Tag Archives: Shabbat Candles

The Number 501

A rough outline of the ancient tribal boundaries of Israel

As we continue to celebrate Chanukah this week, it is worth exploring one of the most important numbers in Judaism, and one that is closely associated with Chanukah as well: 501. The focus of Chanukah is the miracle of the oil—where did that oil come from? When Jacob blessed his sons on his deathbed, he said of Asher that “his bread shall be oily [shmenah], and he shall yield royal delicacies.” (Genesis 49:20) Similarly, when Moses blessed the tribes before his passing, he said of Asher that he shall “dip his foot in oil [shemen]”. (Deuteronomy 33:24) Both blessings invoke special oil, and our Sages teach that the land of Asher produced the finest olive trees and the best olive oil. (See, for instance, Menachot 85b which says that Temple oil came from the Asherite town of Tekoa, and which describes the oil riches of the Asherite town of Gush Halav.) A later tradition explains that the Chanukah miracle of oil lasted precisely eight days because that’s how long it took to produce fresh oil from the northern territory of Asher and deliver it to Jerusalem. In other words, by day nine following the reconsecration of the Temple, a fresh batch of pure oil had arrived. And the oil came specifically from Asher (אשר), the numerical value of which is 501.

What is the deeper significance of the name “Asher”? When Leah named him, she based it on the fact that his arrival made her “fortunate”, the literal meaning of the name. But there is much more to it. When Moses first encountered Hashem at the Burning Bush, and asked how he should introduce God to the Israelites, the answer was Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh (Exodus 3:14). This is the most unique name of God, used just once in the entire Tanakh, in the context of the First Redemption and Exodus. Thus, this name became forever associated with Geulah, redemption and salvation. Rashi here cites the Sages explaining that Hashem meant “He will be (Ehyeh)” with Israel through the suffering in Egypt just as “He will be (Ehyeh)” with Israel throughout all future exiles and persecutions. In other words, Hashem is there with Israel at the First Redemption just as He will be at the Final Redemption.

The Arizal taught (in Sha’ar haMitzvot on Ekev) that one should meditate on the name Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh when washing mayim achronim, and the customary recital of the phrase “mayim acharonim chova” is to remind one of this, since chova (חובה) has a value of 21, equal to Ehyeh (אהיה)! This hastens to bring about the Final Redemption, when “knowledge of God shall fill the Earth as water covers the sea.” (Isaiah 11:9) This is the deeper meaning of the “final waters”, ie. the waters of the Final Redemption (as explored in depth in Secrets of the Last Waters). Now, this unique redemptive name of God has three parts to it, and is structured in such a way that one’s focus naturally shifts to the middle word Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh. It’s that same name Asher, with a value of 501. The Zohar has a profound teaching on this.

Why is it, the Zohar asks, that the Tanakh so many times prohibits the Israelites from worshipping Asherah trees? In ancient times, these trees were seen as fertility goddesses or symbolic of “mother earth” and worshipped by various cultures. We find tree worship not only in the ancient Middle East, but all over the world. Remnants of this are still found in practices like bedecking Christmas trees. The Zohar (I, 49a) notes the unmissable connection between Asherah and Asher. In fact, it points out that both of these names are found in one Torah verse!

We read in Deuteronomy 16:21 that “You shall not set up an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of your God YHWH that [Asher] you may make (לֹא תִטַּע לְךָ אֲשֵׁרָה כָּל עֵץ אֵצֶל מִזְבַּח יְיָ אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר תַּעֲשֶׂה לָּךְ). The word asher here seems to simply mean “that”, but can also be read as the actual name of God Asher, as if reading Hashem Eloheikha Asher. The Zohar explains that “Asher is her husband”, alluding to the Canaanite idolatry in ancient Israel, where Ba’al was worshipped alongside his divine consort Asherah. Similarly, the nearby Assyrians (Ashurim) worshipped their chief god Ashur, which is where the name of their people and empire came from.

The truth is that these terms actually originate in a holy place. Asher is indeed an appellation for Hashem, and Asherah was originally a term for the “feminine” manifestation of God in this world, ie. the Shekhinah! However, the idolaters adopted these terms and turned them into full-blown idols, associated with statues and trees, and tied to all kinds of immoral rituals. Such adaptation and corruption of holy terms and concepts that originate in the Torah happens in many instances and in many places. For example, we find that the Romans worshipped the metal-working god Vulcan, derived from the Torah’s Tuval-Cain, the first metalworker (Genesis 4:22). The Greeks worshiped a divine ancestor named Iapetus, who is really the Torah’s Yefet, forefather of the Greeks. The Canaanites worshiped a god named Adon, and the Egyptians Aten, and the Greeks Adonis—all, of course, emanating from a corruption of the true divine name Adonai. And its precisely with the prohibition of idolatry where we next find the number 501.

In the Ten Commandments, we are instructed not to make any temunah, idolatrous image. The Ba’al haTurim (Rabbi Yakov ben Asher, c. 1269-1343) points out that the gematria of temunah (תמונה) is 501, which is exactly equal to the term partzuf adam (פרצוף אדם), “the image of man”. In other words, we are forbidden from making idolatrous statues or images with human-like depictions of gods or God. (For lots more on understanding this Second Commandment, see here.) The depictions that we are allowed to make involve letters of the divine Hebrew alphabet, and the only kind of divine “image” we can meditate on is the letters making up various names of God. In fact, one of the oldest known Kabbalistic texts is the ancient Sefer haTemunah, which goes into tremendous depth about the divine forms of the Hebrew letters.

On a Kabbalistic level, the 501 of Partzuf Adam has tremendous meaning as well. Recall that in the Kabbalah of the Arizal, the Ten Sefirot are rectified and rearranged as five partzufim, “faces”. The highest of the partzufim corresponds to the highest and most sublime of the olamot, “worlds” or “dimensions”—that of Adam Kadmon. The initial primordial lights from which Creation took place emerged from Adam Kadmon. A little bit of that special divine light of Creation, the ohr haganuz, was concealed under God’s Throne and preserved for the righteous at the End of Days and in the Messianic Age (see Yalkut Shimoni II, 499). And all of this ties right back into Chanukah, which celebrates that divine light.

Chanukah is not explicitly mentioned in the Torah because, of course, the events of Chanukah happened many centuries after the Torah. Nonetheless, there are countless places in the Torah that secretly allude to Chanukah. One of these is parashat Tetzave, which begins with the command for Moses to light the menorah in the Mishkan, alluding to the future Chanukiah. The numerical value of Tetzave (תצוה) is also 501! The Ba’al haTurim further notes that 501 is the value of the term nashim tziva (נשים צוה), that God “commanded the women” to light Shabbat candles, which tap into the same divine light. The unique thing about parashat Tetzave is that it is the only parasha in which Moses is not explicitly mentioned (from the time that he is introduced in the Torah). The deeper reason for this is that Tetzave is not about the generation of the Exodus or the First Redemption, but rather about the Final Redemption; not about Moses, but secretly about Mashiach. Which brings us right back to 501, the number of the Final Redemption:

As we see in the world around us today, the final “exile” and persecution comes by way of the Ishmaelites. Whether it’s Hamas or Hezbollah, the Houthis or Iran, Qatar or the PA or the Muslim Brotherhood, or their many terrorist sympathizers around the world, it is the Ishmaelim who are hell-bent on destroying Israel and harming Jews wherever they might be. And so, the value of Ishmaelim (ישמעאלים) is also 501, the final barrier to the Final Redemption. But they will soon be neutralized, obliterated by another 501, as explained by Rav Shimshon of Ostropoli in his Pesach discourse called Ma’amar Sod Eztba Elokim. At the Passover seder, we are instructed to spill a drop of wine for each of the Ten Plagues, and then to spill additional drops as we recite the acronym of the plagues: datzach adash b’achav (דצ”ך עד”ש באח”ב). What is the point of this acronym?

Rav Shimshon explains that the total value of this phrase is 501, and it alludes to the secret angel that brought about the Ten Plagues. The angel is referred to by the term Taka Beresheet, or just Taka (תק״א), the numerical value of which is 501. Hashem used this angel to punish the Egyptians, “So that you may recount in the hearing of your child and of your children’s children that [asher] I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I displayed My signs among them—in order that [asher] you may know that I am YHWH” (Exodus 10:2) The term Asher appears twice in this verse, alluding to the 501 of Taka that was used by God to make a mockery of the Egyptian oppressors, as well as to the redemptive name Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh.

So, too, in our days, the Ishmaelim of 501 will be neutralized by Taka of 501, stemming from that divine name of God Asher of 501, from the name of Redemption, Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh. We will soon be “saved from the flames”, just as Yehoshua the Kohen Gadol was in the Haftarah that we read on Shabbat Chanukah, that he was mutzal m’esh (מצל מאש), another term that equals 501. And as we say at the Rosh Hashanah table, we will no longer be a “tail”, but only a “head”, rosh (ראש), whose value is also 501. We will return to our Promised Land (אדמתנו), also 501, with the true Davidic Kingdom (המלכות), 501, restored for good. May we merit to see it very soon!

Chodesh Tov v’Chag Sameach!  

For more on the number 501 and the connection to the divine light of Creation, Chanukah, and the Final Redemption, see the recent class on ‘Chanukah & the Final Redemption’:

Origins and Mysteries of Shabbat Candles

1723 Illustration of Shabbat Candle-Lighting

This week’s parasha, Tetzave, begins with the command to take “pure olive oil, crushed for lighting, to kindle the lamps continually.” (Exodus 27:20) This refers to lighting the “eternal flame”, ner tamid, of the Temple Menorah. Since the destruction of the Temple, we are no longer able to fulfil this mitzvah exactly. However, the Sages say we can still fulfil this mitzvah through the lighting of Shabbat candles. The Ba’al HaTurim (Rabbi Yakov ben Asher, 1269-1343) presents some mathematical proof for this as well: the gematria of ner tamid (נר תמיד) is 704, equal to “on the Sabbath” (בשבת), while the gematria of tetzave (תצוה) is 501, equal to “[God] commanded the women” (נשים צוה). In other words, God commanded women to light Shabbat candles as a way to keep the Temple’s eternal flame going.

This beautiful teaching actually helps us pinpoint the origins of lighting Shabbat candles, since the mitzvah is not explicitly mentioned anywhere in the Torah. Where exactly did it come from, why was it instituted, and why is it women specifically that are instructed to light these candles? Continue reading →

Do Men Have More Mitzvot than Women?

This week’s parasha, Tazria, begins by describing the rituals that a mother must perform upon giving birth to a new child. If the child is male, the mother is considered “impure” for seven days following her delivery, and then spends an additional 33 days in purification. For a female child, the durations are doubled, with the mother “impure” for 14 days, and purifying for another 66 days. Why is the duration of purification for a female doubly longer than a male?

‘Garden of Eden’, by Thomas Cole

The apocryphal Book of Jubilees (3:8) suggests an interesting idea: Adam was made on the Sixth Day of Creation but, apparently, Eve wasn’t made until a whole week after. This is why a mother of a male child is impure for a week, but a mother of a female child for two weeks! Jubilees also holds that Adam was only brought into Eden forty days after being created, while Eve was brought in after eighty days. This is why a mother of a male child needs a total of forty days to purify, and a mother of a female child needs eighty days. Of course, Rabbinic tradition rejects the Book of Jubilees, and it is accepted that Adam and Eve were both created on the Sixth Day, and were in Eden from the beginning.

Commenting on this week’s parasha, the Zohar (III, 43b) states that it takes a soul 33 days to settle in the body. This is primarily referring to the new soul that enters a newborn baby, as it takes time for the ethereal soul to get used to its descent into a physical world. The Zohar doesn’t add too much more on this, but we might assume that, based on the words of the Torah, it takes a male soul 33 days to settle, and a female soul 66 days to settle. At the same time, the Zohar may be referring to the soul of the mother, too, as she is the one that spends 33 or 66 days in purification. As we’ve explained in the past, the severing of the mother’s direct connection to her child distresses her soul for 33 or 66 days following childbirth.

Whatever the case, the implication is that a female soul is somehow greater than a male soul. It has more spiritual power, taking longer to settle. The notion that female souls are greater is found throughout Jewish texts, especially mystical ones. Sefer HaBahir, one of the most ancient Kabbalistic texts, states that the female soul is the most beautiful of all, and an aspect of the Shekhinah, the Divine Presence (chs. 173-175). It explicitly makes clear that life on Earth would be impossible without the life-giving mother, who in this regard is much closer to God.

On that note, it has been said that God created the world sequentially from simple to complex, starting with the basic elements: light, air, water, earth; progressing to plants, then simple animals, then mammals, then man, and finally woman. The woman is the last of God’s creation, and therefore the most intricate and the most refined. It may be because of this that the Arizal taught that while male souls typically reincarnate to rectify themselves, female souls rarely if ever reincarnate at all (Sha’ar HaGilgulim, ch. 9).

It is important to mention here that we are speaking of female souls, not necessary to all women. The Arizal (as well as the Zohar cited above) speak of the possibility of female souls in male bodies, or male souls in female bodies. And it should also be mentioned that this does not necessarily affect the body’s sexuality. A “female” soul in a male body can still very much be a heterosexual male, and vice versa. (For more on this, see Rav Yitzchak Ginsburgh’s lecture here on the female soul of the forefather Isaac, as well as the prophets Samuel, Jonah, and Habakkuk.)

There are a number of consequences to the greater souls of females. For one, it gives them binah yeterah, an “extra understanding” sometimes referred to as “women’s intuition” (Niddah 45b). This is one reason why the women of the Exodus generation, for example, did not participate in the sin of the Golden Calf, nor the sin of the Spies. In fact, the Kli Yakar (Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim Luntschitz, 1550-1619, on Numbers 13:2) states that, had Moses sent female spies, there would have been no problem at all!

On the other hand, a more elevated soul and an extra depth of understanding means a greater sensitivity to the world, which makes women generally less prone to violence and drug abuse, but significantly more prone to depression and anxiety. The greater female soul has the amazing potential to bring life, yet simultaneously (to balance the equation) the potential for severe destruction, “more bitter than death”, to borrow from King Solomon in Kohelet 7:26. This is symbolically reflected in the menstrual cycle, where a lack of conception of life necessarily results in the shedding of blood, a “minor death” that is then rectified in the living waters of the mikveh.

Finally, a greater soul means that women require slightly less mitzvot than men. After all, the “mitzvot were given only in order that human beings might be purified by them… their purpose is to refine…” (Beresheet Rabbah 44:1) A more refined female soul does not need the same mitzvot that a male soul does. Unfortunately, this has sometimes been a point of contention in modern times. Yet, upon closer examination, we see that the differences in mitzvot between men and women are actually minimal and, contrary to the general belief, there is a perfect balance between those mitzvot done exclusively by men and those done exclusively by women.

“Time-Bound” Mitzvot?

The general rule is that, at least in principle, women are exempt from any mitzvah that can only be done at a particular time. This includes mitzvot like prayer, tefillin, and tzitzit. However, in practical terms we see that this “rule” isn’t really a thing, and there are many time-bound mitzvot that women are obligated in. For example,

The above is an excerpt from Garments of Light, Volume Two. To continue reading, get the book here!