Thursday, March 1, 2007

At Bash for Tzom Kol and Mammon

It is said in the Megillah (4:16) lech kenos es kol haYehudim, go, assemble all the Jews. We mentioned last year the famous gematria that the words tzom kol and mammon all equal 136, and the word kenos also equals 136. Thus, Esther was hinting to Mordechai that the Jewish People should engage in fasting, prayer, and charity. I would like to add this year that by using the method of at bash, where the letter aleph is substituted for taf, bais for shin etc. the word Purim can be broken down as follows: pey is vav and vav is pey, so 80+6=86. Yud is mem and mem is yud, so 10+40=50. Add 86 and 50 and we have 136, the numerical value of tzom kol and mammon. The reish in the middle in at bash is gimmel, which equals 3. This alludes to the 3 things that the Jewish People engaged in: fasting, prayer and charity.

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