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Sunday, August 21, 2011

"Obama" was encoded in yesterday's Haftarah

I was wondering about Artscroll's translation of Isaiah 50:11 זִיקוֹת as "fireworks" since, obviously, there were no such thing as fireworks in Isaiah's day. JTS 1917 translates it as "firebrands."

As I was looking this up, I saw a Christian site note that in that same verse, the word "Obama" (or perhaps Ubama)  comes out as the first letter of successive words:

הֵן כֻּלְּכֶם קֹדְחֵי אֵשׁ, מְאַזְּרֵי זִיקוֹת; לְכוּ בְּאוּר אֶשְׁכֶם, וּבְזִיקוֹת בִּעַרְתֶּם--מִיָּדִי הָיְתָה-זֹּאת לָכֶם, לְמַעֲצֵבָה תִּשְׁכָּבוּן.

Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that gird yourselves with firebrands, begone in the flame of your fire, and among the brands that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of My hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.

I can't see any significance in this, and I don't place much importance to such "codes" (especially in Navi) but it was interesting.