The mathematics of abomination: the forgotten calculations of war
OP ED - Bethsheba Ashe (7/11/24).
If we read the Hebrew Bible without using the ancient methodologies of the scribes, it presents a false impression that the ancient Israelites were a warlike people whom at times committed genocide upon other nations with the full approval and encouragement of their God YHWH. On a superficial level, it spins a narrative that God promised land "from the river to the river" to the descendants of Abraham.
However when the Bible is interpreted using Gematria, Notariqon and Temurah, it presents a picture of a peaceful and intelligent people, who were far better at spinning a good yarn about war than actually fighting in them.
The destruction of the Amalek and the seven nations of Canaan were examples of subtraction with arithmetic, and these stories were probably the ancient equivalent of popular adventure stories in Marvel comic books. One reason for writing them may have been to encourage boys to study their math!
Archeologists concur that the highland regions after the fall of the bronze age was peaceful - they find towns without walls or fortifications and a lack of weapons or burnt houses. So the people of ancient Israel (or perhaps Ashriel) would probably have been as equally horrified by the war crimes of modern Israel as the rest of the world is today.
Background
The Hebrew Bible has been written using a formal system of ancient Hebrew rhetoric mathematics. This means that it uses a set of standardized rules and conventions that govern its use. Rhetoric mathematics is the practice of mathematics using no notation. This ancient formal system in the Bible was used to provide extra context to the knowledgeable reader.
The calculations of the Hebrew Bible were often corresponded to macrocosmic categories of creation described in Genesis 1-2, which was split into sections that were represented by the letters of the alphabet and by a diagram called the Merkabah (Chariot) or Seven Hekhalot (Palaces). They were sometimes compared with calculations, or to well known prominent names – especially the Name of God. At times, special attention would be given to certain keywords that have been turned around via a cipher to spell out a different word. These methods of interpretation were called the PaRDeS (meaning ‘Orchard’), which is an acronym of:
Peshat: meaning “Plain”
Remez: meaning “Hints”
Derash: meaning “Search”
Sod: meaning “Secret”.
The majority of calculations in the Hebrew Bible are types of arithmetic. The system gave numerical values to letters and used the combined value of nouns to count with.
The system reserved some verbs and prepositions as well as the direct object את to indicate a variety of simple arithmetic operations. It also included flag words with special instructions for the reader, and nouns which had a specific set value rather than being the sum of their letters. This latter category of words were usually words that described the shape origins of the letters of the alphabet, or their corresponding themes in the creation narrative.
For example, the following three calculations are found in Genesis 1:1 through arithmetic, notariqon with the reversal cipher, and iteration through the first word, also with the reversal cipher;
בראשית + אלהים + השמים + הארץ = 700
ב + ב + א + א + ה + ו + ה = 800
ב + בר + ברא + בראש + בראשי + בראשית = 2000
When the Hebrew Bible is read as if it were an open-text then it can be misleading, obscure, and lacking crucial context and substance. Any reading of the Bible without considering all the information the scribe embedded into it, and without knowing and using the same methodology as them, will result in an interpretation that is eisegesis rather than exegesis. This means that without following the ancient exegetical rules of interpretation, the modern reader of the Bible will read into it things that didn’t happen and aren’t there. In most cases, little harm can come from this, but in the nation of Israel a peshat (simple) reading of the Bible as if it were an open-text is used to:
a. Justify settlements in the West Bank which are viewed as illegal by the United Nations.
b. Evict Palestinian people from their homes in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
c. Pursue a long term aim to establish a nation of ‘greater Israel’ between the river Nile and Euphrates.
d. Argue for military action on the basis of supposed ancient conflicts.
For religious Zionists, their misinterpretations of the Torah have provided the primary ideological basis for the modern settler movement which support far right parties and politicians in Israel. The text of Genesis 15 appears on the surface to promise the descendants of Abraham a land that would stretch from the river Nile to the river Euphrates, which includes parts of Jordan, Syria and Lebanon along with Gaza, the West Bank and modern Israel today. Israeli politicians like Smotrich and Ben Gvir campaign on the basis that these lands were promised by God to the Jewish people and will one day be annexed, and so they and their supporters are violently opposed to a two state solution that would give Palestinians their own nation state and self-determination.
There's also a more subtle effect upon the psychology of Jewish Israelis that rides alongside modern misinterpretations of the Torah. A person's identity can be influenced by the stories of their ancestors. There is a tendency for people to reenact what their ancestors lived through, sometimes seeking a better hold on their identity by trying unconsciously to experience something similar, or by trying to make right a wrong, pay a spiritual debt, or fulfill a prophecy. Therefore it's essential that the Torah is read properly so that Jewish people have an undistorted picture of their ancient forebears. It makes a great deal of difference whether you think your ancestors were a military genocidal tribe that wiped our several peoples from your homeland with the apparent approval of God, or whether you think they were smart, inventive peaceful farmers with a gift for mathematics and literature.
The genocide of the Amalek?
The story of the Amalek reveals God to be a pacifist, for whom war is completely empty. Many scholars and Kabbalists have traditionally interpreted the Amalek as an inner enemy. Deuteronomy 25:16-18 relates how, after some guidance on using correct weights and measures, God says that he regards as abominations all who behave unrighteously, and then in a curious non sequitur he reminds the Israelites of the attack of the Amalek described in Exodus 17.
No reason is given (openly) for this “attack” of the Amalek, but a careful reading with Pardes reveals that the people had entered inside the perilous region of the House of God, which no-one can do safely without being completely pure. The story within the story reveals they are attacked by Satan who brings their sins to the surface for judgement[1].
The people were thirsty and had complained to Moses that they had no water. They had asked “Is YHWH with us or not?” which Moses had twice chastised them for. He was worried the people would tempt God to anger. Eventually things came to a head and Moses said to God “What shall I do with these people? They are ready to stone me!” What happens next is that Moses performs the miracle which gives them water from a stone (this too is gematria), and then the Amalek attack.
Exodus 17:8
ויבא עמלק וילחם עם ישראל ברפידם
“And came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim.”
The true nature of Amalek is revealed using the Hebrew Bibles’ reversal cipher. This cipher takes the letters of the main biblical cipher and reverses their order to spell out different words, and so hidden meanings can be embedded in the text. עמלק Amalek with the reversal cipher is החטא ‘the sin’. The name of the mother of Amalek was תמנע Timna, which is פחזה with the reversal cipher meaning 'wantonness', so symbolically it is this state of being uncontrolled which gives birth to ‘the sin’. The three lettered Name of God (YHW) which was used during the bronze age, is כעס with the reversal cipher which means “provoked to anger”. When we use the cipher word meaning ‘the sin’ in place of ‘Amalek’ the gematria of 17:8 with the Standard Cipher resolves to:
החטא ישראל ברפידם = 900
The number 900 is associated with the letter Tsade for birth, original sin, and the overcoming of sin. Exodus 17:10 also has the total of 900 using the cipher word for Amalek, but this time with the main biblical cipher:
“So did Joshua as said to him Moses, and fought the head of the sin and Moses and Hur went up to the head of the hill.”
יהושע משה ר החטא ומשה אהרן וחור ה =900
When ‘the sin’ is defeated in Exodus 17:13, using the cipher word for Amalek and using Standard Cipher for the calculation, this time the sum is associated with Elohim (× 10):
“And defeated Joshua ‘the sin’ and his people by the edge of the sword.”
יהושע החטא עמו לפי חרב = 860
After the Amalek are defeated, an altar is made and Moses is commanded to write an account of matters. He poignantly wrote for YHWH:
ויאמר כי יד על כסיה מלחמה ליהוה בעמלק מדר דר
“And he said, like [a] hand upon [a] glove [is] war for YHWH in Amalek from generation to generation.” – Exodus 17:16
Meaning that for God, war is as empty as a glove without a hand inside of it, because the sin of killing has happened all throughout history.
1 Samuel 15:3's seeming genocidal verse also requires replacing the Amalek with its cipher word meaning ‘the sin’. The resulting sum total is also in the Standard Cipher:
"Now, go and attack Amalek. Completely destroy all that they have. Don't spare them, but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, both ox and sheep, camel and donkey."
החטא עליו מאיש קיא מעלל יונק א שה ג חמור = 1500
A list which includes the cipher word for Amalek and all the people and animals to be put to death sums to:
החטא מאיש קיא מעלל יונק א שה ג חמור = 790
And we'll see the importance of this number soon.
No killing EVER?
Killing is prohibited by the covenant of Noah, and Moses. The gematria of Exodus 20:13 reveal this to be an absolute law. Its just two words meaning: “Not shall you murder”. By the conventions of biblical gematria, the word לא (not) means to not count the next word, but it can also mean to not count the first letter of the word when it is iterated, so לא תרצח becomes תר תרצ תרצח with a sum total of 800, which signifies it applies to everyone at any time and any place, and in any situation. Though simple, the implications are profound.
The destruction of the seven nations of Canaan?
How do we get boys interested in learning math? It's never been easy, and it probably wasn't in 10th Century BCE either. Asking them to calculate the sum of wheat or barley probably isn't going to cut it. Instead, to keep the youngsters interested, you have to inject a little bit of violence because boys will be boys, and ancient Israeli lads probably took to this like our kids do to Call of Duty.
The apparent destruction of seven nations was actually just the work of scribal calculation that demonstrated subtraction, and not a historical event. For instance, take Deuteronomy 20:16-17:
רק מערי העמים האלה אשר יהוה אלהיך נתן לך נחלה לא תחיה כל נשמה׃
כי החרם תחרימם החתי והאמרי הכנעני והפרזי החוי והיבוסי כאשר צוך יהוה אלהיך׃
“Only in the cities of these peoples that YHWH your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes. But you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as YHWH your God has commanded you.”
The gematria of these verses is:
מערי העמים יהוה אלהיך נחלה נשמה החתי והאמרי הכנעני והפרזי החוי והיבוסי יהוה אלהיך = 1790
Now take the names of those nations which we want to destroy; The Hittites, and Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites:
החתי והאמרי הכנעני והפרזי החוי והיבוסי = 930
Subtract their total from the final total of the verses and genocide them with finality!
1790 – 930 = 860
As the kids say "Slay!"
The Destruction of Gaza?
I've seen a few people declare Amos 1:6-8 is a prophecy, but just like the so called destruction of the seven nations of Canaan, the biblical destruction of Gaza is also a simple example of subtraction. For children's math lesson in 10th Century BCE it was probably great material. For the life lessons of children in Gaza 2023-24 the misinterpretation of the Torah has had hideous consequences. The Lancet recently estimated that 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict, and 50% of Gaza's population is under 18, meaning 93,000 young lives may be mowed down - even if the war stops now - some of them suffering agonies of pain and fear before they died. So there's only one thing to say about someone who looks to Amos 1:6-8 for a sign of the coming messiah: sick in the head and lacking a heart.
כה אמר יהוה על שלשה פשעי עזה ועל ארבעה לא אשיבנו על הגלותם גלות שלמה להסגיר לאדום׃
ושלחתי אש בחומת עזה ואכלה ארמנתיה׃
והכרתי יושב מאשדוד ותומך שבט מאשקלון והשיבותי ידי על עקרון ואבדו שארית פלשתים אמר אדני יהוה׃
“Thus says YHWH “Upon three transgressions of Gaza and upon four, not I will turn away upon the exiled captives the complete peace to deliver to Edom. And I will send a fire by the wall of Gaza and will consume her palaces. And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and the one who holds the scepter from Ashkelon, and I will turn my hand against Ekron and shall perish the remnant of the Philistines says Adoni YHWH.”
The mathematics begins as follows:
0 –
יהוה + ש פשעי – עזה + ד גלות שלמה לאדום ש בחומת עזה ארמנתיה מאשדוד שבט מאשקלון – י + עקרון שארית פלשתים אדני יהוה = 1913
The following is a list of all the places and people that shall be devoured, cut off or will perish (by which is meant subtracted): The palaces, Ashdod, Ashkelon and the remnants of the Philistines:
ארמנתיה מאשדוד מאשקלון שארית פלשתים = 983
1913 – 983 = 930.
The inheritance of the descendants of Abraham?
Political Zionism makes no claim to specific territories or borders, and it is flexible on the matter of a two state solution when it comes to the Palestinians who have strong historical ties to the land. It takes the realistic position that 7.2 million Jews in Israel are there to stay and the state of Israel itself should exist as a homeland and a refuge to the Jewish people who also have an ancient historical tie to the land. It is therefore a very different animal from religious Zionism which draws its motivation from a reading the Torah without Pardes and also ignoring certain facts about the worldview of the ancients which are discussed in the Talmud. Their main claim to a greater Israel is derived from Genesis 15:18:
ביום ההוא כרת יהוה את אברם ברית לאמר לזרעך נתתי את הארץ הזאת מנהר מצרים עד הנהר הגדל נהר פרת
“In the day that made YHWH and Abram a covenant saying to your seed I given earth this from the river of Egypt unto the river great river Perat.”
So how did the ancients think about the rivers Nile and Euphrates? To the ancients, the heads of these rivers began in the heavens flowing out of Eden and out of the milky way (the river of fire) to water the entire earth below.
“Rav Kahana also states: The source of all the water in the world is the Euphrates River. The halakhic ramification of this is in accordance with a statement of Rav Yehuda, as Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: With regard to one who takes a vow rendering the waters of the Euphrates River forbidden to him, it is prohibited for him to drink from any water in the world.” – Bekharot 55a:20, The William Davidson Talmud.
Because the waters of these great rivers watered the entire earth, the covenant gives the descendants of Abraham a spiritual mandate to the entire earth, as Solomon inherited.
“Rabbi Yitzḥak said: Is it possible for a person to sit on the throne of the Lord, in whose regard it is written: “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24), and it is written: “A river of fire flowed and emerged [from before Him]” (Daniel 7:10), and it is written: “His throne was sparks of fire” (Daniel 7:9), and you say: “Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord”? Rather, just as the throne of the Holy One blessed be He rules from one end of the earth to the other, so, too, the throne of Solomon ruled from one end of the earth to the other.” – Shir HaShirim Rabbah 1:1:10.
The notariqon of Genesis 15:18 sums to 452, which is the gate value of the central Palace of the Resh, which is at the source or headwaters of the 4 great rivers that emerged from Eden. The Palace of the Resh is at the center of the Merkabah, above the earth and below the House of God.
ב ה כ י א א ב ל ל נ א ה ה מ מ ע ה ה נ פ = 452
A “gate” of a Palace is computed by adding each of the letters of the paths it connects to, and the letter of the Palaces at the end of the paths.
The gematria of Genesis 15:18 is:
יהוה אברם ברית ז הארץ ס – מ + ררר ס פרת = 1752
When we subtract the notariqon of 452 from 1752 we arrive at a final total of 1300. When we read the notariqon of verses 18-19 together they also sum to 480:
ב ה כ י א א ב ל ל נ א ה ה מ מ ע ה ה נ פ א ה ו ה ו ה = 480
This is the same notariqon result from Genesis 2:10 which talks about the four rivers that emerge from the waters of Eden:
ש ה פ ה ה א כ א ה א ש ה ו ה ה ט ש ה ו ה ו ה ה ג ה ה א כ א כ ו ה ה ח ה ה ק א ו ה ה פ = 480
480 is the gate of the letter Waw of the Holy Name upon the Merkabah (which is the rose colored section). 480 is also the value of YHW when iterated: י יה יהו יהוה using the reversal cipher and the sum of Elohim + the Heavens + the Earth in Genesis 1:1.
What the religious Zionists have done through their misconceptions, is to pervert a spiritual mandate that was granted to a mostly peaceful ancient people to teach the entire earth by their example of how to keep the laws of God. They've turned a beautiful pacifist vision into a mockery by championing an entirely fictitious idea that God goes around granting land deeds to mortals. And sadly, the very people who are most likely to read the Bible properly with Pardes, to find the Merkabah, and to defend the Torah are the very people that the majority of Israelis want to drag into the army to join in the murdering - doing the very thing that is an anathema to God - the Haredim.
Jews who took part in the early cult of Christianity knew all about Genesis 15:18, and it's where they drew their conception of a 'Kingdom of God' which would be the inheritance for all those who followed the laws of God. We need to cross reference the Book of Matthew, verse 13:43 to show you the evidence for that.
τότε οἱ δίκαιοι ἐκλάμψουσιν ὡς ὁ ἥλιος ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τοῦ Πατρὸς αὐτῶν. ὁ ἔχων ὦτα ἀκουέτω.
“Then the righteous will shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father of them. He having ears, let him hear!”
This verse uses the same main biblical cipher we see most commonly used in the Tanakh, only its been transposed to Greek. The notariqon of this verse is:
τ ο δ ε ω ο η ε τ β τ π α ο ε ω α = 490
The gematria of this verse is:
δικαιοι εκλαμψουσιν ηλιος βασιλεια πατρος ο ωτα = 1790
We only need to subtract the notariqon from the calculation, as we did with Genesis 15:18 to find the identical result:
1790 – 490 = 1300.
This evidence suggests that the concept of the Heavenly Kingdom probably wasn’t a novel idea on the part of Jesus or the gospel writers but was something that was widely agreed upon in the Jewish community.
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[1] See Seht Her! (Behold - Deutsch Ausgabe):
https://www.amazon.de/Seht-Her-Kunst-Praxis-Gematria-ebook/dp/B0D8FKWLQF/
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