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Students of Rashi posit that everything that happens is hinted somewhere in the Torah (see Avot 5:22). This is one example where the Torah, by leaving out a letter, hinted at a story that would occur several hundreds of years later.
Na’aman was a powerful and successful general of the nation of Aram. In one of his army’s conquests, he brought his wife a captured Jewish girl to serve as household help. Na’aman became afflicted with the horrible ailment of tzara’at, which Chazal consider tantamount to death, and all of his fame and fortune could not help him. He asked the Jewish girl if there was some sort of Jewish remedy for the situation, and she suggested that he to go ask the Jewish prophet, who was then Elisha. Elisha told him to wash himself in the Jordan River seven times, after which he would be cured. Na’aman, after his initial anger at what seemed to him to be a nonsensical idea, was indeed cured, causing him to accept Hashem as the true G-d.
Where did Elisha get his idea? While there is no problem in saying that Hashem told him directly to give this instruction, there actually is a hint in the Torah, which, Rashi’s students say, guided Elisha to the idea. They point out that Na’aman’s name begins and ends with a נ, as do three p’sukim in the Torah, including two where the נ is in its position only due to a grammatical exception. The first of these three speaks about tzara’at (Vayikra 13:9). The second is our pasuk, which ends with the word ירדן (Jordan River). The third is the pasuk that says that one is to listen to the prophet (Devarim 18:18). The hint Elisha found is that if a person with a נ at the beginning and end of his name comes to the prophet regarding tzara’at, the solution is the Jordan River.
Let us end off with a cautionary note. Although these types of hints are part of the wonderful mysteries of the Torah, it is unwise for non-prophets to try to guess the future based on them.
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D'varim Judaism’s Social Vision
Re’eh
Giving is more than an act of generosity—it is an essential part of human dignity that belongs to everyone, rich and poor alike. The ultimate goal of help is to empower others to stand on their own.
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 9 - "Seeing is Believing" (parag. 21-30)
These paragraphs elaborate on the theme that seeing and knowing is better than any attempt to prove logically, and begins explaining the difference between Israel and gentiles.
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Rav Kook examines the various stages of redemption, explaining how (in addition to the obvious oft-mentioned stages of ingathering the exiles, reviving the Hebrew language, army, state etc.) the messianic dream of world prosperity, the State of Israel and world unity can and are realistically and logically gradually coming true.
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 8- "Answering Questions on the Kuzari's Proof from Mass Revelation
How do we know that the "claim" of mass revelation to 2,000,000 witnesses at Mt. Sinai is really true? This important class answers all of the questions skeptics ask about this claim of the Kuzari.
Ein Aya Armies Still Necessary for Balance & the War Against Wars
Rav Kook explains why the world was originally divided into the various seemingly contradicting ideologies and cultures, in order to develop each one respectively. Swords or armies symbolize how each respective ideology defends themselves, as well as deters their opposing ideologies and cultures. On the other hand, the messianic era will be one of peace, and Rav Kook explains the transition to that stage, which mankind is already undergoing.
