Musar su Levitico 16:3

On another occasion Rabbi Aba was on his way to see Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai when he came to the town of that fellow Elazar. He found him sitting and expounding the verse, “A empty-headed man cannot know, nor does a fool cannot this” (Tehillim 92:7): “How foolish are the people of the world that neither take to heart nor know nor contemplate the ways of the Holy One Blessed is He to learn why it is that they are upon this earth! What is preventing them from discovering the ways of the Holy One Blessed is He? It is the foolishness of their hearts that prevents them from studying Torah. For if they would only study in order to learn the ways of the Holy One Blessed is He, they would know. “This is the meaning of the words, ‘A empty-headed man cannot know.’ That is, he does not know to engage in study. ‘Nor does a fool understand this.’ That is, he cannot understand the ways of the Shechinah, which is called ‘this’ (zos), as it is written, ‘With this [zos] Aharon shall enter the sacred precinct’ (Vayikra 16:3).”

Now, when the letters comprising the name Chavah are spelled out in full they read, ח"ת וא"ו ה"א. Then if one drops the initial letters so that one is left with only the “hidden” letters [i.e., those that are not pronounced when the name is spoken] one receives, tav, alef vav, alef [תאוא], the numerical value of which is 408. This is a hint that in the 408th year of the sixth millenium [1648, the year of the Chmielnicki massacres] the husk of Tzefo would wax in its strength. For that year was ripe for the redemption, as is alluded to in the verse, “With this [zos, the numerical value of which is 408] shall Aharon enter the holy place” (Vayikra 16:3). But instead, in that year many in the lands of Poland and Lithuania were martyred. For it is well known the terrible decrees and harsh judgments that befell the Jews of those lands in the year zos, in which tens of thousands of Jews were killed in sanctification of the name of Heaven. When the [three] letters of zos [זי"ן אל"ף ת"ו] are spelled out they read, zayin yud nun; alef lamed pei; tav vav. The numerical value of the “hidden” letters — yud nun, lamed pei, vav — is 176, which is equal to the value of the name Tzefo. This is an allusion to the name Ploni, as was mentioned earlier. This is what is meant by the verse, “From the north [tzafon] the evil will begin” (Yirmiyahu 1:14). For the value of the word tzafon [226] is equal to the value of the names Polin and Lita [Lithuania] combined. Therefore these decrees occurred specifically in these lands and in the year 408. The words of a wise man are pleasing.