The Daily Ma’amar from our Rebbe Rav Eliezer Berland shlit”a, courtesy of the “Hashem Hu HaElokim” leaflet – The secret of the numerical value of 644 and more:
In the merit of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov (=644) who came in ibur (spiritual pregnancy) in Avraham’s slave Eliezer (=644), who was great in knowledge and great in understanding (=644), the man who walks in the paths of Hashem (=644), he washed his hands in cleanliness (=644), and merited to be among the unifiers of Your name Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is one (=644), and to fulfill “and all desires cannot compare to it” (=644), and to make a holiday for Israel (=644), and then “Tzaddikim will rejoice in Hashem” (=644).
In the mystery of “I will ascend on the palm tree (plus 2=644); I will take hold of its branches,” which are Chananya, Misha’el, and Azariya, who jumped into fire with awesome joy, despite the terrifying warnings of Yechezkel the prophet, that they should flee, and to makes themselves [as if they were] ill, and to say that the chariot flipped over. Because once, there were no roads, and everything was wooden wheels; and to say that they flipped over and were seriously injured, and through this, they were taken to the hospital, and they were there for a week, and therefore they did not come to prostrate themselves to the [idolatrous] image.
But they said to Yechezkel: they would specifically appear. And they went to each and every one of the 23 delegates that were from each and every nation, and said to them level-headedly, calmly, and with a clear and lucid mind, that they have no intention of prostrating to the idol as Nebuchadnetzar had spoken, and they were going to jump into fire even if they would be burned, because they have no merit at all not to be burned, and they want specifically to be burned!
To download the Hebrew version, click here
There was just a fire in Kiryas Yoel in New York and a husband, wife, and child died overnight. Apparently the official English name for the town is “Palm Tree.” I wonder if the Rav was hinting to this.
It could very well be, especially since the entire piece is a reference to jumping into flames…