אמרתי אפאיהם אשביתה מאנוש זכרםAvner in Ha'azinu

amarti af'eihem ashbitah me-enosh zikhramIn Gamatria ↗

Even a lost name is written in the song.

Kaidanover tells of the Ramban's student Avner, who left the faith and rose to high office. On Yom Kippur the Ramban sent for him; Avner cooked and ate a pig before him and debated how many karet penalties he had earned. He said he had left because the Ramban taught that everything is hinted in Ha'azinu, which he thought impossible. The Ramban held to it. Avner asked to see his own name there. The Ramban prayed, and a verse came to him, Deuteronomy 32:26, 'I said I would scatter them, I would make their memory cease from man,' whose third letters spell Avner. Avner fell on his face; the verse left no remedy. He set out in a ship with no captain, sailor or rope, and was never heard of. The Ramban's prayers later won him a measure of atonement.

Hover the image to look closer.Tap the image to look closer.