Not 42, 204!

The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42 (credit: Wikipedia.)  Well, not quite, the answer is actually 204.

The possuk in Reah (16:3) says לֹֽא־תֹאכַ֤ל עָלָיו֙ חָמֵ֔ץ שִׁבְעַ֥ת יָמִ֛ים תֹּֽאכַל־עָלָ֥יו מַצּ֖וֹת לֶ֣חֶם עֹ֑נִי כִּ֣י בְחִפָּז֗וֹן יָצָ֨אתָ֙ מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם.  The possuk needs an explanation, what does leaving in haste have to do with eating matzot?  (Rashi connects it to the fact that we didn't have time to bake bread.)  The Bnei Yissochar (Nissan end of maamer 8,) explains דרך רמז.  The Haggadah says  בָּרוּךְ הוּא שֶׁהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מְחַשֵּׁב אֶת-הַקֵּץ לַעֲשׂוֹת כְּמָה שֶׁאָמַר לְאַבְרָהָם אָבִינוּ בִּבְרִית בֵּין הַבְּתָרִים, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר; וַיֹּאמֶר לְאַבְרָם יָדֹעַ תֵּדַע כִּי- גֵר יִהְיֶה זַרְעֲךָ בְּאֶרֶץ לֹא לָהֶם וַעֲבָדוּם וְעִנּוּ אֹתָם אַרְבַּע מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה:  The Shibuley Haleket brings an interpretation that the praise it that Hashem subtracted קץ - 190 years from 400 to 210.  Says the  Bnei Yissochar,  open the word matzah, מ is מ"מ, the צ is צד"י and the ה is ה"א, add 40+40+90+4+10+5+1=190.  Since we couldn't stick around in Egypt any more, Hashem considered it as if the "debt" of 190 years was paid up therefore we eat מצה (190) to demonstrate this קץ has been paid.  Is this just a play on numbers or is there a deeper connection between the matzah and the קץ?

The Bnei Yissocher brings earlier in the maamer (אות 7) from the Kabbalists that the words חמץ שאר have the same numerical value as the words עץ הדעת (both equal 639.)  The sin of the עץ הדעת is a sin in דעת (its in the word) and eating מצה is the תיקון.  Very nice numbers game, but what does my eating of matzah have anything to do with the עץ הדעת?

For this we go to another Bnei Yissochor (Adar maamer 2 derush 8.)  After the sin Hashem tells Adam וקוץ ודרדר תצמיח לך.  Says the Bnei Yissochor, the sin of the עץ הדעת caused a great mixture of good and evil, there is a בלבול הדעת as to how to differentiate.  The letter of 'ד in שמע ישראל... אחד is enlarged in the Torah and corresponding to that, the 'ר in לא תשחוה לאל אחר is also enlarged.  The דרדר is the mixture of אחד and אחר that one must choose correctly from.  That is קוץ ודרדר, the difference between the ד and the ר, in דרדר, lies in קוץ.  The קוץ is the little dot in the back of the ר and the numerical difference as well, between 4 and 200 is 196 = קוץ.  It is man's job to separate the דרדר through the קוץ.  (Mattan Torah was a second chance to fix the sin but again we messed up spurred on by the ערב רב, gematria of 474 = gematria of דעת.  Again a problem in דעת.  Therefore, Moshe was told רד מגדלותך, the ר and ד have been interchanged.)   He adds that it the the צדיק, gematria of 204 that is able to distinguish properly between the ר and the ד, between good and bad.

Yaakov tells his sons (Vayigash 42:2) רדו שמה.  Rashi says he was hinting that the golus in Egypt would last for רדו - 216 years.  We can say that רדו also hints to the fact that in Egypt there will be a nixture, a ו החיבור of the ר and the ד.  The Egyptian society would poison the minds of Klal Yisroel and cause a בלבול הדעת, a confusion between right and wrong, between ד and ר.  The Bechai (Bo 11:4) points out the plague of Bechoros in the Egyptians mind occurred during the mazal of tzedek: ולכך שנה משה כחצות כלומר קרוב לחצות ושיחשבו המצריים שהמכה היתה בסוף שעה ששית לצדק שהוא כוכב החיים, ושיתברר אצלם שהמכה אינה מכח הכוכבים.  The matzah was eaten at that time, in the mazal of Tzedek.  The matzah gives one the power of the צדיק, to distinguish between the ד and ר.  Hence, it is the מצה that contains the fulfillment of the קץ.  There had to be a קץ, minus 190 years to ensure we didn't fall into the abyss of the ר, the lacking of קוץ lead to קץ and the tikkun, what reintroduced our proper judgement is the matzah (see Bnei Yissochor Nissan maamer 4 derush 5 על דרך רמז.)  How does the matzah fix up the בלבול הדעת caused by the עץ הדעת and subsequently Mitzraim?

As mentioned on this blog before Purim, the sin of the tree was that man introduced I into the equation.  Right and wrong is no longer decided inherently but rather by how it effects me!  The עץ הדעת brought the ego into the world.  That is what causes the בלבול of the דעת and the lack of disterning between ד and ר.  As mentioned on this blog also (you have to keep score,) matzah is anti-ego!  Matzah is the cure for being an אגואיסט.  By flattening the ego, one becomes a צדיק and uses the קוץ to distinguish between דר.

Based upon this we can understand the Zohar that calls matzah נהמא דאסוותא, what kind of healing is there in matzah, most people get constipation? Since the matzah is the tikkun for the עץ הדעת and it is only the sin of the עץ הדעת that brought death into the world, removing it via the matzah is the ultimate healing.  There are 365 days in the year, minus 7 that chametz is prohibited = 358 =נחש.  Through abstaning from chametz for 7 days we obliterate the power of the נחש הקדמוני (ibid.)  Of course, that leads to Rebbe Akiva that was דורש על כל קוץ וקוץ שבתורה תילי תילין של הלכות (Menachos 29b,) but this is long enough, so we can leave that for another time.