The Plague at Shittim

 המגפה בשיטים

 B'Midbar 25.9 במדבר

9.’And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand-וַיִּהְיוּ הַמֵּתִים בַּמַּגֵּפָה אַרְבָּעָה וְעֶשְׂרִים אָלֶף (1677+6 words=1683=18).

The verse can be divided so:

·         And those that died in the plague were- וַיִּהְיוּ הַמֵּתִים בַּמַּגֵּפָה (662+3 words=17=8);

·         Twenty and four thousand- אַרְבָּעָה וְעֶשְׂרִים אָלֶף (2295=18counting final Peh and Mem as 800 and 600).

Here there were 24,000 killed by the plague and above in verse 5 there were 156,000 killed by the Judges.

156,000 + 24,000 = 180,000 = 18

It is written in “Chessed Avraham” in the name of the Ariza”l (Shaar HaGilgulim 67) that Zimri reincarnated into Rabbi Akiva and that the 24,000- כ"ד אֶלֶף   of his students that died in a plague in the 33 days between Pesach and Lag B’Omer were the same 24,000 souls that died in the plague in the Wilderness, and that the wife of Turnostrophus was a reincarnation of Kozbi who converted and succeeded in building up his Yeshiva.

The gematria of the number 24,000 is:

24 Thousand

כ"ד אֶלֶף

855=18