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Creative powers on Simchat Torah

Connecting the end with the beginning

On Simchat Torah we finish reading the Torah and immediately begin rereading it from the beginning. Thus, the first words of the Torah in Genesis are read just after the last few words of Deuteronomy. The final verse of the Torah reads:

“For all of the mighty hand and all the great miracles that Moshe performed before the eyes of all of Israel.”¹

The last three words of the Torah are: “Before the eyes of all of Israel,” which in Hebrew are לְעֵינֵי כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל , whose numerical value is 761, an inspirational number, meaning that it is the sum of two consecutive square numbers:

לעיני כל ישראל = 761 = 19² ┴ 20²

The first few three Hebrew words of the Torah are: בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱ־לֹהִים , “In the beginning God created….”² The numerical value of these three words is 1202. Thus, the difference between 1202 and 761 is 441, which is the numerical value of “truth,” אמת , in Hebrew. But, note that the final letters of the three words בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱ־לֹהִים spell אמת ! Therefore:

בראשית ברא א־להים = לעיני כל ישראל

What this also means is that since the “end [of the Torah] is enwedged [or “equal”] to the beginning [of the Torah]” then we can write that:

לעיני כל ישראל אמת = בראשית ברא א־להים

The sages tell us that the “seal of the Almighty is ‘truth’ [אמת ],”³ meaning as it were, that just as a person signs a letter at its end with his seal, so the Almighty “signed” the Torah (His letter to us) with his seal, the word אמת . Indeed, by adding this invisible seal to the end of the Torah we find that the end does equal the beginning.

Creation Numbers

This observation becomes even more interesting when we realize that אמת , 441 = 21² (the secret in Kabbalah of God’s Name אהיה אשר אהיה , where each אהיה = 21!); therefore it follows that the first three words of the Torah:

בראשית ברא א־להים = 19² ┴ 20² ┴ 21²

Taking our cue from the Torah, let us name such numbers that are the sum of three consecutive squares “creation” numbers.

Which numbers belong to this series? The first such number is 2:

2 = -1² ┴ 0² ┴ 1²

2 is the numerical value of the first letter of the Torah, the ב (bet) of בראשית , which is also written as an extra large letter in the Torah scroll.

The second creation number is 5:

5 = 0² ┴ 1² ┴ 2²

5 alludes to the numerical value of the extra small letter ה (hei) of בהבראם , which means “when they were created.”

The third creation number is 14:

14 = 1² ┴ 2² ┴ 3²

14 is the numerical value of the word “hand” יד , in Hebrew. One of the hidden reasons for the Hebrew word for “hand” is that the human hand contains 14 visible joints. So, each of the 2 hands that we have has 5 fingers and 14 joints. Likewise, creation is described by analogy as: “My hand founded the earth and my right [hand] formed the heavens.” Indeed, 14 is the reduced numerical value⁴ of God’s Name, Elokim, א־להים the third word of the Torah. Of course, the integral reduced value⁵ of א־להים is therefore 5!

Now that we have the first three creation numbers, we can use them to find the rest of the series quickly using the method of finite differences:

We have found that 365 is the 12th creation number, which means that:

365 = 10² ┴ 11² ┴ 12²

But, 365, which is the number of prohibitive commandments in the Torah, the number of days in a solar year, and the number of sinews in the human body, is also the 14th inspirational number, which means that:

365 = 13² ┴ 14²

But, this means that:

10² ┴ 11² ┴ 12² = 13² ┴ 14²

We will discuss this special relationship in an appendix to this article.

Continuing the creation number series we find that 677 is a creation number. One of the deepest secrets of creation discussed in Kabbalah is that of “light, water, and firmament,” whose gematria in Hebrew (אור מים רקיע )⁶ is also 677, as explained in length in the writings of the Arizal.

770 is also a creation number and is the gematria of many terms relating to the Mashiach.

Now, the sum of the first three members of the creation series is 21, the root of “truth,” אמת = 441. The 21st creation number is 1202, the value of the first three words of the Torah, בראשית ברא א־להים .

The average value of the first 21 creation numbers from 2 to 1202 is 412, the gematria of “house,” בית , in Hebrew. But, בית is also the letter-filling of the letter ב (bet), whose numerical value is 2 (the first creation number) and the first letter of the Torah, and hence of creation. The word “house,” בית can also be found in the first word of the Torah בראשית . In the Tikunei Zohar, one of the permutations of the first word of the Torah, בראשית , that is discussed is בית אשר , literally, “the house of happiness.”

What it all means…

Let us return to our initial mathematical observation: the gematria of the last three words of the Torah (“before the eyes of all of Israel”) together with the gematria of “truth” is equal to the gematria of the first three words of the Torah (“In the beginning God created…”). Now we can understand what it is that Moshe Rabbeinu did “before the eyes of all of Israel.” Moshe rectified our eyes so that we can see how the Almighty recreates the world anew every day and every moment, and that all of creation is signed and sealed with God’s signature, “truth.” “Moshe is true, and his Torah is truth.”⁷ Moshe engraved truth, the signature of the Almighty, on the eyes of the entire Jewish people. By doing so he drew down the power to create worlds and gave it to every Jew, as the sages say: “Just as I [God] create worlds, so shall you create worlds.”⁸ And as explained in length elsewhere, God Himself says about us: “I said, you are God-like creators.”⁹

The power to create worlds is given to a Jew on Simchat Torah. “There is no truth but the Torah.” When a Jew dances with a Torah scroll on Simchat Torah, he draws light down from the head and eyes to his feet. The head and eyes, as explained represent the culmination of the Torah and Moshe’s engraving the seal of truth on us. The feet represent creation, as the sages explain that the verse “His thighs are pillars of shesh [lit. ‘marble,’ but also means ‘six’],”¹⁰ alludes to all of creation, which God yearned to create and did so in six days.¹¹

Notes: