The following can be found on our website!
Ohr
Chadash is excited to present to you an invaluable tool that will allow you to
probe new depths in understanding Torah and its rich layers of meaning and how
the world is intrinsically connected, ultimately leading to new and revealing
insight.
One
of the most important of the thirteen rules by which we interpret the Torah
(found in the beginning section of the morning prayers) is gezerah shavah, which loosely
translated means that similar words in different contexts are meant to clarify
one another. This device is used literally hundreds of times in the Talmud to
shed light on issues ranging from Jewish law, to the alluded, allegorical and
mystical meaning of the text. Quite simply it is the way we "connect the
dots" of Torah and life itself.
Through
using this easy to use program you can type in a word in Hebrew and virtually
instantaneously see written out all the places in the Tanach, the 24
books of the Bible, where this word, name or phrase appears. By studying these
appearances we begin to see connections we may have never seen before. Meanings
on multiple levels begin to literally jump off the page.
Gematria, Jewish numerology, works according to the same principle. In
Hebrew each letter has a numerical equivalent. According to Kabbalah, if two
words or phrases share the same number, they are considered to possess some
significant connection. Gematria reveals a deeper set of
correspondences as seen in the literal text and points to an entire mathematical
structure underlying the Torah. Similar to how physics and chemistry rest on a
mathematical foundation, so too, deeper dimensions of Torah are revealed though gematria.
The
Hebrew letters are explained to be the building blocks of creation. Similar to
how a physicist or chemist would describe the world as consisting of atoms,
particles, molecules and elements, the Jewish tradition describes this same
function to the Hebrew letters. Although the language of science and Torah are
different they are both describing the same reality.
Yet
it is not Kabbalah alone which employs gematria.
The Talmud and Rashi also use this technique of learning on occasion in order
to point out a cogent idea, and it has been used as well by a wide range of
commentators throughout the ages. In as much as Kabbalah seeks to make known
the oneness of God and the interconnectedness of all reality, gematria assumes a major role in revealing this
through the Torah text.
When
the letters of a word are permutated they form other words that are
intrinsically connected. An entire book, the Tikunei
Zohar, explains the many permutations of the six letters of the first word
of the Torah, bereishit, "in the beginning." In doing so it reveals a
profound understanding of the creation and the Divine creative process. This
technique of permuting letters plays an important role in Kabbalistic wisdom.
Alternative alphabets are similarly based on exchanging letters in an orderly
manner, revealing deeper and more hidden aspects of the Torah.
The
possibilities are nearly infinite and thanks to computer technology the ability
to see graphically and instantaneously these "dots" are truly a
wonder. Making the connections ourselves opens up a whole new level of
understanding.
We invite you to not only use
this program for free, but please share it with as many people you know who may
enjoy this amazing tool.
http://www.thetrugmans.com/trugman_gematria.shtml
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