22 August 2012

Speaking of "Isaac"

5 Elul 5772

Hurricane Isaac may be the last warning for America. Wondering how I figure that? Well, I'll tell you. There might be nothing to it, but...

Isaac is, of course, the English form of the Hebrew Yitzchak which is the name of the second patriarch of the Jewish people - the son of Avraham Avinu.

It's in Parshat Vayera (Breishit 18.1 - 22.24) that we read about Akeidat Yitzchak - the binding of Isaac. In 2012, we will read that parshah on the 3rd of November, the Shabbat before the US elections.

However, we read it one other time and that is on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.

Now, get this. Remember this well-known Zohar on Parshat Vayera?

In the 73rd year, all the kings of the world shall assemble in the great city of Rome. And the Holy One, blessed be He. will shower fire and hail and meteoric stones upon them, until they are wiped out from the world. And only those kings who did not go to Rome will remain in the world.

Some think "73" could refer to 5773. Guess what is scheduled on the second day of Rosh Hashanah 5773?

18 September 2012, at 3 p.m. - The United Nations General Assembly begins at United Nations Headquarters in New York

That's right. In the 73rd year, all the world leaders will be assembling in New York.... While we are reading from the parshah from which this Zohar is derived.

18 comments:

  1. I am a little slow this way - if it is the opening of the 67th session where does the 73 year play in?

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  2. geez - can't believe I asked that question. I will blame it on a very long stressful month of work -

    sure wish we got those cheap flights to Israel for the Yom Tovim (didn't work out so we got tickets for 3rd week in Jan. Yud Gimmel Shavat son gets hair cut in Meron). I wanted to be there before Rosh Hoshanna. Perhaps a nes will take place and we still can get there. We live in Boro Park and I don't want to be in NY when this takes place. (Don't wish to be here now anyway)

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  3. many things going on. We must daven. We must change... Hashem, I believe is giving us time to change. Will we take advantage of it?

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  4. ToT, don't worry about it. It's good you asked that question. It made me realize that mention of "67" caused confusion and it was irrelevant so I took it out. You did us all a favor by helping to clarify the matter. Always a good thing.

    I just read that the DNC is to take place starting Sept 4th in Charlotte, North Carolina, another hurricane prone area. I wonder if they will also get one and what it's name will be. Wait and see. And do teshuva every day. That's all we can do.

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  5. yitzchak spells ketz chai as well.
    and arizal says the "name" of moshiach is yitzchak (shaar gilgulim)
    and the baal haturim says when yishmael falls, expect MBD as the toldos Yitzchak
    yitzchak is the gematria 208, the same as pinchas [eliyahu] of which the arizal also says contains the shoresh to both moshiach ben yosef and david.

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  6. Thanks, Rabbi Katz. Those are great insights. I'd also ad that three other very important and highly relevant events take place in Parshat Vayera:

    1. The destruction of Sodom and Amorah.
    2. Hashem "remembers" Sarah and she becomes pregnant with Yitzchak.
    3. Yishmael and Hagar are banished from Avraham's home.

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  7. Oh my,my non Jewish mother is to have surgery in NC on Tuesday the 28th and I am planning to spend time with her after she comes home which is perhaps a week and a half before Rosh HaShana! I would have to make arrangements to stay either in Charlotte or Chapel Hill where there is a kehillah.

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  8. If you are going to Charlotte that week, you are going to need THIS.

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  9. Yitzhak is the Mida of Gevura.

    לִפְנֵי אֶפְרַיִם, וּבִנְיָמִן וּמְנַשֶּׁה-- עוֹרְרָה אֶת-גְּבוּרָתֶךָ;
    וּלְכָה לִישֻׁעָתָה לָּנוּ


    During Selihot, we pray:

    עננו ופחד יצחק עננו

    and

    עוררה גבורתך להקיץ נרדמים, למענך תפדה חרדים נדהמים

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  10. Thank you for pointing that out, Yaak. And for the references. Amazing!

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  11. Devash, Hurricanes are fickle, and their five day forecasts are often unreliable. They often change direction or wind speed on a dime. Shouldn't we wait until a day or two before the eye is actually headed for Tampa to talk about this? Maybe on Yom Rishon, we can make a more accurate projection of the tropical storm's or hurricane's path.

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  12. Also as of Friday at noon in Eretz Yisrael, the tropical storm is headed for Haiti and then Cuba. After the tropical storm exits Cuba into the Gulf of Mexico, we will have a much better idea on where it is headed and what its strength will be. The present storm path is for it to spend a lot of time losing energy over Cuba.

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  13. Dov, you are talking to a born and bred Houstonian. There is nothing you can tell me about hurricanes.

    The fact that it has been all over the news prominently for days and that the RNC is "threatened" by it is all it takes for it to be a warning. Doesn't have to do anything more than it already has.

    I think it's the warning before what's coming Sep/Oct.

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  14. Well you were right after all. It looks like Yitzchak is threading the needle and is about to only minimally graze over Northern Cuba. Therefore it will not lose much strength at all. So here come some gevurot of Yitzchak to the Republican National Convention. So the question might be why. Bibi is about to evacuate Migron, hmm, perhaps at the same time Yitzchak wrecks havoc in Tampa. He and Slick Mitt have been friends for about 35 years. I am sure they are both CFR card carrying members. And perhaps via the US State Dept. who employs Ehud Barak with a 2nd paycheck, the evacuation of Migron is a CFR operation. just an educated guess. Now the last operation against Migron when three homes were destroyed at 2am brought about Hurricane Lee lighting about 57 wildfires outside Austin, Texas about 3 hours after the rude awakening at 2am. Those wildfires destroyed about 1550 homes. That is a 500 to one destruction ratio. So you can do the math. 45 caravans plus one Beit Knesset times..... again this is just an educated guess based on previous Divine retributions for previous bad behavior.

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  15. Well as of the afternoon on Yom Rishon, it will become a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, but it is headed for landfall in Mobile Bay, AL. Tampa will likely get only Tropical Storm winds. This can change on a dime if it shifts toward the east though.

    I am refusing to look at the news here in Israel. When Migron goes, I will then see a barren hilltop from my bedroom porch or my kitchen window. What a sad day that will be.

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  16. Well instead of tracking east toward the West Florida coast, it seems to be tracking further to the west. Am I just imagining this that the closer the dreaded date of Migron's evacuation draws near, this trop. storm/ hurricane seems to be adjusting its sights for New Orleans? And landfall is Wednesday morning, less than a day after Migron's evacuation? Nah, or is this happening again? another Gush Katif/ New Orleans connection? just curious, but this is shifting further west every time I look at it. Believe it or not landfall is about 2 to 2 1/2 days away. Perhaps we should look at this storm tomorrow afternoon more carefully. Right now it is over the Florida Keys. After the Keys there are no more land masses until the Mississippi/ Louisiana coast.

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