This past erev Shabbat, the father of a friend passed away. It was the hillula of 3 powerful tzaddiks, students of the Baal Shem Tov, so I knew something was up. I never knew his father, but from the moment I entered the synagogue I did. And one after another, first family, then friends, then strangers who no one else there new, gave heart warming speeches of the good actions this humble man did. Person after person listed what he did for them, very often anonymously, educations paid for, business help and advice, synagogues built by money and his own physical strength, homes (including his own) provided for people, all from very humble beginnings. This man, Mark Loren, Meyer Ben Dovid, may he have a quick ascent to the Garden of Eden, hailed from a prominent chasidic lineage, lived in a modern orthodox world, and lived the life of a true tzaddik. He never settled. He took actions. He confronted and conquered any evil inclinations he might have had and he prepared the world, more than most any of us, for the arrival of Moshiach.
Just listening to the eulogies everyone was inspired to do more and be better. The same lessons are encoded for us in the Torah. Some (very few) people are born awake; the rest of us have a lot more work to do on ourselves just to wake up and begin our life’s work. The encoding in the Torah helps us to awaken if we pay attention.
There are 4 Torah portions, where the story of Joseph is told: Vayeshev (VYShB), Miketz (MKZ), Vayigesh (VYGSh), and Vayechi (VYChY). The saga begins with chapter 37 and the announcement that Joseph is 17 years old, has his dream, is thrown in the pit by his brothers, sold off, and separated from his father Jacob. It ends 13 chapters later with chapter 50, when he died and was placed in a sarcophagus at the age of 110, 37 years shy of the age attained by Jacob, who after entering Egypt at the age of 130, lived his final 17 years at peace and in Egypt reunited with Joseph.
Why do we mention these numbers? Because the Torah does. Joseph and Jacob’s lives were so intertwined that Joseph died only 13 verses after burying his father, even though he was only 55 at the time of his father’s death and lived another 55 years.
With the 21 years that Joseph spent separated from Jacob, and the total 17 + 17 = 34 years that Jacob and Joseph spent together and Joseph’s connection to Chanukah (numerical value 89) through the value of his name (156) and the cumulative 156 total candles we light each Chanukah, we curiously have the numerical structural sequence of 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, which, if you haven’t recognized it, has the pattern that the sum of the two previous numbers equals the subsequent one (13+21 = 34; 21+34 = 55; 55+34 = 89 and then 55+89= 144 or 12 squared, as in the 12 tribes/brothers). It’s known as the famous Fibonacci sequence, the one based on the golden or Phi proportion that controls all harmonic spirally growth in the universe, and that spells out the date 5778 (as detailed in The Divine Calendar).
We should note for the skeptics that the first letters (VYShB, MKZ, VYGSh, VYChY) of the 4 portions total 58 and have an ordinal value of 31, giving them a complete value of 89, so inserting this we get 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89.
As for the names of the 4 portions, which we know always contain the spiritual energy of the portions (VYShB, MKZ, VYGSh, VYChY) we see the initials of the Shem Mem-bet (the 42-Letter Name) concealed within the first two, as well as the word “and Mashiach (V’MSHYCh)” throughout all 4 (VYShB, MKZ, VYGSh, VYChY). And if we take their total value plus 4 for the kolel (318+230+319+34) + 4 = 905 and subtracts “V’Mashiach (V’MSHYCh)” we get 905 – 364 = 541, the numerical value of Israel, Jacob’s other appellation. Thus the 4 verses of Jacob and Joseph’s relationship collectively spell out “Israel and Mashiach.”
Is there truth in this? There must be, because the first letters of the 4 portions added up to 58 or (100 – 42) and the last letters of the 4 portions add up to 402, leaving the 7 middle letters to sum to 441, the numerical value of Emet (truth), and an appellation of the Shem mem-Bet.
Now, while the total value of the 4 portions, 901 plus the kolel of 2 for Jacob and Joseph = 903, which we know is the sum of all the positive integers through 42, lets put the math and their obvious connection to the 42-Letter Name, which chazal tells us will help us to bring Moshiach, aside and examine the spiritual component of the verses.
As for the number 901, there are exactly 90,100 yuds, heys, and vavs in the Torah, making 14,028 Tetragrammatons (YHVH’s), which is significant for multiple reasons detailed in The Genesis Prayer, but for now, suffice to say that the sum of all the positive integers through 424 (the value of Mashiach Ben David) is 90,100, indicating once again the divine perfection of the Torah in its entirety and in all it’s details, and also G-d’s benevolent wishes for us to connect with the Messiah.
