Yibum: From a Strange Custom Comes the Messiah

The Tikunei Zohar 26 provides us with great insight into a strange custom, the  Levirate marriage, a great Mitzvah. This process is called יבום (Yibum). If a man dies, leaving a widow without children, his brother should come to the woman, have sex together to impregnate her and with that action they become married to each other. This process of connecting the woman as Malchut to the Man as Zeir Anpin is called גאולה, “redemption” and the man is called גואל, “redeemer”.

Ruth 4:7
“וְזֹאת לְפָנִים בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל עַל-הַגְּאֻלָּה וְעַל-הַתְּמוּרָה, לְקַיֵּם כָּל-דָּבָר, שָׁלַף אִישׁ נַעֲלוֹ, וְנָתַן לְרֵעֵהוּ; וְזֹאת הַתְּעוּדָה, בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל ”
“Now this was the custom in former time in Israel about the Redemption and about the exchange, to keep in existence all things: a man drew off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbor; and this was the attestation in Israel.- ”

This process is called יבום (Yibum, YBVM). Within this word and the process,  the channels from Yud (G-d) to Vav (Man) to the Shem Mem-Bet (42-Letter Name, representing the union of Zeir Anpin and Malchut, Heaven and Earth) are completed.

It is very powerful.

The final Mem is the womb, as is known from the Arizal, and the Bet is both blessing and representative of the brother (the 2nd husband).

Geula (redemption) has the numerical value of 45, which is also that of Man, which is why, “This process of connecting the woman as Malchut to the Man as Zeir Anpin is called גאולה,”

The process of יבום (Yibum, YBVM) also permutes to B’YVM, “2nd day” or “in the day,” connecting to both Creation and the so-called end-of-days when the geula (final redemption) will occur.

Now יבום (Yibum, YBVM) as broken down above YV and MB can be seen as (42 and 42) since the letters MB has the value 42 and Yud-Vav spelled out also has the gematria value 42. This the word (Yibum, YBVM) can be seen to conceal the value 84, that of Pad, meaning redemption, and the union of the Upper and  Lower 42-Letter Names, necessary for the final redemption.

So given the significance of this strange custom, what powerful souls do we know of that were brought into the world by this means? Such a powerful connection should bring powerful souls, no?

And so it did. And we have our answer as to why the Tikunei Zohar chose to quote the Book of Ruth in the description of the Yibum.

The Torah in Genesis 38 tells the story of Yehuda and Tamar. It helps us understand the importance of the Yibum process. Yehuda’s son, Er ער, was married to Tamar, a woman that his father chose for him, and died before having children. Yehudah sent the other son, Onan אונן, to redeem his daughter in law but Onan knew that she is not intended for him and spilled his seeds to the ground so he will not be the one to continue the seed of his brother. Because Onan didn’t continue the light to the vessel he brought death on himself.

Yehuda saw the situation and held onto the younger son, telling Tamar that he is waiting for him to grow up before giving him to her.

Tamar was righteous and understood that Yehuda is her redeemer. She disguised herself as a prostitute and ‘tricked’ him into having sex with her and thus fulfilled her vessel.
As it turns out  trick was the cause and seed to bring Mashiach to the world.

From Tamar came out Perez and from his descendant came out Boaz who married Ruth the Moabite with Yibum (See the book of Ruth). They had Obed that begot Yishai that begot David. King David who is the aspect of Malchut and the great desire for the light, created the vessel that will bring the redeemer, the Mashiach.

Now, as for Ruth herself, she is a descendant of a similar Yibum process, when after witnessing the destruction of Sodom and Gemorra, Lot’s daughters, thinking they were the only ones left in the world, got their father drunk and slept with him. It’s not the strict definition of Yibum, but the same righteous intent was there and it is the intent cloaked within our actions that builds the spiritual world.

So we have Ruth descendant of Moab, whose name contains the MB,  marrying Boaz, and this together Moab-Boaz, the two results of the two Yibums create another MB. And of this powerful fusion, King David was born.  Not to mention, that Yehuda’s name is mentioned 42 times in the Torah.

So given the double fusions of the 42-Letter Names, it’s not The Divine Calendartotally shocking that the midpoint of King David’s 70-year life was exactly the midpoint between Adam and Moshiach: 5778/2 = 2889 HC. David lived from 2854 – 2924 HC.

As we said earlier, the process of יבום (Yibum, YBVM) also permutes to B’YVM, “2nd day” or “in the day.” David was the 2nd in the Maturation process of Adam (ADM) or Adam – David-Moshiach. Adam is spelled Alef-Dalet-Mem, whose gematria miliu (spelled-out) values are respectively, 111 + 434 + 80 = 625. And as per our recent articles on the 3 Keters that add up to the year 2018 (5778 HC), the numerical value of H’Keter (the crowning sefira/dimension) is 625, which is also the exact square root of all the words, letters, and verses of the Torah added together (390,625).

What we should take away from this is that no item in the Torah, no matter how strange, is without deep meaning and importance to us, even if that meaning takes 5778 years to become clear and manifest.  The other thing we should note is that while G-d has His divine time frame, it takes righteous actions to fulfill it. Windows of opportunity will open in their proper time; whether we step through them is up to us.  And as we learned from Lot’s daughters and Tamar, it’s the intent (where our conscious is at) that’s most important. The Baal Shem Tov explains that the right intent is to do all our actions with the thought of “Loving thy neighbor as thyself,” and thus being one soul with everyone, so even if we don’t make the connections exactly right, some part of our global soul is, and that’s what we’ll connect with.

Shavua Tov and Chodesh Tov