations of the Flood, the generations of the Tower of Babylon and all the wicked ones, He stored the light.”

The dawn of the new light is almost upon us, which is why we are revealing the original dawn. When we connect to the pure spiritual light and bathe in that glorious radiation It lingers with us, helping us to separate from the physicality and the wickedness that is inherent within the physical world. It helps us to draw closer to the Endless light, to increase our affinity for the pure light of Ohr HaGanuz. As the time draws nearer for the two lights to shine as One, we can prepare ourselves by using the mercifully given secret connections to the Holy Names and to the spiritually freeing and healing light of Binah. Or we can continue succumbing to all the ever more available physical temptations that will eventually relegate ourselves to burning light of a merciless Sun, as explained by the Zohar below.

Zohar Miketz 14:236. “The Holy One, blessed be He, will therefore uncover that sun in the future and shine upon Israel, as it is written, ‘But to you who fear my Name the sun of the righteousness shall arise,’ the sun of the righteousness being the sun with which Jacob was healed. It is ‘with healing in its wings,’ because everyone will be healed. When the children of Israel rise from the dust, many will be lame and blind. The Holy One, blessed be He, will shine the healing sun upon them, as it is written, ‘with healing in its wings’.”

Zohar Miketz 14:237. “That sun will then shine from one end of the world to the other. Israel will be cured, but the idolatrous nations will be burned by it. Concerning Israel, the verse reads, ‘Then shall your light break forth like the morning, and your health shall spring forth speedily; and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of Hashem shall be your rearguard.”

We are given this knowledge so no one could say we were unaware. We are given the choice, so no one could say they were a victim. The tools are several thousands years old. The Zohar is nearly 2000 years old. None of this is new. B”H it reaches enough people in time. B”H everyone will have an opportunity.

Chag Chanukah Sameach

Ezra

Cause and Effect; The Signs of our Time.

This past week I witnessed a series of events unfold and the consequences of these events for many of us who are on spiritual paths is substantial.

Usually I delve into deep secrets of Kabbalah and spirituality revealed through the gematria of the Torah verses, but there’s a more critical issue facing all of us and deeper secrets to be revealed by the unfolding evens in our daily lives. Previously, I’ve warned about how as we approach the geula (final redemption), the cycle of cause and effect is greatly speeding up and how this manifests as both curses and blessings depending on how we view them and whether we’ve understood their messages. And I’ve also explained briefly what every kabbalist knows that the spiritual path is the most difficult one as it’s fraught with ever more present obstacles (tests) and if you’re not reading the messages, these potholes in your path become pits.

One of the secrets that the Arizal reveals about Joseph’s tribulation with being thrown in the pit, is that the Hebrew word for pit has the gematria value of 208, the same as Isaac, which represents the side of Gevura and judgment. our task is to read the signs, realize when we’re facing a karmic (tikun) punishment (or judgment), accept that it’s being meted out with mercy (chesed), love deep into ourselves for the spiritual root (cause) of our situation, correct it, and move on to a higher spiritual level. Because, if we fail these tests, they will only get worse, more intense, and as we get closer to the arrival of Mashiach, more destructive, devastating and frequent.

This past week I witnessed a series of events unfold. Because of the dreams that immediately proceeded them I was clued in and almost waiting to see how they would unfold in the physical world, which brings up the point of parsha Miketz, in case you missed it, spiritual dreams precede physical actions, the spiritual precedes the physical, which tells us nothing happens that’s not for a preordained reason and that everything happens (whether we see it for good or bad) with divine intent in it. And that means with mercy in it, no matter how terrible and dark it may look to us, even as bad as being thrown into a pit of vipers and scorpions by our own brothers.

Before I get into the incidents, which not coincidentally happened during parsha Miketz, when Joseph became ruler over Egypt and reunited with Jacob and his brothers, it’s interesting and relevant to note that Joseph was born in the year 2200 HC, and that Joseph (yesod of zeir anpin), as a reflection and as the central column continuation of this father Jacob (tiferet) each experienced their own personal exiles of 21 years for a total of 42 years. Jacob toiled for 21 years with Laban and Joseph in Egypt separated from his Dad. Each of the two 21-year intervals was a tithing to the 210 years of exile in Egypt, but together the 42 years presents the Shem Mem-Bet (42-Letter Name of G-d) associated with all the significant Biblical journeys and according to chazal with the coming of Moshiach. It was also in chapter 42 of Bereshit that Joseph was reunited with his brothers, bringing an end to his isolation.

The other significant connection to the incidents lies in the timing of Joseph’s birth, 248 years before the end of the Egyptian exile and the reception of the Torah at Sinai, because 248 is the numerical value of Abraham. And as an aside, at the time of their reuniting, Jacob was 130, as in the numerical value of Sinai, and Joseph was 38, the age that the Arizal passed on, but seeing as the events of the past week occurred during chanukah, it is very relevant that Joseph’s birth in 2200 HC was exactly 44 jubilee (the Biblical 50-year interval) years after the birth of Adam, as in the 44 candles light during Chanukah. Moreover, 2200 HC is the year 1560 BCE and 156 is both the numerical value of Joseph and the collective number of candles we light over Chanukah, when taking into account the spiritual aspect that every candle we light stays lit for the full 8 days (see our blog on the Chanukah meditations of the Ari for details).

And just to complete the scenario, Joseph’s birth in 2200 HC is 71.56 jubilee years before chazal’s prophesied date for Moshiach, 5778 HC, which is also 66.6 jubilee years from the reception of the Torah on Sinai, and since Chanukah (of numerical value 89) is all about lighting teh candles to bring H’Moshiach to the world, it’s not surprising that 89 x 40.2 = 3,577.8, the exact number of years from Joseph’s birth in 2200 HC to the final redemption in 5778 HC, and that 2200 is 38.0% of 5778, alluding to the Arizal again, and also to Egypt (of numerical value 380), a kabbalistic code word for darkness, and as explained in the Zohar, its true meaning is Meitzer Yam (Constriction of the sea, which is significant because the constricted flow of light into Egypt was relieved while Joseph was alive as he (his energetic archetype) controls the sefira (dimension) of yesod of zeir anpin, the choke point (or funnel point) of light into our world from the upper reservoirs. And it’s this very point that we open up for the world when we light the 156 Chanukah candles and the holy river of divine sustenance, Nachal (L‘hadlik Ner Chanukah) flows through.

This past week, during Chanukah and the period of time influence by the energy of Miketz, I witnessed a series of events that while having serious consequences for those involved, has even greater value for the lessons it teaches all of us. Now, it must be said that none of the people directly involved to my knowledge knew each other in this lifetime and many of them are very high level souls, and all of which were Orthodox Jews, most of whom were from Chabad. I also want to preface this by saying that as been told to us time and again by chazal and as has been related in so many stories of the Baal Shem Tov and other Tzaddikim, the higher our spiritual level the less leeway we have for transgressions, and even minor transgressions need correction, but in these days, with only 10 years to go until 5778, everyone on the spiritual path will be forced to correct their transgressions, and to see the results of them first hand and nearly immediately.

While attending a Chanukah craft and activities festival in a Chasidic storefront last Wednesday afternoon, a mother had overstayed the patience of her rambunctious very young boy and while she was checking out, he almost inexplicably veered off his course and dashed toward the window display, reached in, and accidentally knocked over the Lucite dreidel vessel that was holding all the little colorful dreidels of which people were supposed to guess their quantity.

The Chasidic Rabbi overseeing the event and witnessing the situation promptly demanded $175 for the the broken Lucite and asked no questions. The woman said she’d be back with a check the next day.

As this was a Chasidic event, representing chesed and as 175 was the lifespan of Abraham Avinu, who always represents chesed, she instinctively knew and was further counseled to pay the asked for amount, in the same way that Abraham paid the 400 shekels for Machpelah without negotiating. Bli ayn hara, the family accepted that they were forced by divine light to make this sacrifice in order to ameliorate some unknown heavenly decree of judgment with possibly worse consequences. And so with a full heart they returned the next day, Thursday afternoon, and sought out the rabbi.

He refused to interrupt what he was doing to attend to them, even though it was the moment’s inattention that opened the window for the incident to occur on his watch the day before, then when he was ready he took the check coldly and dismissed the mother and child rather coldly without speaking with the boy and seeing who he really was.

There is a spiritual tenet that anyone who comes into our life does so for a divine reason; they are there for us. There was a time when we could ignore them, but not now. Now, all of us who have taken on the spiritual mantel are all being looked upon as tzaddiks and accordingly held to much higher standards.

The boy couldn’t have cared less if the rabbi spoke to him and he received a just punishment from his parents for his physical actions, and from the family’s perspective, the transaction was done whether the Rabbi saw the spiritual significance or not.

But as a witness to these events, it’s my opportunity and indeed job to seek out the holy sparks in the events as I point out the lessons to be learned. I can’t speak for what was in the rabbi’s head, and maybe he did do some serious self-reflection, but I can relate what unfolded thereafter, as today, even the slightest lapse is going to have serious, sometimes grave consequences and we must come to understand that.

We must understand and live our lives with the understanding that every physical action is preceded by spiritual ones and that every physical challenge is an opportunity to overcome a tikune before it really manifests, and that all events in our universe are connected, just like our souls.

Had the events unfolded differently it would have been revealed that the family was so poor that they didn’t even have rent money and that the boy was a special needs child. It is our individual duty to bring in as much light into a situation as possible, and the date was the 5th day of Chanukah, December 25th, erev Rosh Chodesh; what more powerful time for channeling the divine light of chasidim (mercy, loving-kindness) was there? The opportunity was missed.

A short hour later, a BMW SUV almost inexplicably veered off the road, and drove right through the Lucite display of another Chasidic Chanukah event storefront and didn’t stop until it reached the back of the shop and several children and adults were seriously injured.

We cannot know our tikun, but more than ever we are our brother’s keepers. More than ever we have to make every effort, go the extra mile to treat everyone with human dignity, compassion, and love. If we don’t take every advantage of every situation to look inside ourselves, there will be unfortunate consequences. How can I be sure I’ve connected the dots correctly here, because the very next day, I witnessed yet another car inexplicably go through a store front window and I knew it was my job to get the word out. As with His codes in the Torah, G-d can be very redundant. Things will be repeated over and over until the message gets across.

This event happened almost exactly one month after the devastating attack on Chabad house in Mumbai. Chabad does so much good, so why them? Because G-d has always held his righteous to higher standards, and just as Noach was no Abraham, the Torah tells us he was a righteous man for his times. We are certainly no Noach’s, and for the most part not tzaddikim, but for our times, we are the new righteous, and it’s up to all of us to uphold the world.

The root word for glass in Hebrew is Zach (Zayin, Caf = 27). it relates to purity and clear, as in without blemish (that is the reason to why clear glass items are Kosher for Meat and Dairy), but a broken glass is sign for us to break something inside to let the light in and out. In prior times it was enough to remove the opaque veils of klippot, now, in these end times, we must remove the transparent ones as well, for even as Zach (glass) has a numerical value of 3 x3x3, “the darkness” has a value of 333, and thus even transparent blockages can keep us separated.

Moreover, the shattering of the glass and the the Lucite vessel reflects the shattering of the vessels in Tohu, and reminds us all of our duty to pick-up and collect the holy sparks of this world of tikun. As the letters on the dreidel (H,SH, G,N) add up to 358, the value of Moshiach, the message is emphasized that picking up the smaller individual dreidels (Moshiachs) is what’s necessary, not one big showy one.

Glass windows are coming down everywhere, veils being pulled back. We were all witnesses to the price thousands of Orthodox Jews and Jewish institutions and charities paid because of their dealings with Bernie Madoff. There was a $50 billion veil there that no one saw.

We know from chazal that it is the understanding of the Shem Mem-bet (the 42-letter name of G-d, the Ana B’Koach) that will bring about the geula, so just as Noach’s flood, Malbul, was a sign of G-d displeasure with Man, we can trace the signs of the Mem-Bet to see where we have to work harder. The first line of the Shem Mem-Bet has the same numerical value as unconditional love; it’s also the same complete numerical value as Mashiach Ben David. Five years ago, this very week, December 26th, there was an earthquake in BaM Iran where 50,000 people died. And exactly one year later, also on December 26th, an earthquake off the coast of MeulaBoh, caused a tsunami that killed 225,000. The attack of 9/11 hit at the financial center of America in downtown Manhattan Borough, the same place the financial crisis hit again in earnest that same week 7 years later. G-d is nothing if not redundant.

And the messages will keep coming. We all need to listen, but listening is not enough; we all need to take the initiative to change ourselves and bring loving kindness to the world.

We need to look on our messengers with compassion, look into ourselves for correction, and then reach out to the needy. We revere our Ravs, now we must emulate them. From here on out, it’s vitally important for all of us to treat one another with human dignity and to extend to them our love. Eliyahu Hanavi does not revel himself to you when he greets you; your actions after greeting him must merit that. We must treat everyone we meet as if they might be Eliyahu Hanavi, or even H’Mashiach. B”H, May all our actions, merit the revelation of H’Moshiach.

Vayetze: Sometimes One Word Says it All

What does the word Vayetze tell us?

We know that the spiritual essence of the assorted Torah parshot (portions) are found in its first verses, and sometimes in its first word. It’s not for nothing that very high level righteous souls (tzaddikim) gave them their appropriate names, and we’ve already discussed how important a name is for us and how we can use them for our spiritual advancement. It is a spiritual tenet that the seed energy (and thus complete blueprint) for anything, whether it’s a tree or a Torah portion, is included in its beginning. Why do you think the Torah begins with the words “In the Beginning?” The 28 letters of the Torah’s first verse house the blueprint for all 5 Books.

Vayetze means “He went out,” but before we explore that, let’s see what the gematria ciphers reveal about the word, because these are the access codes to get into the more secure areas of the cosmic website address “Vayetze.”

The first verse of the Torah portion Vayetze, Bereshit 28:10, is the 784th in the Torah and 784 = 28 squared (or 28 x 28), 28 being not only the number of letters in the Torah’s first verse, but also the number most associated with the year 5778. Indeed, there’s reason to believe that the actual date is 5778.28, as per the book, There’s Nothing Random in the Universe.

Nonetheless, the value of the first word in the verse, Vayetze (ויצא) is 107 and we know that because nothing physical is ever really lost, the true spiritual value of 107 is the sum of all the positive integers through 107, which is 5778. Moreover, the א alef in Vayetze, ויצא is the 3778th in the Torah.

If we permute the alef in Vayetze to Yacov (jacob) and the י yud of Yacov to Vayetze, we get יויצ and אעקב, and since we know from chazal that the עקב in Yacov is the word for heel, which he was holding when he was born (the heel of Esau) and that this reflects the generation of the heel (of Adam), which is our generation, the bottommost and last one, we can now find a clue in that אעקב (עקב) adds up to 173, the small gematria value of the Shem Mem-Bet מ״ב, the 42-Letter Name of God (אנא־בכח Ana B’koach). And the יוי now has the value of 26, that of the Tetragrammaton, which is waiting on top of the ladder (סולם) in Jacob’s famous dream 2 verses later.

There is only one paragraph in this portion, and it encompasses the entire portion, # 63 and we know that 63 is universally associated with the 2nd aspect of the Tetragrammaton (סג) (יוד־הי־ואו־הי ) of numerical value 63 and it represents the פרצוף partzuf of Binah (understanding). To a kabbalist like the Arizal that says it all, and he went on a lengthy discussion of the reasoning that Jacob had to marry Leah first and then Rachel in order to draw down the energy from Binah in the proper order, back-to-back with Jacob who represents Zeir Anpin. But you can read his commentary for yourselves. This blog is all about shedding and shining new light for you.

There is only one other portion that has a single and entire paragraph associated with it and that’s Miketz and paragraph number 77, the numerical value of מזל mazal, fortune, which Jacob finds in that portion when he interprets Pharaoh’s dream. Seeing as there are no coincidences in the Torah, the Torah must be telling us that these two portions are connected somehow. If we add the numerical value of the word Vayetze to Yayehi the first word of each portion, plus the 2 for the kolel of the 2 words/portions, we get 107 + 31 + 2 = 140 = 63 + 77, so there is a definite connection between Jacob going out and Joseph becoming King of the world (more or less). It is the connection between Binah consciousness (understanding) and mazal.

And the point cannot be lost that both these portions begin with dreams, the two most famous in the Torah. An understanding of kabbalah and the structure of the tree-of-life reveals that Joseph is a reflection of his father, Jacob, both of them pivotal central column elements on the trunk of the tree, and that what one did reflected on the other. A few secrets about the central column structure are in order here. First, the first letters of the upper three positions on it Keter-Daat-Tiferet (associated with Jacob) add up to 424, the numerical value of Mashiach Ben David, the Messiah. And the bottom 2 positions Yesod (associated with Joseph) – Malchut, add up to 50, representing both Binah (as in the 50 gates of Binah) and the jubilee year. Together, all 5 central column positions (sefirot/dimensions) add up to 474, the numerical value of Da’at (knowledge), the place we want to access when we go out of ourselves.

Now, while the concept, as explained by the Ari, of the jubilee year (7 X 7 +1) is embedded in both the portion vayetze and Miketz through the 7 by 7 years that Jacob toiled to earn the right to marry Leah and Rachel and through the 7 by 7 fat and lean years in the dream of paragraph 77, the YM sofit combination also has a numerical value of 610, that of מעשר Ma’aser, tithing. This concept of tithing first comes up in this portion of Vayetze, when in Bereshit 28:20 Jacob makes a deal with God to tithe to Him if He’ll watch over him on this journey. And so we see Jacob’s work and journey to/from לבן Laban lasted 21 years, one-tenth (1/10th) of the 210 years that the Israelites, Jacobs’ descendants, had to spend in exile in Egypt. This concept is further emphasized by Jacob’s statement that Laban reduced his wages 10 times. In a sense, Jacob’s tithe made the end of the exile possible, exactly 66.6 jubilee years before the prophesied arrival of the Mashiach in 5778.

The mention of 10 multiple times in the portion causes us to look back to the first 10 letters (seed level) of the portion and we find as before Vayetze Yaacov followed by MB (מ״ב). Interesting, because all the significant journeys in the Torah are divinely governed by the mem-bet (42). And the sum of those 10 letters plus the kolel of 10 is 341, the numerical value of the 3 Mothers (EMSh). as spelled out in the Sefer Yetzirah, whose cyclical ordinal value is 101, as in Michael (the archangel protecting Jacob), the same as the יצא in Yayetze (ויצא). Thus the verse can be read Michael and Jacob journeyed. The 3 Mothers, the 3 primordial letters of creation also correspond with the 3 elements (speckled, spotted, and flecked) and in the odd story where Jacob used 3 types of branches to control nature and change his fortune, but that’s a much deeper secret for those that understand.

So how do we go out, make our own mazal? Tithing is one way and many other answers were provided in The Genesis Prayer, but one important gateway through which flows the living waters, as we’ve sited in previously posts, is hinted at in the words ויצא־יעקב Vayetze Yaacov of numerical value 107 + 182 + 1 (kolel) = 290, which is that of the Resh-Zaddi (רצ) pair at the very center of the 42-Letter name of God. It is also the launch point for Jacob’s ladder (סולם) on which the angels ascended and descended, as explained in that same post (Living waters), 2 verses later.

Jacob worked hard, made a vow to God, kept unwavering faith, and used the spiritual tools of kabbalah; in other words, he went out of his comfort zone. He stepped out of the illusion of reality, out of the illusion of being a victim, and into Binah consciousness. There’s nothing Jacob did that we can’t do today. By trusting in God and taking the initiative, we have everything we need to create our own mazal. But we must take a clue from Jacob; the first thing he did was go out. Like Jacob, we must let go of the physical illusions, take the leap of faith without looking back,and then to the hard work. Not the other way around. Don’t toil and struggle first and then ask God why the results aren’t there. Results from hard work alone only happens for those not on a spiritual path, because their results are all on the physical plane and their path goes in circles. If you’re on a spiritual journey, you need to do the steps in order and to take a clue from the Bible and all the Bible codes, you must begin your journey with the mem-bet, the 42-Letter name of God.