Emor – The Secret of Lag BaOmer

Tree of Knowledge

According to Zohar, Pesach was the redemption of speech, and according to Arizal, the generation of Moses was the generation of knowledge.

Knowledge is expressed through the faulty of speech, for mouth that speaks sits between the right brain (Wisdom) and the left brain (Understanding), in front of the cerebellum (small brain) which is the anatomical parallel to the Sefirah of Knowledge.

What is Knowledge, and why is it used as the euphemism for marital intimacy in the Bible?

Wisdom is inspiration, Understanding is perception, and Knowledge is cognition, which in essence is one’s self-awareness, i.e. the ability for one to know that he is separate from the totality of God.

The Tree of Life represents the totality of God, which is the consciousness of Adam before he ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

It may be surmised that the act of eating in this context represents the critical moment when totality disintegrates into particularity, in other word, this is the moment when Adam acquired the knowledge of separation. As it is written: “and they knew that they were naked” (Gen 3:7), meaning at a deeper level, the awareness of being “separated” from the totality of God.

When a man wants to know a woman, at the moment of marital intimacy, which is the Tree of Knowledge, at the subconscious level of man, it is as if he is attempting to find the Tree of Life that was no more.

Eating from the Tree of Knowledge is the critical moment in completing the creation of man, for only through taking this step can man attain his self-awareness.

Does man have the free will in choosing not to eat?

The answer is yes, as freedom by definition can’t be imposed on man, but rather chosen by man, the fact that Adam had chosen speaks of his freedom to choose.

After Adam ate from the Tree of Knowledge, he was consequently blocked from the Tree of Life and exiled from the Garden, why?

This is because by definition man’s self-awareness is antithesis to the totality of God in which the self is nullified, which is the Tree of Life consciousness.

Is man therefore doomed by having his self-awareness?

The answer is no, and this is exactly what the entire Bible is all about, i.e. the redemption of the Tree of Knowledge consciousness to the Tree of Life consciousness.

The process consists of three stages: totality, particularity, and totality. The latter totality is inevitably higher than the original totality, by the merit of having the particularity as the process. It may be surmised that there is no particularity in the original totality, and the end goal is for the totality to paradoxically include particularity.

The secret of counting the Omer is the exact reverse of the Garden of Eden experience.

In the Garden of Eden, man moved from the totality of the Tree of Life to the particularity of the Tree of Knowledge, after which man was blocked from the Tree of Life.

In the first redemption story, which is the seed and prototype for all future redemptions, the direction of flow was reversed. The children of Israel were brought out from the exile in Egypt, to count the Omer for 49 days, in order to receive Torah on the 50^th day. Torah is the Tree of Life.

It may be surmised that somewhere in the counting process there is a critical point that symbolizes the Tree of Knowledge, and this critical point is none other than Lag BaOmer, the 33^rd day of counting the Omer.

Secret of Marital Intimacy

Human experience below is but a parable to reveal Divine truth above, for as above, so below.

In the act of marital intimacy, the starting point is a critical moment of entering (touching), followed by the marital union, and concluded with the moment of withdrawing (not touching).

The state of union symbolizes the Tree of Life consciousness, but in this world of finitude the union inevitably desensitizes, which necessitates the act of running and returning, or in Hebrew Ratzo VaShov.

The act of running therefore parallels the first critical moment of touching, which is good;

The act of returning therefore parallels the final critical moment of not touching (i.e. withdrawing), which is not good, therefore evil.

It follows that the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is the secret of Running and Returning, Ratzo VaShov, and the state of union between the two critical moments is the Tree of Life.

When a man enters his wife, it is the moment of Tree of Knowledge of Good, and conversely, when he withdraws, it is the moment of Tree of Knowledge of Evil, and that which in between is the Tree of Life.

In other word, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is unified with the Tree of Life in the constant movement of Running and Returning.

The gematria of Running and Returning, or Ratzo VaShov, is 611, which is the same gematria of Torah, known as the Tree of Life, hence the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life becomes one in the secret of the martial intimacy:

The sin of Adam and Eve, therefore, as can be derived, is the separation of the dynamic mode from the static mode, the dynamic mode is symbolized by the Tree of Knowledge, and the static mode is the Tree of Life.

Lag BaOmer

32 days precedes Lag BaOmer, which is followed by 17 days until the 50^th day.

The 32 days represent the 32 paths of Wisdom, leading up to the 50^th gate of Understanding, with the 33^rd day as the critical point connecting the two.

Astonishingly, the 33^rd composite number is exactly 49, meaning the light revealed on the 33^rd day is tantamount to the light culminated on the 49^th day of counting the Omer.

It follows that Lag BaOmer is the entrance to the 50^th day in the same manner as the 49^th day precedes the 50^th day.

It is now evident that Lag BaOmer on the 33^rd day symbolizes the Tree of Knowledge and Shavu’ot on the 50^th day symbolizes the Tree of Life, for on the 50^th day was Torah given.

Lag BaOmer in the time dimension is what the entrance to the Garden of Eden is in the space dimension, with the 32 days of counting parallels the exile from the Garden, and the remaining 17 days parallels the redemption in the Garden, in exact reverse order.

For 17 is the gematria of tov טוֹב, good, which is light.

Adam died after eating from the Tree of Knowledge, and the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva died from Pesach until Lag BaOmer which is the Tree of Knowledge, in reverse order.

The parallel is as follows:

By the east of Garden of Eden man was exiled, and by Lag BaOmer shall man be redeemed. The gematria of “East of Garden of Eden” in gematria is 351, which is exactly the same as Lag BaOmer:

351 is the triangle number of 26, the gematria of YHVH.

If death is the result of eating from the Tree of Knowledge, when the process is reversed, Lag BaOmer would become the rectification of the Tree of Knowledge at which point death becomes life.

Is it any wonder that the gematria of Torah of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai is 1313, which is exactly the same gematria of resurrection of the dead, for this is the day when death ceases and life prevail.

In other word, Lag BaOmer is the secret of “touching and not touching”, the “running and returning”, the state of “nothing” and “something”, by which one enters into the mystical realm of Torah known as the Garden of Eden where the soul is basked in the Divine emanation of light, the gematria of these three concepts is also 1313:

The Spinal Column

The 32 days correspond to the Tree of Life in her particularized fragments, in that 32 is the sum of 10 Sefirot plus the 22 paths (Hebrew letters), as known. When the 32 fragments are fused into the totality as 1, the result is 32 + 1 = 33, Lag BaOmer, which is the secret of the transformation of the particularity of the Tree of Knowledge into the totality of the Tree of Life.

Is it any wonder that solid ice melts at the temperature of 32 F, meaning that water starts flowing at 33 F, symbolizing life from death.

There are 33 vertabrae in the human spinal column, in accordance with the 33 days of counting the Omer.

According to one rabbinical opinion the 33^rd tailbone is the Luz bone, by which the dead is resurrected, for the 33^rd day is Lag BaOmer.

The cerebellum (small brain) is connected with the male organ by the spinal column, through which Knowledge (Daat) descends into Foundation (Yesod), or mind crystalizes into seed.

Yesod is called the third leg, and the pineal gland atop the spinal column is called the third eye, it is now evident that the parallel of counting Omer from day 1 to day 33 is the spinal column in the human body.

The spinal column in the form of a tree is the Tree of Knowledge within man, the third eye is to the direction of Good, and the third leg is to the direction of Evil, the gematria of spinal column in Hebrew is 634, which is exactly the same gematria of Tree of Knowledge:

That which flows inside the spinal column is bone marrow, which is the source of life, symbolizing the Tree of Life concealed within the Tree of Knowledge. When the Tree of Life is revealed within the Tree of Knowledge, this is the revelation of Mashiach on Lag BaOmer, for the gematria of “bone marrow and spinal column” in gematria is 888, exactly the gematria of The Mashiach spelled out, as follows:

According to Acts 1:3, Yeshua continued for 40 days after his passion, the obvious question is when is the first day of his passion so we can do the counting?

According to Ex 12:3, the lamb for the Pesach must be identified on the 10^th of Nisan. According to John 12:1, Yeshua was at Bethany 6 days prior to Pesach which would be 9^th of Nisan, and according to John 12:12, the next day following the 9^th of Nisan Yeshua entered into Jerusalem on which day he was identified as the Lamb.

Counting from 9^th of Nisan, 40 days later would land Yeshua exactly on the 18^th of Iyar, which is the 33^rd day of counting the Omer, it is now evident that the day Yeshua ascended to the heaven was exactly on Lag BaOmer.

Lag Baomer is the day of counting known as Hod in Hod, which is the interface between Binah and Malchut, for Binah descends until Hod and Malchut ascends until Hod, and it is therefore precisely on the 33^rd day, the concealed world (Binah) meets the revealed world (Malchut).

Love and One

YHVH in gematria is 26, which is the union of love (13) and one (13).

The desire to become one on the 32^nd day is that which ushers in Lag BaOmer on the 33^rd day, for 32 is the product of the three letters of “one” multiplied by each other, as follows:

The resulting love on the 34^th day is that which concludes Lag BaOmer, for 34 is the sum of the triangle numbers of each of four letters of “love”, as follows:

To be one is that which motivates the mode of running, and love is that which guarantees the mode of returning, the sum of 32 and 34 is 66, which is secret of Tree of Life: