Otzar Hayedios, Volume 3, p. 412.
Sometimes we are unsure of what decision to make. How are we to know which path to choose?
The Torah alludes to this as is shown in the following. It says לכתך אחרי במדבר, your following Me into the desert.
If we take this literally and go after (לכתך אחרי) the letters of the word that make up the word מדבר , let’s see what we get. After a מ is a נ; after a ד is a ה; after a ב is a ג; after a ר is a ש. Adding up the sum of these letters (נ,ה,ג,ש) we get the number 358.
This is the gematria of the word משיח. And so this pasuk is alluding to us that with every decision we make we must ensure that it is a decision leading to bringing Moshiach closer. That is the barometer to know if a certain action should be done. Will it lead us one step closer to Moshiach coming?
