Ozarks Hebrew Heritage Celebrating the Hebrew Roots of our Faith

As most of you know, I love Jewish traditional symbolism and gemmatria.  I believe The Almighty didn’t leave anything to chance and there is a reason and a purpose behind each and every letter and number of the Hebrew Alefbet.  This may seem a little off course but stay with me.  I hope when I am through you will be blessed by my findings.

One of the items associated with Hanukkah is the Dreidel, which is a four-sided top. There is a Hebrew letter on each side: (Noon) Nun (נ), (Gim-mehl) Gimmel (ג), Hey (ה), (Sheen) Shin (ש) and they are an acronym for Nes Gadol Hey Sham, which means, A great miracle happen-ed there. Those same four letters, rearranged, spell the word Goshen which is where Y’hudah / Judah built the Yeshiva in Egypt. As with B’nei Yisrael/Children of Israel reversal of our circumstances is achieved through the light of Torah

Another twist to this idea of dreidel letters has to do with the dreidels in Israel today. They have one letter different. Instead of the (Sheen) Shin, they have a (Pay) Pey so the words would be Nes Gadol Hey Po which changes the meaning to A great miracle happened here. Instead of the four letters forming the word Goshen, an Israeli dreidel spells Gafen meaning wine.

Each Hebrew letter has a numerical value assigned to it and the numerical value of these four letters equals 358 (Nun=50, Gimmel=3, Hey=5, Shin=300). So what’s the importance of 358? (Hint: The Jews are awaiting His coming; we’re awaiting His return)

Mashiach/Messiah is spelled with the Hebrew letters Mem (40), Shin (300), Yud (10), and Chet (8) which equal 358. So what’s the connection between Hanukkah and Mashiach? It is said after Mashiach comes, the other holidays will not be celebrated any more but Hanukkah will still be celebrated as the Light of the World will be kindled from Yerushalayim. The Light of the World like the shamash, the servant candle, which lights all the others. Let me be quick to say I believe all of Yehovah’s moedim (God’s appointed times) will be celebrated as long as there is a heaven and an earth according to Mattityahu/Matthew 5:18.

Another little tidbit: Parashah Miketz is usually read at Hanukkah time and consists of 2,025 (Hebrew) words. The Sages find an interesting connection between this number and Hanukkah.

• The numerical value of Ner which is Hebrew for candle equals 250
(Nun=50 & Resh=200).
• There are 8 Hanukkah candles X 250 = 2,000.
• Hanukkah begins on the 25th of Kislev (the Hebrew month) therefore the 2,025 words of the Parashah allude to the eight candles (2000) plus the 25th of Kislev.

One more, actually, make that two more acronyms. During the Hanukkah season, we learn about a small number of renegade Jews who were sick and tired of their Temple being desecrated so they rose up against the mighty Syro-Grecian Army and they won! This group was known as the Maccabees.

Maccabee is an acronym for the following words of the Torah: Mi Kamocha Ba’elim Yehovah ~ “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?” (Sh’mot/Exodus 15:11) These were the words on their banner proclaiming their faith in Yehovah. Maccabee is another acronym for Mattithias Kohen Ben Yochanan, which means Mattithias, the Priest, son of Yochanan/John. He was the head of the priestly Chashmonai family, leader of the Maccabees, who led the revolt.

Remember earlier, I mentioned the Israeli dreidels are different and the Hebrew letters spell Gafen a word meaning wine? We are told when Ya’akov/Jacob blessed his sons before he died, the blessing he gave to Judah was a blessing of Gafen or wine. It helps to remember Yeshua Ha Mashiach is a descendant from Judah. And the Talmud says a dream of wine foretells the coming of the Messiah!

Do you see how we can find Yeshua all the way through both the Original Covenant as well as the Renewed Covenant? Bottom line . . . it’s all about Yeshua!!! Ha Or HaOlam/The Light of the World