The 44th President of the United States has just been sworn in (twice, the second time without the Bible), about 66.6 jubilee years (Biblical 50-year interval) years after the 10 plagues and 8 years shy of the year 5778 when the tzaddikim have prophesied Moshiach and the geula (final redemption) will come.
It’s mandatory to celebrate Passover (Pesach) every year and recount the story of the exodus, including the explicit listing of the 10 plagues. Why? Is it just so we don’t forget? Wouldn’t it be better to instead concentrate on the 10 miracles G-d performed for the Israelites on their way to receiving the 10 Commandments and the Torah in 2448?
A most common form of Torah analysis performed by the sages is to examine the first letters of key word groupings, phrases, or verses. And for what it’s worth, the sum of the nominal value of the initials of our 44th President, Barak Hussein Obama (B,Ch,E) is 11, but certainly more significant is the sum of the nominal value of the initials of the 11 words that comprise the 10 plagues, which is 541, the numerical value of the name Israel.
Israel is not only the last word in the Torah, but Israel was arguably formed out of the end of the exile immediately precipitated by the 10 plagues, especially the last plague, the killing of the firstborn, whose initials are Mem-Bet.
Mem-Bet is not only the Name of the 42-Letter Name of G-d, profoundly associated with the time of redemption, but it is named justly because it has the numerical value of 42, as in the 42 places the Israelites traveled through on their way out of Egypt to the Promised Land. And according to chazal, including the Baal Shem Tov, as in the steps our souls make on their way to redemption.
It’s very important to note that the 10 plagues were executed just as much to wake up the Israelites as the Egyptians. The Egyptians had to let got of their physical belongings, but the Israelites had to embrace the spiritual, a step that is just as hard. The 10 plagues were signs for them, just as we are receiving signs ourselves today
That said, the first letter of the 40 letters in the 10 plagues is dalet, with the numerical value of 4, as in the number of letters in Tetragrammaton (YHVH) and in the Name of G-d, Ehyeh, the Name used in “I am that I am.”
“I am” was what President Obama answered when sworn in for the 2nd time–when he wasn’t using a Bible. When the fuller progressive form of Ehyeh is calculated “I am” has a numerical value of 44. And by the way, Asher (EShR) as in “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” (“I am that I am”) has the same numerical value as Barak Hussein Obama (בּרק חוסיין אובּאמה) which is also the same as the initials of the 10 plagues if the last one is considered a single letter (דצ”ך עד”ש באח”ב).
Is this all coincidence?
The first plague, dam, blood, is spelled dalet-mem, which is numerically 4 plus 40 or 44.
The deeper secret is in the blood. The first plague is Dam (dalet-mem), whose first letter is dalet. The first letter of the last plague is Mem, thus the whole 10 plagues can be collapsed in abbreviated form into dam, the first plague. Not only does mem, complete the word dam, but it in effect encompasses and represents the full 40 letters in the 10 plagues. Please note that that means that there are an exact average of 40/10 = 4 letters per plague, the numerical value of dalet.
We use the word encompasses here because the final mem is not only shaped like a closed womb, but according to the sages it is supposed to represent one as well, and if we subtract the numerical value of dam (blood) from that of Da’at, we get 474 – 44 equals 430, both the numerical value of nefesh, (the animalistic or lower part of the soul), which the sages tell us is housed in the blood, and the number of years the Jews were in exile through the end of the 10 plagues in 2448.
And from the womb flows both the blood of judgment unto the Egyptians and the mercy to the Jews in the birth of the Israel. Please note that the bleeding or menstruating womb is considered the height of serious judgment, according to the Zohar (Shemot). The bleeding womb also refers to the death of the first born.
We know from the sages (chazal) that the Passover passage out of Egypt was about Da’at, the serifa (dimension) of balance and knowledge, and that it was represented in the dalet of dam, the first letter of the first plague. Furthermore, dalet, when spelled out, has the numerical value of 434, while da’at has the numerical value of 474, leaving a difference of 40, between them, the numerical value of mem, showing us that the full word dam, blood, is included in Da’at.
It’s all about Four (4)
While many of the significant mandated elements of Pesach (Passover) including the 4 questions, the 4 cups of wine, the 4 sons, the 4 aspects of the Tetragrammaton and the 4 letters in it, and also in the name Eyheh, we been told by the sages that they correspond to the 4 exiles, which are finally coming to a close, the last one after 1948 years.
The first plague, blood (dam), is spelled dalet-mem, with the first letter having the numerical value of 4, and the next letter having the value of 40, or 10 x 4. Meanwhile, not only does the first letter of the last plague, the killing of the first born, also have the value of 40, but there are 40 letters in the 10 plagues, making 4 the exact average number of letters per plague. And while the final letter of the 10 plagues is 400 or 10 x 40, the second plague, frogs, has a numerical value of 444, or 4 x 111, the numerical value of Alef, the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet and Ehyeh, (and in Obama for that matter).
Moreover, as mentioned earlier, the 4 letters of the Name Ehyeh, (EHYH)—the Name revealed to Moses just prior to the plagues–can be expanded to 10 letters through progressive method– sometimes called squaring–to (E, EH, EHY, EHYH), which is numerically equivalent to 44, the same as dam, blood, the first plague.
The connection to 4 for Pesach and the 10 plagues at the end of the 1st exile is interesting because 10 is an extension both numerically and spiritually of 4. Numerically, the 4th triangular number has a value of 10, just as 10 is the sum of the first 4 integers, as in 1+2+3+4 = 10.
Spiritually, both the 4 letters of the Tetragrammaton and of the Name Eyheh when expanded by spelling them out have 10 letters each. Moreover, as we mentioned earlier, Passover is about da’at, which begins with the letter dalet, of numerical value 4, while da’at is a sefira or dimension that combines the dimensions of Chochma and Binah, whose numerical values of its initials (Bet and Chet) 8 and 2 add up to 10. And which also happens to be the initials of Barak Hussein (Bet and Chet).
So in a sense we see the 10 plagues extending throughout the 4 exiles, for a total of 40, as in the 40 letters in the 10 plagues., yet another reason it’s mandated we read the haggada and review all the plagues, etc every year throughout the various exiles.
The plagues didn’t just happen 66.6 jubilee years ago, they’ve been reoccurring continually throughout the 4 exiles in one form or another. Just witness the example of the first plague, dam, blood, there have been many times in these past 3330 years when tens and even hundreds of thousands have died and rivers of blood have flowed.
The 10 Plagues were Planned at the Beginning of Time.
While the 11 words of the 10 plagues correspond to the 11 unique letters in the first verse of the Torah, the first 4 letters of the Torah have an ordinal value of 44, the same as Dam, the first plague. It’s broken down to 2 for the first letter, Bet (2) and 42 for the next 3 letters (Resh, Alef, Shin), which spells Asher yet again, as in the 42-letter Name.
The next 2 letters, completing the entire first word of the Torah, Bereshit, “In the Beginning” have an ordinal value of 32, as in the value of the 4 components of the letter Alef, connecting, as we’ve discussed in other blogs, to the 32 Paths of Wisdom that define the structure of the universe and that house the 10 sefirot (dimensions).
When we add them together, we get numerically 76, square root of 5778, and the value of the fully expanded Tetragrammaton at the highest level of Av (chochma), but alphabetically they spell out Alef-Dalet-Mem, or Adam.
Adam (Alef-dam) represents the first flesh and blood incarnation of the Jewish soul, the source of which, as we’ve written about in other articles, is in the primordial Alef that exists before the Torah, and dam, or blood, represents both the flesh and the flow of the lower soul (nefesh) throughout time, throughout the generations.
With Alef as the source, we can note that the 11 initials of the 10 plagues have an ordinal value of 100 and if we add 11 as the kolel to 100 we get 111, the numerical value of the name of the letter Alef. And once again, we have the union or fusion of the primordial Alef as the head of the Dam, just like ADAM.
Another analogy to the connection between the Alef, whose sum total of its 4 components letters is 32, and the 10 plagues and moreover to the initials of the final plague, Mem-Bet, is provided by Rabbi Chaim Vittal of blessed Memory. The eminent sage explained that the 10 sefirot (dimensions) plus the 32 Paths of Wisdom that link them together form the structure of the greater universe and together they comprise the 42-Letters of the 42-Letter Name, the Shem Mem-Bet.
As explained in detail in The Genesis Prayer, the first verse of the Torah is where the Shem Mem-Bet, or the 42-Letter Name of G-d, is derived from, and if we take the sum of the numerical values of the first letter of each of the 7 words of that first verse, 22—obviously representative of the 22 normal letters of the Hebrew alphabet—and add it to the ordinal value of those same 7 letters, 22, we get 22 + 22 = 44, once again, the value of the first plague, dam, blood.
Incidentally, and again as discussed in detail in The Genesis Prayer, the first verse of the Torah is integrally connected in multiple ways to both the numerical value of Mashiach, the Messiah, 358 and to the mathematical constant PI to an astounding precision. One of the simplest ways is through the average value of those 7 letters, 22/7 or 3.14.
Now, if we think this is coincidence we need only examine the full first 10 letters of the Torah and see that the sum of their ordinal values also equals 100 (keter, the crowning highest dimension), the exact same 100 as the sum of the ordinal values of the first letters of the 10 plagues. And since the 10 plagues has 11 first letters, yet another connection to the Torah’s first verse is found in that amongst the 28 letters of that verse, also an average of exactly 28/7 = 4 letters per word, there are only 11 unique (non-recurring) letters.
Moreover, as mentioned earlier, the sum of the nominal value of those same 11 letters is 541, the numerical value of the name Israel, the last word in the Torah.
The process of gematria computation allows us to subtract the kolel as well as add it and though I rarely use that approach, in this case if we subtract the ordinal value from the initial letters of the plagues from their standard numerical values they are equal to (541 – 100) = 441, which is the numerical value of emet, truth, an allusion to the Torah, to the 42-Letter Name of G-d, and to the Tree-of-life structure of the universe with its 32 paths and 10 sefirot.
Moreover, 441 = 212, or as pointed out by chazal, is the square of the numerical value of the higher Name of G-d, Ehyeh. And the sum of the two Ehyeh that form Emet and that form “I am that I am” Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” add up to 21 + 21 = 42.
Since the first letters of the final plague are Mem-bet and since the sum of all the first letters of all 10 plagues (11 words) is 541, the numerical value of Israel, one interpretation is that the 10 plagues and 42 places lead to Israel.
Another is that it will take 10 plagues, corresponding to the 10 sefirot (dimensions), the existence of Israel, and the understanding of the Shem Mem-Bet (Ana B’koach) to reach the geula (final redemption), as chazal has suggested.
The 10 plagues today have as much significance for us today as they had for the Israelites 66.6 jubilee years ago and the signs around the 44th Presidency are just that: signs. We’re not suggesting anything sinister (G-d forbid) we’re saying that they are signs to help us take notice that immense pressures and changes our coming, and if history Bible are our guides they will come in increasing waves.
Let’s read the signs and be prepared. As we did 3330 years ago, we need to let go and embrace the spiritual. To be continued, as we see what the 10 plagues mean for us today with the 44th President and how they connect to the year 5778 (2018 CE), the year the Covenant of Abraham gets fulfilled.