Posted on 12/03/2022 1:49:09 PM PST by Faith Presses On
It’s Olympics time, which for me means a double figure skating season: Olympics followed by the World Championships in March. I’m a big fan of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. I find their skating wonderful. To have “wonder” is to be overcome with awe and amazement… and certainly some of their skating has made me feel that way, but how much more wonderful should I feel about YHWH!? Just the mere thought of God should make us feel wonderful, wonder-filled, filled with wonder… or in a colloquial term, “gob-smacked!” We should be Gob-smacked by God!
The word Wonder hasn’t been given the headline it deserves. When we think of Christian words the most popular seem to be Faith, Hope, Love, Forgiveness… all verb -action based- words and they’re all great, but the word Wonderful, an adjective, deserves special attention. Why? Because, according to Isaiah it is the first name/descriptor of the Messiah:
Isaiah 9:6
For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.…
That page is from 2018 and the author's doctrines and opinions aside...
I appreciate the timely connection you have made with Pele.
Pele with a hei [פלה]:May he live his remaining days in peace and comfort.
No disrespect to the man at all, but how weird is it that out of nowhere, the Hawaiians started warning everyone about his hair. Now this news.
I'm not trying to make a joke, only pointing out that we certainly live in strange times and timings.
Soccer Legend Pele Transferred to Palliative Care in Sao Paulo: Reports
It's not just that Pele's hair is in the news from the Big (Hebrew: "gadol") Island, or that Pele "has been transferred to an end-of-life care unit"...
For those who may not be aware,
Pele with an alef [פלא]:
This year is Hebrew year 783. The customary blessing for each year is based on the acronym of the year-letters. Here's the explanation. As you can see, "pele" [פלא] is the key word of the blessing. (Note: I reformatted the Hebrew in order to emphasize "pele" in red, but in my doing so the vowel points were lost.)
The Great Wonder
Before we look at the meaning of 783 in the Torah, let us begin by looking at a phrase or other important concept that is alluded to by the letters of the year. The Hebrew form for 783 is תשפג and we are looking for an acronym that fits these letters.
The first two letters -- תש -- are always interpreted as, "May it be a year of" (תהא שנת). Thirty-some years ago, when we were in the years known as the nunim -- the years that began with תשנ -- the nun (נ) was understood to stand for "wonders" (נפלאות).[2] Now that we are in the years that have a pei (פ) as their next letter, we interpret it as standing for the singular form of "wonders," or "wonder" (פלא). It is most natural for the gimmel (ג) to stand for "great" (גדול).[3]
So, the simplest acronym for this year -- תשפג -- is "May it be a Year of Great Wonder" (תהא שנת פלא גדול). The "Great Wonder" that we are anticipating this year is the coming of Mashiach, who is related to the word "wonder," since Isaiah calls Mashiach the "wondrous counselor" (פלא יועץ), which itself equals the word "physician" (רופה).[4] The Mashiach is the expert physician who comes to heal us from all our ailments. He achieves this with the Torah. So that is the simplest thing we should have in mind and pray to Hashem that we merit seeing it with our physical eyes this year.
And in related news, 783 is the year of the Foundation Stone, located at the Hub:
אֶבֶן הַשְׁתִיָּיה = 783
The Foundation Stone (Hebrew: אֶבֶן הַשְׁתִיָּיה, romanized: ‘Even haŠəṯīyyā, lit. 'The Stone of Foundation'; or simply סֶּלַע Selā‛, "Rock"), or the Noble Rock (Arabic: الصخرة المشرفة, romanized: al-Saḵrah al-Mušarrafah, lit. 'The Noble Stone') is the rock at the center of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. It is also known as the Pierced Stone, because it has a small hole on the southeastern corner that enters a cavern beneath the rock, known as the Well of Souls.
Traditional Jewish sources mention the stone as the place from which the creation of the world began. Classical Jewish sources also identify its location with that of the Holy of Holies or the axis mundi, the center of the world and the place where the physical and spiritual worlds connected.[1][2]
The Mashiach is the expert physician who comes to heal us from all our ailments. He achieves this with the Torah.
So great is he, that he certainly could be identified as "ish pele" [איש פלא], a "man of wonder". After all, what's in a name, as noted above. Great timing.
Multiple witnesses to this year's blessing are appearing all over the world in diverse and unusual ways.
As for the last letter of the year, the gimel:
The word "gimel" can be spelled with [גימל] or without [גמל] the vowel [י], but mostly it is spelled with it.
The point I am making is that here is the year 783 which ends on a gimel, and the sum of a "gimel" when spelled with its vowel, is 83.
Thus the year ends on a gimel both as its normal value (3), and as its 4-letter spelling value (83).
It is most natural for the gimmel (ג) to stand for "great" (גדול).
Double prizes! Wonderful: 3 + 83 = 86 [אלהים] = gadol, "great" [גדול] x 2.
It's always something.
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