The Special Significance of the Number 40

Welcome to our weekly Motzaei Shabbos program.

Last week's program was about how a person has to be a melaket — a "collector" — like a bee, and not like a spider. In other words, a person's own opinions have to be set aside, and he has to relate exactly what he saw and what he learned, without adding anything.

Tonight's program, since it's before Yom Kippur, before the Yomim Noraim, I want to share with you a passuk. At the end of this program I found an amazing write-up from Rabbi Mindel, and the Rebbe's hagahos are on it — it's really the Rebbe's, because the Rebbe wrote on all of it — so I will share with you the importance of numbers, and specifically the significance of the number forty, which is relevant to this time between [Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur]. I'm going to share this with you at the end of the program.

But first I want to say — it is said in the name of [unclear] that it says, "Let the wicked man abandon his path, and the man of iniquity abandon his thoughts." The word "ish" can also be read with "oz" instead of "aven" — it can be interpreted as hinting at "oz," strength. Just as a wicked man must abandon his path — without teshuvah he cannot approach holiness — so too a man of strength, meaning a man who is strong and confident in his own opinions, must abandon his thoughts. He should no longer say, "This is what I say," or "This is how I hold."

For whenever a person says "I," this is the source of evil, and it instills divisiveness between people's hearts. A person complains, "People step on me — wherever I go, people step on me." So this is answered by [unclear]: "Who told you to spread yourself out so much that people should step on you? Don't spread yourself out, and people are not going to step on you."

When a person's ego expands to such an extent, it becomes the source of evil, because it shifts his attention away from what God asks of him, focuses him on his own needs and desires, and he transgresses God's will. As mentioned last week, a person should always try to be humble, and just say over what he learned — learn it, and say it over as is. And as it's said — I think it's mentioned even regarding intellect — people must put their minds aside and not follow their own reasoning, for their minds can mislead them, to the extent of a bitter end. This is what [the Rebbe] writes.

So we see from here the importance — I think a lot of problems happen because people take a story and don't tell it over the way it is. I remember I mentioned a story to somebody — a story that was written by the Rebbe — and I told it over to some people, and when that person repeated it in public, it took me five minutes to tell, and it took him twenty-five minutes — much longer. Why put yourself into it? He told the story, but not the way it is. Say the story the way it is.

This is a continuation of last week.

Now, I told you I want to share with you something that Rabbi Mindel wrote, and the Rebbe wrote hagahos — and probably most of the page is hagahos. So what I'm going to tell you now is what the Rebbe writes about the importance [of the number forty].

Now we're in the middle — between [Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur] — getting towards the end of the forty days that started [on Rosh Chodesh Elul].

So the Rebbe writes that the number forty is very significant, and he writes like this: it begins with Creation, and concludes in that short passage from Bereishis until Vayechulu, with Shabbos — it's created: the first day, the second day, the third day, the fourth day, the fifth day, the sixth day, and the seventh day, Shabbos, and the seventh day is holy. In this short passage, the seventh day is mentioned three times. Apparently the number seven is, by the Torah, a very important number — we know it's very important. Now here the Rebbe wrote, in his own handwriting — interesting that he goes off from this — and he writes: the number seven, mentioned so many times, has nothing to do with forty. It's just mentioned as a side point, because of Shabbos, seven.

So the Rebbe writes that it's mentioned many times, and I'm going to read it, because the Rebbe wrote — Bereishis, I think, and Parshas [unclear], and more. So anyway, the Rebbe wrote — in other words, the importance of seven. That's a side point. So we see from here that seven is mentioned three times, and seven is holy — it says "holy."

Now, in general, numbers from one to ten are very special. You can learn out many things from numbers. I have, over here, written up everything about numbers — one, two, three, four, five, six — and that's a whole special program, maybe two or three programs, which I'm not going to do today because there's no time. But the importance of numbers is something special. Anyway, because we are now in the middle of the forty days, let's talk about the importance of forty.

So he writes like this:

This time, from Elul to Yom Kippur, is a suitable time for teshuvah. And Yom Kippur was the third time that Moshe Rabbeinu spent forty days and forty nights on Har Sinai. He came down happy, and Hashem forgave the sin of the Eigel completely — and this is the third time. In other words, three times: one time he went up for forty days. Then he saw [the Eigel] and broke [the Luchos]; he went up again for forty days; and then from [Rosh Chodesh Elul] until Yom Kippur was another forty days. So you have here forty days — three times forty. Afterward he came down the third time with the second [Luchos] — the Ten Commandments, instead of the first [that were broken] — this was after the forty days.

So the Rebbe writes over here — then he says, forty is significant. He writes: it's not for us human beings, with limited minds, to ask or reason why Hashem has chosen certain numbers and given them particular significance. We know, however, that Hashem created the world with ten words — Asara Maamaros, as it is said — which correspond to the Ten Commandments. Ten is also a minyan — ten people. You say Kaddish with ten people, you say Kedusha with ten people, and you read the Torah with ten people. So here we have three, we have seven, and we have ten.

And we also know that Hashem's name consists of four letters: Yud, Kay, Vov, Kay. So, since ten is holy and four is holy — ten is holy because, as we said, Hashem created the world [with ten utterances], and the number seven was said three times — so here we see four is holy and ten is holy. So four times ten is forty, and forty is therefore associated with holiness and purity. When the world became sinful, and Hashem wished to cleanse and purify the world, He sent the Mabul. The Mabul lasted forty days and forty nights — so I guess that's another significance of forty, forty days and forty nights.

Moshe's mission [on Har Sinai] lasted forty days. The Yidden were in the desert forty years. And it says that for certain sins, people were given forty malkos. Shabbos prohibits forty kinds of labor. A mikvah, in order to be kosher, requires forty se'ah, a measurement of water. And there's more. And this is forty. So when Hashem gave us a special way to purify ourselves through teshuvah, He gave us forty days. That's the significance of the forty days from [Rosh Chodesh Elul] until Yom Kippur. And these are the special days of forgiveness.

Then he writes here: to be sure, the gates of teshuvah are never locked — as our Sages say, any day, any time during the year is suitable for returning to Hashem, to do teshuvah. Nevertheless, these forty days are especially suitable, since God specifically set them aside for this purpose.

So, forty is as we said before — that's the teshuvah that we do, from [Rosh Hashanah through] Yom Kippur. Then he says over here: the Sages say that the age of forty is the age of understanding, but the wise, understanding person does not wait until he or she is forty years old — the opportunity to get ever closer to Hashem through His mitzvos, he writes, knocks at the door every year during these forty days.

So we see here the Rebbe uses the number forty, and that's why forty is connected with teshuvah, and forty is bina, understanding. This is the time — I thought I found this, and I thought I would share it with you — and he writes over here: a person's life is one hundred and twenty years, three times forty. A person's life should be full of purity, full of holiness. So this is relevant before [Yom Kippur] — that's it, that's the letter.

So we should all merit to see goodness, we should merit to see Moshiach — and this is one of the reasons that we dip the apple into honey. Why honey? Why not into something bitter? Because we want it to be sweet — we make the sweet into sweet, the apple in honey — because everything Hashem created, every day, is good; everything is good. But we want to see the kindness, we want to see the goodness, and we should all be written in the Sefer.

Next week we'll continue our weekly program.