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Who knows two hundred eighty-nine?

?תשעה ושמונים ומאתים - מי יודע


There's probably a specific rip-off gematria available.

Check out for the previous two hundred eighty-eight entries in this ongoing series.


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up vote 6 down vote accepted

The sefer Bris Kehunas Olam writes that ברא אלקים equals 289, which is 17*17 (as in Gershon's answer), representing the two kinds of good that Hashem performed during the six days of Creation: the revealed kind ("G-d saw that it was good") and the concealed one ("G-d saw the light that it was good" and, as Rashi says, hid it away for the future).

Some of this light, he goes on to say, is revealed on Shabbos, represented by the phrase ויברך אלקים, which equals 18*18 or 324. The total of these two numbers is 613, the number of mitzvos, which are all included in Shabbos.

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There are 289 absolute Hapax legomena (words that appear only once) in the Tanach. An absolute Hapax legomena is a word where even the shoresh is a Hapax legomenon.


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289 can only be divided by 17 and 289 divided by 17 = 17 so 289 is Tov x Tov

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mispar shehuchpal bo tov – msh210 Jan 16 '12 at 21:51

Unfortunately, I could only find a sad reference:

On May 7, 1943, 289 Jews, mostly women, from the Nowogrodek ghetto were murdered near the courthouse on Minsk Street.


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There are 14 possible Jewish calendar combinations. In a year where the following combination happens - זח"ג - there are 289 days that are not Shabbos or Yom Tov (Chutz L'Aretz) and you may do Melacha.

An explanation of what זח"ג mean.




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