The Journeys of our Lives

These are the journey(s) of our lives. In the Torah portion Masei, we encounter the list of the 42 journeys the Israelites took during their 40 years in the desert including exiting the exile in Egypt at Pi-Haratha to entering the Promised Land. The tzaddikim, including most notably the Baal Shem Tov, have told us that these journeys parallel the journeys each of us must undertake to return our souls to G-d in purity, and also that these mimic the journeys that we all take collectively from the moment of Creation to the geula (final redemption).
The 42 places were separated from each other by the prefixes to (Bet) and from (Mem) and also by the word journey (VYSAV). The prefixes M and B, together have the value 42 and also reference the 42-Letter Name (the Shem MB), while the word journey (VYSAV) is repeated 42 times in this section of the Book of Numbers, chapter 33. It is repeated another 17 times, the numerical value of the Hebrew word tov, meaning good, throughout the rest of the Torah, for a total of 59 times.
The word journey (VYSAV) is interestingly constructed, as it can be split into VYS of numerical value 76 and then AV also of numerical value 76, and when we multiply 76 x 76 we get 5776, plus 2 for the kolel of the two 76’s gives us 5778, the year the tzaddikim have indicated for the arrival of the Moshiach (Messiah) and the geula.
This makes sense to readers of this blog and of “The Divine Calendar” and “There’s Nothing Random in the Universe,” as we’ve already seen a preponderance of evidence for the date 5778 (2018 CE), but within the context of the 42 journeys, let’s look back to Creation, where the 42 Letter Name comes from (the first verse of the Torah and the first 42 letters of the Torah).
Before we do that we should mention that when we add the 14 times the word “will journey” without the final vav (VYSA) to the 59 times the word journeyed (VYSAV) is used, we get a total of 73 times in the Torah that the word “journey” is mentioned, which is interesting because the small gematria value of the upper 42 Letter Name is 159 and that of the lower one is 173, and the unification of the two brings about the redemption.
This is significant for several reasons: 1) 73 is the numerical value of the sefira/dimension of Chochma (wisdom); 2) The total gematria of the Torah’s first verse is 2701, which is equivalent to the sum of all the positive integers through 73; and 3) The number 9 divided by the written out small gematria of the 42 letters is equal to 73.1415777, a graphic combination of the number 73, the mathematical constant Pi (3.14159…) and the year 5777 (5778).
Thus through the 73 times the word journey is utilized in the Torah, the journey is anchored at the moment of Creation, and extended outward from there, theoretically ending in 5778, So let’s take the year 5776 derived directly from the word “journeyed (VYSAV)” and we see that when we take it back to Creation through 5776/42 we get 137.5238… with 137 being the numerical value of Kabbalah, meaning “to receive” and both 52 and 238 (Rachel) represent Malchut.
It’s all connected, as explained in “The Genesis Prayer,” 137 and 73 are both reciprocals of one another as 1/73 = .0137 and visa-versa, and the total gematria value of the torah’s first verse, 2701 is 73% of that of the 42-Letter Name, 3701.
137 is also the numerical value of the name of the angel of the Torah, Yofiel, and like all the angels represents a specific energy that we feel, yet cannot begin to grasp. Likewise, Metatron, chief of the Archangels, guardian of knowledge and the Throne of G-d, has the numerical value of 314, the same as the mathematical value of Pi (3.14159265358…). He is the key to all Creation, permeates all our existence, and yet is totally beyond our comprehension. When G-d created our world, he first set forth these specific energies as a basis for matter and life to feed off of, a dynamic scaffolding of sorts.
It’s not coincidence that physicists see the universe as 13.7 Billion years old.
Within the name Metatron (MTtTtRVN) we have the double letter tet-tet, which the Zohar explains has the numerical value 18 and thus is chai (life), but this is also the marker for the end of our cycle, for as I explained it to my children, the end of the time-out Adam was given as punishment for forsaking the tree-of-life for the momentary pleasure of the tree-of-knowledge of good and evil.
For you see, as fully explained in the book “There’s Nothing Random in the Universe,” the other primordial mathematical constant that guides life and the universe, Phi (1.61803399…), when raised to the power of 18, in other words (Phi X Phi X Phi X Phi X Phi X Phi X Phi X Phi X Phi X Phi X Phi X Phi X Phi X Phi X Phi X Phi X Phi X Phi), equals 5778.000.
And the letters that are left in his name (MRVN) add up numerically to 296, that of “the Earth (HERZ),” the final word in the Torah’s first verse, the verse which, as detailed in “The Genesis Prayer,” also equates to Pi (3.14155) through a simple gematria operation and also in a dozen other ways.
And while we know from “There’s Nothing Random in the Universe” that Pi is also intimately connected to the date 5778, we can also apply the same formula we did with Phi and see that Pi raised to the power of 18 can be divided by 666.52 squared to equal 2000, the Hebrew year 5760, which is 18 years prior to 5778 (2018 ce), and is the year that Rav Abraham Azulai of blessed memory advised the period of Oy and Ashray would begin.
These are the journeys of chai (life), our individual lives and our collective life as a people. In the Hebrew days of the week there are collectively 28 letters, connecting them to the 28 letters of the Torah’s first verse as well, and they add up to exactly 3000 in gematria, as explained in the dailyzohar.com. If we take the 7^th day as “the seventh (HShBYAY)” instead of Shabbat, then the total gematria, including the kolel of 6 for the 6 preceding days, is 2701, the same as that of the Torah’s first verse. By the way, the two variations together, 2701 + 3000 + the 7 days = 5708, the year Israel became a nation, 70 years before 5778, with 70 being the expansion of the 7 days through the 10 sefirot (dimensions).
Every week is another opportunity to connect to the full energy of Creation through redemption. Every week that passes is a missed opportunity.
Every week we pass through another cycle of 7, another journey, and must ask ourselves what we learned about ourselves that brought us closer to G-d, through awe, love, or appreciation, that brought us closer to ending out time-out. In explaining it to my children when they asked about it, it was simple. You get time-out from your father when you’ve done something wrong because he loves you and wants you to learn from your mistake (with mercy), and when the time out is over, if you’ve been good, realize the error of your ways, and are in a good place, the time out is over; if not, it gets prolonged.
And to bring it full circle, the square root of 5778/(7 day cycle) = 28.730… as in the 28 letters and the sum of the 73 integers in the Torah’s first verse, from which Creation stems. But we have the cycles of our years, lives, generations and jubilee years (7 X 7 +1 years) to contend with as well. We must use them all to work on ourselves.
5778 years is a long time-out, for us anyway. Let’s make sure we’re in a good place, have realized the error of our ways and are ready to embrace G-d (Our Father) and the tree-of-life reality when it ends.
When the Israelites, left Egypt and stood at Sinai, and last had the opportunity of receiving immortality and the Tree-of-life reality through a reprieve in the time-out, the year was 2448, 66.6 jubilee years before 5778, and 42.4% of the way to 5778. 424 is the numerical value of Mashiach Ben David. There are no coincidences in G-d timetable, His actions, or His Torah. Let’s not let doubts overcome us as they did our ancestors at Sinai.
Spirituality (the realization of the tree-of-life reality) doesn’t just happen; it takes work and time, which is why G-d gave us so much of both. So let’s not find ourselves staring down at 5778, and looking back, saying, “if only He had given us more time.”
Chodesh Tov.
It’s Rosh Chodesh Av, the month controlled by the influence of the Sun, as explained by Abraham, the Patriarch, in the Sefer Yetzirah. This is the Sun, whose surface temperature is 5778 K. Let’s connect to the energy that G-d has given us, and come out of our time-out better for having had lived through it.
Ezra