This year is like eye-candy. 5775. So simple, so solid, so symbolic. It’s a palindrome after all…read the same forward or backward. And it’s the only palindrome year we will see in our lifetimes.
There’s something so comforting in its sturdy symmetry. And Lord knows we need some comfort this year. So let’s make the most of 5775’s palindromic power.
First off by the fact that Jewish mystics take their numbers seriously. They build entire universes of meaning on thin strings of digits. So let’s not quibble with the Kabbalists but rather try to see things through their mystic lens. For this year invites us to imagine that YES, numbers and letters MEAN something.
And what does a palindrome mean? In short, it means meaning. It connotes order, symmetry. It is a symbol of how symbols decorate the world….and for good reason. They offer us grounding, direction…a path of pattern through the forest of our days. So may it be that 5775 be a year of firm order, deep meaning & much-needed centering!
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5775
What a pattern of power.
Read backwards or forwards
it really doesn’t matter
— for this is the year of the palindrome.
It won’t happen again for another 110
So let’s make the most of its order
and spin some meaning from the chaos
through the grace of numbers well-placed
and play off that feeling
that all is well here
and we are here for a reason
— for this is the year of the palindrome
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5775
where our beginnings and our endings
collide, relax
& finally start to rhyme.
Where our starts and our finishes
meet somewhere in the middle
ready to settle
into sevens
flanked by five’s
like fingers of two hands
holding something too exquisite
for mere minds to understand
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And so our souls leap in to lend a hand
and rattle off riddles instead
like UFO TOFU
like SOS & ABBA
like WOW & SABABAS
like TATTARRATTAT
Read this way or that
it really doesn’t matter
— for this is the year of the palindrome.
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In a world gone garbled
and garbed in confusion
Let us laugh at the math
and tinker with the illusion
that we are anything other than
Oneness personified,
marching in union
NEVER ODD OR EVEN
just a given
just breathing
just being
here in the in-between
integers of finally feeling
centered, mirrored
& rooted in meaning
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And this year may we
celebrate the symmetry
of G-d’s way of doing things
like caterpillars crafting butterfly wings
like water reflecting sky, seamlessly
like the way we smile at similes
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For this new year brings
A simple and accessible
out-breathe of numeric poetry
of 7’s and 5’s
standing sturdy in a line.
So relax & enjoy the ride…
for inside a palindrome
wherever you were going
you have already arrived.
And whether the world is upside-down, inside-out
forward or backwards
it’s really doesn’t matter
for it’s all a part of the Divine pattern
So surrender to its symmetry
and insist that this be
the very best yet
— year of the palindrome.
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Post-script: A little Yom Kippur Number Symmetry
Here is a small taste of some Kabbalistic number play peppered into Yom Kippur. At the apex of the Musaf Service YK afternoon, we call out, “TShuva (Return), Tefila (prayer), Tzedaka (charity)!” Written plainly above each of these words is another word. Over the word Shuva is Zom/fasting. Zom’s gematria (numerical equivalent) equals 136. Over the word Tefila is written Kol/prayer. Kol is also 136. Over the word Tzedaka is Mamon/money. And you guessed it. Mamon = 136. The shared numerical values reveal a spiritually intrinsic connection between each of these methods of atonement.
– Gmar Hatima Tova friends!
