Vayechi- The People of the Mem

Remember how each Sesame Street episode was sponsored by a letter and/or a number? They used to say “Today’s show is sponsored by the letter X, and the number 3.” Well, today’s Dvar Torah is sponsored by the letter “Mem” (m).

Our parsha this week is the only closed parsha. In all other parshiot, there is either a line break when you reach a new parsha, or a nine character blank space. But this week’s parsha doesn’t have either. Our parsha begins with Jacob announcing that he will tell what will happen in the Last Days, but then he never does. Instead he goes on to assign roles to each of the twelve tribes. Rashi said that he was about to tell of Messiah’s coming but Hashem prevented him from doing so.

There is a midrash that speaks of the hiddenness of Messiah that involves the letter Mem. If you recall, the letter Mem has two forms; an open form that is used anywhere but at the end of a word, and a closed form, called a Mem Sofit, which is used when it is the last letter of the word. There is a passage in the Torah that uses an open Mem when it should be closed, and another passage that uses a closed Mem when it should be open.

The improperly closed Mem is in Isaiah 9 where it says “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us; dominion will rest on his shoulders, and he will be given the name Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace, in order to increase the dominion and perpetuate the peace of the throne and kingdom of David, to secure it and sustain it through justice and righteousness henceforth and forever.” The word le-mar-bay means to increase or multiply. It is written with a closed Mem instead of an opened one. The midrash says that this is because the time of the Messiah is closed, it is hidden from us.

But this is connected to another verse where the Mem is open when should be closed. It is in Nehemiah 2, “I went out by night through the Valley Gate, to the Dragon’s Well and the Dung Gate, and inspected the places where the walls of Jerusalem were broken down and where its gates had been burned down.”

Here the words for “they were broken down” in Hebrew is haym pe-ru-tzim. The final Mem of the word haym should be written with a closed mem, but it is not. The midrash says that this refers to Jerusalem being vulnerable to the nations of the world. It says, that when the Messiah is revealed (the Mem is opened) then Jerusalem’s walls will be repaired (the Mem is closed). In other words, Messiah will establish Jerusalem as the world capital again and Israel will no longer be trampled on by the nations.

As Messianic Jews, we can see this midrash in light of Messiah Yeshua. The Mem opened with his first coming, but then hidden gain when he ascended, fittingly on Mem BaOmer, the 40th day of the Omer. The Mem was then opened as the walls of Jerusalem were destroyed by the Romans. Yeshua forewarned that the Holy City would be trampled on until the Times of the Gentiles was fulfilled, after which He will come in the clouds and be revealed again.

In gematria the letter Mem has a numerical value of 40, which signifies a span of time required for the ripening process. This refers to the Times of the Gentiles. We are in the midst of the forty, the ripening of history culminating in Messiah’s return. Forty is also the number of Yom Kippur. Jewish tradition states that Israel repented for 40 days after the sin of the Golden Calf, and God established that last day as Yom Kippur, the Great Day of Atonement. To this day, we repent for the thirty days of Elul and the ten days of awe, ending in Yom Kippur; a total of forty days.

Yochannan’s revelation speaks of the final opening of Messiah’s Mem and the closing of Jerusalem’s Mem. Yeshua is revealed in glory, defeats ha-Satan, and brings judgment on the world. This is the ultimate Yom Kippur! Then a New Jerusalem descends and becomes the capital of the world.

When we stand before the Ark, about to bring the Torah scroll out, we recite, Malchutecha malchut kol olamim, u-memshaltecha ledor vador, “Your Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and your dominion endures through all generations.” The Hebrew word for kingdom is malchut, written with an open Mem The Hebrew word for dominion used here is mimshal, and is a kind of closed Mem as the first syllable ends in a double-Mem. It comes from the root word which means “to assimilate”. God’s kingdom exists, but His dominion over the entire world is yet to come. He has yet to assimilate all the nations of the world into His kingdom.

May we be the people of the Mem; praying for the opening of the Mem of Messiah, and the closing of the Mem of Jerusalem. May we pray for the revelation of Messiah and the establishment of Jerusalem and that His kingdom will also become His dominion over all the earth! Shabbat Shalom.