The supplemental reading on this week’s Torah portion, Behaalotecha (Numbers 8:1-12:16) is Zechariah 2:14-4:7.
In this passage, the prophet Zechariah relays a vision of the Jewish High Priest, Joshua, being judged. He is standing in front of an angel. To his right is “the Accuser,” also known as Satan.
וַיַּרְאֵ֗נִי אֶת־יְהוֹשֻׁ֙עַ֙ הַכֹּהֵ֣ן הַגָּד֔וֹל עֹמֵ֕ד לִפְנֵ֖י מַלְאַ֣ךְ יְהֹוָ֑ה וְהַשָּׂטָ֛ן עֹמֵ֥ד עַל־יְמִינ֖וֹ לְשִׂטְנֽוֹ”׃”
“He further showed me Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the LORD, and the Accuser standing at his right to accuse him.”
(Zechariah 3:1)
You don’t have to know Hebrew to see that the word “Satan” means the same thing as “Accuser.”
- Look at the Hebrew: שָּׂטָ֛ן
- The same root word: “And the Satan” (“Ve-HaSatan”) וְהַשָּׂטָ֛ן
- The same root word: “To accuse him” (“Le-Sitno”) לְשִׂטְנֽוֹ
Satan has no power outside of God. God created Satan for the purpose of giving people a choice between good and evil.As part of having a choice, Satan is empowered to tempt people. Once the person is tempted, and sins, Satan can later accuse them of sinning.
You can see that it makes no sense to worship Satan, but the cognitive fallacy which lead people to think so is part of the trap he sets.
The Gematria of Satan is 359.
The Gematria of Numbers 13:10 is also equivalent to 359.
In Numbers 13:10, we learn that one of the spies–sent by Moses to gather intelligence on the Land of Israel before the Jewish people conquered it–was named “Gadiel the son of Sodi.”
This is an interesting name. It only appears one time in the Bible. It contains the word for “great” (Gadol) as well as one of God’s names. It is an indicator that the spies were the elite, “the cream of Israelite society.” Yet as we know they came back and said that the land was unconquerable. This led to a general mutiny.
God was furious. He wanted to kill all the Israelites on the spot for their lack of faith. The only reason He spared them was that Moses argued it would look bad if He did. Moses said that the world would look at the episode and gossip against God, saying that He wasn’t powerful enough to capture the land of Israel.
Ultimately the spies were punished with death – from an illness that originated in their slandering tongues. The people were punished with wandering – because they allowed the spies to destroy their faith in God’s promise.
The commentary Baal HaTurim notices that Gadiel’s father’s name, “Sodi,” (סודי) means both “secret” and “best friend,” as a best friend knows your secrets. The link here is God’s anguish that the faithful have betrayed Him, causing immense, untold, long-lasting harm:
“סודי ב’. גדיאל בן סודי תעבוני כל מתי סודי המרגלים שהיו מתי סודי ששלחו אותם לתור הארץ ולגלות כל סודותיה תעבוני שהוציאו דבה וגרמו שנקבע להם בכיה לדורות”
“Sodi, son of. The name ‘Gadiel the son of Sodi’ is a reference to “all my closest friends hate me.” [This name is a reference to God saying that] the spies, who were My most intimate friends [meaning that they were Godly], that I sent them to scout out the land and to reveal her secrets, hate me, that they slandered [the land of Israel] and caused them [the Jewish people] to be destined to mourn for the generations.”
Baal HaTurim, Numbers 13:10
The fact that this Bible verse has the same Gematria as Satan adds a few different dimensions to the meaning of “rebellion against God,” ideas which are a bit counterintuitive.
- The most spiritually advanced people are the ones most prone to falling.
- Spiritual failure is not just succumbing to temptation, it is a form of betrayal of God.
- God is close to us, not distant in the Heavens like many think. When people who are highly spiritual, who have ascended to an incredible level of holiness, break away, He “experiences” (to anthropomorphize something we cannot truly perceive) extreme grief.
- Slander is a very serious sin – much more serious than people think.
We also learn that the relationship between God and the Jewish people is like a husband and wife, so that God relays through the prophet Hosea that in the time of Redemption, the Jews will no longer cheat on God, but will return to Him – calling him “Ishi,” or “My Man,” “My Beloved,” not “Baali,” “My Master,” akin to the idol “Baal.” There will be no more sexual slavery.
“Rebuke your mother, rebuke her—for she is not My wife and I am not her husband. And let her put away her harlotry from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts. Else will I strip her naked, and leave her as on the day she was born. And I will make her like a wilderness, render her like desert land, and let her die of thirst….she thought, ‘I will go after my lovers, who supply my bread and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.’….Thus will I punish her for the days of the Baalim, on which she brought them offerings; when, decked with earrings and jewels, she would go after her lovers, forgetting Me—declares the LORD. Assuredly, I will speak coaxingly to her, and lead her through the wilderness, and speak to her tenderly. I will give her her vineyards from there, and the Valley of Achor as a plowland of hope. There she shall respond as in the days of her youth, when she came up from the land of Egypt. And in that day —declares the LORD— You will call [Me] Ishi, and no more will you call Me Baali. For I will remove the names of the Baalim from her mouth. And they shall nevermore be mentioned by name.”
(Hosea 2:4-19)
Words with Gematria 359, related to the worship of Satan:
- השדים – which means “the demons.”
- הִשְׁמִיד – “he was destroyed.”
- שטים – Shittim – this is where the Jewish people succumbed to the Moabite seductresses, ended up worshiping Baal-Peor and the sinners were killed.
Genesis 2:11 ends with the words “there is the gold” (שָׁ֖ם הַזָּהָֽב), which also has Gematria 359, indicating that the obsession with money is also Satanic.
By Dr. Dannielle (Dossy) Blumenthal. All opinions are the author’s own. Public domain.
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