Musar zu Daniel 8:28

And behold that the desire placed in the heart of man is the root of all of his actions. Therefore, if he refines the desire - instead of all the limbs serving it, he will draw them after the intellect. So they will accompany him and serve him; and all of his actions will be proper, as it is stated (Proverbs 21:8), "but he is pure and straight in his actions." (And it appears to me that he is understanding, "but he is pure," [as] meaning to say, that he is pure from desire; "and straight in his actions," [as] all of his actions are assumed to be refined and straight. And that is something that can be learned from its [context], as its opposite is written after it - "The desire of the wicked is set upon evil" [Proverbs 21:10].) And it is [also] stated (Proverbs 13:19), "Desire niheyeh is sweet to the spirit." Niheyeh [here] is like broken, as [its usage in] (Daniel 8:27), "I was broken (niheyeti), and languished." It is stating that when a man breaks his desire - even for things that are permissible - it renders his spirit successful. So this trait is sweet to it. For the intellect raises its hand and is victorious. "But to turn away from evil is abhorrent to the stupid" (Proverbs 21:8): The stupid, who do not break their desire but rather always pursue the desires of people - when their desire confronts them [to do a] sin or any bad thing, they will not veer from it. And they are called stupid because of [their] pursuit of pleasures - as it is stated (Proverbs 21:20), "and a stupid man will swallow them." And it is stated (Isaiah 5:11-12), "Ah, those who chase liquor from early in the morning, etc. Who have lyre and lute, etc.; but who never give a thought to the plan of the Lord, etc." And it is [also] stated (Proverbs 13:25), "but the belly of the wicked is empty." And it is [further] stated (Malachi 2:3), "and I will strew dung upon your faces, the dung of your festivals." And our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said (Shabbat 151b), "These are people for which all their days are like festivals." And it states (Proverbs 18:1), "He who isolates himself pursues his desires; he disdains all competence." Its explanation is, one who seeks to go after his desire and his will, will be isolated from any friend or countryman. As admirers and companions will distance themselves them from him, since the desires and measures of people are [all] different - the will of this one is not like the will of that one. However if he will follow the path of the intellect, many friends will join themselves to him and his admirers will be many. And they said regarding ethics, one who [insists] upon his measures will have many [against] him. And it is possible to explain, "He who isolates himself pursues his desires," about this matter itself: A man is isolated from every brother and friend, by the desire that he seeks. And since he seeks to go after his will - because of that, his companions distance themselves from him. [It is] like the matter [of], "but a poor man loses his friend" (Proverbs 19:4). "He disdains all competence": One who follows his desires will not only sin in one thing. Rather he will disdain every thing in the Torah, since he will transgress all of it - like the wording (of Proverbs 20:3), "but every fool disdains."

And, in Midrash Eichah: "When does the kingdom of the idolators make a decree against Israel and succeed in it? When they [Israel] cast words of Torah to the ground, as it is written (Daniel 8:12): 'And a time will be set for the [end of] the daily offering and it [(the idolatrous kingdom)] will throw truth to the ground and it will achieve and prosper.' "Truth" is Torah, as it is written (Mishlei 23:23): 'Buy truth and do not sell it! And it is written (Hoshea 8:3): 'Israel has forsaken truth; the foe will pursue it.' And "good" is nothing other than Torah."

Moses did not need to be separated from the source of his visions by any window-pane, as it is said of him (Numbers 12,8): ותמונת ה' יביט, "He is able to behold a picture drawn by G–d." Daniel 8,2 on the other hand, described himself as seeing himself in Shushan, though in his vision he actually stood on the banks of the river Ulai. Hoseah 12,11 may have referred to the difference between these two kinds of prophetic visions when he said: ודברתי על הנביאים ואנכי חזון הרביתי, "And I (G–d), spoke to the prophets, having granted many visions." Surely the verse should have said עם הנביאים instead of על הנביאים if the meaning is that G–d spoke with or to other prophets. [Kittel brings a version which has the word אל instead of על (as in our texts). The author may have had such a version of the Bible since he dwells on the meaning of the word אל as opposed to על. Ed.] When you understand the meaning of the word אל, you will understand that we are dealing here with a type of prophecy which exceeds in clarity of vision all other types of prophecy and which is referred to in our literature as אספקלריא דנהרא, clear vision. This kind of prophecy was granted to none other than Moses, the father-figure for all subsequent prophets. The Torah (Numbers 12,8) says of him: "I speak to him mouth to mouth, etc." The very word חזון is a reminder of the expression הוגד לי חזות קשה, "a harsh prophecy has been revealed to me "(Isaiah 21,2). We also find this expression used in the type of prophecy Abraham received before he was circumcised, such as in Genesis 15,1.

When Israel was freed from the dominance of the angel of death while it received the Torah at Mount Sinai, and lost this freedom due to the sin of the golden calf, the angel Mattatarmolin with the face of an ox took up position on Israel's left, and Satan and the nations of the world started counting the people. Once the sin had been redressed by means of, amongst other things, the ashes of the red heifer, Torah was restored to being perfect, i.e תורת ידוד תמימה, so that even the מלאך רע יענה אמן, the angel that normally negates, portends evil, had to approve of Israel's rehabilitation. When this condition does not exist our situation is reversed and all our adversaries are waiting in the wings to applaud our downfall. In the introduction of Midrash Rabbah on Eichah, we find the comment on Daniel 8,12, וצבא תנתן על התמיד בפשע, "and a set time (army) will be allotted to the daily sacrifice because of sin." צבא means Malchiyut, i.e. dominance by other nations. We know this from Isaiah 24,21, יפקוד ה' על צבא המרום במרום "In that day the Lord will punish the host of heaven in heaven and the kings of earth on earth." The תמיד we referred to in Daniel, is a reference to Israel, since it is written והגית בו יומם ולילה, “occupy yourself with it by day and by night,” i.e. תמיד, constantly (Joshua 1,8). The word בפשע refers to the sin of neglecting Torah. Any time Israel throws Torah to the ground, other nations will prevail over us, since it says ותשלך אמת ארצה "when it throws truth to the ground." We know that אמת, truth, is a reference to Torah: אמת קנה ואל תמכור, "buy the truth, never sell it!" (Proverbs 23,23). If you throw words of Torah to the ground other nations will immediately prevail against you. Confirmation of this is found in Daniel 8,12, ועשתה והצליחה, "it will act and succeed." Since Gentiles do not have Torah, the verse must refer to the Gentiles prevailing over Israel.

To return to the subject which we touched upon earlier of how the שר can don the "mantle" of the שכינה. Although this is a tremendous display of power for such a שר, it will boomerang and become the cause of his downfall as we mentioned earlier. This procedure is alluded to in the words of our פרשה in 10,2, where the Torah says: "how I have made a mockery of the Egyptians." Rashi explains that the word התעללתי במצרים, means "I have toyed with them." We need to understand the meaning of this שחוק, game, that G–d played. When we consider the august position of the שר של מצרים as we have described, we realise that when he was at the height of his power, this שר gave no thought to his eventual demise, and that the higher he would rise, the greater would be his eventual fall into a deep pit. The very "mantle" of the שכינה which he wore would become the cause of his downfall. At that time, G–d in Heaven, who is aware of the exact moment in time when events would cause the שר של מצרים to fall, would smile. The timing of these events is alluded to in Moses' words to Pharaoh in 10,3: "How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me?" Humbling oneself means to turn from being evil to being good. We have a prime example of this when Samael, who had been Jacob's arch-enemy, changed direction and accorded Jacob his blessing, his recognition (Genesis 32,29).

The exile under the Greeks who were known as קרן, horn, was also called similarly, as we know from Daniel 8,5: והצפיר קרן חזות בעיניו, "And the he-goat had a conspicuous horn between its eyes." This was an allusion to the victories of Alexander the Great. The Greeks darkened the eyes of Israel and wanted to deprive it of any vestige of holiness, even of the reduced level of holiness Israel still possessed and symbolized by the ox's single horn as described on page 340. The Greeks demanded that the Jews inscribe on the horn of their oxen that they had dissociated themselves from the G–d of Israel. It was therefore appropriate that when the Hasmoneans defeated the Greeks they should find a cruse of uncontaminated oil. Since they did not institute the rule of the dynasty of David, however, they found a פך, cruse, which was sealed by the seal of the High Priest instead of a קרן, horn.