LAST WEEK'S TORAH PORTION

בס"ד
25 Sh'vat


I've decided to start trying to post on the upcoming parsha/Torah portion. Not that you could tell or anything :}
So here's my chidush for you. Sorry I'm late...it's been a busy week :)

In Sh'mot parshat Yitro/Exodus 19:5 the Torah tells us:
"V'atah im-shamo'a tish'mu b'qoli ush'martem et-b'riti vih'yitem li segulah mikal-ha'amim ki-li kal-ha'aretz" - "So now, if you will hearken, yes, hearken to My voice and keep My covenant, you shall be to Me a special-treasure from among all peoples. Indeed, all the earth is Mine:" (Everett Fox translation)

In some Sifrei Torah, but not all, the Lamed & the Yud are written in such a way so as to appear joined. This is an extremely controversial practice, as one of the approximately 4,000 rules in sofrut dictates that there be no negi'ah (touching) between any of the letters. So why here? What message calling to us from out of the text here is so crucial that an exception is made only once in our entire tradition?

The Letter Lamed (ל) has a gematrial value of 30, while Yud (י) is worth 10. That makes 40. 40 also means גואל "go'El" - Liberator - & יד י-ה-ו-ה "yad Y-H-V-H" - Hand of the Eternal.

The place in the Torah where we read G@D saying to us, "...vih'yiytem li segulah..." - "...you shall be to Me a special-treasure...", we learn that these two letters of the word "li", "to Me" or "for Me" are joined at this point in the Torah to show the closeness and intimacy that The Holy One wishes to share with each of us. G@d has consciously joined the individual energies of the two letters together to demonstrate how deeply connective a bond we can achieve through the pursuit of Yechidut, Unity, by performing mitzvot. It is then that we will experience true liberation, at the hand of The One.




Technorati tags: religion, Judaism, Torah, Canada, journal, weblog, blog, diary, Love.