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The Various Meanings of 5770

(Part 2 of the edited transcript of the farbrengen of the 1st of Elul, 5769)

5770

In one month we will be entering the year 5770. Let us now look at some of the numerical allusions related to this very special year. We need to start preparing for the year now. Once the new year starts it is less important to look at the number 5770 as it is already old news to some extent, so the time to look at what this year means is when we are still preparing for it. As the Ba’al Shem Tov taught us, the main thing is preparing for the mitzvah, “Prepare for Your God, O’ Israel.”¹

There are some well-known gematrias for 770,² among them “House of Mashiach” (בֵּית מָשִׁיחַ ), “Expand outwards”³ (פָרַצְתָּ ), which also permutes to spell “France” (צָרְפַת ). France is considered the furthest extreme of the exiles.⁴ The Lubavitcher Rebbe many times indicated that when France would become a seat for authentic Judaism (as it was not for many thousands of years), that would be a sure sign that the Mashiach is here. All these are good, but we are going to focus on other gematrias for 770. As we go through them, we will be corresponding each gematria with one of the sefirot (not in order). In effect we are building up the partzuf, the complete spiritual model, of 770.

Foundation: Nine

The first thing to note is that not every year number when written out in letters forms an actual word. The way that 5770 is written is תשע , which actually means “nine” (תֵּשַׁע ). So in a certain respect this year is about the number 9. In Kabbalah the first thing one associates with the number 9 is the ninth sefirah, foundation. If we think about the number 9 in terms of generations, then the Lubavitcher Rebbe is the 9th generation from the Ba’al Shem Tov. It is very fitting then that he is so strongly associated with the number 770, the value of “nine” (תֵּשַׁע ) and that 770 also equals “the House of Mashiach” (בֵּית מָשִׁיחַ ).

Exhibiting wondrous self-reference, we find that in the Torah (the Pentateuch), the word “nine” (תשע ) appears exactly 9 times! By looking at a phenomenon in the Torah, we are performing the injunction of the prophets, “Remember the Torah of Moshe my servant.”⁵ As the Alter Rebbe writes, the most important thing for rectifying our faculty of wisdom is to remember the Pentateuch.⁶

Looking at the rest of the Bible, we find that this word appears 16 more times. So, in the entire Bible there are altogether 25 instances of the word “nine.” These 25 instances are divided into 9 (in the Pentateuch) and 16 (in the Prophets and Writings). 25, 16, and 9 are the squares of 5, 4, and 3, respectively. In number theory, they are known as a Pythagorean triplet because they fulfill the famous geometric theorem regarding the sides of a right triangle, namely,

a2 ^ b2 = c2,

where a and b are the sides that make up the right angle and c is the hypotenuse.

9 is a power of 3, 32 = 9. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, as we know, loved the various powers of 3: 3, 9, 27, and 81, and so on. 81 is the value of “I” (אָנֹכִי ), the first word of the Ten Commandments.⁷ The sum of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd powers of 3 is

31 ^ 32 ^ 33 = 3 ^ 9 ^ 27 = 39 = 3 · 13,

Where one is of course the value of “one” (אֶחָד ) [and “love” (אַהֲבָה )].

In fact, taking any three consecutive powers of three. Take for instance the zeroth power, the 1st and 2nd, we have then,

30 ^ 31 ^ 32 = 1 ^ 3 ^ 9 = 13

One of the various numbering systems used in gematria is called “reduced numbering” (מִסְפָר קָטָן ), which is calculated by taking the normative value of a letter modulus 9. Using reduced numbering we find that 9 has special significance. It is the only number in base 10—the Torah deliberately utilizes the decimal system (base 10), because with it God created the world—all of whose multiples in small numbering equal 9.

For instance we find that the sages allude to truth as related to 9, because the reduced value of “truth” (אֶמֶת ) is 9. The idea is that things that do not change and are eternal are also true. And this is alluded to in the number 9. Other words whose reduced value is 9 are “covenant” (בְּרִית ), “light” (אוֹר ), and Shabbat (שָׁבָּת ). Even though the Arizal did not like the reduced numbering system, because as he explained, it indicates a state of immature intellect (מוֹחִין דְקַטְנוּת ), the special significance of 9 in small number is worthy of being mentioned in public, especially this year.

Based on this we can say that the coming year is one of rectifying the covenant. The Rebbe said many times that what is delaying the coming of the Mashiach is the blemish of the covenant. So clearly, if we are able to rectify it, 5770 is a year that is spiritually ready for the coming of the Mashiach.

Kingdom: The Good of the Land

Before we completely forget about the month of Av, the final day of this month is the 30th of Av. The entire month of Av is related to the verse in Isaiah, “If you wish and you listen, then you shall eat the good of the land”⁸ (אִם תּאֹבוּ וּשְׁמַעְתֶּם טוּב הָאָרֶץ תּאֹכֵלוּ ). The second half of this verse, “the good of the land” (טוּב הָאָרֶץ תּאֹכֵלוּ ) is also equal to 770. The entire Land of Israel is a great big “House of Mashiach.” The earth was given its name (אַרֶץ ) because it means “wanting to do God’s will”. Those who do God’s will receive all the blessings in the world. The goodness comes as reward for doing God’s will. Goodness and will in general go together.

What this means for us is that the coming year, 5770, will be one of goodness, physical blessings, with rains in their proper time providing plenty of produce and spiritual blessings with the spiritual rains falling from above, from the supernal land⁹, in plenty. This is then a great year for studying the interaction between Torah and ecology.
Obviously this gematria corresponds to kingdom, which the earth symbolizes.

Loving-kindness: Pleasant and Peaceful

A well known verse describing the Torah as an embodiment of loving-kindness is, “All its paths are pleasant and its ways are peaceful” (דְרָכֶיהָ דַרְכֵי נֹעַם וְכָל נְתִיבוֹתֶיהָ שָׁלוֹם ). The words, “pleasant… peaceful” (דַרְכֵי נֹעַם שָׁלוֹם ) equal 770. So this gematria corresponds to loving-kindness.

These three words have 11 letters. 770 = 11 · 70, so the average value of each letter in these two words, “pleasant… peaceful” is 70. The middle letter itself is an ayin (ע ) whose value is 70. When contemplating the Torah’s text from a mathematical-logical perspective, the greatest principle is to first locate the letters ayin, whose name stems from the same word as “contemplation” (עִיוּן ).

If we draw these 3 words in a symmetrical form, we get,

Then we see that the letter ayin is also graphically the middle letter of these three words.

The first instance of “nine” in the Torah is found in the verse, “All the days of Adam, that he lived were nine hundred years and thirty years”¹⁰ (וַיִּהְיוּ כָּל יְמֵי אָדָם אֲשֶׁר חַי תְּשַׁע מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה וּשְׁלשִׁים שָׁנָה וַיָּמֹת ). Most of the instances that the number “nine” appears in the Torah are in the enumeration of the lifespan of the first generations. But, there are only two people in the entire Bible about whom it says, “that he lived” (אֲשֶׁר חָי ). The second is Abraham, about which the Torah says, “And these are the years of the life of Abraham that he lived…”¹¹ (וְאֵלֶּה יְמֵי שְׁנֵי חַיֵּי אַבְרָהָם אֲשֶׁר חָי ). These two words are related to the concept of covenant (which we saw above is also related to the number 9), because the covenant is called “alive” (חי ). The Arizal says that whenever we say this word, חי , we should have in mind the letters, טט , like in the word for “tefilin”¹² (טֹטָפֹת ), alluding to the 9 sefirot of direct light (from crown and down) and the 9 sefirot of reflected light, from kingdom and up.

Now, looking at the verse, “All the days of Adam, that he lived were nine hundred years and thirty years”

וַיִּהְיוּ כָּל יְמֵי אָדָם אֲשֶׁר חַי תְּשַׁע מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה וּשְׁלשִׁים שָׁנָה וַיָּמֹת

We see that it of course has an ayin in it (in the word for “nine”). The entire verse has 41 letters. The middle letter is again the ayin (ע ). The value of the entire verse is 3780 which is 10 times 378 (חַשְׁמַל ), but 3780 is itself a multiple of 70 (ע ), a chance of 1 in 70. 3780 = 70 · 54 (there is a holy Name whose value is 54).

Might: Song and Prayer

It is a Jewish custom to denote the year of publication of a book with a gematria. If someone writes a book about prayer this year then the next gematria will provide with a beautiful allusion to the year. In the selichot of motza’ei Shabbat there is a liturgical poem with the refrain, “To hear the words of song and of prayer” (לִשְׁמֹעַ אֶל הָרִנָה וְאֶל הַתְּפִלָה ). The two words, “song… prayer” (רִנָה תְּפִלָה ) equal 770. The initials of the 4 words, “of song and of prayer” (אֶל הָרִנָה וְאֶל הַתְּפִלָה ) are אהוה . This is known as the “good” Name because its gematria is equal to 17, the value of “good” (טוֹב ), the Ba’al Shem Tov’s Name, the Name of the 18th of Elul.

Prayer, as noted earlier, corresponds to the sefirah of might. One of the reasons for this is that the numerical value of “prayer” (תְּפִלָה ) is equal to that of “Isaac Rebeccah” (יִצְחָק רִבְקָה ), the archetypal souls of might. In the Shabbat afternoon prayers we hear that “Isaac is singing” (יִצְחָק יְרַנֵן ), connecting him with both “song and prayer.” Isaac’s song, befitting his soul root in might, is about the demise of the wicked, “With the demise of the wicked there is song.”¹³

Understanding: Sweetening Harsh Judgments

The next gematria is a slight variation on one that we already mentioned last year. The words, “And from the powerful came the sweet”¹⁴ (וּמֵעַז יָצָא מָתוֹק ), are part of the riddle that Samson asked the Philistines. The riddle was what gave him the motivation to take revenge from the philistines. In any case, these words equal 770. The word “powerful” (עַז ) is itself related to 770 as its value is 77, one-tenth of 770. Multiplying the “powerful” by 10, we sweeten it.

This gematria is related to understanding because that is the sefirah in which all the harsh judgments are sweetened, since it is the source of all harsh judgments. Just as Samson said, the powerful (עַז ) is sweetened. We can add that through the song and prayer with which we pray to God, all the harsh judgments that afflict us are sweetened. Indeed, on the first night of the year, we will be eating an apple dipped in honey, in order to sweeten these harsh judgments.

Victory and Acknowledgment: Enemies Fall to Your Sides

In the World of Chaos, the two sefirot of victory and acknowledgment were actually a single sefirah. But, in the World of Rectification, they divide into two halves of a single body and become two sefirot, manifest as the two feet in the human form. That they became two sefirot reflects the special quality of souls, who walk, who can move by walking (as opposed to angels who have a single foot and cannot walk). As much as the two feet are separate, their separation is not as complete as that between the two hands that can function completely independently. Rather, the two legs work in conjunction.

Alluding to the two feet and thereby to the sefirot of victory and acknowledgment are the words, “A thousand will fall at your side and ten thousand on your right”¹⁵ (יִפֹּל מִצִּדְּךָ אֶלֶף וּרְבָבָה מִימִינֶךָ ). This verse is related to the Name “Hosts” (צְבָאוֹת ), the Name that corresponds to the two sefirot of victory and acknowledgment.¹⁶ This verse is like the final words of the Ba’al Shem Tov’s father to his young son not to fear anything, because if he fears only the Almighty, all of those who want to harm him will simply fall to his side. The value of these words is 770.

To further delve into the relationship between this verse and the coming year, let us ask: What figure does the number 770 relate to? In other words, to what geometrical symmetrical sets of figures does 770 belong to? The answer is obtained by first observing that 770 = 2 · 385. 385 is a three-dimensional square pyramid, or in other words,

385 = 12 ^ 22 ^ 32 ^ 42 ^ 52 ^ 62 ^ 72 ^ 82 ^ 92 ^ 102

So, since 770 is two of these square pyramids of 10, its figure is a 3 dimensional diamond of 10.

385 is the value of “Divine Presence” (שְׁכִינָה ), the Shechinah.¹⁷ That 770 is equal to twice the value of the Divine Presence alludes to the fact that there is both a higher Shechinah and a lower Shechinah. There is both a conceptual and a numerical relationship between the Divine Presence and a bride. Conceptually, the Divine Presence is related to the Almighty similarly to the way a bride is related to her husband. Numerically, the value of “bride” (כָּלָה ) is 55 = r10 and “Divine Presence” (שְׁכִינָה ) is 385 = r310 (the third-dimensional triangle of 10). In addition, 385 = 7 · 55, the value of “bride” (כָּלָה ). The secret of this last relationship is that thanks to the seven revolutions the the bride makes around her groom, the Divine Presence is brought under their wedding canopy.

One of the explanations of what the higher and lower aspects of the Shechinah refer to is that the higher refers to the Divine Presence as it was in the First Temple, and the lower to the manner in which it was in the Second Temple period. Even though the sages seem to suggest that there was no Divine Presence in the Second Temple, it is explained in the Tanya, that it only did not dwell with the same revelation that it did in the First Temple. Indeed, the higher dimension of the Divine Presence corresponds to victory, which is also called the extreme height (עוֹמֶק רוּם ), and the lower dimension of the Divine Presence corresponds to acknowledgment, which is called the extreme under (עוֹמֶק תַחַת ).

Now let us look at this verse more carefully. The three words that make up the first half (and which correspond to victory) are: יִפֹּל = 120, מִצִּדְּךָ = 154, אֶלֶף = 111. Their sum is 385, exactly the value of “Divine Presence” (שְׁכִינָה ) and half of 770! It follows then that the sum of the remaining two words, which correspond with acknowledgment, וּרְבָבָה מִימִינֶךָ , is also 385! There is no more beautiful allusion to two halves that come together to form 770.

Wisdom: Thought and Action

The soul has three garments, also called its servants: thought, speech, and action. They serve the soul by revealing the inner state of the soul. An important principle in modern business is to give good service. If you give good service you make a profit. Sometimes it is written that the source of the garment is higher than what it enclothes. As long as the potential in my soul has not entered a garment it remains unconscious or super-conscious. But, thanks to the garments I can become conscious of them. In order to reveal the concealed a very essential force needs to play a part.

770 is equal to the value of the two garments, “thought” (מַחְשָׁבָה ) and “action” (מַעֲשֶׁה ), the inner and external garments of the soul. Bringing these two garments together reminds us of the sages’ saying that, “A good thought [intent to do something good], the Almighty casts it into action [even if you were not able to manifest your good intent].” In other words, even if a Jew has a good thought about doing some mitzvah or a good deed, but he is not able to complete it, the Almighty, who reads the mind and the heart will treat it and give reward as if the action was actually carried out.

The thing to know about a “good thought” (מַחְשָׁבָה טוֹבָה ) is that it is equal to “a good year” (שָׁנָה טוֹבָה ). So the best time to have a good thought is on Rosh Hashanah, and by praying and singing to God, God will cast our good thought into action and bless us with a good and sweet year.

If we look at the verb “casts” (מְצַרְפָה ) in this idiom, it also means “combines.” So this idiom also reads, “A good thought, the Almighty combines with action.” Combining the values of “thought” (מַחְשָׁבָה ) with “action” (מַעֲשֶׁה ) results in 770!

This gematria corresponds to wisdom because it is written in Chassidic teachings that thought corresponds to wisdom, as in the words of the Zohar, “Thought and the Jubilee [the 50th year, understanding] are a couple that never parts.”¹⁸ Sometimes, thought is called “concealed thought” similar to the way there is wisdom and concealed wisdom. Concealed wisdom is the sefirah of wisdom in the lower partzuf of the crown. So thought can refer to all three intellectual sefirot, but here we see that it specifically relates to wisdom.

Of wisdom it says, You have created all with wisdom. The Alter Rebbe writes in the Tanya that relative to the Infinite light, wisdom is like action. There is another interpretation that to do, to act (the particular sense of the month of Elul, action) means to be able to combine things, to bring them together, just as the Almighty takes thought and combines it (or transforms it) into action. In order to truly transform thought into action, one needs to know the secret of combinatorics,¹⁹ and that secret is revealed through wisdom, the power of nullification in the soul. What this means is that whenever we are carrying out an action, we have to be exercising our faculty of wisdom and selflessness in order to ensure that our good intentions are included and experienced in our action. What is an example of the selflessness that ensures a positive outcome? Sometimes, when a person speaks too much about what he plans to do, this can hurt his plans. One has to strengthen one’s wisdom, the power of silence, anticipation, and selflessness in order to turn his thoughts into action. As explained in the Tanya, the power to act requires that our faculty of will be enclothed within our faculty of wisdom.

Crown, Knowledge, and Beauty: Eleven, Wits, and Body

We have so far covered all the sefirot except for the first three in the middle axis. To explain what gematria of 770 corresponds to them, we will do something a little different. Instead of looking for other phrases, verses, or idioms, we will look at new meanings. Specifically, when we write the word “nine” (תֵּשָׁע )—corresponding with foundation, the fourth sefirah in the middle axis—backwards we get another, quite rare, word in Hebrew: עשת . The Radak writes²⁰ that this root has 2 meanings, with the second meaning dividing into 2. The later researchers into the Hebrew language say that there are 3 different meanings to this root. When we have meanings that are very similar to one another, it should immediately come to mind that they correspond to the sefirot along the middle axis. The sefirot of the middle axis are considered a single, extended unit (like the “crossbeam that goes from one end to the other”²¹), far more than the sefirot of the right or left axes.

The first meaning is found in the verse, “His hands are like rods of gold set with emeralds; his belly is polished ivory overlaid with sapphires”²² (יָדָיו גְּלִילֵי זָהָב מְמֻלָּאִים בַּתַּרְשִׁישׁ מֵעָיו עֶשֶׁת שֵׁן מְעֻלֶּפֶת סַפִּירִים ). According to Rashi and others, the word עשת here should be understood like a piece of corporeality. We mentioned earlier that the Menorah was made from one piece of gold, which is also called a single עשת of gold. So its meaning in this verse is like body, a physical reality.

There is another opinion regarding the meaning in this verse. Since the bride is describing her husband’s and comparing it to the whiteness of ivory, the word עשת would then mean that it is also shiny or sleek. This is the meaning of the word in another verse that reads, “They have grown fat and sleek…”²³ (שָׁמְנוּ עָשְׁתוּ ). By becoming round and full, by fattening, the belly becomes sleek and shiny. There is a beautiful allusion here to the number nine, which is the letters of עשת reversed. What is the meaning of the numbers seven, eight, and nine. Seven (שֶׁבַע ) in Hebrew means “full.” Eight (שְׁמֹנָה ) then comes from the root meaning “fat,” this makes sense that first one is full then if one continues adding (or eating) one become fat. But, then of course if one fattens enough then one’s belly becomes “sleek” (עשת )! Oiling the skin (oil in Hebrew is the same word as “fat”) also makes it sleek and shiny.

So these are actually two opinions about the same instance of this word עשת in the Bible. In any case, it should be clear that the first meaning of עשת corresponds to the sefirah of beauty, which in the human form is represented by the body. The belly (specifically the stomach and intestines, מעיו ) is considered the bottom third of the sefirah of beauty.

A second, entirely different meaning that this word has is usually translated as “wits,” as in the verse, “His breath will leave him, he will return to his earth; on that day he has lost his wits”²⁴ (תֵּצֵא רוּחוֹ יָשֻׁב לְאַדְמָתוֹ בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא אָבְדוּ עֶשְׁתֹּנֹתָיו ). When a person passes away, he loses his consciousness, his wits. When a person is still alive, losing his wits renders him a fool, a person who is not about himself. A fool is defined as someone who loses things that are given to him. This is the opposite of Rebeccah’s stubbornness and hardheadedness that we mentioned earlier. A person like her is always focused and always has his wits about him. Clearly, the meaning of עשת as wits corresponds with the sefirah of knowledge.

The third meaning of the word עשת is found in the number “eleven” (עַשְׁתֵּי עָשָׂר ), which is like the word עשת added to “ten” (עֶשֶׂר ). The Radak says that this rendering of the word is actually a branch of the meaning it has in relation to “wits.” The idea is that as the person counting counts ten and wants to continue, he gets confounded, because what comes after 10? How do you continue after the number 10? 10 is the completion of the first decade of numbers, so this is a real conundrum. In an attempt to solve his confusion, the person who is counting blurts out “wits,” i.e., where are my wits? Because this is very difficult explanation of the meaning accept, the later linguists say that in eleven עשת finds a new, entirely independent meaning.

In any case, since it means “eleven” this by itself would be a reason to correspond this meaning with the crown, which is described as the “uncountable one,” i.e., the eleventh sefirah. This description of the crown as “the uncountable one” was one of the Rebbe’s favorite idioms. It is not surprising then that 770 is a multiple of 11, and not just any multiple but 770 = 11 · 70!

What we have just seen is that in Hebrew, eleven is related to both ten and to nine. This immediately reminds us of the famous words of the Book of Formation, that “There are ten sefirot, ten and not nine, ten and not eleven.” Because reversing the letters of “nine” (תֵּשָע ) we get eleven (עַשְׁתֵּי עָשָׂר ), this statement has to declare that there are ten, excluding both 9 and 11!

In any case, we now have 3 meanings that correspond to crown, knowledge, and beauty.

Let us now picture our complete partzuf of the gematria’s of 770:

The Hero of 5770

As we have seen this year 5770 has many gematrias. But, it also has a hero. He was the first judge of the Jewish people, who completed the task of conquering the Land of Israel after Joshua. His name is Otni’el ben Kenaz (עָתְנִיאֵל בֶּן קְנַז ) and his name equals 770. Not only was he a judge and a warrior, he was also one of the greatest scholars, who through his in-depth study was able to restate 3000 laws that were forgotten during the mourning period for Moshe Rabbeinu. So he is the image of the Torah of the Land of Israel, the Torah of Mashiach, which is something he merited thanks to his wife, Achsah (עַכְסָה ). Achsah was the daughter of Caleb ben Yefuneh. The sum of their names together, Otni’el ben Kenaz and Achsah (עָתְנִיאֵל בֶּן קְנַז עַכְסָה ) is equal to twice the value of “Mashiach” (מָשִׁיחַ )!

To do gematria without adding an in-depth and true understanding of the findings leads to false illusions in the mind. In order to engage properly in the study of gematria, one has to go deeply meditate on the findings in order to ensure that they are revealing something real and true in our understanding of Torah. Another possibility is looking at the finding of gematria from the perspective of more advanced mathematical thinking. This leads one to look at numbers as figures, as symmetrical geometric shapes that carry some number-theoretical meaning to them. In this way, numbers are being transformed into algebraic equations. We saw an example of this type of analysis in our discussion of the sefirot of victory and acknowledgment.²⁵

Now let us look at this name, עתניאל בן קנז . Since it contains 11 letters, it follows that the average value of each letter is 70, the value of the letter ayin (ע ), the first letter in his name, and everything follows the beginning. Since, as we said, the letter ayin alludes to the ability to contemplate, it is not surprising that he had the intellectual and contemplative power to restore 3000 laws that had been lost. Now, continuing to analyze his name, the initial and final letters are עז , whose value is 77, one-tenth the value of his entire name. The initial and final letters of all three words in his name are, על בן קז whose sum is 259 = 7 · 37, alluding to the seven הֶבֶל , (vapors) with which the world was created.²⁶

Of course the remaining letters must equal 511 = 7 · 73, where 73 is the value of “wisdom” (חָכְמָה ). The world was created with 7 types of wisdom, alluded to by the verse, “She made her pillars seven.” These correspond to the 7 books of the Pentateuch (the Book of Numbers is divided into 3 books). So we have seen seven types of “vapor” (הֶבֶל ) which equals 37 and seven types of “wisdom” (חָכְמָה ), which equals 73. 37 and 73 are the only two two-digit numbers where the smaller is the midpoint of the larger. In addition, their product is 2701, the value of the first verse of the Torah, the first verse of creation. So Otni’el’s name is very strongly associated with creation and so many of the secrets of creation are found in his name.

Let us see one final point about his name. If we write every other letter, we have: ע נ א ב ק ז , whose sum is 230. This is the number that completes 770 to 1000, which is the gematria of “Israel Ba’al Shem Tov” (יִשְׂרָאֵל בַּעַל שֵׁם טוֹב ) and “old student” (תַלְמִיד וָתִיק ), etc. Thus, Otni’el can be understood as alluding to the encompassing light that surrounds the entire model (partzuf) of 770 that we just finished discussing.

To complete our discussion of the gematria of the upcoming year, let us see a few other allusions to its value.
We mentioned earlier that the value of “France” (צָרְפַת ) or “expand outwards” (פָרַצְתָּ ) is also 770. Using the Atbash transformation (alef transforms into a tav, bet into a shin, etc.) we get that the letters of “France” go to וגהא , the letters that spell the word for “pride” (גַאֲוָה ).  So 770 is the year that rectifies the sense of false pride.²⁷ If we now use the Albam transformation on the resulting letters of “pride” we get 230, which as we saw above is the surrounding light of 770. The ratio of 770 to 230 is 77:23, the values of the two words “strength” (עֹז ) and “joy” (חֶדְוָה ) and to the verse, “There is strength and joy in His place”²⁸ (עֹז וְחֶדְוָה בִּמְקֹמוֹ ).

Just to complete this point, we mentioned earlier that most of the instances of the word “nine” (תֵּשַׁע ), which equals 770, are found in relation to the first generations of mankind. The first instance is mentioned in relation to Adam (אָדָם ); the second in relation to Methuselah²⁹ (מְתוּשֶׁלַח ); the third in relation to Noah³⁰ (נֹח ); and, the fourth in relation to Peleg³¹ (פֶלֶג ). If we sum the values of their 4 names, we get 1000! Amazingly, if we take the initial and final letters of all 4 names, they are א מ מ ח נ ח פ ג , which sums to 230, which means of course that the remaining letters (the inner letters) sum to 770!

Two Holy Names

Now, another small tidbit for Kabbalists. We started with the Name of 42, let us end with the Name of 72 (triplets)³². The fifth of the 72 triplets in this Name is מהש , which permutes to spell “Moshe” (מֹשֶׁה ); its value is 345. The 8th triplet (5 and 8 are the golden section) is כהת , which is both the initials of the phrase “All souls will praise…”³³ (כֹּל הַנְּשָׁמָה תְּהַלֵּל ) and the final letters of “You are worthy of acknowledgment”³⁴ (וּלְךָ נָאֶה לְהוֹדוֹת ); its value is 425. How are these two triplets related? The second is the holy Name that Moshe Rabbeinu used to kill the Egyptian, the first act we know that he performed. (Indeed, “the Egyptian” [הֲמִצְרִי ] is equal to “Moshe” [מֹשֶׁה ]). 425 is also the value of “Judaism” (יַהַדוּת ), as well as “lion cub” (גוּר אַרְיֵה ), and “Mashiach Ruler”³⁵ (מָשִׁיחַ נָגִיד ).

The sum of these two triplets, מהש כהת is 770! Thus, Moshe Rabbeinu and the Messianic power that he used come out to 770.
Moshe’s soul comes from the previous shemitah (7 year cycle, literally, but in Kabbalah this refers to a cycle of soul origins), the shemitah in which the World of Chaos existed. For this reason, his first act as the redeemer of the Jewish people is relatively chaotic. For this reason, Moshe was pursued and banished from Egypt and was not able to continue to redeem the Jewish people for 40 or 60 years (depending on the midrash).

A House of Kindness, Prayer, and Torah

Another important gematria of 770 is related to something the Lubavitcher Rebbe mentioned many times in regard to 770 Eastern Parkway—that this is a house that has three aspects to it, a house of “kindness” (חֶסֶד ), prayer (עֲבוֹדָה ), and Torah (תוֹרָה ). The sum of these three words is 770!

We just saw that the two triplets of the Name of 72, מהש and כהת , together equal 770. But the second triplet is also equal to “Mashiach Ruler” (מָשִׁיחַ נָגִיד ). It follows then that 770 is also the value of “Moshe Mashiach Ruler.” So it is very fitting that in the house of “Kindness, Prayer, and Torah” (חֶסֶד עַבוֹדָה תוֹרָה ) lives the “Moshe Mashiach Ruler” of the generation.

If we make a quadratic series out of these three words, we will find that the next number in the series is 1644,

1644 is the value of the second verse of the Shema, “And you shall love Havayah your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your possessions”³⁶ (וְאָהַבְתָּ אֵת י־הוה אֱ־לֹהֶיךָ בְּכָל לְבָבְךָ וּבְכָל נַפְשְׁךָ וּבְכָל מְאֹדֶךָ ). Analyzing this verse in terms of what we have just learned, we see that loving the Almighty with all of your heart corresponds to Torah. About the Torah it says, “You shall write them [its words] on the slate of your heart”³⁷ and there are 32—the numerical value of “heart” (לֵב )—pathways of wisdom, and as we know, “the Torah comes out of wisdom.”³⁸ Loving the Almighty with all of your soul corresponds to prayer. The sages say that loving God with all of your soul comes to include even if He takes your soul. This is the feeling that one should aspire to during every moment of prayer—to feel that the love for God is so intense that the soul could practically sever from the body. Loving the Almighty with all of your possessions of course then corresponds to kindness, which a person performs with his possessions.

Pure Gold and Silver

Finally, the four most important metals are: gold, silver, copper, and iron. In the Bible, we find that each has particular adjectives that describe the metal when it is in its pure form. 770 is the value of the two Biblical idioms, “refined silver”³⁹ (כֶּסֶף צָרוּף ) and “pure gold”⁴⁰ (זָהָב טָהוֹר ), which equal 536 and 234 respectively. When it is pure (24K) gold can be made into long threads. This type of thread was used in the preparation of the Tabernacle.

Let us end with a story. Once the 5th Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Rashab had a dream that he told over. He saw a set table. At its head was the Ba’al Shem Tov. Around the table were the Magid and the Rebbe’s of Chabad. Then he saw other great tzadikim, students of the Ba’al Shem Tov sitting in a half circle around the Ba’al Shem Tov himself.

In this meditation on the coming year, 5770, we described first of all the main partzuf, the main spiritual model of the year’s number, 770. That represents the Rebbe’s of Chabad sitting around the table. The other beautiful gematriot we saw, which are not part of the main partzuf, are like the other great tzadikim sitting around the Ba’al Shem Tov.

Notes: