A Time Of Terrible Distress

When Hillary Rodham Clinton lost the Democratic Nomination for President to Barack Hussein Obama, many thought that she would disappear from the world stage for years. But her name in Hebrew hinted that something different would happen. Our attention was gained by her unique name expressed in Hebrew letters. Never before did we see the following occur in anyone's name. Hillary הילרי, Rodham רודהם, and Clinton קלינטון each have a gematria of 255. Imagine that a person's first name, middle name and last name all have the same exact value! When the value of the entire name is calculated, the total gematria is 765 (255x3), the same value as עת צרה (Time of terrible distress). This finding indicated that Hillary would not disappear into the sunset so quickly. She would be (as she has become) an influential voice reprimanding the State of Israel.
The term עת צרה comes from the Book of Daniel 12(1) which describes the time when Michael, the guardian angel of Israel, will stand in defense of his people at this time of catastrophe. The atbash gematria of עת צרה is 106, the same value as the letter נ nun, spelled out נון.
No verse in the Ashrei prayer (Psalm 145) begins with the letter נ nun. There are 21 verses in this psalm and each verse (in order) begins with the remaining 21 letters of the Hebrew aleph bet. This is because in the verse that speaks of G-d supporting the fallen, the letter נ can be taken as an allusion to the word נפילה, Israel's future downfall, G-d forbid. King David refused to use a letter to begin a verse that could suggest such tragedy. But knowing that downfalls must take place as they have throughout our history, King David comforted Israel with the verse that begins with the letter ס samech (the letter that follows the nun in the Hebrew alphabet). The full verse beginning with the samech states "Hashem supports all the fallen ones and straightens all those who are bent." With this verse, King David made a guarantee to the Jewish People that even when a dreaded downfall occurs, the people can count on Hashem's support.
Today, the leader of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahou בּנימין נתניהו, has not one, but 4 nuns in his name, representing the 4 exiles of the Jewish People. We have gone from one exile to another, falling down and then being lifted up by Hashem. We kept falling into galus because we would not learn from our mistakes and make adjustments in our lives. The purpose of falling is to arise and lift ourselves to a higher level, not to the same plane. When G-d tests us in our personal lives and we fall down through illness, financial setbacks or person tragedy, we must pull ourselves not only back to where we were before the fall, but to greater heights.
In a previous blog that we posted on 5/25/09 dealing with The Blessing Of The Sun, we mentioned that our calculation of Daniel's famous "Time, Times and a half of Time," resulted in a time being 32, times being 64, and a half being 16. Thus, 112 represents the entire end period. Of course, no one knows whether it's 112 hours, days, weeks or years from a point in time. This will be revealed by Hashem in due course.
The question arises why 3 1/2 and not 4? Shouldn't there be a relationship between the 4 exiles and the final time period releasing us from exile permanently? If the other half (16) would be added on, the total time period would rise to 128 which would equal the word סומך, "to support." Perhaps our redemption is being held up by the imperfect 3 1/2. Perhaps our redemption will be realized when we can turn the imperfect 3 1/2 into 4 (representing all our exiles). How can we do this? When we finally push our arrogance aside and acknowledge that it wasn't because of our merits, or our actions, or the actions of our leaders or our armies that brought us out of our previous exiles, but by the HAND OF G-D that saved us over and over again. Then we can finally change the 3 1/2 time period into 4 complete periods and adjust the total value from 112 to 128. For it has always been Hashem that supports us like a parent encouraging, lifting up and supporting their child learning to walk. It has always been our Father In Heaven, and it's time to acknowledge that. The 16 (1/2 of time) that has been missing equals בּיד (by a hand). We must realize that to survive the terrible Time of Distress that the Jewish People will shortly face, we must grab and hold on to Hashem's Hand.
The letter נ is the 14th letter in the aleph bet. This is the gematria of דוד (David) whose descendant will shortly be sent by G-d to redeem us. May we all dance with joy when that wonderful moment arises.

The Secret Behind Na Nach Nachma Nachman

The phrase Na Nach Nachma Nachman Me'Uman was revealed and taught by Rabbi Yisroel Ber Odesser. Rabbi Odesser was born in 1888 in Tiberias, and was among the first Breslover Hasidim in Israel. In 1921 on the Fast of Tammuz he became weak and hungry and broke his fast. He felt guilty afterwards that he was unable to overcome his physical temptation. He prayed continuously for 5 days until he heard a voice instructing him to go into his room. He did that and randomly opened a book. In the book was a piece of paper that he later called "The Letter from Heaven." The English translation of this letter reads as follows, "It was very hard for me to descend to you, my precious student, to tell you that I benefited greatly from your service. And to you I say, my fire will burn until the coming of the Messiah. Be strong and courageous in your service. Na Nach Nachma Nachman Me'Uman. And with this I shall tell you a secret: Full and heaped up from line to line, and with strong devotional services you will understand it. And the sign is: They will say you are not fasting on the 17th of Tammuz."
The Rabbi believed the letter to be a message of consolation, directly from Rebbe Nachman of Breslov's spirit to himself. He adopted this phrase as his personal meditation, and became so personally identified with it that he later said that he was, Na Nach Nachma Nachman Me'Uman. He died at the age of 106, and this very expression appears on his grave stone in Jerusalem.
Rabbi Nachman of Breslov stated that a "song of redemption" would be revealed before the coming of Mashiach, and that this song would be in a single, double, triple, quadruple form, just like this phrase. In 1984 Rabbi Moshe Feinstein wrote a letter of approbation endorsing Rabbi Odesser's efforts to raise funds for publishing Rav Nachman's books. Rabbi Feinstein mentioned that he was inspired by a secret document which Rabbi Odesser possessed. Despite this, not all Breslover Hasidim use Na Nach Nachma, and not everyone believes that it is an authentic writing. Some believe that the letter was written by Rav Nachman to someone else and was placed in the old book, while others simply believe it was forged by one of Rabbi Odesser's students to distract him from feeling guilty over breaking his fast. There is even a theory that when he was a young student, a friend of his was just playing a trick on him and put the note in a book. But the Rabbi never opened that book until many, many years later. When he finally discovered it, his friend revealed the details of the practical joke to him. But, Rabbi Odesser refused to believe it was anything but a message from heaven.
But even if it was meant simply as a joke, and the words were just made up without any real meaning, it did come as a message from heaven. For who other than Hashem put those words into the mind of the friend? Indeed, these words have a significant connection to the end of days, and our upcoming, final geula. The key to uncovering this message is the atbash form of gematria. Let's examine the phrase carefully:
נ נח נחמ נחמן. The atbash of נ is 9. The atbash of נח is 69. The atbash of נחמ is 79 and finally the atbash of נחמן is 88. The difference between 9 and 69 is 60, the difference between 69 and 79 is 10 and finally the difference between 79 and 88 is 9. Thus we get 60 10 9. If you eliminate the 2 zeroes you are left with the number 619.
The Book of Torah containing more secrets about the end of days than any other is the Book of Daniel. Towards the end of this Book, Daniel asks G-d, מה אחרדת אלה, "what is the end of these matters?" G-d responds with the words לך דניאל, "go your way Daniel." G-d is not telling Daniel to stop inquiring about the end. His response is indeed the answer to Daniels's question, for the atbash of לך דניאל, is 619 which is also the same value as אחרית, which means the end. Thus, G-d is answering Daniel by telling him that the end is indeed the end. But the end of what or whom? It will be the end of evil, scepticism, doubt, falsehood and conflict. And just when will this end period begin? The last word of the phrase מאומן Me'Uman tells us. For the gematria of this word is 137, the same value as מגדלין (Towers) and בּן לאדן (Bin Laden). Thus, this clue tells us that at the time that Bin Laden destroys the towers (the twin towers on 9/11/01), know for certain that the end of days has arrived.
The letter indeed was a letter from Heaven telling mankind that for some there will be a final end, but for others there will be a brand new beginning.

Speedily In Our Days

Even though G-d promised Avrohom that his descendants would be strangers in a land that was not theirs, and they would be oppressed for 400 years, according to the Torah we left Egypt 190 years earlier than we were supposed to, and only spent 210 years there. The reality is that we were meant to be in Egypt a full 400 years. What makes this even more interesting is the fact that we refer to the Final Redemption as קץ הימים, "end of days." However, if the words are read correctly, it should really say, "end of THE days." Which days are we referring to? The days remaining from the 190 years when we left Egypt early. Hashem spread out the terrible oppression of those 190 years over 33 centuries, but soon, any day now, any moment now, there will be an end of THOSE days. We always pray בּמהרה בימינו, that Mashiach and our final redemption should come speedily in our days. Speedily? It appears to be so late, our exile so long. Well, just as in Egypt, to the very second, when it was time to leave, the redemption came so fast. So too, when the DAYS of the 190 years have passed, at the exact second, our redemption will surround us and unfold "speedily." Thus, as you can see there is a great connection between the redemption from Egypt at the beginning of Jewish history, and the final redemption towards the end of the historical 6,000 year period that the world will last (as we know it). Perhaps now, we can understand the Passover Haggadah when it says that every Jew should feel as if he or she also left Egypt. And it's also interesting to note that the gematria of the word קץ (end), as in End Of Days, is amazingly 190.