I AM BEING FOLLOWED

Note: This post will be frequently updated with further revelations about 22. 

The Hotel Room Door on Yom Kippur

I started this post, my 496th, on Yom Kippur 5785 (10.12.25). As I say on the home page of my blog and in "The First" post of this blog. 

"I write to think. Writing is a great way to work out ideas. It helps me organize thoughts and come to conclusions. You might say that writing makes you a clearer thinker and helps with decisions."

This is truly one of those posts that "I am writing to think."  Don’t expect it to make sense to you. It's less important for you to understand what I am saying than for me to understand what is being worked out in my mind by writing.  Anyway, please excuse me while I do so. 

Since this eagle visited my yard on 12/22/21, the number "22" has been following me and I've been following it.  The eagle visited for 3 days to make it's point.  Thank God I had eyes to see!  So I listened carefully after that to the number 22.

Since 12.22.21, when I am doing my most deep spiritual thinking, the number 22 seems to pop-up or out. This time, Mary and I were checking into our hotel room in Vermont for a family (kids + grandkids) vacation.  I'll have to break-away to go to a chabad house here for Yom Kippur. My soul is very conflicted on this holiday, but that is a long story.  Aflicting our soul on Yom Kippur is actually what the Torah instructs.

Leviticus 16:29 -- And [all this] shall be as an eternal statute for you; in the seventh month, on the tenth of the month, you shall afflict yourselves, and you shall not do any work neither the native nor the stranger who dwells among you.

In any event, I was pulling* the luggage to the room, while Mary walks Casper, our 12 year old poddle, to our room. There is that number on our door 222 - 22, 2 times.

* Pulling is work I shouldn't be doing.  An example of conflicted. 

Numbers reveal things to me.  I seek out Numbers. It is a very Hebrew thing.  Numbers seek me out. 22 reveals the deeper depths of scripture to me. It also connects the scriptures to moments in my life, which is why I give greater attention to a situation when this number shows up.

Note: As it relates to bible verses, of course there are tons of chapters and verses that have a 22 in them. It is just that I find the odds of a chapter/verse being highly significant are higher. 

Here are some things about 22: 

• There are 22 Hebrew Letters.
• 22 is a number of completeness, because it is the full representation of the 22 letters of the Alef-Bet.
• The number 22 and the value of Pi are hidden in the first verse of the bible. The numeric value of the first letter of the Hebrew words in Genesis 1.1 is 22. Pi holds many mathmatical secrets of the bible. Pi can be used like the settings for the German's "Enigma machine." God is an enigma that is solved by the Bible! 

• The last letter, the 22nd letter, of the Hebrew alphabet the Tav. The paleo (ancient) image of the letter is the cross. It represents covenant. 
• The word, Torah, begins with letter Tav (ת). The 22 letter The last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, often associated with truth, completion, and sign.
• 
  
  On the Tree of Life (Jacob's Ladder) there are 22 paths between the Sephirot.

• At the center of this Madorala in Sefer Yetzirah is the 22nd letter in Hebrew, the Tav. 
• Genesis 2.22 -- And the Lord God built the side that He had taken from man into a woman, and He brought her to man.
• Genesis 22.2 -- And He said, "Please take your son, your only one, whom you love, yea, Isaac, and go away to the land of Moriah and bring him up there for a burnt offering on one of the mountains, of which I will tell you." (First mention of LOVE.)
• Genesis 22.4 -- On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.
• Exodus 12.2 -- “This month shall be for you the head of months, the first of the months of the year” Nisan 1 - Spring and a New Year.
• Exodus 12.22 -- And you shall take a bunch of hyssop and immerse [it] in the blood that is in the basin, and you shall extend to the lintel and to the two doorposts the blood that is in the basin, and you shall not go out, any man from the entrance of his house until morning.
• In 1 Kings 8 - For the Dedication of the Temple Solomon offered a sacrifice of fellowship offerings to the Lord: twenty-two thousand cattle. 
• There are 22 almond flowers on the Temple menorah 
• There are 22 generations from Adam to Jacob. 
• Jacob and Joseph were separated for 22 years.
• In Psalm 22 - The "Suffering Servant Psalm" verse 22:2 My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?
• Psalm 22:22 -- I will declare your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise you.
• Chapter 119 of Psalms has 176 verses because it follows a pattern whereby the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet are used to begin 8 verses each. That is, 22-times-8 equals 176.
• Psalm 2.12 (1 in between 22) -- "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him."
• The Israelites left Mount Sinai, when the Cloud lifted, to go to the Promise Land, to fulfill God's Covenant, on the 20th Day of the 2nd month of the 2nd year after Passover -- 2O.2.2. (Since zero is a place keeper in Hebrew, this can be read 222.)
• Jeroboam I, the very first king of Israel after the united kingdom split in two in 930 B.C., reigned for 22 official years
• King Ahab, consider the worst Israelite king reigned as 22 official years. 
• King Amon consider one of the worst kings over Judah, began his rule at the age of 22.
• When Moses raised up the tabernacle of God there were exactly 22,000 Levites consecrated to serve.
• Shemini Atzeret (שְׁמִינִי עֲצֶרֶת‎—"Eighth [day of] Assembly") is a Jewish holiday. It is celebrated on the 22nd day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei. 
• 2 Samuel 8:5 KJV -- And when the Syrians of Damascus came to succour Hadadezer king of Zobah, David slew of the Syrians two and twenty thousand men.
• 1 Kings 8.62 -- Solomon offered 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep as sacrifices of well-being to the LORD. Thus the king and all the Israelites dedicated the House of the LORD.
• Isaiah 22.22 -- And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house. 24 And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons. 25 In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for the Lord hath spoken it.
• Hosea prophesied the destruction of Israel by the Assyrians in 722. The familiar approximate calculation of Pi is 22/7, or 3.1428... Seven (7) is a hugely significant biblical number. 
• Matthew 22:37-40 TLV -- And He said to him, “‘You shall love ADONAI your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire Torah and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” 
• Joshua 22.11 -- A report reached the Israelites: “The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built an altar opposite the land of Canaan, in the region of the Jordan, across from the Israelites.”
• Luke 2.22 -- When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.
• Luke 22:20 -- 1st Cup Blood Covenant
• The 22nd time John uses the word "light," he quotes Jesus: "I have come as a light into the world . . ." 
• Adultry is akin to idoltry. Deuteronomy 22:22 TLV -- “Suppose a man is found lying with a married woman. Then both of them are to die—the man who lay with the woman and the woman. So you are to purge the evil from Israel.
• Jesus is recorded to have quoted 22 times from the Old Testament.
• John 20:22 -- "And after He said this, He breathed on them. And He said to them, “Receive the Ruach ha-Kodesh!
• John 10.22 -- Now it was the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah) in Jerusalem, and it was winter. This is when He declared himself the Water of Life. 
• The Book Revelation has 22 chapters
•  Revelation 22:18-19 -- I testify to everyone 
• The Hebrew letters end at 22. The Book of Revelation ends where 22 begins. (The last verse is 22.21.) 
• In Revelation the number 12 has 22 occurrences.
• Perfect vision /hindsight is 2o2o. In Hebrew zero 0 is not a number, it is a placekeeper.  So perfect vision is 22.

I could go on, but the point is obvious. 

"22" reveals. 

Today is Yom Kippur. I walked through THE DOOR of my room #222 on the evening of Yom Kippur, the Kol Nidre service. Much has already been revealed to me about Kol Nidre. But that's another story altogether!

Mission accomplished!  Writing has again served it's purpose, for me!  I'm sorry if I have left you confused. 

I look forward to what the rest of Yom Kippur reveals. 

 גמר חתימה טובה

G'mar chatima tova

"May you be sealed in the Book of Life" 

EPILOGUE:

Other examples of math in the Bible.

• Pythagoras
• Pi 

This is what I call a "Confirmation."

HOW BRIGHT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?

THROUGHOUT THE BIBLE, LIGHT IS SYNONYMOUS WITH DEVINE PRESENCE 

In this blog post I mused on the question of the "Brightness" of the Light.

Here are a few examples in both the Tenach (Old Testament) and the Gospels (New Testament):

Exodus 33.20 -- And He said, "You will not be able to see My face, for man shall not see Me and live."

In Ezekiel 1:4-28, the prophet describes a vision filled with brightness, representing God's majesty.

Matthew 17:1-2 NKJV -- Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light" 

Acts 9.3 -- As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. 

2 Thessalonians 2.8 KJV -- And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

Notice it is the "brightness" of his coming.

Revelation 21:23 -- The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light

SO HOW BRIGHT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?

Scientists studying the linen burial clothes of Yeshua/Jesus have given us a clue. They calculated the Brightness of the Light that could produce the image of the body wrapped in the Shroud of Turin. 

Scientists determined it would take 34 trillion watts. That is more electricity that the entire USA is capable of generating today. In addition, because that much energy would vaporize the fabric, the length of the pulse of light would have to be for 0.000000000025 OF one second!

Furthermore, the light would have to be vacuum ultraviolet light. Vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) light is special due to its short wavelength range of 10-200 nm, which requires a vacuum to propagate since it is absorbed by air. This makes it useful for special high-resolution and high energy tasks, such as sterilization.

These are a few of the amazing facts about the Shroud. NONE of them is possible for scientists to recreate with today's technology. It all leads to only one possible conclusion. The man in the Shroud of Turin suffered a horrific painful death. He was buried for three days time frame. He emerged from his linen clothes in a bright flash of light that was so powerful that no man can see and live.  

Science is catching up to the bible!  Yes, I said that correctly! 

Recent scientific studies on the Shroud of Turin have reignited discussions about its authenticity and connection to biblical accounts. A 2022 study by Italian scientist Liberato De Caro used wide-angle X-ray scattering to suggest the Shroud dates back 2,000 years, aligning with the time of Jesus. This challenges previous carbon dating from the 1980s that dated it to the medieval period. Despite skepticism, some researchers argue that new evidence, including pollen and soil analysis, supports its authenticity as a relic from the time of Jesus.

SIGN OF JONAH:

Matthew 12:38-41 -- Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”

But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.

My other blog posts concerning the Shroud of Turin:

Have You Seen Him 

Two Credible Witnesses 

The Man in the Shroud 

Asking Questions About the Image on the Shroud 

The Keter on the Shroud 

The Perfector 

A Love Letter From Yeshua 

Have You Seen Him?

HOW TO CAST OFF FEAR?

Me by the water on Tashlich 2016.

What if you could cast off fear? Imagine how free you would be. 

It happened for me in 2016, during a Jewish ritual called Tashlich, which takes place over the Days of Awe.  I cast off fear. 

Oxford dictionary definition of "Awe."

"a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder."

The "Days of Awe" are the Ten Days of Repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur during which some Jews meditate on ask for forgiveness and transformation. Someone, I forget who, took this picture of me during Tashlich in 2016. 

Tashlich is a Jewish ceremony that means "casting off" and is performed during the Days of Awe, typically on the afternoon of Rosh Hashanah. 

Simply put, the ritual involves symbolically letting go of, casting off, the previous year's sins at a body of water. 

The question I am writing to address is "How to cast off fear?" My answer is based on a personal experience that took place during Tashlich that year. 

I believe we cast off fear by way of substitution.  In other words, you cast off worldly fear by substituting supernatural fear.  You replace trivial fears with a much greater fear -- the fear of the LORD! 

On Rosh Hashanah, Jews attempt to be at Mount Sinai with the Blast of the Trumpet. On Yom Teruah (the day of the blast) we hear the call of the Shofar, the Ram's horn that was the substitute for Isaac, who Abraham loved. 

On Tashlich in 2016, as I stood at the water with my eyes closed, I prayed to know what to cast off.  I honestly didn't know. I waited silently for some sort of answer. Something amazing happened.  

A movie began to play on the inside of my eyelids. It was images from when I was toddler, a child, a teenager ... my life was literally flashing before me. Then at the moment the images stopped the answer came to me in one word. Hashem told me to cast off Fear. So I did! 

I returned from the water as Jonah. That was the very moment, the exact moment, my name went from Robert Jonah Ritter to just Jonah. My life started over in a way. For me personally, Jonah is a sign of something deeper. That is another story. 

The message I want to get across is about substitution. 

Fear is programmed into humans by God's design. Our survival depends on our emotions.  Every emotion can also be unhealthy and lead to our death.  These emotions fill us. They make up the experiences of our life.  If we remove them we start to die.  So we can't simply eliminate fear. But we can substitute unhealthy fear for healthy fear. That's what I did on Tashlich.  I cast off the unheathly fears that filled my life with fear of the Lord. 

In a supernatural sense, I cast off a big part of myself. When I became Jonah and I opened my eyes at the water and I saw the world in a new way.  I was free. 

Hope and pray for the Lord to give you ears to hear and eyes to see. May the Lord guard your way and grant you a sweet New Year. 

L'Shanah Tovah Tikateivu.