Midrash sobre Daniel 9:2

What is written above this? “And the Lord said to Moses: Speak to your brother Aaron…” (Leviticus 16:2) R’ Avin said: He said to him - go and comfort him with words, as it says “Speak to the heart of Jerusalem…” (Isaiah 40:2) “…that he should not come at all times…” (Leviticus 16:2) R’ Yehudah bar R’ Simon said: Moshe was greatly distressed by this. He said: oy! Perhaps Aharon my brother has been driven out from the inner space at all times! There is a time corresponding to the hour “…that he should not come at all times…” (ibid.) There is a time corresponding to the day “And water by measure you shall drink…” (Ezekiel 4:11) There is a time corresponding to the year, as it says “And it was, at the return of the year…” (Samuel II 11:1) There is a time corresponding to twelve years “Until the time when His word came…” (Psalms 105:19) There is a time corresponding to the seventy years, as it says “…since the destruction of Jerusalem seventy years.” (Daniel 9:2) And it says “…until the time of his own land come…” (Jeremiah 27:7) There is a time corresponding to eternity “You gave joy into my heart from the time that their corn…” (Psalms 4:8) The Holy One said to Moshe: it is not as you think. This is not a time of the hour, the day, the year, of twelve years, seventy years or of eternity. Rather, at any time which he wants to enter he may enter, but he must do it with this procedure. R’ Yehudah bar R’ Elazar said: with thirty-six bells and thirty-six pomegranates. The Rabbis say: with seventy-two bells and seventy-two pomegranates.

“And in the first year of Cyrus, the king of Persia, at the completion of the word of the Lord from the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord aroused… So said Cyrus, the king of Persia… Who is among you of all His people… And the heads of the families of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites arose…” (Ezra 1:1-5) “…forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty. Besides their slaves…” (Ezra 2:64-65) This was the overall count, but in specifics of the count they are only thirty thousand three hundred and sixty. Where did the other twelve thousand go? These are the members of the other tribes who went up. “And they set the altar on its bases… And they gave money to the quarries…” (Ezra 3:1-7) Cyrus reigned for three truncated years. “And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign… Then the work of the House of God, which was in Jerusalem, was stopped…” (Ezra 4:6-24) “In the third year of his reign, he made a banquet…” (Esther 1:3) Esther was hidden in Shushan the capitol for four years, “So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus…” (Esther 2:16) Haman gathered spoils against Mordecai for five years, “In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus…” (Esther 3:7) On the thirteenth of Nisan Haman wrote the letters “…to destroy, kill, and cause to perish all the Jews…” (Esther 3:13) On the fifteenth of Nisan Esther went in to the king. On the sixteenth of Nisan they hung Haman. On the twenty-third of Nisan Mordecai wrote letters to contradict Haman’s decree. On the thirteenth of Adar “And the Jews smote all their enemies…” (Esther 9:5) They killed five hundred in Shushan, and they hung the ten sons of Haman because “…they wrote an accusation against the dwellers of Judea and Jerusalem.” (Ezra 4:6) “On that day, the number of those slain in Shushan the capital came before the king.” (Esther 9:11) And at that time in the coming year, it says “Now, Queen Esther, the daughter of Avichayil, and Mordecai the Jew wrote down…” (Esther 9:29) Behold, it says “For at the completion of seventy years of Babylon…” (Jeremiah 29:10) and “…since the destruction of Jerusalem seventy years.” (Daniel 9:2) Israel spent fifty-two years after the destruction of the Temple under the rule of the Chaldeans, and then they went up. Three years of Cyrus, fourteen of Ahasuerus, two of Darius. In the second year of Darius, the Temple was rebuilt. So Zechariah said “And the angel of the Lord replied and said, ‘O Lord of Hosts! How long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem and upon the cities of Judah, upon whom You are wroth for seventy years already?’” (Zechariah 1:12) The Temple stood for four years, as it says “And the completion of this House…” (Ezra 6:15) And at that time in the coming year Ezra came up from Babylon with a new group of exiles, as it says “Ezra ascended from Babylon… And there ascended from the Children of Israel… in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes… For on the first of the first month… For Ezra had prepared his heart…” (Ezra 7:6-10) He came and separated Israel from the foreign women.