For whenever a person embarks on the path of repentance and wishes to draw closer to the Creator, is motivated by good intentions, and turns to the Creator in prayer, and so forth, spiritual light immediately rushes toward him and protects him. This is the proclamation that goes before him, announcing: “Beware of having anything to do with so-and-so, because he is a baal teshuvah (one who is returning to the Creator).” Therefore, the mazikim avoid him and do him no harm. (“Minchat Yehuda” by Rabbi Yehuda Ptayya)
How the Arizal Read Foreheads
It is known from the students of the Ari HaKadosh that every day the Ari would gaze into their foreheads and read the verse from the Torah that shone there, and then explain to each student the meaning of that verse, which was somehow connected to the student's soul that day. He was also able to see what merits and what transgressions the student had.
Once, the Ari read two verses from the Torah on the forehead of Rabbi Avraham Galanti: “Do not oppress your fellow” and “Do not rob!” Rabbi Avraham hurried to his tailoring workshop and asked the workers whether he owed any of them money. They all answered no, so Rabbi Avraham placed money before them and invited each one to take as much as he believed was owed to him. In the end, it turned out that one woman who took work home had received slightly less money the day before than she had expected. After reimbursing her for the loss, Rabbi Avraham returned to the Arizal, who announced this time that the verses accusing Rabbi Avraham had disappeared from his forehead, adding: “In this world, we do not attach significance to such minor matters; however, in the higher worlds, they are treated with the utmost strictness.” (From the book “Arizal—The Great Kabbalist”)
On another occasion, the Arizal rebuked one of his students and said that he had violated the mitzvah of honoring his parents. When the astonished student indicated that he did not remember committing such a transgression, the Arizal pointed to his forehead and said that three consecutive letters were written there: א ב ג—and that the first two letters, א ב, form the word “father,” while the letter ג was imprinted on his forehead facing away from the initial letters forming the word “father.” Since the letter ג represents “Gemilut Chasadim” (acts of kindness), the Ari HaKadosh discerned in this a violation of the commandment to honor one's parents.
There was another occasion when the Arizal saw on the forehead of his student, Rabbi Chaim Vital, that he had drunk a revi'it of water before a meal without reciting the concluding blessing, and the teacher reproved him for it. He explained that this principle applies both on weekdays and on Shabbat, with its Kiddush before the meal. (Sha'arei Taamei HaMitzvot, Eikev)
What Will Be Written on the Forehead of Mashiach
In the book “Beiti Le-Armoni” (I Have Come into My Palace), in the name of Rav Shimshon of Ostropol, it is written that the name of the Kelipah of Forgetfulness is Riv (ריב). The gematria of this name is 212, as is the gematria of מפה לבנה “a white tablecloth.”
The equality of the gematriot indicates that a white tablecloth can counteract memory deterioration.
Arizal (zechuto yagen aleinu) instructs us to cover the Shabbat table with two white tablecloths, whose gematria is equal to 424. Using two coverings on the table on Shabbat is undoubtedly a segula against this kelipah.
The sages of Kabbalah further explain that on Mashiach's forehead, wrinkles will form as though they spell the Name of the Almighty (כדת).
The gematria of this Name is 424, that is, twice 212.
This tells us that in the days of Mashiach, the Kelipah of Forgetfulness will be abolished and removed from this world.
A Segula from the Mekubalim:
Rabbi Eliezer Papo (“Pele Yoetz”) conveys a tradition from earlier generations of Mekubalim that one should travel to the kever of a tzadik and pray for what is hidden, for whatever causes great suffering, with tears in one's eyes and from the depths of one's heart, revealing all the pain of one's experience to the Almighty. Then, with the right hand (wiping away the tears), one should pass it across the forehead from right to left, as though erasing the sins imprinted there. Sincere tears of repentance erase a person's sins.
This is also a beneficial segula on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and during the Ten Days of Repentance.
Jewish Psychosomatics: How Sins Are Written on the Forehead
Sins on the Forehead—Jewish Psychosomatics
In the book “Minchat Yehuda” (by the outstanding Kabbalist Rabbi Yehuda Ptayya, who, being a great tzadik, dealt with spirits and hidden forces and even held conversations with them), he recounts that he once asked the mazikim (harmful demons) how they knew whom to harm?
And they answered that a person's sins are written on his forehead.
Then he asked them: “And if a person has repented, what is his status?”
They replied that for one who follows the path of repentance, the sins are gradually erased from his forehead, and that this takes some time.
Then he asked them: “But if a person is now returning to the Creator, while his sins are still written on his forehead, how do you know that such a person must not be harmed?”.
The mazikim then answered that before every person who has embarked on the path of repentance, but whose sins have not yet been completely erased, “a proclamation is heard announcing: ‘Beware of having anything to do with so-and-so, because he is a baal teshuvah (one who is returning to the Creator).’ And when we hear this proclamation, we do not dare approach that person, because it is like the protective sign that the Creator gave Cain so that no one would dare harm him.”
Source: (по книге "Бен Иш Хай, Кодекс заново Торы, Бемидбар, по урокам Рава Исраэля Якобова)
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Tags: Segulot, Parts of the Body, Penitential Lament, Refuah, The Connection Between the Forehead and Spiritual Problems, Teshuvah, Jewish Psychosomatics, Rabbi Yehuda Fatiya, A Person’s Forehead and Its Connection to Spiritual Problems, Jewish Psychosomatics: The Connection Between the Forehead and Spiritual Issues, Jewish Psychosomatics: How Sins Are Inscribed on the Bones, The Arizal on Sins Inscribed on the Forehead
