בִּשְׁנַ֣ת חֲדָ֗ה לְבֵלְאשַׁצַּר֙ מֶ֣לֶךְ בָּבֶ֔ל דָּנִיֵּאל֙ חֵ֣לֶם חֲזָ֔ה וְחֶזְוֵ֥י רֵאשֵׁ֖הּ עַֽל־מִשְׁכְּבֵ֑הּ בֵּאדַ֙יִן֙ חֶלְמָ֣א כְתַ֔ב רֵ֥אשׁ מִלִּ֖ין אֲמַֽר׃
אין ערשטן יאָר פֿון בלשאַצַר דעם מלך פֿון בבֿל, האָט דניאל געזען אַ חלום, און זעונגען פֿון זײַן קאָפּ אױף זײַן געלעגער; דענצמאָל האָט ער אױפֿגעשריבן דעם חלום, און האָט דערצײלט דעם עיקר פֿון דער זאַך.
Sefer Daniel; Opportunity in Exile
Sefer Daniel Fully Revealed
It is not clear, however, when Sefer Daniel was revealed in its entirety to the broader Jewish community. Bava Batra 15a states that the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah wrote Sefer Daniel. This assertion seems difficult in light of Daniel 7:1 noting that Daniel recorded the vision described in Perek 7. Daniel 12:4 records instructions to seal the visions in a book. Accordingly, Bava Batra 15a may be understood as saying that the Anshei Keneset HaGedolah edited Sefer Daniel and formally admitted it to the Kitvei HaKodesh.
It is not clear, however, when Sefer Daniel was revealed in its entirety to the broader Jewish community. Bava Batra 15a states that the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah wrote Sefer Daniel. This assertion seems difficult in light of Daniel 7:1 noting that Daniel recorded the vision described in Perek 7. Daniel 12:4 records instructions to seal the visions in a book. Accordingly, Bava Batra 15a may be understood as saying that the Anshei Keneset HaGedolah edited Sefer Daniel and formally admitted it to the Kitvei HaKodesh.
Rashi
On that day will I cause the horn of the House of Israel to blossom out I have neither heard nor found the explanation of this verse. What is the blossoming of the horn of Israel in the downfall of Egypt? Was not Israel exiled eight years before the downfall of Egypt? [Therefore,] I say that “On that day” refers back to the above section, (verse 13): “At the end of forty years, I will gather the Egyptians.” That count ends in the year that Belshazzar assumed the throne, and we find in Daniel that in that year the kings of Persia began to gain strength, and downfall was decreed upon Babylon, as it is said (Dan. 7:1): “In the first year of Belshazzar,...Daniel saw a dream, etc.”; (verse 4) “The first one was like a lion” - that is Babylon. And it is written (ad loc.): “I saw until its wings were plucked off, etc. (verse 5) And behold another, second beast, resembling a bear” that is Persia. And it is written (ad loc.) “And thus it was said to it, ‘Devour much flesh.’” i.e., seize the kingdom. And the kingdom of Persia was the blossoming of the horn of Israel, as it is said regarding Cyrus (Isa. 45:13): “He shall build My city and free My exiles.” Now, how do we know that the forty years of Egypt ended at that time? [The proof is that] Egypt was given into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar in the twenty-seventh [year] of Nebuchadnezzar, in the year that this prophecy was said to Ezekiel. Add forty years, and you have sixty-seven. Deduct from them forty-five for Nebuchadnezzar and twenty-three for Evil- Merodach, as we say in Megillah (11b), one of these years counting for both [kings], as we say there: “they were incomplete years.”