Moses and 770!

Did some counting to determine how many times the name Moses (משה) occurs in Tanach.

You might think Torah mentions it 649 times,
and you might think Tanach mentions it 770 times.

UPDATE: BIG MISTAKE! See correction here.

The Beautiful Eyes of Moshiach = 770

Targum Yonatan translates Genesis 49:12
(where Yaakov blesses Yehudah)
"His eyes sparkle more than wine ..."

חכלילי עינים מיין

as follows:

מה יאין הינון דמלכא משיחא

"How beautiful those eyes of King Moshiach ..."

The 4th Lubavitcher Rebbe (the Maharash), in discussing this Targum (Torat Shmuel 1872, p.142), curiously, "misquotes" the Targum by dropping one word and changing the spelling of the next word, to read,

מה יאין עיינין דמלכא משיחא

Slight as the change is, for the meaning rendered remains the same, no such change occurs for nothing, most especially by a Rebbe of Chabad - who is always meticulously precise! So a Lubavitcher chassid (heard from S.B. Zuta) took pencil to paper to doodle with the numbers. Amazingly, the modified version of the verse from Targum - as quoted by the Maharash - in Gematria - yields 770! It's as if the Maharash already back then had seen into the eyes of Moshiach and could not help himself from changing the words slightly, to offer an impulsive albeit cloaked prophecy, thereby implicating 770 as the future House of Moshiach (בית משיח = 770).

Some will of course say it's a coincidence. But there are no coincidences in the universe - especially for a Rebbe, the Moses of his generation!

Divine Providence 6 Months Post-Tammuz 3

An event in 1995 inside of "770" during Shabbat prayers deserves mention. The large crowd in the shul was listening to the Ba'al Koreh, Rabbi Michoel Slavin. About half way through, he suddenly stops his recitation, looks closer at the script, and points to the text for a gabbai nearby to look at.

By the way, every Friday, in preparation for this reading, Rabbi Yehudah Clapman, a long-time sofer in the community, checks the Sefer Torah to make sure all is in good order for the upcoming reading on Shabbat.

After a few more cursory inspections, they began wrapping up that Sefer Torah, returned it to the Aron Kodesh, and took out another one to replace it.

It turns out an entire word was missing from the text. This happened Tevet 21, 5755. That was Shabbat, parshas Shmos. The verse was 4:1,

‫...‬ והן לא יאמינו לי
... and they will not believe me ....

The word לי was missing!

My own reaction to what happened was - I was stunned. To me this was a significant providential message with huge impact. Here was Moshe Rabbeinu telling God the Jews will not believe him. His mission was to tell the Jews he will be redeeming them and the Jews, in turn, may well not believe him.

We were about 6 months away from the 3rd of Tammuz, 1994. The trauma was still raw; Emotions still ran fresh. Many of us believed nothing had changed from what the Rebbe had charted out for us, while plenty of others, local and remote, felt what the past held in store was now down the drain.

No verse in all of Torah could better have depicted the schism the 3rd of Tammuz created. But now, on this Shabbat, those of us who believed the Rebbe's agenda remains sturdily on course, and hadn't changed one iota, felt vindicated - a surreal relief!

It was as if the leader of the generation, the Rebbe, was telling us "They won't be believing in me", as if many would continue to believe (regarding some far future) - BUT NOT IN ME!