Gematria: Getting Down to the Wire

17 Elul 5776

The pressure's on! Only two more weeks to go, and Mashiach hasn't been identified yet as far as I know. Too many gematrias (gematrioth if you're good at Hebrew) point to 5776 as the year he will show up on Jewish "radar." The radar part is my interpretation, not what was said.

 Also take a look at this video: the Temple will come down to Yerushalayim in 5776.

My husband and I wrote an article back about 2013-ish, an exercise in interpreting gematria that even R' Pinchas Winston had nothing bad to say about - we had it posted under his video Geulah b'Rachamim, thinking they went well together, and published it on our personal web site. (I'm not adding a link to it here because hubby redesigned the site and hasn't put any articles back in. The Wayback Machine doesn't have it either. If my husband finds it, bli neder I will post it next. If not, then I'll continue with more writing I have had in mind for a while.) It was inspired by a teaching by R' Ephraim Sprecher, that in Parashath Behar, Vayikra 25:10 the gematria of the word tashuvu  תשבו (missing a vav (ו) - we know it through the nikud) comes out to 708, referring to the rebirth of the State of Israel.

י וְקִדַּשְׁתֶּם אֵת שְׁנַת הַחֲמִשִּׁים שָׁנָה וּקְרָאתֶם דְּרוֹר בָּאָרֶץ לְכָל ישְׁבֶיהָ יוֹבֵל הִוא תִּהְיֶה לָכֶם וְשַׁבְתֶּם אִישׁ אֶל אֲחֻזָּתוֹ וְאִישׁ אֶל מִשְׁפַּחְתּוֹ תָּשֻׁבוּ

10 And you shall sanctify the fiftieth year, and proclaim freedom [for slaves] throughout the land for all who live on it. It shall be a Jubilee for you, and you shall return, each man to his property, and you shall return, each man to his family.

My husband's question was: How do we know it was in 5708, since the gematria was 708? It could have been in any of the past or future millennia. To find the answer, he and I went through all the millennia from Creation - the years 708, 1708, 2708 and so on, up to 6708 (which hasn't happened yet) searching for events that could answer 1) the gematria, and 2) the context of the verse it occurs in (in this case, sanctifying the Yovel, or Jubilee, year), and came to the conclusion that 5708 was the answer because of the major event that occurred in that year, the announcement of the rebirth of the State of Israel. All the rest of the millennia didn't have such a clear event to point to.



In the next two weeks we shall see whether the gematriot that have been put forth as possibly indicating Mashiach's identification in 5776 come true. Prior to this we can never know. And even if it doesn't...we must wait expectantly, and not give up! There's always 5777!

Meanwhile, the King is in the field, and we must go out to meet Him...!

Valuable Post: The Day We Decided to Win, by Emily Amrousi

8 Elul 5776

Blogger's Note: I have not had a lot of time to write articles myself this summer; I have plans for a series after this month is over. Meanwhile, I hope that the State of Israel will consider and take the excellent advice hinted to below.

It would be a step in the right direction even if this is not our ultimate government. Do I really believe they will take it? I don't know. It is a matter of fact and not opinion whether they do or not. Bottom line, it is a matter of whether they truly care about the survival of any state of the Jews, and in particular, the only one that exists. If they don't, I believe their role will be "overtaken by events" at some point. Meaning, it will be left out of the Geulah Shlemah (complete redemption). I hope the Absolute Truth blog is right on what he's saying there. But if not, I'll keep waiting.

I have enhanced the article a bit with links (except the two to Israel haYom, which are original), pictures and commentary [between brackets; just a couple of questions for Ms. Amrousi.]

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Iconic photograph from the expulsion of Gush Katif & the northern Shomron. (Oded Balilty, AP)

The day we decided to win
by Emily Amrousi for Israel HaYom
 

On the day that the State of Israel decided to win, infantry units entered schools in the Palestinian[*] Authority, confiscated all the existing textbooks and left in their place piles of freshly printed Arabic textbooks. Paratroopers took down the monuments in memory of martyrs that stood at the entrances to villages, and soldiers in the Intelligence Corps set up digital whiteboards and computers in all the classrooms. 

On the day that we decided to win, we left the murderers without a community: The imams in the mosques were disconnected from their microphones; Palestinian television was taken off the air; and anyone who made a post in the evening inciting to murder had their water turned off by the following morning. Those praising the murderers were arrested and put on trial. The echoing voice that led the propaganda movement, calling Jews rats and pigs, rapists and murderers, was put to rest. 

On that day, when Israel decided to win, we were sorry for the Palestinian who helped the children of the Mark family when they were injured in a terrorist attack and then had to appear in interviews with his face blurred and his voice distorted. We began to understand the culture of death in which he lives: There are many Israelis, including settlers, who help Palestinians, and none of them have to hide their faces. 

On the day that we decided to win, we carried out thousands of demolition orders for illegal buildings in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria. We prevented the transfer of funds to security prisoners. We entered Palestinian Authority territory as needed. We did not enter when it was not necessary. We were sovereign. 

[Wouldn't granting any territory to them, within that which was granted us, be abdicating sovereignty? - this is how the Arabs seem to have always understood it; they have not and will not give up trying to take over all of the land, at least as long as they have help from the European Union and the United Nations. Have we not yet learned our lesson?]

I took this picture in April 2015 (during hol hamo'ed Pesah 5775) on a field trip with Regavim. Look for the small blue-and-white stickers, which are the European Union's signature on this "shantytown" near Ma'ale Adumim. - CDG

We spread out a map of the land and marked large swathes of it for construction. Tens of thousands of housing units in Jerusalem, in the greater Jerusalem area, on the way from the capital city to the Dead Sea, between Gush Dan and the Jordan Valley. In Ariel and Maaleh Adumim, in Beit El and in Gush Etzion. The bubble burst and real estate prices dropped throughout the nation. On the day that we decided to win, we stopped the trial of Elor Azaria; a circus of a trial that has left an IDF soldier alone in the ring. Azaria went home, exhausted and free. 

Elor Azaria in court. (Ynet News)

On the day that we decided to win, we made the decision to destroy terrorists' homes with no advance warning. We deported the families of terrorists. We wrapped the bodies of terrorists in pig skin. "They've gone crazy," everyone said. Yes, we had already gone crazy, when they murdered a young girl in her bed [and, don't you think, long before that? No one I know has forgotten or forgiven the Holocaust or dhimmitude, both of which have cost an incredible number of Jewish lives and kept us one of the smallest nations on earth in modern times.].

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Amona: "Every house destroyed is a victory for Hamas." (Wikipedia)

 
On the day that we decide to win, we will also decide to allow the outpost of Amona to remain intact. This community's fate -- to be demolished by the end of the year -- is not just about the dozens of families that have been living there for the last 20 years, rather it is an Israeli story. 

The residents are not thieves. The vast majority of the landowners registered in the Ottoman and Jordanian documents cannot be found, making the land "absentee property." Some left the country or died without heirs, and some cannot be identified because they used fake names for tax purposes. In recent years, a small number of the owners have been found, and they did not even know about their ownership of the land until the left-wing organization Yesh Din intervened. A plot here, a plot there, scattered among Jewish homes, between the grapevines and the fig trees. 

The residents are offering additional compensation to anyone proven to be a landowner now and in the future. The High Court of Justice is asking that the whole settlement be bulldozed. If this small and beautiful outpost is ordered to be demolished, all the other settlements and kibbutzim established on land owned by Arabs prior to 1948 are also in danger. This is what logic would say and what history would determine. If Amona goes down, why should Shefayim remain?

[*] Need we remind readers that Palestinian = Arab?

More reading:

Regavim | Women for Israel's Tomorrow | Israel Law Center | Zehut | Yes, The West Wants to Ethnically Cleanse Israel of Jews