2-AV 5784 Year of Months Nov 10

This transcription discusses the Hebrew month of Av and its deeper meanings according to the Book of Formation. It explores the symbolism and connections to the Hebrew Alephbet, Zodiac signs, and tribes of Israel. The month is associated with mourning for the destruction of the temples, but also with redemption and finding one's soulmate. The letter of the month is Tet, symbolizing a time of spiritual pregnancy condensed into nine days. The zodiac sign is Leo, symbolizing divine will and power. The tribe of Shimon is connected with Av and the sense of hearing. Shimon's name is linked to the idea of sin and humility. Hearing the call to return to God leads to the rebuilding of the temple. Alright, so, back to Av, from an amazing website about the deeper things in Judaism, and about Israel, this website called inner.org has an article called the month of Av according to the Book of Formation, the Sefer Yetzirah, all the way back from February of 2014, almost 11 years ago. Now, this article, I have used this website and the articles on the month before, but I want to share with you more about the source, just because any month and any topic you can think of that's on this site is really deep and more obscure, it's a little bit harder to find, but once I found this website, I found that the articles were really quite amazing and the search bar came up with a lot of stuff about the month of Av, so I was really impressed. This article, in particular, I had to find by doing a regular web search and it popped up, but within the site itself, there are a lot of articles on each month, the weekly parashah, so check it out if you have time and it interests you, but anyway, this article explores the symbolism and deeper meanings associated with the Hebrew month of Av, so according to the Sefer Yetzirah, the Book of Formation, we're going to draw some connections to the Hebrew Alephbet, the Zodiac signs, and the tribes of Israel, and then also regarding the month, the senses, or the Middot of the month, and the body parts. Now, here are the key points from this article, so the name and the meaning of Av, which most of you probably already know, Av means father and is linked to the concept of will or desire. It is considered both a month of mourning, M-O-U-R-N-I-N-G, because of the destruction of the temples on the ninth of Av, several hundred years apart, the first one being in 586 BCE by Babel, by Babylon, and the second one in the Seventy Common Era by the Romans. Now, there is also a time of redemption, the 15th of Av, which we're going to talk about in a little bit, which is the day of joy, and also in Jewish tradition, finding one's soulmate. And then also behind the name and meaning of Av is the Mashiach, so Messiah is traditionally said to be born on the ninth of Av, and reveals himself on the 15th of Av. Now, we as believers in Yeshua do not believe he was born on the ninth of Av. Most believers in Yeshua who have done any amount of study on the topic know that based on the genealogy in the book of Matthew and Luke, and the presentation of the story behind Yeshua's birth in Matthew and Luke, that if he calculated, understanding the priestly mishmarot, the priestly courses of the Levitical priests, and if you take into account Yohanan the Immerser, John the Baptist's father's course, and when he would have had to serve, and knowing that Yohanan was born six months prior to Yeshua at Pesach, that Yeshua was born at Sukkot. And think about this, for the Messiah, right, to be a man and to have a circumcision, well, it would make sense that the eighth day would also land on a significant biblical holiday. And funny enough, the only festival with an eighth day celebration is Sukkot tied to the eighth day, which is Shemini Atzeret. And so, to me, it makes perfect sense that Yeshua would be born as a temporary dwelling for God on the earth, a tabernacle, a sukkah, born on Sukkot, and then circumcised, one of the most major mitzvot that we see, all the way back to the book of Genesis, where a sheep that breathed meat out of circumcision was very important, and still is very important for a male Jewish child. Okay, so, number two. The letter of the month is Tet, which corresponds to the number nine, also tied to nine months of pregnancy, and the month of Av mirrors this cycle. The letter Tet corresponds to Av and is symbolic of a womb, if you look at it, it kind of looks like a vessel, and represents a time of spiritual pregnancy condensed into nine days. So, the idea here is that from the first of Av to the ninth of Av is a condensed spiritual pregnancy cycle, and since Tet is the number of the letter of the month, according to the Sefer Yetzirah, when God formed the month, he assigned a letter to each, and a planet to each month, and a constellation. Not that we believe in horoscopes, but astrology is just the study of the constellations, and the impacts that they have on the planets and the earth. Excuse me, I had to sneeze, sorry. Okay, so, number three, the zodiac sign is Leo, or Aryeh in Hebrew. Now, the lion, Aryeh, symbolizes divine will, and power, and the destructive acts in Av. For example, the temple's destruction were ultimately for the purpose of rebuilding, especially rebuilding the third temple. Now, the number 216 represents the word Aryeh, so Aryeh, if you add it up in Hebrew, Alice is one, Resh is two hundred, He is five, so when you add up, that's two sixteen, Alice, Resh, Yod, He. So we know Yod and He are fifteen, Resh is two hundred, plus Alice is one, so that adds up to one plus two hundred plus ten plus five, that's two hundred and sixteen. There's the Demetria for you, in case you were curious where that came from. The word Aryeh is connected to Gevurah, which is strength, or might, and that is associated with contraction and destruction, but ultimately leads to Chesed, kindness, and the rebuilding of the temple. So, interesting, like a more Kabbalistic understanding, a deeper, more Hasidic understanding. Now, Kabbalah is not magic, I mean, there are branches of Kabbalah which are not kosher, which are not biblical, but Kabbalah just means to receive, so the Sefir Yetzirah is considered by Kabbalists, or people who are seeking deeper, more spiritual understandings of things within Judaism and the Bible, to be the book that was given to Abraham, the information and understanding from Hashem given to Abraham, it's not part of the Bible obviously, but it is a deeper understanding of how God created the universe and things functioned in the spiritual realms within the framework of Judaism that were originally given to Abraham. So, Kabbalah just means to receive, or just receiving, I always like to remind people if you go to Israel and you ask for a Kabbalah, at the register they're going to give you a receipt, something that is received, that which is received, so a receipt, that's what a Kabbalah is, and Kabbalah is just that, what Abraham received from Hashem, from the Lord. Alright, number four, the tribe of Israel is connected with Shimon, now the tribe of Shimon corresponds to Ag, and is associated with the sense of hearing, now Shimon's name came from God, when Leah had Shimon, she said, God heard me, so she named him Shimon, and he was, let's see, which kid was he, right off the top of my head, I forget, I know it was Reuven, and I believe Shimon was second, so, now, you can go back to the book of Genesis to see the order of the tribes, and which order the sons were born, but I believe it's Reuven, Shimon, Levi, Yehudah, Issachar, Zebulun, and then she had Dina, her daughter, and then she had Yosef, I know, I'm sorry, Rachel had Yosef, sorry, so those were the seven children of Dina, six sons, and one daughter, and then the other tribes came from the servant women, and also Rachel, who had Yosef and Benjamin, and then passed away, sadly, may she rest in peace, may she be remembered for good. So the tribe of Shimon corresponds to Av associated with sense of hearing, comes from the same root word as the word Shema, now Shimon's name is linked to the idea of sin, so Chet, so if you look at the letters of the name Shimon, and you change the vowels around a little bit, you come up with Sham Avon, meaning there is iniquity, but in Av, this transforms to humility, Sham Anav, there is humility, Anav is the word for humility in Hebrew, and Avon is the word for iniquity, so this symbolizes the rectification of hearing and sin, so Shimon's connection to Moshe highlights the importance of humility and spiritual growth, and because Moshe was considered to be the most humble man on the planet, and Shimon's role is pivotal in the redemption process, as hearing the call to return to God leads to the rebuilding of the temple, so very interesting, we have to hear from the Lord, and hear through reading the Torah, through doing the mitzvot, and through observing the mitzvot, and studying them, and then this brings us to understand the voice of the Lord. There is a scripture in the Apostolic scriptures in the book of Romans that says faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the word of God, but let me read that in context, so Romans 10 chapter 10 verse 14 says, how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed, he is talking about Israel, and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard, and how shall they hear without a preacher, and how shall they preach unless they are sent, and it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things, that is from the book of Isaiah as well, I believe it is Isaiah 53 or 58, and then verse 16 of Romans chapter 10 says, but they have not all obeyed the gospel, the good news, for Isaiah, Yeshayahu says, the Lord who has believed our report, so then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, now the apostle Paul quotes Isaiah several times here in chapter 10, so going through that would take more time, but I just wanted to read the source that verse in particular came from, Isaiah 53 verse 1, who have believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed, for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground, he has no form, or comeliness, nor attractiveness, and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire from him, comeliness is like an old English word for being attractive, so quality of being good looking and attractive, so all right, thank you for your patience there, okay let's go back to Shimon, so hearing is central to us, and that is, okay so let's move on to the sense, so the midah or sense that is attached to the month of Av is hearing, as we already talked about with Shimon, that makes sense because Shimon means hearing, and this represents the ability to understand deeply and integrate truth, hearing also connects to balance and is crucial for distinguishing truth from falsehood, and it also has to do with the inner ear and equilibrium, and it gives you physically balance, so spiritual hearing gives you spiritual balance, and the left kidney controls hearing according to the Sefer Yetzirah, which signifies the internal guidance to absorb and process truth, as opposed to the spiritual activity of the right kidney, which governs thought, the controlling limb, we alluded to that a minute ago, the left kidney, so the left kidney is associated with the sense of hearing, and helps process the eternal truth that one absorbs, advising on how to properly integrate this truth into one's consciousness, and the right kidney, in contrast, relates to the sense of thought and introspection, which is more spiritual in nature, so in essence, the month of Av is a time of both destruction and redemption, and its spiritual significance is linked to the rectification of hearing and the transformation of negative forces into humility and healing, so through humility, through humbling yourself, you can bring healing, and you can also bring that to others, the rebuilding of the temple and the coming of the Messiah, Mashiach, are tied to these spiritual processes, and these are symbolized through the themes of pregnancy, willpower, and hearing. Now, the 11th month of the biblical year, counting from Tishri, is known as Menachem Av, and if we didn't talk about that already, Av is the 11th month from Tishri, and it's the 5th month from Nisan, and the term Menachem means consoler, while Av translates to father, and given the tragic events that have taken place during this month, its name serves as a reminder that God is present to offer comfort in times of sorrow.