For all of us who love G’matrias (the art of using the numerical value of the Hebrew letters to find correlations in the Torah), we know that there is a rule called “Im hakollel“. This is where we add 1 digit to a G’matriah so that it will equal and correlate with the numerical value of that which we’d like to compare/connect it to. On the surface of things, it may seem like a way of “beating the system”, whereby as long as you are “close enough” – you are allowed to draw a parallel. This is a mistake. Rather, the allowance for the “im hakollel” (the arbitrary addition of 1 digit) is representative of the value of the actual totality of the item as a concept!
For example; suppose you have a table. This table is made up of four legs and a slab of wood on top (5 pieces in all). Each individual piece of wood in isolation has a specific and limited value (a wooden leg might be worth $1 etc.). However, when you create a synergy between all 5 pieces and fuse them together (in a specific sequence), you now form a new concept called a table! Each individual piece is now subservient to a higher calling and thus becomes more valuable as a table than the sum of its (individual) parts. This is the meaning of the concept of “im hakollel”! That is to say, that the extra digit which we add on, is representative of the totality of the specific sequence of numbers (and their arrangement) which transforms it into a new and greater concept than existed previously.
This is why a Jew is called a “Yehudi”. We are defined by our mutual association to all of our brethren in our shared goal of being servants of Hashem! When we stand together with our fellow Jews in solidarity of purpose, we become ever greater than the sum of our individual parts!
<Heard From Rav Shimshon Pincus>
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