Hillary Rodham Clinton

by Joel Gallis a''h and Dr Robert Wolf

''A Time Of Terrible Distress'' [originally published July 2009]

When Hillary Rodham Clinton lost the Democratic Nomination for President to Barack Hussein Obama, many thought that she would disappear from the world stage for years. But her name in Hebrew hinted that something different would happen. Our attention was gained by her unique name expressed in Hebrew letters. Never before did we see the following occur in anyone's name:

Hillary הילרי, Rodham רודהם, and Clinton קלינטון each have a gematria of 255. Imagine that a person's first name, middle name and last name all have the same exact value! When the value of the entire name is calculated, the total gematria is 765 [255x3], the same value as עת צרה [Time of terrible distress]. This finding indicated that Hillary would not disappear into the sunset so quickly. She would be (as she has become) an influential voice reprimanding the State of Israel.

The term עת צרה comes from the Book of Daniel [12:1] which describes the time when Michael, the guardian angel of Israel, will stand in defense of his people at this time of catastrophe. The atbash gematria of עת צרה is 106, the same value as the letter נ nun, spelled out נון.

No verse in the Ashrei prayer [Psalm 145] begins with the letter נ nun. There are 21 verses in this psalm and each verse (in order) begins with the remaining 21 letters of the Hebrew aleph bet. This is because in the verse that speaks of G-d supporting the fallen, the letter נ can be taken as an allusion to the word נפילה, Israel's future downfall, G-d forbid. King David refused to use a letter to begin a verse that could suggest such tragedy. But knowing that downfalls must take place as they have throughout our history, King David comforted Israel with the verse that begins with the letter ס samech [the letter that follows the nun in the Hebrew alphabet]. The full verse beginning with the samech states "Hashem supports all the fallen ones and straightens all those who are bent." With this verse, King David made a guarantee to the Jewish People that even when a dreaded downfall occurs, the people can count on Hashem's support.

Today, the leader of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahou בּנימין נתניהו, has not one, but four nuns in his name, representing the four exiles of the Jewish People. We have gone from one exile to another, falling down and then being lifted up by Hashem. We kept falling into galus because we would not learn from our mistakes and make adjustments in our lives. The purpose of falling is to arise and lift ourselves to a higher level, not to the same plane. When G-d tests us in our personal lives and we fall down through illness, financial setbacks or personal tragedy, we must pull ourselves not only back to where we were before the fall, but to greater heights.

The letter נ is the 14th letter in the aleph bet. This is the gematria of דוד [David] whose descendant will shortly be sent by G-d to redeem us. May we all dance with joy when that wonderful moment arises.