Moshe Rabenu Other names and the Name of the Meshiah

Dear Rabbi,

When Moshe was taken out of the river the princess of Egypt gave him the name Moshe, very interesting, now what was the name of Moshe that his family gave him when he was circumcised. In kabala this would be one of the names of Meshiach.

Answer

Logically you could be right, there must have been at least another name given to Moshe by his family. The sources are not very clear, but the midrashim do mention a few names of Moshe. For instance Lekah Tov, (parasha Vayikra 1,b) give names as Yered, Avigdor, Hever, Avi Sokho, Yekutiel, Avi Zanuah, Toviah (from the words in Exodus 2: 2 "ki tov hu"), and Shmayah. As for the name of the Meshiah, no idea!!

Rabbi Monique Susskind Goldberg
September 2006