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A parable.
A man goes to his rebbe with a question:
"Rebbe, why is it that we eat kugel on Shabbos?"
"It is because the numerical value of the word 'kugel; is the same as the word 'Shabbos'." 1
The man nodded, and turned to leave, satisfied. But before he got halfway home, he stopped, thought a moment, and ran back to the rebbe.
"Rebbe -- the numerical value of 'Shabbos' is MUCH greater than the value of 'kugel'!" he said.
"So, nu, have another piece."
1 In Hebrew, each letter has a value, which is how Classical Hebrew tended to present numbers. That also means that you can add up the values of the letters in a word, to get the value of the word. And there is a common thing you do to take words of equal value, and connect them. In this case, the words are שבת, Shabbat/Shabbos (depending on accent), and קוגל, "kugel". Shin = 300, Bet = 2, Tav = 400, for a total of 602 for "Shabbat"; Kuf = 100, Vav = 6, Gimmel = 3, Lamed = 30, for a total of 139 for "kugel". Naturally, this means that you ought to have 4 1⁄3 pieces of kugel on Shabbat.
"Rebbe, why is it that we eat kugel on Shabbos?"
"It is because the numerical value of the word 'kugel; is the same as the word 'Shabbos'." 1
The man nodded, and turned to leave, satisfied. But before he got halfway home, he stopped, thought a moment, and ran back to the rebbe.
"Rebbe -- the numerical value of 'Shabbos' is MUCH greater than the value of 'kugel'!" he said.
"So, nu, have another piece."
1 In Hebrew, each letter has a value, which is how Classical Hebrew tended to present numbers. That also means that you can add up the values of the letters in a word, to get the value of the word. And there is a common thing you do to take words of equal value, and connect them. In this case, the words are שבת, Shabbat/Shabbos (depending on accent), and קוגל, "kugel". Shin = 300, Bet = 2, Tav = 400, for a total of 602 for "Shabbat"; Kuf = 100, Vav = 6, Gimmel = 3, Lamed = 30, for a total of 139 for "kugel". Naturally, this means that you ought to have 4 1⁄3 pieces of kugel on Shabbat.
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