The Numerical Value of the Letter Mem: 40 Days for a Segulah

The numerical value of the letter Mem, forty, is the number required for a continuing developmental process until the transition to a new state.

For example, the days of fetal formation, which conclude with the transition from a developing cell to a complete entity defined as a 'person': forty days. As explained in the Mishnah tractate Niddah, and recently confirmed by researchers using advanced scanning tools.

Therefore, the numerical value of the word 'fetus' is forty. From then on, the mother's body begins preparing to produce milk, the sustenance for the newborn. Indeed, "milk" in gematria is forty. Thus, it is found that at the end of forty days of pregnancy, from the forty-first day on, the pregnant woman is called "mother," as she carries a whole child in her womb. This is one of the reasons she is called by this name. "Mother" in gematria is forty-one.

Spiritual renewal, meaning the purification of the body for elevating to a higher spiritual level, also spans forty days. Therefore, it is said about Moses: "Moses entered the cloud and ascended the mountain and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights." It is explained in the Midrash that until the fortieth day he forgot, and only after forty days did he become purified from the influence of the materiality of the body and remembered the entire Torah. At the end of those forty days, Moses was also sanctified to the extent that his face shone as it was written: "And Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come near him."

The Secret of the Letter Mem

The sages of Israel, who received the secret of the power and illumination of the letter Mem, would review each new study they learned forty times. They knew that the root of renewal and transition to a new state in our world is hidden in the letter Mem, whose number is forty. And since to remember something new for a long time requires a substantial transition from non-knowledge to a new state of knowledge and permanent recollection, it turns out that the secret of memory depends on the number forty. Therefore, one should repeatedly review the study forty times until transitioning to the new state of memory, as part of oneself. This is how our sages acted, as narrated in the Talmud, when Rab Ashi heard a new halacha (Jewish law) from Rab Kahana: "He learned from him forty times, and it was as if it was placed in his pocket." Likewise, it is reported in Tractate Berachot about Rabbi Zeira, and in Tractate Taanit the sages testify about Resh Lakish that he organized his studies forty times corresponding to the forty days that Moses spent on Sinai, and remembered all the Torah.

The Explanation of the Impact of Numbers

To clarify the matter, we will expand further on explaining the connection between the numerical value of the letter and the letter itself, and their joint influence on reality. This letter will serve as an example for all other letters.

From what is explained in the Book of Creation, it is understood that the number of each letter receives its impact power from that letter, according to its meaning. For example, in the letter Mem, which inherently expresses the end of the first stage and the transition to the next stage, a new reality or place (like "Jacob went from Beersheba and went to Haran," the act of leaving occurs at the end point of the place called Beersheba, and from here the transition happens), it is necessarily so that the number of the letter Mem is the number expressing this essence. Therefore, in the nature of creation, it will be the number that concludes the first stage and starts a new stage, like new life and so forth. It turns out that the connection between the reality associated with the number forty and this number precisely is not symbolic but essential.

Therefore, it has been embedded in the nature of creation that the formation of the fetus continues for forty days. Thus, Moses spent forty days and nights on the mountain, without food or drink, until he elevated himself and acquired the entire oral Torah with knowledge. Also, the formation and shaping of the People of Israel in the desert as the people of Hashem by leading immediate reward and punishment took forty years of wandering. Initially, they could have achieved their status and formation as Hashem's people by choosing the good in just eleven days (as written "Eleven days from Horeb" etc.). This number is also not random. 'Eleven' corresponds to the ten sefirot concerning the body, with the 'crown' sefirah above them. It is the secret of the eleven incense spices that counter plagues and harm.

The explanation is that when a person makes a sacrifice from themselves, transforming matter into spirit and smoke, for the honor of Hashem, they express self-nullification—through money they labored and toiled for—before their Creator. When the sacrificial material is the eleven components of the incense with the spiritual powers and secrets embedded within each (or they sacrifice from their wealth pure sheep or cattle whose pure spiritual root is revealed in the fact that they feed only on plants, with their heads bowed in humility, and regurgitate), this combination of the operation of the internal spiritual systems within this matter, with the act of the person sacrificing their precious money to their Creator, creating spirit from matter, draws the one making the sacrifice closer to their Creator. In adhering to Hashem through this work, it is, in an analogy, like connecting a material plug into a powerful electrical socket, channeling light and blessing, peace, and goodness throughout the creation in which they live. In the generation of the flood, when this dimension, referred to metaphorically as 'pleasing aroma,' was lacking, transforming matter into spirit, but rather they delved into material and claimed it all for themselves to fulfill desires without sacrificing anything for their Creator, the ark sank eleven cubits into the water specifically, hinting at their deficiency. Therefore, post-flood, when the aroma of Noah's offerings ascended as a pleasing aroma before Hashem and rectified the matter, Hashem made a covenant for everlasting generations that there would not be another flood.

Similarly, the mental and intellectual development process of a person in the world, until it ripens properly and can "understand one matter from another and instruct correctly," takes forty years from birth. As the Mishnah in Avot states: "At forty, understanding."

Because each period, day, or year, until the point of forty, constitutes a complete and integrated unit. Whereas the point of forty is the point of completion, the stage of the Move, the transition to the next stage.

 In the Midrash, it is brought that four prominent leaders of the people of Israel lived one hundred and twenty years, with their lives divided into three segments of forty years. They are:

A. Moses our teacher. B. Hillel the Elder. C. Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai. D. Rabbi Akiva.

Moses: lived in Pharaoh’s palace for forty years, in Midian for forty years, and led Israel for forty years.

Hillel the Elder: ascended from Babylon at the age of forty, served the sages of Israel for forty years, and led Israel for forty years.

Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai: engaged in commerce for forty years, served the sages of Israel for forty years, and led Israel for forty years.

Rabbi Akiva: was a shepherd for forty years, served the sages of Israel for forty years, and led Israel for forty years.

Therefore, there are various segulot that involve calling holy words for forty days. And as we found in the holy Zohar that Rabbi Chiya fasted for forty days to merit seeing Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai after his death. At the end of the days of fasting, he was told that he was not yet allowed to see him, and he fasted another forty days. At the conclusion of these days, Rabbi Shimon and his son Rabbi Elazar were shown to him, engaged in the secret of Torah that Rabbi Yossi spoke. Thousands of souls of the righteous were listening to Rabbi Shimon's words. Then some angels with wings came, and Rabbi Shimon and Rabbi Elazar mounted them and rose to a higher level in the upper Gan Eden.

Also, it is to be learned from here that one who studies something for forty days known as a certified segulah and is not saved, should study another forty days, and again, repeatedly, until their salvation comes.

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