The Torah always presents information to us with great built in redundancy, so it’s not the Torah’s fault if we’re slow on the uptake. For example, did you ever wonder why there were 70 family members who entered Egypt and began the 210 years of exile there while they grew to 600,000? Or why Moses and his siblings had to pass the Torah on to 70 Elders before it could be given to the people, also 600,000 at the time. And you probably didn’t realize that Noah’s sons had 70 named descendants in the Torah, which eventually populated the world.
Ok, so what?
So if the Torah is expressing a distinctive pattern, it’s our obligation to try and figure out why, what he message is. This is the Sod Torah, the secret chambers of the Torah that house the deepest wisdom.
The pattern:
Noach (1) – his 3 sons – 70 descendants
Adam (1) – 3 Patriarchs – 70 family members
G-s (1) – 3 Moses/Aaron/Miriam – 70 Elders
1 -3 -70
1
3
70
The Tree-of-life comes to mind right away:
Keter
Binah – Da’at – Chochma
Gevurah -Chesed
Tiferet
Hod -Netzach
Yesod
Malchut
thus:
1 (Keter)
3 Upper Sefirot
70 Subsefirot of 7 sefirot of Zeir Anpin/Malchut
By the way, the 70 sub-sefirot are naturally bundled this way; it wasn’t some convenient arrangement of ours.
Then, of course, there is 137, the numerical gematria value of Kabbalah, meaning both to receive and also parallel, as in parallel meaning and parallel universe.
As my friend Mordechai pointed out, 1-3-70 is also 1370 as in the 1370 that Chazal tells us the Moslems were to rule over the Jews in merit of their forefather Ishmael (10 years for each of the 137 of his life), which incidentally ended on June 8th, 2002, 1370 years after the death of Mohammad in 632 CE.
Then there is 1 x 3 x 70 = 210 years of exile in Egypt.
Of course, Keter is 1, but it’s also 100 and 100 + 70 + 3 = 173, as in the 173 keys that the Zohar tells us G-d gave to Moses to access Heaven, and allusion to the small gematria value of the 42-Letter Name of G-d, 173.
Let’s put that aside for the moment and see where the 3 column structure of the Tree-of-life takes us. The Arizal explains that all history is based on cycles of the coupling of Zeir Anpin and Malchut (in it’s most simplistic form, Heaven and Earth). These cycles include the 3 times of the day (corresponding to the 3 sets of daily prayers); the 7 days of the weeks; 12 months in a year He further states that in the grand cycle, the destruction of the Second Temple in 3830 HC heralded the end of the coupling of Zeir Anpin and Malchut, which will reoccur in the time of the Third Temple. Interestingly, the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, and the first Temple was destroyed in 3338 HC, or -422 CE, which is germane because 422 is the gematria value of the word seventy (70).
Now, since the 2nd of the 3 periods (columns) of history ended in 3830, if this first 2 periods were split down the middle, each would be 1915 years long. I haven’t found any biblical events that match the year 1915, but Abraham was born 33 years later in 1948.
And similarly, 3830 + 1915 (or alternatively 1915 x 3 periods) = 5745 (1985 CE), which is 33 years before 5778, the year prophesied by Rav Ashlag, etc. for the geula (final redemption) and the arrival of Moshiach and the 3rd Tree-of-life opportunity.
Nevertheless, we know that the 70 years of King David’s life is tied into the whole Mashiach calendar and that the midpoint of his life in 2889 HC is exactly halfway between Adam (0) and Moshaich in 5778 HC, and so we should see see how his life compares with the 3 periods of 1915 years. As it happens, half way between the first 1915 year period and the the second at 3830 is the year 2872 and half of 33 years later is 2889, alternatively David was born 33/2 years before 2872 in 2854 HC.
So why the 33 years?
Is it because it’s 1/3 of 100 (keter)? Or because it’s 1 more than the 32 Paths of Wisdom (Tree-of-life). Or is it something deeper, some link/path/gateway that G-d wants us to find on our own. After all, the square root of 33 is 57.45, as in 3 x 1915 = 5745.
Couldn’t be, right? Square roots factoring into G-d’s Divine calendar?
Well, maybe, considering that the square root of 1370 = 37.01, and the gematria value of the 42-Letter Name is 3701. And speaking of the 42-Letter Name, whose small gematria value if you recall was 173, the square root of 3 is 1.73.
Nevertheless, 33 is 2/3 or .666 of the 50-year biblical jubilee year, which the Torah commands us (starting back in 2448 HC at Mt Sinai) to count, until the arrival of Moshiach 3330 (66.6 jubilee) years later.
Now the Divine Calendar is so designed so that Abraham would be born in 1948 HC, and Israel would become a nation in 1948 CE and that 1948 years after the destruction of the Second Temple in 3830, we’d get the 3rd opportunity for the Tree-of-life reality in 5778, which is 2018 CE, 70 years after Israel became a nation, just as it was 70 years after Abraham was born in 1948, that G-d made his Covenant with Abraham (in 2018 HC).
But if that isn’t enough, it was also so designed so that the square root of the year the First Holy Temple was destroyed, 3338 is 57.78, and moreover that the square root of 5778 is 76.0 and 76.6 jubilee years is 3830, when the Second Holy Temple was destroyed.
So G-d had a plan for us all along, and a time table, a very specific one it seems, down to the square roots, so let’s take another look at the 1-3-70 progression. And it turns out that the sum of their respective square roots is 11.1, as in the numerical value of the 1st Hebrew Letter, Alef (ELP), 111, which leads us back to 1 (One). But as for the progression and the cyclical coupling of Zeir Anpin and Malchut, the Arizal explains that the 600,000 Jewish souls at Mt Sinai can trace their soul root back through the 70 members through the 12 sons through the 3 Patriarchs to Adam, meaning:
600,000/70/12/3 = 238.095
and
238.095 = 1/42
=
The atomic weight of
Uranium238
These are just a few of the secrets revealed in just one of the Torah’s many chambers. But buried beneath this chamber of history is another chamber, with deeper secrets, with clues to the 4th Period of History, he one to come. We’ll open the seal on that chamber in our next post…
Ezra
