I must have missed the point somewhere along this trail…..so again please,what’s the point ?
The general point, John, as far as I can see, is to show that the Torah and everything in the world are interlocking Divine creations, and that the patterns of evidence for this are overwhelming, and therefore everyone should come to recognize Hashem, pray to Him alone, and live in accordance with His Will, and then with His blessings we will thrive together in peace, harmony and prosperity.
As for all the complex details and particulars expounded here, indeed it is sometimes hard to see the forest for the trees. Certainly a condensed outline would be helpful, but I suspect that Ezra is moving so fast forward with many new exciting discoveries and revelations, and that insufficient time and energy remains to properly focus on looking back and composing the desired review. I agree however that this would be very nice and extremely helpful.
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Among the amazing ideas in this post is some discussion of the number 92, including the idea that “the first and last letters (בצ) of the Torah’s first verse equal (2 + 90) = 92.”
The idea of combining the first and last letters is often significant for finding hidden meanings. Actually, in this case, aside from the gematria, 92, of the two letters Beis and Tzadi, they may also be understood to spell certain key words:
For example, Beis and Tzadi spell the word בץ, Butz, meaning “fine linen.” Usually this word is spelled with a letter Vov in the middle, however the sound of the Vov can be indicated by a vowel sign alone, and then the Vov itself does not have to be written. Some verses illustrating the use of this word are “There were hangings… held with cords of fine linen (בוץ, Butz) and purple wool…” (Esther 1:6), and “The sons of Sheila the son of Yehudah were… and the families of the house of the workers of fine linen (בץ, Butz)…” (Chronicles I 4:21).
Alternatively the word בץ, Botz, may mean “mud,” “mire,” or “swamp,” as in “your feet are sunk in the mire (בץ, Botz)” (Jeremiah 38:22). Similar words are sometimes spelled with silent letters Heh or Aleph at the end, as in “Can the rush shoot up without mire (בצה, Bitzoh), can the reed grass grow without water” (Job 8:11), and “He lies under the thorny bushes, in the cover of the reed and swamp (בצה, Bitzoh)” (Job 40:21), and “But its swamps (בצאתו, Bitoso) and its marshes shall not be healed…” (Ezekiel 47:11).
Both of these interpretations, “fine linen” and “muddy swamp,” can be said to be appropriate summations for the first verse’s description of the creation of the heavens and the earth, especially since in many places it is explained that שמים, Shomayim, heaven, is a combination of the words שם, Shom, “there,” and מים, Mayim, “is water” – or alternatively אש, Eish, “fire” or “energy” (and the sometimes silent initial letter Alef a a word’s beginning is left unwritten), and מים, Mayim, “water” – and energetically combining water with earth may be understood to produce various forms of “mud.” Also in a comparative way “the heavens” in general may correspond more to the much refined “fine linen,” while “the earth” may correspond more to the much coarser “mud.”
Taken together these words and their meanings are related to the word ביצה, Beitza, “egg,” which is spelled with the same letters Beis Tzadi, only with the addition of letters Yud and Heh, adding a vitalizing aspect of Divine Name Kah into the word. As known, an “egg” is originally a single cell that consists of a creature’s most refined substance, its nucleus of elemental strands of genes and chromosomes, surrounded by jelly like protective and nurturing protoplasm and cytoplasm. The genes and chromosomes may correspond to the idea of the initial “fine linen,” and the protoplasm and cytoplasm may correspond to the initial idea of “swampy mud.”
Accordingly it is understood that the initial stages of creation the heavens and earth described in the first verse may thus be very well hinted to by the words formed by the letters Beis and Tzadi, and these initial stages may be considered to be the so-called “cosmic egg,” created by Hashem ex-nihilo, something from nothing, and these original substances were the seed and egg from which everything in the universe multiplied and developed, to the extent that they reached their subsequent shapes and forms that we presently see and experience.
The letters Beis and Tzadi may also hint to the ultimate goal of creation, which is for the world to beceome a Beis, i.e., a Bayis, “house” or “dwelling place,” for the Tzadi, i.e., for the concept of Tzedek, meaning Divine righteousness and virtue.
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It is also significant that Beis Tzadi in reverse becomes Tzadi Beis, forming the word צב, Tzov, which means “covered,” as in the verse “And they brought their offering before Hashem, six covered (צב, Tzov) wagons…” (Numbers 7:3). As an extension of this, due to its prominent shell covering that surrounds its body, a “tortoise” or “turtle” is also called צב, Tzov, as in “the rat, the mouse, and the tortoise (צב, Tzov) after its kind” (Leviticus 11:29). Another related use with this same root Tzadi Beis is as in the verse “…when Hashem will make your thigh to fall away and your belly to swell (צבה, Tzvah)…” (Numbers 5:21), which means an unusual swelling and expansion of the diseased organ into the surrounding and covering area of the body, and there are also other similarly related words as well.
It is possible to say that the orderly understanding of the letters Beis and Tzadi, as in the words Butz and Botz, fine linen and swampy mud, allude to the level of Divine Light known as Memalei Kol Olomim, Filling All Worlds, the Indwelling Light that shines into the world, permeating each creation according to its nature, to each its own amount depending on whether it is fine or coarse.
In contrast, the letters Tzadi Beis in reverse order, as in the word Tzov, allude to the level of Divine Light known as Sovev Kol Olomim, Surrounding All Worlds (with the letter Tzadi transforming into a similar sounding letter Samach to yield the word סב, Sov, “surround,” with a related meaning), that surrounds and transcends everything is the world equally no matter whether it is something fine or something coarse.
It is also possible to say that in a comparative way “the heavens” may correspond more to the concept of Surrounding All Worlds, while “the earth” may correspond more to the concept of Filling All Worlds, as explained in many places.
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While focused on the word Tzav, and its relation to the concept of the Surrounding Light, it is also relevant to point out that a letter Alef may be understood to be added at the end of the word, corresponding to a hinted the letter Aleph that intellectually may come before the letter Beis at the beginning of the Torah’s first verse, and when added to the letters Tzadi and Beis together it spells the word צבא, Tzova, usually translated as “host” or “army,” and also meaning the “generations of” or “collection of” multiple individuals or things into a combined group or set.
This interpretation would then hint that in this act of creation ex-nihilo, as described by the Torah’s first verse, all the hosts of the heavens and all the hosts of the earth were created. In the words of our sages o.b.m. brought in Rashi on Genesis 1:14, “all the generations of the heavens and the earth were created on the first day, and then everything was set in its place on the day assigned for it (Tanchuma Yahson 1-2; Breishis Raba 12:4). This is why it is written ‘Es Hashomayim’ [with the non-translated word Es] to include the generations [or hosts] of the heavens, ‘V’es Ho’oretz” to include its generations [or hosts] (see Breihis Raba 1:14).”
(To be continued.)
As stated above, the idea of combining the first and last letters is often significant for finding hidden meanings, and that applies not just for the first and last letters of the first verse, but also for the first and last letters of the verse’s individual words:
The first word ‘ב’ראשית, B’reishis’, starts with a Beis and ends with a Sav, and together this spells a word, בת, Bas, meaning “daughter.”
The second word ‘ב’רא, B’ora’, starts with a Beis and ends with an Alef, and in reverse this spells a word אב, Av, meaning “father.”
The third word ‘א’לקים, E’lokim’, starts with an Alef and ends with a Mem, and this spells the word אם, Aim, meaning “mother.”
The fifth word ‘ה’שמים, H’ashomayim’, starts with a Heh and ends with a Mem, spelling the word הם, Heim, meaning “them,” i.e., people in the plural form, signifying a family, with the offspring of the father and mother.
(Additionally in gematria the letters Heh Mem are 45, which corresponds to the gematria of אדם, Adam, man, perhaps representing a son of the previously hinted father and mother.)
The seventh word ‘ה’ארץ, H’o-oretz’, starts with a Heh and ends with a Tzadi, which seems to be related to the word הצן, Hotzen, which may be translated at “hosts” (similar to the word צבא, Tzevo, that was explained in the previous comment), as in the verse “And they shall come against thee with hosts (הֹצֶן, Hotzen), chariots, and wheels, and with an assembly of peoples” (Ezekiel 23:24), i.e., an even greater plurality, as in not just the single family with multiple children, but many families together, such as an entire people and society.
(Additionally in gematria Heh Tzadi is 95, which corresponds to the gematria of the word המלך, Hamelech, “the king,” and represents man as he becomes elevated to his highest level, or alternatively the gematria of the word מלכה, “queen,” which represents the female as she becomes elevated to her highest level.)
Therefore this combination of interrelated hinted words, daughter, father, mother, them, and hosts, clearly outlines a united framework describing the generations of man and populations of mankind, which of course is of great importance for the Torah and for all of us.
It is possible to say that the hint to the “daughter” comes first, before the others, because such a term may be understood to refer to the soul, as it does in certain Kabbalistic and Chassidic writings is described as being so-to-speak a “daughter” of Hashem, for example in commentaries on such verses as “the daughter of a Kohen” (Leviticus 22:12), and “daughters of Zion” (Song of Songs 3:11).
Very interesting: Also, absorbing the Et and Vet instead of ignoring them and using the letters in strict order; read as: בת, Bat, meaning “daughter. בא Bo, meaning “come to” אם, Aim, meaning “mother.” אם, Aim, meaning “mother.” צו Tzav, meaning “command Daughter, come to Mother, Mother command
1. The only Divine Name openly stated in the Torah’s first verse, and in the entire creation chapter, is the Name Elokim, gematria 86, and this Name is appropriate for the Creation narrative, since הטבע, HaTevah, Nature, has the same gematria 86.
However on a deeper level the Torah also clearly implies a phantom, unseen word, in the first verse, and that invisible word is the Name Hashem, the ineffable Name of the invisible and transcendent G-d, Who designed, created, and controls all of nature, for as the Torah directly states shortly afterward, in Genesis 2:4, “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, on the day that Hashem Elokim made earth and heaven,” and thus the Name Hashem is expressly written there together with the Name Elokim as the One responsible for the creation.
There are many explanations for the question of why the Name Hashem, the primary Divine Name, is not written explicitly in the Torah’s first verse and chapter, but only the Name Elokim, a secondary Divine Name. This question overlaps with the question of why the Torah starts with the letter Beis, the second letter, rather than with an Aleph, the first letter, and in certain ways these two questions may be considered to be interrelated.
One explanation is that this teaches that at first the transcendent Hashem, the “Alupho Shel Olam,” “The Master (Aleph) of the world,” may be concealed and not so evident in the world, however, though contemplation and meditation on the complexity of the workings of nature, and especially through consideration of the out of the ordinary miracles that have happened, revealing signs of Hashem’s express Divine Providence, and through study of the Holy Torah, it is possible to come to know Him.
In other words, thereby one can come to the realization that “there is a Master to this building” (as the Medrash relates about the patriarch Avrohom’s search for and discovery of Hashem), and come to recognition of and love for Hashem, the Transcendent Source of all, Who emanated, created, formed and made everything in the universe from absolute nothing, and Who governs the world in His awesome majesty .
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2. Although not openly written, nevertheless the Name Hashem is still very palpably hinted in the Torah’s first verse:
For example, the first 4 letters, Beis Reish Alef Shin, spell the word בראש, B’rosh, “In the Beginning” or “In the Head” – or alternatively, “With the Beginning” or “With the Head” – and these 4 initial letters of the Torah may be said to correspond to the Tetragrammaton, the especially Holy 4 Letter Name Hashem, Y H V H, which in comparison to the other Divine Names is in the category of the Beginning and the Head.
Additionally, as is known, man is made in the image of Hashem, and one of the interpretations of this is that the form of the human body corresponds to the form of the four letters of the Name Hashem: the head corresponds to the shape of the letter י, Yud; the two arms and shoulders, with one arm stronger than the other, correspond to the shape of the letter ה, Heh; the elongated trunk of the body corresponds to the shape of the letter ו, Vov; and the legs and pelvis, again with one side stronger than the other, correspond to the shape of the final letter ה, Heh of the Name Hashem. In comparison to the other creations, man, in the image of Hashem, is in the category of the “head” of the creation, and although physically man was the last of the creations, nevertheless he was first in thought.
This resonance with the idea of the head is also fitting and symbolic for the way the transcendent and invisible Hashem interacts with the created physical universe, since it is so-to-speak comparable to the way our transcendent and invisible soul and mind are conscious to us through our mental perception especially as we experience it in our head.
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3. Resonating with the idea of the 4 letters of the Name Hashem, the ordinal gematria of the Torah’s first 4 letters is 2 + 20 + 1 + 21 = 44, another stress on the number 4.
The standard gematria of the first 4 letters of the Torah is 2 + 200 + 1 + 300 = 503, which is a significant number, since 503 is a prime number, the 96th prime (and 96 is evenly divisible by both 3, since 96 = 3 x 32, and by 4, since 96 = 4 x 24).
Interestingly, and demonstrating how these numbers are interrelated and connected to the Name Hashem, 44 + 26 = 70, and 70 + 26 = 96. The two times 26 in these equations that show the relationship between the numbers 44 and 96, with a difference of 2 x 26 between them, corresponds to 1 time 26 for the ordinal gematria of the letters of the Name Hashem, and 1 time 26 for the standard gematria of the Name Hashem. The number 70, in the middle between numbers 44 and 96, is also significant, as explained many times.
Note too that for the Name Hashem both the ordinal and standard gematrias are the same, and this highlights another specialty of this Name over other Divine Names – with the exception of the Name Kah, which anyway is the first two letters of the Name Hashem, and the Name Ekyeh, I Am (but not Ekyeh Asher Ekeyeh, I Am that I Am). Perhaps this is another expression of the idea of Hashem Echod, that Hashem is One, since the ordinal and standard gematrias are one and the same.
Further, as explained in a previous comment, the prime number 503 belongs to a special category of primes, since when it is summed together with its prime ordinal number, the result is also a prime. Here, the prime number 503, when added with its prime ordinal number 96, sums to 503 + 96 = 599, and 599 is also a prime number.
Indeed, 599 is an out of the ordinary prime number, in the category of the super-primes, since 599 is the 109th prime, and 109 is also prime, the 29th prime, and 29 is also prime, the 10th prime. This series of 4 primes linked together [i.e., 503, 599, 109 and 29], and based on the number 10, is symbolic of the 4 Letter Name and its emanation of and revelation in the 10 Sefiros.
It is also unusual and fascinating, that summing the ordinal gematria of the first 4 letters of the Torah with their standard gematria, gives 44 + 503 = 547, and 547 is also a supper-prime, since it is the 101st prime, and 101 is itself prime, the 26th prime, and thus also from this perspective there is another resonance with the Name Hashem with gematria 26.
Incidentally, as explained in a previous comment, the prime number 101 is in the same category of special primes as the prime 503, as just explained, since 101 plus its prime ordinal number 26 sums to 101 + 26 = 127, which is also a prime, and a super special super-prime at that, since 127 is the 31st prime, and 31 is the 11th prime, and 11 is the 5th prime, and 5 the 3rd prime, and 3 the 2nd prime, and 2 the 1st prime. It all come down to (or, perhaps better said, up to) the One.
In addition to the above, the small gematria of 44 is 4 + 4 = 8, and the small gematria of 503 is 5 + 0 + 3 = 8, both corresponding to the small gematria of the Name Hashem, 2 + 6 = 8.
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4. Further, the next letter (the 5th letter in the verse), is a Yud, the Yud of בראשי’ת, Breishi’s, and it is easy to combine this Yud with the first letter Heh in the verse, the letter Heh in the Name Elok’im, which is the 7th letter after this Yud. That already hints to a significant Divine Name in its own right, the Name Kah, Y H, the first half of the 4 Letter Name. To finish the hint it is easy to combine these letters Y H with the initials of the last two words of the verse, V’eis H’o-oretz, the letters V and H, to complete a hint to letters spelling the Name Hashem.
Additionally, at the beginning of the letter א, Aleph, there is the shape of a complete letter Yud in the upper right corner of the Aleph, and taking this letter Yud at the beginning of the letter Aleph of the 4th word of the verse, א’ת, Eis, together with the initials of the next 3 words, the 5th, 6th and 7th words of the verse, ה’שמים ו’את ה’ארץ, H’ashomayim V’eis H’o-orets, there is formed a complete hint to the Name Hashem in the proper order from the initial letters of these 4 consecutive words of the Torah’s first verse.
It is also possible to find a hint to the Name Hashem going backward from the letter Yud in the Name Eloki’m, then next to the previous letter Heh in the Name Elok’im, and then next to the top of the letter Lamed in the Name El’okim, since the top part of the letter Lamed is in the shape of a letter Vov, and then for the final Heh of the hinted Name Hashem, take the gematria of the initial of the Name E’lokim, Aleph, which is the next letter going back to the beginning of the verse, plus the gematria of the initials of the immediately preceding first two words of the verse, B’reishish B’orah, Beis and Beis, to get 1 + 2 + 2 = 5, which corresponds to the gematria 5 of the letter Heh, and with this is completed the hint to all the letters of the Name Hashem in reverse order extending to the very beginning of the Torah (and with the stress on the 5 Books of the Torah).
Alternatively, any of the 3 letter Yuds in the verse may be combined with the initials of the last 3 words of the verse, H’ashomayim V’es H’o-oretz, H V H, to complete a hint to the spelling of the Name Hashem. Using in this way either the Yud of the word Breishi’s, or the Yud of the Name Eloki’m, produces hints to the Name Hashem spelled out in proper order. Using the Yud in the word Shomayi’m, although technically it is out of order, however it may be considered on a higher level in the word, since the Heh is merely a prefix to the main root word Shomayim, heavens. Also as pointed out many times, the first 3 letters of the word HaShomayim, Heh Shin Mem, spell השם, HaShem, “The Name,” and skipping the prefix Heh, then the next 3 letters, including the letter Yud, spell שמי, Shmi, “My Name.”
Further, since the letters Y H form a Name by itself, it is possible to say that a Divine Name may be formed by combining the letters Yud and Heh in the first verse – which resonate with one another since there are an equal number of each, the 3 letter Yuds and the 3 letter Hehs in the first verse, and then combine them with the letters Vov and Heh that are the initials of the first 2 words of the 2nd verse, V’ho-oretz H’oyeso, or combine them with any combinations of the equal number of the 8 letter Vovs and the 8 letter Hehs in the 2nd verse, to form more hints to the complete various hints to the 4 Letter Name Y H V H.
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5. It is fascinating that the standard gematria of the first verse, 2701, together with the gematria of the invisible but hinted Name Hashem, 26, sums to 2701 + 26 = 2727, which is an obviously fascinating number from many perspectives, and which hints to numerous things.
For example, 27 = 26 + 1, thus hinting to the gematria of the Name Hashem plus the Kolel 1, and this reverberates doubly in the number 2727. Also 27 equals 3 cubed, 3 x 3 x 3, and this is of course significant, corresponding to the triangular number of the standard gematria 2701, the 73rd triangular number, and corresponding to the three spatial dimensions of the universe.
Further, reducing the number 2727 to its prime factors, we find that 2727 = 3 x 3 x 3 x 101, with 101 being the 26th prime, again hinting to the Name Hashem, gematria 26, together with the other special properties of the number 101, as explained above.
In reflected form as well, 2727 becomes 7272, and this may hint to the 72 Letter Name, and even to the 72 triplets, since 7272 consists of a pair of 72s joined together, and the first digit and the last digit also combine to form another instance of 72. As noted many times 72 is the gematria of the most expansive spelling out of the 4 letters Yud Heh Vov Heh.
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6. In a recent comment (on Part 7: The Shift) I explained that for pronunciation and grammatical reasons when printed with the vowel signs the letter Shin in the first verse has a dot in it, indicating that from certain perspectives that letter is considered to be doubled, and that counting the gematria of this double letter Shin raises the total gematria of the verse from 2701 to 2701 + 300 = 3001.
Since 2701 is a triangular number, the 73rd triangular number, is interesting to note that the number 300 is also a triangular number, the 24th triangular number.
Also, as Ezra noted recently, 3003 is the sum of the standard gematria of the first 8 words of the Torah, the 7 words of the first verse plus the 1st word of the second verse, 2701 + 302 = 3003, and 3003 is also “coincidentally” the 77th triangular number. It is possible to say that corresponding to this the sum of the 73rd triangular number, 2701, plus the 24th triangular number, 300, plus a Kolel of 1 for each of these triangles, sums to 2701 + 1 + 300 + 1 = 3003, the 77th triangular number.
Also note that the standard gematria of the letter Shin, 300, is evenly divisible by 3, being the product of 3 x 100, and the number 24, which is the triangular number 300’s ordinal number in the set of triangular numbers, is also evenly divisible by 3, being the product of 3 x 8, where 8 is 2^3, or 2 to the 3rd power. Also the ordinal gematria of the letter Shin in the Hebrew alphabet is 21, which is also evenly divisible by 3, since 21 = 3 x 7.
The number 300 is also somewhat special among the triangular numbers in that it is the only one that ends in an even hundred until the number 15400, the 175th triangular number. Further, the next time two zeros appear together in a triangular number is “coincidentally” in the number 3003, which as just discussed is the 77th triangular number, and of course 3003 also contains in itself an obvious resonance with the number 300.
Interestingly, adding 1/10 of 300, i.e., 30, to the number 77, gives 77 + 30 = 107, and the 107th triangular number is 5778, as Ezra has taught us, and with the number 107 also being the 28th prime, and 28 also being the 7th triangular number. Also 5778 being 3330 years since the giving of the Torah resonates well with these ideas. Further, the small gematria of 5778 is 5 + 7 + 7 + 8 = 27, which is 3 x 3 x 3, and which resonates with the number 2727 as outlined above, and then 27 further reduces to 2 + 7 = 9 = 3 x 3 = 3 + 3 + 3, all of which is significant for this theme.
Moreover, the shape of the letter ש, Shin, itself gematria 300, a triangular number, is also reminiscent of the shape of a triangle, since it consists of 3 vertical lines spaced out at the top and coming together in a point at the bottom, like an inverted triangle, and therefore the shape of the letter Shin itself resonates with the number 3 and its gematria 300, which as explained above is a very special triangular number.
A doubled letter Shin, as indicated by the Shin with a dot in it, as it appears in the word HaSh’omayim, “the heavens,” may therefore be understood to be comparable to two triangles joined together, and when one is inverted with respect to the other, then the resultant two intertwined triangular shapes of the two letter Shins may be said to correspond to the two intertwined triangles of the Jewish star, truly “a star in the heavens” – and as hinted in this week’s Torah portion (Numbers 24:17), “a star shall shoot forth out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel…” – may we merit to behold this beautiful and longed for sight very soon indeed!
Moshe, thanks for the info in your (immediately) above post. You managed to give me some stuff that I had been “hunting for”.
. . . . .not the astrology reading, jewelry selling, mind manipulating charlatans . . . .
Ezra, so superbly and eloquently described!! (Am still laughing, even though the “subject” is so serious.)
Hopefully the previous responses by Ezra/Jeffrey and Peter have already satisfactory cleared up the issue, but anyway I’d like to try to also briefly reply from another perspective:
The heart of the matter is that Hashem created every life to be good, precious and important, both in ways we understand, and in ways well beyond our comprehension, and taking one’s life is definitely not a solution to troubles.
The prohibition of taking a life, including even one’s own life, was included right from the start among the specific things that G-d commanded the first man and woman, “And God blessed them; and God said unto them: ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it…” (Genesis 1:28), and this affirms our responsibility to create life, and negates the opposite, to harm or destroy life. Likewise it is stated (Isaiah 45:18), “For thus says Hashem, Who created the heavens, He is G-d; that formed the earth and made it, He established it, He created it not as a waste, He formed it to be inhabited…,” not to remove its inhabitants from it.
The prohibition against taking life was repeated to Noah and his sons (Genesis 9:5-7), “But your blood, of your souls, I will demand [an account]; from the hand of every beast I will demand it, and from the hand of man, from the hand of each man, his brother, I will demand the soul of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man through man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God He made man. And you, be fruitful and multiply; swarm upon the earth and multiply thereon.” This means that suicide too is forbidden, and that a person will be held accountable for taking his or her own life (Baba Kama 91b).
By the great revelation at Mount Sinai this prohibition was again publicly proclaimed in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:13), “Thou shall not murder,” and just as one may not murder his fellow man, likewise one may not murder oneself.
Philosophically one should appreciate that the life of one’s body is entrusted to you by G d, and it is not one’s private property to do with as one wants, and one must be very careful not to endanger one’s G-d given life. If someone sadly tries to commit suicide it tends to indicate that he is rejecting the role that G-d set for him, and there can be no greater rebellion against Him.
Practically speaking, suicide is thus completely forbidden, and it never is the right choice. The Torah says (Deuteronomy 30:19), “I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life, that thou may live, you and your seed.” It behooves us to adhere to these words.
Concerning the value of every life, our sages of blessed memory taught (Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5; Yerushalmi Talmud 4:9, Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 37a), “whosoever destroys a single life, Scripture imputes guilt to him as though he had destroyed a complete world; and whosoever preserves a single life, Scripture ascribes merit to him as though he had preserved a complete world.” Saving a life is thus considered to be even way more important than other Mitzvos, and for example in order to save a life we are commanded to break the Shabbos rules, to eat on Yom Kippur, and so on.
Do not give up hope in G-d, and hope in yourself. Do not take chances with one’s G-d given body and soul. Try to be of good cheer and to heed the words announced by the prophet (Isaiah 41:10), “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be discouraged, for I am your G-d. I will encourage you, I will also help you, and I will support you with My righteous hand.”
If one feels a cloud of depressing thoughts overtaking oneself or a friend, one should call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255 for help getting through any difficulty.
Best wishes and blessings!
Peter, I’m glad you found some of my comments useful. Thanks back to you for what you have taught me and for your interesting stories. Hopefully you will overcome all the difficulties and be a great inspiration to many others.
Also thanks for highlighting Ezra’s remarks about “manipulating charlatans.” I’ve been working on writing more observations that pertain to that topic and other important related matters, and hopefully I’ll be able to share that soon.
I must have missed the point somewhere along this trail…..so again please,what’s the point ?
The general point, John, as far as I can see, is to show that the Torah and everything in the world are interlocking Divine creations, and that the patterns of evidence for this are overwhelming, and therefore everyone should come to recognize Hashem, pray to Him alone, and live in accordance with His Will, and then with His blessings we will thrive together in peace, harmony and prosperity.
As for all the complex details and particulars expounded here, indeed it is sometimes hard to see the forest for the trees. Certainly a condensed outline would be helpful, but I suspect that Ezra is moving so fast forward with many new exciting discoveries and revelations, and that insufficient time and energy remains to properly focus on looking back and composing the desired review. I agree however that this would be very nice and extremely helpful.
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Among the amazing ideas in this post is some discussion of the number 92, including the idea that “the first and last letters (בצ) of the Torah’s first verse equal (2 + 90) = 92.”
The idea of combining the first and last letters is often significant for finding hidden meanings. Actually, in this case, aside from the gematria, 92, of the two letters Beis and Tzadi, they may also be understood to spell certain key words:
For example, Beis and Tzadi spell the word בץ, Butz, meaning “fine linen.” Usually this word is spelled with a letter Vov in the middle, however the sound of the Vov can be indicated by a vowel sign alone, and then the Vov itself does not have to be written. Some verses illustrating the use of this word are “There were hangings… held with cords of fine linen (בוץ, Butz) and purple wool…” (Esther 1:6), and “The sons of Sheila the son of Yehudah were… and the families of the house of the workers of fine linen (בץ, Butz)…” (Chronicles I 4:21).
Alternatively the word בץ, Botz, may mean “mud,” “mire,” or “swamp,” as in “your feet are sunk in the mire (בץ, Botz)” (Jeremiah 38:22). Similar words are sometimes spelled with silent letters Heh or Aleph at the end, as in “Can the rush shoot up without mire (בצה, Bitzoh), can the reed grass grow without water” (Job 8:11), and “He lies under the thorny bushes, in the cover of the reed and swamp (בצה, Bitzoh)” (Job 40:21), and “But its swamps (בצאתו, Bitoso) and its marshes shall not be healed…” (Ezekiel 47:11).
Both of these interpretations, “fine linen” and “muddy swamp,” can be said to be appropriate summations for the first verse’s description of the creation of the heavens and the earth, especially since in many places it is explained that שמים, Shomayim, heaven, is a combination of the words שם, Shom, “there,” and מים, Mayim, “is water” – or alternatively אש, Eish, “fire” or “energy” (and the sometimes silent initial letter Alef a a word’s beginning is left unwritten), and מים, Mayim, “water” – and energetically combining water with earth may be understood to produce various forms of “mud.” Also in a comparative way “the heavens” in general may correspond more to the much refined “fine linen,” while “the earth” may correspond more to the much coarser “mud.”
Taken together these words and their meanings are related to the word ביצה, Beitza, “egg,” which is spelled with the same letters Beis Tzadi, only with the addition of letters Yud and Heh, adding a vitalizing aspect of Divine Name Kah into the word. As known, an “egg” is originally a single cell that consists of a creature’s most refined substance, its nucleus of elemental strands of genes and chromosomes, surrounded by jelly like protective and nurturing protoplasm and cytoplasm. The genes and chromosomes may correspond to the idea of the initial “fine linen,” and the protoplasm and cytoplasm may correspond to the initial idea of “swampy mud.”
Accordingly it is understood that the initial stages of creation the heavens and earth described in the first verse may thus be very well hinted to by the words formed by the letters Beis and Tzadi, and these initial stages may be considered to be the so-called “cosmic egg,” created by Hashem ex-nihilo, something from nothing, and these original substances were the seed and egg from which everything in the universe multiplied and developed, to the extent that they reached their subsequent shapes and forms that we presently see and experience.
The letters Beis and Tzadi may also hint to the ultimate goal of creation, which is for the world to beceome a Beis, i.e., a Bayis, “house” or “dwelling place,” for the Tzadi, i.e., for the concept of Tzedek, meaning Divine righteousness and virtue.
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It is also significant that Beis Tzadi in reverse becomes Tzadi Beis, forming the word צב, Tzov, which means “covered,” as in the verse “And they brought their offering before Hashem, six covered (צב, Tzov) wagons…” (Numbers 7:3). As an extension of this, due to its prominent shell covering that surrounds its body, a “tortoise” or “turtle” is also called צב, Tzov, as in “the rat, the mouse, and the tortoise (צב, Tzov) after its kind” (Leviticus 11:29). Another related use with this same root Tzadi Beis is as in the verse “…when Hashem will make your thigh to fall away and your belly to swell (צבה, Tzvah)…” (Numbers 5:21), which means an unusual swelling and expansion of the diseased organ into the surrounding and covering area of the body, and there are also other similarly related words as well.
It is possible to say that the orderly understanding of the letters Beis and Tzadi, as in the words Butz and Botz, fine linen and swampy mud, allude to the level of Divine Light known as Memalei Kol Olomim, Filling All Worlds, the Indwelling Light that shines into the world, permeating each creation according to its nature, to each its own amount depending on whether it is fine or coarse.
In contrast, the letters Tzadi Beis in reverse order, as in the word Tzov, allude to the level of Divine Light known as Sovev Kol Olomim, Surrounding All Worlds (with the letter Tzadi transforming into a similar sounding letter Samach to yield the word סב, Sov, “surround,” with a related meaning), that surrounds and transcends everything is the world equally no matter whether it is something fine or something coarse.
It is also possible to say that in a comparative way “the heavens” may correspond more to the concept of Surrounding All Worlds, while “the earth” may correspond more to the concept of Filling All Worlds, as explained in many places.
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While focused on the word Tzav, and its relation to the concept of the Surrounding Light, it is also relevant to point out that a letter Alef may be understood to be added at the end of the word, corresponding to a hinted the letter Aleph that intellectually may come before the letter Beis at the beginning of the Torah’s first verse, and when added to the letters Tzadi and Beis together it spells the word צבא, Tzova, usually translated as “host” or “army,” and also meaning the “generations of” or “collection of” multiple individuals or things into a combined group or set.
This interpretation would then hint that in this act of creation ex-nihilo, as described by the Torah’s first verse, all the hosts of the heavens and all the hosts of the earth were created. In the words of our sages o.b.m. brought in Rashi on Genesis 1:14, “all the generations of the heavens and the earth were created on the first day, and then everything was set in its place on the day assigned for it (Tanchuma Yahson 1-2; Breishis Raba 12:4). This is why it is written ‘Es Hashomayim’ [with the non-translated word Es] to include the generations [or hosts] of the heavens, ‘V’es Ho’oretz” to include its generations [or hosts] (see Breihis Raba 1:14).”
(To be continued.)
As stated above, the idea of combining the first and last letters is often significant for finding hidden meanings, and that applies not just for the first and last letters of the first verse, but also for the first and last letters of the verse’s individual words:
The first word ‘ב’ראשית, B’reishis’, starts with a Beis and ends with a Sav, and together this spells a word, בת, Bas, meaning “daughter.”
The second word ‘ב’רא, B’ora’, starts with a Beis and ends with an Alef, and in reverse this spells a word אב, Av, meaning “father.”
The third word ‘א’לקים, E’lokim’, starts with an Alef and ends with a Mem, and this spells the word אם, Aim, meaning “mother.”
The fifth word ‘ה’שמים, H’ashomayim’, starts with a Heh and ends with a Mem, spelling the word הם, Heim, meaning “them,” i.e., people in the plural form, signifying a family, with the offspring of the father and mother.
(Additionally in gematria the letters Heh Mem are 45, which corresponds to the gematria of אדם, Adam, man, perhaps representing a son of the previously hinted father and mother.)
The seventh word ‘ה’ארץ, H’o-oretz’, starts with a Heh and ends with a Tzadi, which seems to be related to the word הצן, Hotzen, which may be translated at “hosts” (similar to the word צבא, Tzevo, that was explained in the previous comment), as in the verse “And they shall come against thee with hosts (הֹצֶן, Hotzen), chariots, and wheels, and with an assembly of peoples” (Ezekiel 23:24), i.e., an even greater plurality, as in not just the single family with multiple children, but many families together, such as an entire people and society.
(Additionally in gematria Heh Tzadi is 95, which corresponds to the gematria of the word המלך, Hamelech, “the king,” and represents man as he becomes elevated to his highest level, or alternatively the gematria of the word מלכה, “queen,” which represents the female as she becomes elevated to her highest level.)
Therefore this combination of interrelated hinted words, daughter, father, mother, them, and hosts, clearly outlines a united framework describing the generations of man and populations of mankind, which of course is of great importance for the Torah and for all of us.
It is possible to say that the hint to the “daughter” comes first, before the others, because such a term may be understood to refer to the soul, as it does in certain Kabbalistic and Chassidic writings is described as being so-to-speak a “daughter” of Hashem, for example in commentaries on such verses as “the daughter of a Kohen” (Leviticus 22:12), and “daughters of Zion” (Song of Songs 3:11).
Very interesting: Also, absorbing the Et and Vet instead of ignoring them and using the letters in strict order; read as:
בת, Bat, meaning “daughter.
בא Bo, meaning “come to”
אם, Aim, meaning “mother.”
אם, Aim, meaning “mother.”
צו Tzav, meaning “command
Daughter, come to Mother, Mother command
1. The only Divine Name openly stated in the Torah’s first verse, and in the entire creation chapter, is the Name Elokim, gematria 86, and this Name is appropriate for the Creation narrative, since הטבע, HaTevah, Nature, has the same gematria 86.
However on a deeper level the Torah also clearly implies a phantom, unseen word, in the first verse, and that invisible word is the Name Hashem, the ineffable Name of the invisible and transcendent G-d, Who designed, created, and controls all of nature, for as the Torah directly states shortly afterward, in Genesis 2:4, “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, on the day that Hashem Elokim made earth and heaven,” and thus the Name Hashem is expressly written there together with the Name Elokim as the One responsible for the creation.
There are many explanations for the question of why the Name Hashem, the primary Divine Name, is not written explicitly in the Torah’s first verse and chapter, but only the Name Elokim, a secondary Divine Name. This question overlaps with the question of why the Torah starts with the letter Beis, the second letter, rather than with an Aleph, the first letter, and in certain ways these two questions may be considered to be interrelated.
One explanation is that this teaches that at first the transcendent Hashem, the “Alupho Shel Olam,” “The Master (Aleph) of the world,” may be concealed and not so evident in the world, however, though contemplation and meditation on the complexity of the workings of nature, and especially through consideration of the out of the ordinary miracles that have happened, revealing signs of Hashem’s express Divine Providence, and through study of the Holy Torah, it is possible to come to know Him.
In other words, thereby one can come to the realization that “there is a Master to this building” (as the Medrash relates about the patriarch Avrohom’s search for and discovery of Hashem), and come to recognition of and love for Hashem, the Transcendent Source of all, Who emanated, created, formed and made everything in the universe from absolute nothing, and Who governs the world in His awesome majesty .
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2. Although not openly written, nevertheless the Name Hashem is still very palpably hinted in the Torah’s first verse:
For example, the first 4 letters, Beis Reish Alef Shin, spell the word בראש, B’rosh, “In the Beginning” or “In the Head” – or alternatively, “With the Beginning” or “With the Head” – and these 4 initial letters of the Torah may be said to correspond to the Tetragrammaton, the especially Holy 4 Letter Name Hashem, Y H V H, which in comparison to the other Divine Names is in the category of the Beginning and the Head.
Additionally, as is known, man is made in the image of Hashem, and one of the interpretations of this is that the form of the human body corresponds to the form of the four letters of the Name Hashem: the head corresponds to the shape of the letter י, Yud; the two arms and shoulders, with one arm stronger than the other, correspond to the shape of the letter ה, Heh; the elongated trunk of the body corresponds to the shape of the letter ו, Vov; and the legs and pelvis, again with one side stronger than the other, correspond to the shape of the final letter ה, Heh of the Name Hashem. In comparison to the other creations, man, in the image of Hashem, is in the category of the “head” of the creation, and although physically man was the last of the creations, nevertheless he was first in thought.
This resonance with the idea of the head is also fitting and symbolic for the way the transcendent and invisible Hashem interacts with the created physical universe, since it is so-to-speak comparable to the way our transcendent and invisible soul and mind are conscious to us through our mental perception especially as we experience it in our head.
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3. Resonating with the idea of the 4 letters of the Name Hashem, the ordinal gematria of the Torah’s first 4 letters is 2 + 20 + 1 + 21 = 44, another stress on the number 4.
The standard gematria of the first 4 letters of the Torah is 2 + 200 + 1 + 300 = 503, which is a significant number, since 503 is a prime number, the 96th prime (and 96 is evenly divisible by both 3, since 96 = 3 x 32, and by 4, since 96 = 4 x 24).
Interestingly, and demonstrating how these numbers are interrelated and connected to the Name Hashem, 44 + 26 = 70, and 70 + 26 = 96. The two times 26 in these equations that show the relationship between the numbers 44 and 96, with a difference of 2 x 26 between them, corresponds to 1 time 26 for the ordinal gematria of the letters of the Name Hashem, and 1 time 26 for the standard gematria of the Name Hashem. The number 70, in the middle between numbers 44 and 96, is also significant, as explained many times.
Note too that for the Name Hashem both the ordinal and standard gematrias are the same, and this highlights another specialty of this Name over other Divine Names – with the exception of the Name Kah, which anyway is the first two letters of the Name Hashem, and the Name Ekyeh, I Am (but not Ekyeh Asher Ekeyeh, I Am that I Am). Perhaps this is another expression of the idea of Hashem Echod, that Hashem is One, since the ordinal and standard gematrias are one and the same.
Further, as explained in a previous comment, the prime number 503 belongs to a special category of primes, since when it is summed together with its prime ordinal number, the result is also a prime. Here, the prime number 503, when added with its prime ordinal number 96, sums to 503 + 96 = 599, and 599 is also a prime number.
Indeed, 599 is an out of the ordinary prime number, in the category of the super-primes, since 599 is the 109th prime, and 109 is also prime, the 29th prime, and 29 is also prime, the 10th prime. This series of 4 primes linked together [i.e., 503, 599, 109 and 29], and based on the number 10, is symbolic of the 4 Letter Name and its emanation of and revelation in the 10 Sefiros.
It is also unusual and fascinating, that summing the ordinal gematria of the first 4 letters of the Torah with their standard gematria, gives 44 + 503 = 547, and 547 is also a supper-prime, since it is the 101st prime, and 101 is itself prime, the 26th prime, and thus also from this perspective there is another resonance with the Name Hashem with gematria 26.
Incidentally, as explained in a previous comment, the prime number 101 is in the same category of special primes as the prime 503, as just explained, since 101 plus its prime ordinal number 26 sums to 101 + 26 = 127, which is also a prime, and a super special super-prime at that, since 127 is the 31st prime, and 31 is the 11th prime, and 11 is the 5th prime, and 5 the 3rd prime, and 3 the 2nd prime, and 2 the 1st prime. It all come down to (or, perhaps better said, up to) the One.
In addition to the above, the small gematria of 44 is 4 + 4 = 8, and the small gematria of 503 is 5 + 0 + 3 = 8, both corresponding to the small gematria of the Name Hashem, 2 + 6 = 8.
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4. Further, the next letter (the 5th letter in the verse), is a Yud, the Yud of בראשי’ת, Breishi’s, and it is easy to combine this Yud with the first letter Heh in the verse, the letter Heh in the Name Elok’im, which is the 7th letter after this Yud. That already hints to a significant Divine Name in its own right, the Name Kah, Y H, the first half of the 4 Letter Name. To finish the hint it is easy to combine these letters Y H with the initials of the last two words of the verse, V’eis H’o-oretz, the letters V and H, to complete a hint to letters spelling the Name Hashem.
Additionally, at the beginning of the letter א, Aleph, there is the shape of a complete letter Yud in the upper right corner of the Aleph, and taking this letter Yud at the beginning of the letter Aleph of the 4th word of the verse, א’ת, Eis, together with the initials of the next 3 words, the 5th, 6th and 7th words of the verse, ה’שמים ו’את ה’ארץ, H’ashomayim V’eis H’o-orets, there is formed a complete hint to the Name Hashem in the proper order from the initial letters of these 4 consecutive words of the Torah’s first verse.
It is also possible to find a hint to the Name Hashem going backward from the letter Yud in the Name Eloki’m, then next to the previous letter Heh in the Name Elok’im, and then next to the top of the letter Lamed in the Name El’okim, since the top part of the letter Lamed is in the shape of a letter Vov, and then for the final Heh of the hinted Name Hashem, take the gematria of the initial of the Name E’lokim, Aleph, which is the next letter going back to the beginning of the verse, plus the gematria of the initials of the immediately preceding first two words of the verse, B’reishish B’orah, Beis and Beis, to get 1 + 2 + 2 = 5, which corresponds to the gematria 5 of the letter Heh, and with this is completed the hint to all the letters of the Name Hashem in reverse order extending to the very beginning of the Torah (and with the stress on the 5 Books of the Torah).
Alternatively, any of the 3 letter Yuds in the verse may be combined with the initials of the last 3 words of the verse, H’ashomayim V’es H’o-oretz, H V H, to complete a hint to the spelling of the Name Hashem. Using in this way either the Yud of the word Breishi’s, or the Yud of the Name Eloki’m, produces hints to the Name Hashem spelled out in proper order. Using the Yud in the word Shomayi’m, although technically it is out of order, however it may be considered on a higher level in the word, since the Heh is merely a prefix to the main root word Shomayim, heavens. Also as pointed out many times, the first 3 letters of the word HaShomayim, Heh Shin Mem, spell השם, HaShem, “The Name,” and skipping the prefix Heh, then the next 3 letters, including the letter Yud, spell שמי, Shmi, “My Name.”
Further, since the letters Y H form a Name by itself, it is possible to say that a Divine Name may be formed by combining the letters Yud and Heh in the first verse – which resonate with one another since there are an equal number of each, the 3 letter Yuds and the 3 letter Hehs in the first verse, and then combine them with the letters Vov and Heh that are the initials of the first 2 words of the 2nd verse, V’ho-oretz H’oyeso, or combine them with any combinations of the equal number of the 8 letter Vovs and the 8 letter Hehs in the 2nd verse, to form more hints to the complete various hints to the 4 Letter Name Y H V H.
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5. It is fascinating that the standard gematria of the first verse, 2701, together with the gematria of the invisible but hinted Name Hashem, 26, sums to 2701 + 26 = 2727, which is an obviously fascinating number from many perspectives, and which hints to numerous things.
For example, 27 = 26 + 1, thus hinting to the gematria of the Name Hashem plus the Kolel 1, and this reverberates doubly in the number 2727. Also 27 equals 3 cubed, 3 x 3 x 3, and this is of course significant, corresponding to the triangular number of the standard gematria 2701, the 73rd triangular number, and corresponding to the three spatial dimensions of the universe.
Further, reducing the number 2727 to its prime factors, we find that 2727 = 3 x 3 x 3 x 101, with 101 being the 26th prime, again hinting to the Name Hashem, gematria 26, together with the other special properties of the number 101, as explained above.
In reflected form as well, 2727 becomes 7272, and this may hint to the 72 Letter Name, and even to the 72 triplets, since 7272 consists of a pair of 72s joined together, and the first digit and the last digit also combine to form another instance of 72. As noted many times 72 is the gematria of the most expansive spelling out of the 4 letters Yud Heh Vov Heh.
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6. In a recent comment (on Part 7: The Shift) I explained that for pronunciation and grammatical reasons when printed with the vowel signs the letter Shin in the first verse has a dot in it, indicating that from certain perspectives that letter is considered to be doubled, and that counting the gematria of this double letter Shin raises the total gematria of the verse from 2701 to 2701 + 300 = 3001.
Since 2701 is a triangular number, the 73rd triangular number, is interesting to note that the number 300 is also a triangular number, the 24th triangular number.
Also, as Ezra noted recently, 3003 is the sum of the standard gematria of the first 8 words of the Torah, the 7 words of the first verse plus the 1st word of the second verse, 2701 + 302 = 3003, and 3003 is also “coincidentally” the 77th triangular number. It is possible to say that corresponding to this the sum of the 73rd triangular number, 2701, plus the 24th triangular number, 300, plus a Kolel of 1 for each of these triangles, sums to 2701 + 1 + 300 + 1 = 3003, the 77th triangular number.
Also note that the standard gematria of the letter Shin, 300, is evenly divisible by 3, being the product of 3 x 100, and the number 24, which is the triangular number 300’s ordinal number in the set of triangular numbers, is also evenly divisible by 3, being the product of 3 x 8, where 8 is 2^3, or 2 to the 3rd power. Also the ordinal gematria of the letter Shin in the Hebrew alphabet is 21, which is also evenly divisible by 3, since 21 = 3 x 7.
The number 300 is also somewhat special among the triangular numbers in that it is the only one that ends in an even hundred until the number 15400, the 175th triangular number. Further, the next time two zeros appear together in a triangular number is “coincidentally” in the number 3003, which as just discussed is the 77th triangular number, and of course 3003 also contains in itself an obvious resonance with the number 300.
Interestingly, adding 1/10 of 300, i.e., 30, to the number 77, gives 77 + 30 = 107, and the 107th triangular number is 5778, as Ezra has taught us, and with the number 107 also being the 28th prime, and 28 also being the 7th triangular number. Also 5778 being 3330 years since the giving of the Torah resonates well with these ideas. Further, the small gematria of 5778 is 5 + 7 + 7 + 8 = 27, which is 3 x 3 x 3, and which resonates with the number 2727 as outlined above, and then 27 further reduces to 2 + 7 = 9 = 3 x 3 = 3 + 3 + 3, all of which is significant for this theme.
Moreover, the shape of the letter ש, Shin, itself gematria 300, a triangular number, is also reminiscent of the shape of a triangle, since it consists of 3 vertical lines spaced out at the top and coming together in a point at the bottom, like an inverted triangle, and therefore the shape of the letter Shin itself resonates with the number 3 and its gematria 300, which as explained above is a very special triangular number.
A doubled letter Shin, as indicated by the Shin with a dot in it, as it appears in the word HaSh’omayim, “the heavens,” may therefore be understood to be comparable to two triangles joined together, and when one is inverted with respect to the other, then the resultant two intertwined triangular shapes of the two letter Shins may be said to correspond to the two intertwined triangles of the Jewish star, truly “a star in the heavens” – and as hinted in this week’s Torah portion (Numbers 24:17), “a star shall shoot forth out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel…” – may we merit to behold this beautiful and longed for sight very soon indeed!
Moshe, thanks for the info in your (immediately) above post. You managed to give me some stuff that I had been “hunting for”.
. . . . .not the astrology reading, jewelry selling, mind manipulating charlatans . . . .
Ezra, so superbly and eloquently described!! (Am still laughing, even though the “subject” is so serious.)
Hopefully the previous responses by Ezra/Jeffrey and Peter have already satisfactory cleared up the issue, but anyway I’d like to try to also briefly reply from another perspective:
The heart of the matter is that Hashem created every life to be good, precious and important, both in ways we understand, and in ways well beyond our comprehension, and taking one’s life is definitely not a solution to troubles.
The prohibition of taking a life, including even one’s own life, was included right from the start among the specific things that G-d commanded the first man and woman, “And God blessed them; and God said unto them: ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it…” (Genesis 1:28), and this affirms our responsibility to create life, and negates the opposite, to harm or destroy life. Likewise it is stated (Isaiah 45:18), “For thus says Hashem, Who created the heavens, He is G-d; that formed the earth and made it, He established it, He created it not as a waste, He formed it to be inhabited…,” not to remove its inhabitants from it.
The prohibition against taking life was repeated to Noah and his sons (Genesis 9:5-7), “But your blood, of your souls, I will demand [an account]; from the hand of every beast I will demand it, and from the hand of man, from the hand of each man, his brother, I will demand the soul of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man through man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God He made man. And you, be fruitful and multiply; swarm upon the earth and multiply thereon.” This means that suicide too is forbidden, and that a person will be held accountable for taking his or her own life (Baba Kama 91b).
By the great revelation at Mount Sinai this prohibition was again publicly proclaimed in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:13), “Thou shall not murder,” and just as one may not murder his fellow man, likewise one may not murder oneself.
Philosophically one should appreciate that the life of one’s body is entrusted to you by G d, and it is not one’s private property to do with as one wants, and one must be very careful not to endanger one’s G-d given life. If someone sadly tries to commit suicide it tends to indicate that he is rejecting the role that G-d set for him, and there can be no greater rebellion against Him.
Practically speaking, suicide is thus completely forbidden, and it never is the right choice. The Torah says (Deuteronomy 30:19), “I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life, that thou may live, you and your seed.” It behooves us to adhere to these words.
Concerning the value of every life, our sages of blessed memory taught (Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5; Yerushalmi Talmud 4:9, Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 37a), “whosoever destroys a single life, Scripture imputes guilt to him as though he had destroyed a complete world; and whosoever preserves a single life, Scripture ascribes merit to him as though he had preserved a complete world.” Saving a life is thus considered to be even way more important than other Mitzvos, and for example in order to save a life we are commanded to break the Shabbos rules, to eat on Yom Kippur, and so on.
Do not give up hope in G-d, and hope in yourself. Do not take chances with one’s G-d given body and soul. Try to be of good cheer and to heed the words announced by the prophet (Isaiah 41:10), “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be discouraged, for I am your G-d. I will encourage you, I will also help you, and I will support you with My righteous hand.”
If one feels a cloud of depressing thoughts overtaking oneself or a friend, one should call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255 for help getting through any difficulty.
Best wishes and blessings!
Peter, I’m glad you found some of my comments useful. Thanks back to you for what you have taught me and for your interesting stories. Hopefully you will overcome all the difficulties and be a great inspiration to many others.
Also thanks for highlighting Ezra’s remarks about “manipulating charlatans.” I’ve been working on writing more observations that pertain to that topic and other important related matters, and hopefully I’ll be able to share that soon.
Best regards!
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