31 Dec Parshas Va’eira; Transforming Water to Blood – The Transforming of the Plagues of Egypt into Messianic Miracles
Pesach and the Plagues Series
Transforming Water to Blood;
Transforming the Plagues of Egypt into Messianic Miracles
Based on an excerpt of the audio lecture of Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh.
For the Rav’s audio lecture for Parsha Va’eira click on or paste …
http://www.inner.org/audio/lectures/parsha/shemot.htm#Va’eirah
Parshas Va’eira is in the Book of Shemot, translated as ‘Names’. The power of a Name is found in the deeper meanings of it’s letters.
Language is a metaphor for communicating ideas. As in all creation, everything that exist first began in the spiritual realm. Hebrew is unique in that each Hebrew letter has 9 taxonomical categories giving meaning beyond the superficial expression and deeper spiritual insight to Hebrew letters. For our purpose here will be revealed deeper insights of; letters as numbers, and letters as words and phrases.
In Parshas Va ‘eira we see the first 7 of the 10 plagues that smote Egypt. Next week in Parshas Bo we will see the final 3 plagues. In this weeks Parshas Va ‘eira we will look primarily at the phenomenon of the first plague of transforming water into blood.
We say that all of the 10 plagues are contained within the 1st plague. For example, there is a relationship between the 1st plague of blood and the 10th plague of killing of the first born. Both involve an act of killing… All killing is bloody. There are two types of killing; physical and spiritual.
The 1st plague is about smiting (killing) the idolatry in Egypt. Not only the worshiped waters of the Nile were affected, but all waters were affected as water was transformed to blood. This debunks any sort of ‘scientific conjecture’ of some ‘scientific reason’ the waters of the Nile turned red to blood as all waters including those separated out from the body of the waters of the Nile turned to blood including well water and any water stored in vessels. So we must understand that there is something about or within the water from the Nile itself that is evil or demonic.
What is taking place here is the water is being ‘slaughtered’ and the blood of the evil force is the blood of that evil force being killed. As the water Egypt was being worshiped by the Egyptians, all water was filled with evil, and all water turns to blood.
The 1st plague is unique in that it is taking part of nature and transforming it into
a different physical compound. The water didn’t just turn red, it transformed to blood.
From a scientific perspective we know that everything contains carbon. Mystically we understand that carbon represents fire, one of the four Kabbalistic forces/elements of Creation (fire, air, water, earth). As all compounds are carbon based, all compounds contain fire.
Water is likened to ‘chesed’ or loving kindness, and the opposite of chesed is ‘gevurah’ or might which is likened to blood. Turning water to blood is paradoxical to nature; a new element has been made. So what takes place in the 1st plague is chemically miraculous. We will see that where there is a ‘concentration of fire’.., there is transformation.
The turning of water to blood is not necessarily a bad thing. It is said that when Mashiach comes it will be more wondrous than the Exodus from Egypt. We have already said that the meaning of the plagues is to kill evil, and when Mashiach arrives it will be in G-d’s hands, as it was ultimately during the plagues of Mitzrayim to overturn evil. The continued rectification (tinkun) of the ‘10 plagues’ on the continuum of the Jewish People will therefore reflect the positive changes of ones self… ones midos (character).
Blood is the vital life force so therefore water -to- blood is most positive. Blood represents might and forcefulness whereas water represents Torah insights and perceptions of the mind. The sages say ‘There is no water, only Torah’, representing the idea that all is one… all is for good.
Blood is associated with tefillah, prayer and service to G-d. Prayer is an expression of blood, from the life force. In our personal transformation we have to turn water to blood meaning we have to take from our ‘water’, the Torah perception and insights of our mind, and turn it in to ‘blood’, our intense prayer to G-d.
Ve ‘eira 7:19 The Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch forth your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their canals, over their ponds, and over all their bodies of water, and they will become blood, and there will be blood throughout the entire land of Egypt, even in wood and in stone.’ ”
When we look at the Hebrew text (Va’eira 7:19), we can see something quite phenomenal. There in nothing in the entire Torah or Bible that comes close to this verse as the verse is uniquely long having 122 letters and 33 words. Most unique is that the verse has 22 מ’s (mem’s). Every Hebrew letter has many dimensions including a ‘name’. The name for the the letter Mem is ‘pure water’, mayim. The letter mem when spelled out is ממ (Mem-Mem or 2 x מ )
We now have 2 letter מ mem’s for each single letter מ mem (when spelled in full). So now lets see the following;
The 22 letters mem in the verse as spelled out (in all its full letters of its name MeM) now give us a total of 44 mem’s (as the letter mem itself is spelled out by its letters Mem/Mem). We remember that the letter Mem=Water/Mayim
Of the 122 letters of the verse, 22 are mems leaving a remaining 100 letters or 10². A squared number is considered to be a perfected (rectified) number. The number 10 represents a complete unit, and so the number 100 or 10² represents a complete and perfect number.
Of the total number of 144 letters we also get 12² (again a squared or perfected number)
The gematria of dam-blood = 44 and as previously stated ‘ there are 2 letter מ mem’s for each single letter מ mem (when spelled in full). So now lets see the following; The 22 letters mem in the verse as spelled out (in all its full letters of its name MeM) now give us a total of 44 mem’s (as the letter mem itself is spelled out by its letters Mem/Mem. Thus we see a secret of the transformation within the gematria.
There is a commonalty in supernatural phenomenon occurrence that involves concentration. When a part of nature becomes highly concentrated heat (fire) is produced as a result of this concentration. Here, in this plague, the water becomes concentrated until it becomes blood. (We may recall our high school science where heat = energy).
In the 6th plague of boils, Kabbalah teaches that Moshe gathers a tremendous amount of dust. So much dust was held in his hand that when he pressed it together (concentrated it), and released it , it was like an explosion that covered all of Egypt.
All that we have available to us contains within it All that we need to complete the rectification of ourselves and the World … Tikun Olam.
“The meditation is then to meditate on turning water to blood through concentration.”
For Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh’s books, free articles, audio and video lectures visit; www.inner.org
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