Ask JewishAmerica Archives
1998 - Volume 5

11/26/98
Counting Letters
>How many letters are there in the Torah?

I know of two answers to your question. One is statistical and the other is kabalistical.

Counting an aleph as one letter, a bais as one letter, etc., there are over two-hundred-thousand letters in the Torah. I don't know the exact number.

However.

Look at a Heh. Doesn't it look like the combination of a resh and a yud? A kaf can be viewed as the combination of a resh and a zayin. Look at the way a chet is written in a Torah. According to one variation, it's a vav and a zayin with a hat connecting the two.

The Kabalistic count is 600,000.

There's an easy way to remember this. - Yisrael.

Yud - Yesh (There are)
Sin (/ Shin) - Shishim (sixty times)
Resh - Riboh (10,000)
Aleph - Otiot (letters)
Lamed - Latorah. (for the Torah)

>I somehow still find it difficult to ignore the gap between the statistical
>number and the Kabbalistic one. I would mean, supposing that the Torah
>has some 200,000 letters, that in oredr to obtain 600,000 letter, each
>letter should be fragemanted/composed of 3 letters approximatly. but
>many letters are singles and cannot be fragmented, such as the Youd, the
>Vav and so on.
>Can you help me over this one.
>
>I wish to emphisize that I am an observant Jew, and these are not
>provocative questions.

Our sages left us with a lot of profound statements to work on.

It is clear to me that the 600,000 number is an obvious doorway to teachings that relate to the inner dimension of the Torah.

Only an idiot or a denigrator of the Torah could say that the Rabbis couldn't count.

Over the years, I've come to the realization that in order to understand the Torah, you have to accept the fact that you may not be able to understand everything in the Torah, at least during this lifetime.

This only makes sense if you believe that the Torah is true and that was authored by G-d, not by a person.

We also find the 600,000 number in Exodus 12:37. It relates to the number of people who were redeemed from Egypt. I've heard it said that there are 600,000 root neshamos (souls) and that each one corresponds to a letter in the Torah. (I say root neshamos because they branch out, allowing more than 600,000 people to be around.) So, if / when you can identify your root and if / when you know how to find how they match up with the 600,000 letters of the Torah, then you have your link to the Torah, itself.

I think that we're going to have to wait for Olam Haba (the Next World) to understand this one (too).

All the best from JewishAmerica

From Boris Schein:

>I heard the following comment on the 600,000 letters of the Torah.
>When a master jeweller works on a gem, he cuts and polishes its faces.
>
>The Torah is a gem with 600,000 faces, one face for each Jewish soul led
>out of Egypt.
>
>What does it tell us?
>
>We know that each of us should consider himself or herself as if it was he
>or she who was personally led out of Egypt. Thus the Torah was given to
>each and every of us,
>it is a gem that was given as a gift to each of us.
>
>A gem shines brilliantly when the light falls on its faces.
>
>The light of the Torah shines brilliantly when a Jew studies Torah.
>Each of us is different, and yet there is a face in the Torah that speaks
> individually to each of us.

12/23/98
Good Faith
>As a gentile I sometimes get jealous that I am not a Jew.
>That is, the more I study and read G-ds word,
>the more respect I get for the Jews as G-ds people
>and your direct blood line to all the people
>written about in the Old Testament.
>I hope that everyone who is Jewish feels the honor that
>we cannot claim for ourselves.
>
>Having expressed these feelings, I feel compelled
>to question your lack of belief in Jesus.
>
>I realize that the Jews believe he existed,
>but why dont you believe that he
>really is G-d? Can't the Jewish scholars see the
>phrophecies in the Old Testament regarding the
>Saviour as having come true in Jesus? EVERY ONE of them!

I have great regard and respect for your feelings. They indicate a wholesome and deep-rooted appreciation and respect of faith.

Acknowledgement of a person's position and gifts and how he/she behaves as a result of this knowledge is frequently a test of character. Judaism teaches that we are on this Earth for the purpose of being tested.

We are a minority and we have been weakened by centuries of persecution. With G-d's help, may our spiritual health be soon restored.

The Jewish people have been under pressure to adopt the religions and lifestyles of their neighbors for most of their thirty-three centuries of history. That's thirteen centuries prior to the Christian Era and twenty centuries afterwards.

We have very stringent criteria for making religious-related judgements. Had they been not been so stringent, we would have adopted the pagan way and would have desolved amongst them long before the Christian Era emerged. Since Christianity resulted from Judaism, this would have meant that there may very well have been no Christianity.

The proofs that you make reference to have been on the books for centuries. I submit with respect that they simply do not stand up to the judgement criteria.

We have a number of links to sites that counter the arguments of missionaries. They deal with these proofs and their refutations. These sites were established for self-defense, to protect Jews and their identity, not for dislodging a Christian from his/her faith.

You must have read the account in Exodus of G-d's revelation to the Jewish people. He spoke to them directly, to each and every person. Everyone heard him give charge to Moses.

Given that level of affirmation, we are in no position to consider a lesser mechanism of affirmation, that of a good person claiming that he/she was charged by G-d to teach something which contradicts or which has no solid basis in the teachings of Moses.

For us to adopt the belief that you suggested, it would have been necessary for G-d to have come to us in the same manner that He did by Sinai to give us another approach. This simply did not happen.

All the best from JewishAmerica.

12/27/98
Child support
>According to Judaism, if a Jewish male and non-Jewish female are not
>married and they have a child, should that man be expected to assume
>some kind of responsibility? Or is it acceptable/expected in the
>religion that he keep the child a secret and let the woman assume
>full responsability?

I am not in a position to issue rulings on Jewish law.

I did some research into what traditional Jewish sources have to say about this and I can share my results. This should be taken as a theoretical discussion, not as halacha.

Within the framework of Judaism, the child will be cared for. Also, the father may very well be paying for some or all of the care. However, his payments may or may not be classified as child support.

Here's how this is understood.

Jewish law provides two formal basis for providing child support.

One is from a husband's marriage obligations.

There was no marriage in this case. This basis is therefore of no relevance.

The second is a general obligation for the community to provide for the welfare of society, actions of charity. Within Judaism, this responsibility falls upon the court.

The child in question has ties to two communities.

Jewish law assigns Jewish identity through the mother and would therefore regard the child as a non-Jew.

If the non-Jewish community has a mechanism to provide care for the child, then any involvement by the Jewish court system would be unwelcome and therefore not provided. So, the child would be cared for by the court system of the non-Jewish community. Now, the non-Jewish court system may turn around and impose the responsibility to provide child care upon the father. So, the father would wind up paying for child support, but not through the Jewish court system. The Jewish court system would not interfere because of the principle, "dina d'Malchusa Dina," the law of the land is law.

If the non-Jewish community does not provide care for the child and assistance is requested from the Jewish community, then we would provide it, even though the child is not Jewish (mefarnisim aniye anom yehudi im aniye yehudi.)

The Jewish court may very well extract compensation from the father for the additional charitable expenses that they are paying. As the father would be making compensatory payments to the court for the extra charitable burden, it would not be classified as child support.

So, the child will be cared for, the father may very well be paying for some or all of the care, but his payments may or may not be classified as child support.

In any case, the care should not be interpreted as an implied legitimization of the relationship that the father had with the mother.

All the best from JewishAmerica

12/27/98
The Prince Of Egypt
>I am writing in order to ascertain Jewish America's
>position on the new Disney cartoon, PRINCE OF EGYPT. >
>Although I am a fairly liberal Jew, I have certain
>reservations about a cartoon about the Jewish
>heritage and about Moses; one of our major leaders,
>generals, and general historical figures.
>
>I have serious concerns. Once again, an institution of
>Western civilization is possibly changing Jewish
>history to meet their ideology.

Your concerns are well taken and stated.

I didn't see the cartoon. From what I hear, it seems that the film is quite entertaining.

The producers have no commitment to reflect our traditional sources. There are no standards that require them to do so. They apparently did a good job for what they set out to do.

I would recommend alternate sources of information for those who want to benefit from our perspective and heritage.

If you provide me with a description of specific historical and ideological presentations in the film, I'd be glad to comment on them.

All the best from JewishAmerica.

>Sure. Tthere were some scenes left out, and some scenes with the wrong
>detail.
>
>For example, in the movie, it seems that the Pharaoh's wife finds Moses,
>(which is how the Kuran tells it). Though a few details were left out, IMO
>they were minor, and not really important. The movie set out to tell the
>overall picture of the story, the deliverence of the Hebrews. It did a
>great job doing that.
>
>Perhaps another great bonus to the film is the great cast.
>
>The movie included 2 songs with limited hebrew lyrics. Obviously this
>being a cartoon, was meant for children. The movie starts with note saying
>if you want to read more about this story, look at the Exodus book.

As I understand it, history has many dimensions: What (happened), Who (did it happen to), How (did it happen), Why (did it happen).

'What' and 'Who' are the most boring dimensions. 'How' and 'Why' can be interesting.

There are those believe that history is a hodge-podge of random events. For them, history has no meaning other than lessons learned to cope for the future.

Judaism believes that there is a G-d who is actively managing history, that of every person and every group. G-d has a goal and He both plans and executes historical events towards this goal.

Within this context, history takes on great meaning. 'How' and 'why' can have great significance. Furthermore, as the Exodus was an Act of G-d, every detail was of great significance and importance, a piece of a great puzzle.

The Exodus is one of the greatest cornerstones of Jewish history and destiny. It is most beneficial for a person to seek out what G-d was trying to tell Mankind by it.

Not having seen the film, I can't imagine how the Disney people handled this, if at all.

In our Tour of Jewish and World History, we made an attempt to capture some of the traditional Jewish thought on the significance of historical events, on-line at http://www.jewishamerica.com/TimeLine/index.htm

All the best from JewishAmerica.

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