Friday the 13th. Big deal. The day and the number have gotten a bad rap for a long time. Yet Friday is beloved as the end of the work week, and do not Christians believe an event of universe-shattering proportions took place on Good Friday?
We have dealt previously with the number 13 here and here. Far from being unlucky, it has many praiseworthy qualities and connections.
One is in its connection to the Hebrew word love, ahavah, which has the numeric value of 13.
The word echad, one, also has the value of 13. It is said this alludes to the 13 attributes of God's compassion revealed to Moshe.
The United States had its original 13 colonies.
Our flag has 13 stripes.
Furthermore, it is said that "God is one" and "God is love," and adding the numeric values of ahavah and echad, we come up with 26, which happens to be the number of the Tetragrammaton, the ineffable Name of God.
I think those things are pretty good—lucky, you might say.
Lucky 13.
There are many 13s on the Dollar Bill, for example the stars...
...the stripes...
...the arrows...
...the leaves-berries...
...the letters (of Annuit Coeptis)...
...and the rattlers, among others.
For a plethora of interesting mathematical facts about the fascinating number 13, check out this site.
1 comment:
Fascinating, as your reflections always are, Jim!
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