Cytowanie Komentarza do Diwrej ha-jamim II 36:23

Scripture refers to them as a three-year old [ram] for they were the kings of the east, who conquered the other three directions of the world. As we find in Isaiah [46:11]: “I summoned that swooping bird from the east” and “Who has roused a victor from the east?” [Isa. 41:2]¹⁴¹The verses refer to Cyrus. He conquered the three remaining directions of the world, as it states: “I saw a ram butting westward, northward, and southward” [Dan. 8:4]. And it says: “So says Cyrus, the king of Persia: ‘The Lord, God of heaven, has granted me all of the kingdoms of the world’” [II Chron. 36:23]. The turtledove represents the wicked one, the fourth awful and mighty beast viewed by Daniel. He desired to comprehend its true meaning, as it is written: “I approached one of the attendants and asked him the true meaning of all of this” [Daniel 7:16]. It is said concerning this beast: “it will devour the whole earth, tread it down and crush it.” R. Yohanan said: “It is requisite that Rome’s nature spread throughout the entire world.”¹⁴²b. Avodah Zarah 2b. “Rome” and “Edom” for the medieval Jews refer to Christendom, which they view as a continuation of the Roman empire.

ועז ואיל, and a she-goat and a ram; these two species are symbolic of the exile to Babylonia and the exile initiated by the Romans. Even though the Jewish people were badly suppressed by the Greeks, this happened while they were and remained on their own land. They are, however included in the parable shown by G’d to Avram. In Daniel’s dream (Daniel 8,8) the Greeks are referred to as a she-goat. Seeing that they were the first oppressors of the Jews during the period of the second Temple, the parable alluded to them in second place. The Romans completed what the Greeks had started and exiled the Jewish people from their homeland. The איל, ram, is an allusion to the Persian-Medes exile Seeing that their dominion was based on Babylon, they are referred to in the parable as the איל, the ram, even though eventually they allowed the exiles to return to their land. Several kings of the Persian-Medes empire had prolonged the Jews’ stay in captivity before allowing them to return home, so that they were also guilty of “exiling” them in the interval. The allusion to the second exile, that in Babylonia is called in the feminine mode i.e. עז, instead of שעיר, to indicate that the Babylonians never allowed the Jews to return, whereas the third exile is represented by the species איל in the masculine mode, the Persians-Medes being the only ones allowing the exiles to return to their homeland. The Persians-Medes possessed the merit of believing in the existence of the Jewish G’d, Cyrus having had a dream as a result of which he allowed the Jews to return to their homeland and build a new Temple. (Chronicles II 36,23) Among other merits he attributed his glory to the G’d in heaven Who had made him such a mighty ruler This compares favourably with the king of Ashur who had attributed his success to his own efforts (Isaiah 10,13) Similarly, Titus, conqueror of Jerusalem in Roman times, blasphemed against the G’d of the Jews. The Persians and Medes therefore are represented by a female animal in the parable G’d shows Avram here, as opposed to the arrogant kings who are represented by the male specimens of their species.

Likewise, we set forth the prophetic agenda of Divrei HaYamim. To review, Divrei HaYamim begins “Adam, Sheit, Enosh”— with the beginning of mankind. This is because the period of Bayit Sheini was a rebirth for Am Yisrael. Divrei HaYamim ends with the Cyrus proclamation permitting us to return to Eretz Yisrael, to rebuild the second Beit HaMikdash (Divrei HaYamim II 36:23):