Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai’s Nephews and the Lost Dinarim
Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai dreams his nephews will lose 700 dinarim, so he has them give tzedakah. The Kaiser’s officers take only the 17 that remain.
The Gemara proceeds to relate an incident in which Rebbe Yochanan ben Zakai saw in a dream that his nephews would lose 700 dinarim in a particular year. That year, he pressed them to give tzedakah, and induced them to give 683 dinarim to charity. The night before Yom Kippur, the Kaiser’s officers came to confiscate his nephews’ funds. Rebbe Yochanan assured his nephews that the officers would only take 17 dinarim. They were destined to lose 700 dinarim, but they merited that they fulfilled a mitzvah with 683 of them.