It had rained for 2 days straight and with the flood water rising in my backyard, I was reading the Zohar on parsha Noach last night, and not surprisingly there are many insights there into the nature of water.
What is in the water we drink? How long can we go without a glass of water. When we fast on Yom Kippur and Tish B’av what are we depriving ourselves of, restricting from. Is it just from our physical desires?
Genesis (Bereshit) 7:4 “And it rained upon the earth for 40 days and 40 nights…”
From Exodus (Shemot) 24:18 ” And Moshe entered into the midst of the cloud…Moshe came to the cloud where Elohim was…Moshe was on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights.”
What was so important about there being 40 days and 40 nights? If the Torah had told us only about 40 days or 40 nights we would have inferred the other without a second thought.
Why was there a front side 40 and a backside 40?
Both the rains the clouds are comprised wholly of water, the essence of life. Moreover, they are both water from above, from on high if you will.
Mayim, water is spelled MYM which each mem (M) having a value of 40, a front side 40 and a backside 40.
In between the two mems (MM) is the letter yud (Y), which mimics the actual physical construction of the water molecule, H2O, two hydrogen atoms and one Oxygen one in the center. If we assume a divine plan to life, then we can assume that the HOH is spiritually connected and represented by HVH, the Hebrew equivalent. And then if we add that to mayim, MYM, we get MEM (MM) and YHVH, the Tetragrammaton.
Now it just so happens the the letter Mem (MM) in gematria sofit (final letter) is 640 and YHVH is always 26, so (MM and YHVH) can very well equal 640 + 26 = 666. And thus 666 can be the symbol of life giving waters of Hashem (God).
Moreover, the spelled-out letter Mem (MM) has the ordinal value of 26, again that of the YHVH, the ineffable Name of G-d.
The actual molecular structure would be M(YHVH)M, and it would help explain why there is no physical life without water.
Why is the very first thing we learn after hearing that “G-d created Heaven and Earth” in Genesis 1:1 that in Genesis 1:2 “He hovered above the waters?” We can write endlessly as to what this means, but the 21st word in the Torah is “the waters, ” mentioned even before “the Light,” stressing its importance.
This would also explain the extraordinary similarities between water (MYM) and KIng (MLC), both of which have the numerical value of 90, and the ordinal value of 36, which together are each 90 + 36 =126, which is also 126 = 3 x 42, as in the 42-Letter Name of G-d (Shem Mem-bet). another secret of 126 is that it is also 100 + 26, or the value of keter, the highest spiritual level and 26, the YHVH.
Moreover, the gematria atbash (reverse alphabet cipher) of water, MYM is YMY, is of numerical value 60, while the gematria atbash of Melech, king (MLC) is (YCL) or 60 as well. And the small (gematria katan) value of each is also the same, 4+1+4 = 9 = 4+3+2. And similarly in E’bG’d gematria, where each letter is switched for the next highest ordinal value letter, the values of the two 3-letter words become 50+20+50 = 120 = 50+40+30.
And while there are other similarities we’ll just note that the gematria of both words is also 400+100+400 = 900 = 400 + 300 + 200, with 900 being the value of the final final letter in the Alef-bet (alphabet), Zaddi, who also has the value of 90, which as you recall was the original simple value of both water and king.
There are no other word pairs with such similar spiritual structures, and of course, Hashem is known as the King, the King of Kings. In kabbalistic spirituality, the more alike something is in form the shorter the distance between them and the stronger the ties/bonds between them. Between King and Water there’s very little distance, one hovering above the other.
But back to water itself, If we spell out the letters in mayim, we get MM, YVD, MM whose simple value is 80 + 20 + 80 = 180, which is 10 x 18, and 18 is the value of the the Hebrew word, chai, life, and thus symbolizes life throughout the 10 dimensions (serifot). Life from water! And it’s no coincidence that the square root of 18 is 4.242640, or Maschiah Ben David (424), YHVH (26) and 40.
And while the mem-yud spelled out has the value (100), that of Keter, the crown, the highest sefira/dimension, the final mem (MM) can be thought of as the 40 days and 40 nights.
So knowing that G-d (YHVH) is in the water and that water is connected to the highest spiritual level and purity, what do you think happens when we contaminate and pollute our water? What spiritual message do you think that is sending to the universe? Wouldn’t that be figuratively like throwing (G-d forbid, Has v’shalom) garbage at G-d. So what does that say about us and our readiness to receive the Mashiach, the Messiah.
When we restrict from drinking water in our fasts, we are reminding ourselves how important it is to have G-d, Hashem, in our lives, how our sustenance and survival is dependent upon it. But of course, we must understand why we are restricting before we can reap the benefits. There have been may scientific tests that show water is indeed sensitive at the structural level to different energy (vibes). So rather than restricting a couple days of years, let’s restrict the whole year from negativity, from polluting the waters of the earth physically and spiritually. Like attracts like; like below is above. Moses attracted the Clouds-of-glory. Noach’s generation attracted the devastating flood waters. The erev rav got 40 years in the desert for their lack of faith. And our generations? We invented acid rain. We need to do better.
The word “the heavens,” H’Shama’im, the 5th word in the Torah (Bible), contains the word water (mayim). Is that a coincidence too? Mayim (water) is repeated twice within the first 2 verses of the Torah, in the 5th (H’Shama’im) and in the 21st word, the waters H’mayim. Together, 5 + 21 = 26, the value of the YHVH. Together the numerical value of the full two words is equivalent to that of H’Shechinah and to “The KING, a complicated concept that in simple terms refers to the integration of the male and female aspects of G-d and the universe in harmony, the mutual giving and receiving in purity. Numerically, it’s 395 + 95 + 26 (kolel for the ordinal; word value) =516, the number of times Moses needed to pray in order to bring H’Mashiach, the Messiah.
Now here is another deep secret, a deep Bible code if you will. In known by chazal that the waters that split the Red Sea (See of Reeds) were programmed to do so since the dawn of creation. The first mention of water in the Torah is in the word H’Shama’im in the Torah’s 1st verse. The letters for water (MYM) are the 19th, 20, and 21st letters in the Torah, and the 3 verses of the splitting of the Red Sea, the 3 sequential verses of 72 letters from which the 72 Names of G-d are derived, are Exodus (Shemot) 14:19, 20, and 21.
As it was in the beginning, G-d hovers above the waters. The waters are a powerful direct connection we have to G-d; let’s use them in a positive way, in the pure way they were meant to be used. And let’s bring about the Moshiach in our generation.
The Torah gives us a final clue to how we can help purify the waters again, physically and spiritually, and that is found int eh number of times the word water (mayim) is found in one form or another in the Torah. It’s found 173 times and 173 is the small gematria value of the 42-Letter name of G-d, (the Shem Mem-Bet, also known as the Ana B’koach).