Pensée juive sur Les Nombres 19:3

[Maharal will now proceed to bring a lengthy, and rather windy, Midrash. This Midrash expounds the particular wording in a series of verses at the beginning of Parhas Chukas, near the end of the 4th book of the Torah - Bamidbar. These verses detail the paradigmatic suprarational commandment of the Torah: the sacrifice of the red heifer. The Midrash leverages verses from various prophets in connection to particular word choices in this Torah passage in order to reveal an underlying message about the journey of the Jewish people throughout their various exiles through history. Our Midrash here operates in very similar style to the Midrash based on the opening verses of the 1st book of the Torah - Bereshit, which we already encountered at the beginning of this Sefer.]And it's found in the Midrash (Yalkut Shemoni, Chukas, 19) '"Heifer" - this is Egypt, as it says (Jeremiah 46:20) "Egypt is a handsome heifer...". "Red" - this is Babylon, as it says (Daniel 2:38) "...you are the head of gold". "Unblemished" - this is Persia. Says Rebbi Chiya Bar Abba 'the kings of Persia were unblemished, HaKodesh Baruch Hu had nothing on them except for their idol worship, which they merely received from their forefathers.' "In which there is no defect" - this is Greece. Alexander of Macedon [don't know what כד חמא means...maybe "when he saw"] for Shimon HaTaadik he would bow at his feet and [Alexander] would say Blessed is the G-d of Shimon HaTzadik. They said to him [ פלטין דידיה], in front of this Jew you bow?! [Alexander] said, when I go to battle, the I see his likeness and I am victorious. "on which no yoke has been laid" - this is the fourth empire, for they did not accept upon themselves the Yoke of HaKodesh Baruch Hu, and it wasn't sufficient that they didn't accept it, they disgrace it and blaspheme it and say (Psalms, 73:25) "Whom do I have in heaven?". (Bamidbar 19:3) "You shall give it to Eleazar the priest. It shall be taken outside the camp" - this teaches that in the future he [Eleazar] will push out [don't know what של כרך גדול is... maybe Rome's minister its great city] out of his designated area. "and slaughtered in his presence", this is as it says (Isiah 34, 6) " For the LORD holds a sacrifice in Bozrah..[great slaughter in the land of Edom]". Said Rebbe Berachya, there will be a great massacre in that land. "The heifer shall be burned in his sight" [this is an allusion to] (Daniel 7:11) "it was consigned to the flames". "its hide, flesh..." [don't know what this means: דוכסיא ואיפרכיה ואיסתרטליטיה], as it says (Ezekiel 27:27) "Your wealth, your wares, your merchandise, Your sailors and your pilots, The men who made your repairs, Those who carried on your traffic...[And all the fighting men within you— All the multitude within you— Shall go down into the depths of the sea On the day of your downfall.]. Says Shmuel the son of Yitzhak, even those that were from my community, and came to be connected to your community, even they their hearts will fall for days on the day of your downfall.'