Beach combing the G'matriya Beach with the help of "Otzrot Yisrael", one of the CDs of the "Responsa Project" of Bar Ilan University.

In T'hilim 49:2 it says: Here this, all the nations, listen to this all the residents of the world. This pasuk shares its G'matriya (1532) with the phrase that gives this week's sedra its name: ZOT CHUKAT HATORAH. Rashi says that this statement is what we say to the nations of the world when they taunt for doing mitzvot,especially the CHOK, without rational explana tion. We say that we listen to G-d because He is King and Master. That is enough for us.

But we don't only express this idea to the nations of the world. We must say it to ourselves, especially those among us who scoff at Torah and mitzvot. It seems reasonable to draw this idea from the juxtaposi tion of Parshat Korach and Parshat Chukat. ZOT CHUKAT HATORAH is an answer to the rebellious among us, as much,if not more, as it is to the nations of the world. How appropriate, then, is the introduc tory pasuk of T'hilim 49: LaMinatzei ach Livnei Korah Mizmor. Bnei Korach did not die in the Korach fiasco. They distanced themselves from their father and allied them selves with Moshe Rabeinu. They did T'shuva. Eleven chapters (of150) of T'hilim are attributed to them. But their name - Bnei Korach - conjures up in our minds the kind of Jews that also need the message of ZOT CHUKAT HATORAH.

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And Moshe made the copper serpent and he put it on a pole, and if the serpent had bitten someone, he would look at the copper serpent and live (Bamidbar 21:9). When the people had to circumvent the territory of Edom, who had refused to allow them to pass through their land, they got very discouraged and fed up with theirlives. In the aftermath of Korach's rebellion and the plague that claimed 14,700 lives, the deaths of Miriam and Aharon, the accompanying thirst and military encounter respectively, they bitterly complained against G-d and Moshe. G-d sent poisonous snakes (serpents) which bit many of the people and many died. This situationwas "remedied" by the fashioning of the copper serpent on the pole. Without getting into the discussion of whether this was a good thing or not, it is a case of G-d commanding Moshe to make an image which would help bring people back to faithfulness in G-d.

What a sharp contrast with the event that occurred nearly 40 years earlier. Then the people sinned by fashioning an image – the Golden Calf – which was "remedied" (in part) by its destruction. Sh'mot 32:20 tells us that Moshe took the Calf which they had made and burned it in fire and ground it into powder and scatteredit over the water and gave the people to drink from it. Lack of faith in G-d, in the one case, was manifest by the image the people made; in the other case it (faithfulness in G-d) is brought about by looking at an image.

Interesting contrast. These two contrasting (and complementary in a different way) p'sukim have the same G'matriya (5149).

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The Haftara of Chukat is about Yiftach HaGil'adi. See the Aliya-by- Aliya Sedra Summary – Haftara for the connection to the sedra. The opening pasuk of the Haftara (Sho'f'tim 11:1) tells us that Yiftach was a great warrior and that he was the son of an ISHA ZONA; Gil'ad fathered Yiftach. ISHA ZONA is interpreted differentlyin the commentaries as: a prostitute, a concubine, an innkeeper, or a woman from a different tribe. In all cases, the term is meant to be derogatory, at it explains the terrible treatment of Yiftach before the people so desperately needed him. (During a certain period of early Jewish history, intermarriage among tribeswas discouraged, lest territory change hands via the laws of inheritance. This attitude is well expressed by the term ISHA ZONA.)

One way or another, this pasuk that introduces us to the leader of his generation has a G'matriya of 2411. Running the search program turned up a "nice", famous pasuk which at first glance had no connection to Yiftach's pasuk. Further inspection established the connection. The pasuk is D'varim 33:4): TORAH TZIVA LANU MOSHE,MORASHA K'HILAT YAAKOV. The Gemara in Rosh HaShana and Midrash Rabba on Kohelet expand upon the issue of Jewish Authority throughout the generations. The pasuk in the Torah refers to consulting the judges "who will be in your time". Can one consult judges of another time? The answer to the rhetorical questionis, it comes to teach us that the leaders of each generation have the authority, backed by the Torah, that requires us to follow their decrees, without our saying: "but they aren't as great as So-and-so". There is an equation made between three giants and three "lightweights" (as we would define the term) — Moshe, Aharon,Shmuel on the one hand and Y'ruba'al (a.k.a. Gid'on), B'dan (a.k.a. Shimshon), Yiftach, on the other. The Beit Din of Yiftach in his generation is equated to the Beit Din of Shmuel in his, and Shmuel is equated to Moshe and Aharon. Hence, a connection between Moshe and Yiftach. Note especially, that the pasuk in questionis not just a Moshe Rabbeinu pasuk – there are hundreds of those – it is the pasuk that indicates Moshe's authority. That is the pasuk with the same G'matriya as the pasuk that tells us who Yiftach is.

A general word of caution when it comes to G'matriya, specifically, the homemade variety that will be appearing in this Treasures in the Sand column. Don't read too much into them. They are not meant to say something new. They are meant to be a nice "numerical confirmation" of existing ideas.

A new Treasures in the Sand

TES Bible Scholar, an "old" DOS program, is used to block a pasuk in Tanach and calculate its G'matriya. Otzrot Yisrael, Bar Ilan CD, takes a number and outputs list of p'sukim or partial p'sukim whose G'matriyas are the inputted number. The G'matriya matches (GM) that result sometimes point to interesting comments or observations.Such as...

In the ninth chapter of Kohelet, Shlomo HaMelech speaks about the vast difference between life and death. Among other descriptive terms is his statement that it is better to be a live dog than a dead lion. In 9:5 he states that "the living know that they will (eventually) die, but the dead know nothing, and they no longerhave the opportunity to receive reward (for doing mitzvot)..." This pasuk that presents an important distinction between the living and the dead, has a g'matriya of 3250. So does a pasuk from Parshat Chukat - Bamidbar 19:14, to be specific. ZOT HATORAH - this is the Torah, a person dies in a tent, then everything thatcomes into the tent or was in the tent becomes Tamei. That pasuk too teaches us how very different life and death are. If the rules of T'mei Meit (defilement from contact with a dead body) point us in that direction in general, how much more so this particular detail. There are many sources of ritual defilement. Only one,however, can impart Tum'a without direct or indirect contact. And that's a dead body. This aspect of Tum'at Meit is singled out by the Torah, is introduced by ZOT HATORAH. This aspect, more than the others, says that MEIT is the ultimate form of impurity. All other sources of Tum'a are different from a regular person.This one is the same - but the most different. That was Shlomo HaMelech's point. Maybe that was G-d's.