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Daniel perek ט' psukim כד'-כו'
 
The novi [prophet] Daniel declares in perek ט' psukim :כד'-כו'
 
שָֽׁבֻעִים שִׁבְעִים נֶחְתַּךְ עַל־עַמְּךָ ׀ וְעַל־עִיר קָדְשֶׁךָ לְכַלֵּא הַפֶּשַׁע וּלְחָתֵם [וּלְהָתֵם] חַטָּאות [חַטָּאת] וּלְכַפֵּר עָוֹן וּלְהָבִיא צֶדֶק עֹֽלָמִים וְלַחְתֹּם חָזוֹן וְנָבִיא וְלִמְשֹׁחַ קֹדֶשׁ קָֽדָשִֽׁים: וְתֵדַע וְתַשְׂכֵּל מִן־מֹצָא דָבָר לְהָשִׁיב וְלִבְנוֹת יְרֽוּשָׁלַם עַד־מָשִׁיחַ נָגִיד שָֽׁבֻעִים שִׁבְעָה וְשָֽׁבֻעִים שִׁשִּׁים וּשְׁנַיִם תָּשׁוּב וְנִבְנְתָה רְחוֹב וְחָרוּץ וּבְצוֹק הָעִתִּֽים: וְאַֽחֲרֵי הַשָּֽׁבֻעִים שִׁשִּׁים וּשְׁנַיִם יִכָּרֵת מָשִׁיחַ וְאֵין לוֹ וְהָעִיר וְהַקֹּדֶשׁ יַשְׁחִית עַם נָגִיד הַבָּא וְקִצּוֹ בַשֶּׁטֶף וְעַד קֵץ מִלְחָמָה נֶֽחֱרֶצֶת שֹֽׁמֵמֽוֹת:
 
“Seventy sevens are decreed about your people and your Holy City, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up both vision and prophet, and to anoint the Kodesh ha-Kodeshim (Holy of Holies). Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the decree to restore and build Yerushalayim to the coming of Moshiach, the Prince, there shall be seven sevens. Then for sixty-two sevens it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. After the sixty-two sevens, the Moshiach shall be cut off, but not for himself. And the people of the Prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the Beis ha-Mikdash. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed.”
 
“I have examined and searched all the Holy Scriptures and have not found the time for the coming of Moshiach clearly fixed except in the words of Gabriel to the prophet Daniel, which are written in the ninth chapter from the prophecy of Daniel.”
R. Moses Avraham Levi
 
The Targums are an Aramaic translation of the Tenach, which form a part of the traditional Jewish literature. They have existed for centuries, some say going back to the time of the second Beis ha-Mikdash [Temple].
 
“He (Jonathan) moreover sought to make a Targum of the Writings; but a Bas Kol [voice from heaven] came forth and said, ‘Enough.’ And why might he not execute a Targum of the Writings? Because the end about the coming of the Moshiach is revealed in it.”
Rashi in Daniel Megillah (fol.3,a.).
 
It has been argued that Daniel’s prophecies are not reliable because he was in the Golus [outside of Eretz Yisroel] when he wrote them, inspired by the Ruach HaKodesh. This qualification cannot be applied, however, since the Torah itself was given to Moishe Rabbenu outside of Eretz Yisroel, and no one would argue that he did not have the proper credentials to be a novi. In fact, many of the most important Jewish books have been written in the Golus.
 
Daniel mentions both Koresh and Daryavesh in perek ו' , pasuk כח' . Gubaru, or Daryavesh, served Koresh for approximately one year, 539-538 BCE, after which Koresh appointed his son Cambyses as vice regent. Therefore, it seems reasonable to place Daniel’s prophecy around this date. Daniel’s prophecies are difficult for many to confront because of the precision of detail and the far-reaching nature of fulfillment. They literally pinpoint the coming of the Moshiach, and when the proper decree is used out of Nechemyah perek ב' even a very young person can do the math to figure out when the coming of the Moshiach will be.
 
The interpretation of the text of the passage in Daniel is that the malach (angel) Gabriel is telling Daniel that Seventy Sevens (shavuim or weeks) are determined about your people (the Yidn) to bring six things listed in pasuk כד : to finish transgression, put an end to sin, atone for iniquity, seal up vision and prophecy, to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to anoint the Kodesh Hakodeshim. It is clear from looking at today’s reality that none of these six things have been completed for Am Yisroel.
 
In fact, 69 shavuim (weeks) of years have transpired already if we examine psukim כה'-כו' : “Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the decree to restore and build Yerushalayim to the coming of Moshiach, the Prince, there shall be seven sevens. Then for sixty-two sevens it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. After the sixty-two sevens [which follow the seven shavuim prior to them, as stated in the preceding verse], the Moshiach shall be cut off, but not for himself.”
 
וְתֵדַע וְתַשְׂכֵּל מִן־מֹצָא דָבָר לְהָשִׁיב וְלִבְנוֹת יְרֽוּשָׁלַם עַד־מָשִׁיחַ נָגִיד שָֽׁבֻעִים שִׁבְעָה וְשָֽׁבֻעִים שִׁשִּׁים וּשְׁנַיִם תָּשׁוּב וְנִבְנְתָה רְחוֹב וְחָרוּץ וּבְצוֹק הָעִתִּֽים: וְאַֽחֲרֵי הַשָּֽׁבֻעִים שִׁשִּׁים וּשְׁנַיִם יִכָּרֵת מָשִׁיחַ וְאֵין לוֹ...
 
(“Cut off” [ יכרת ] means to suffer a violent death after a trial.)
 
First of all, let us see if we can calculate from which decree we need to start counting in order to figure out what this prophecy is really talking about. There were four decrees in the years immediately following the Golus to Bavel and the life of Daniel ha-novi, and three of them disqualify themselves in determining the starting time for the beginning of the 69 shavuim of years. The King Koresh (Cyrus) made one in 538 or 537 BCE, and then Daryavesh (Darius) made the second one in 519 BCE Artachshasta (Artaxerxes) proclaimed a third decree in 458 BCE and a fourth one in 444 BCE.
 
According to the Tenach, one event occurred several years after the first three decrees that proves that those three decrees were not the one being referred to in this text from Daniel. Sometime after the third decree by Artachshasta in 458 BCE, Yisroel’s enemies successfully sabotaged the effort to rebuild Yerushalayim’s walls. Ezra ha-sofer tells us that these enemies wrote a letter to the King accusing the Yidn (Jews) of building the walls in order to start a rebellion against the government, so Artachshasta prevented any more rebuilding until 444 BCE. He then made the fourth and final decree in the sefer of Nechemyah perek ב' , after which the complete rebuilding of Yerushalayim that Daniel foresaw was accomplished.
 
It was Nisan of the year 444 BCE when Artachshasta gave Nechemya permission to go back to Eretz Yisroel and rebuild the walls of Yerushalayim. If one multiplies 69 times 7, the result is 483 years. Then it is necessary to change the solar years that the goyim use today into the lunar years that the Yidn use to calculate the Jewish calendar. 483 solar years equal 476 lunar (or Jewish) years. If we begin at the decree of 444 BCE and add those 476 years we arrive to the date of 31 or 32 CE, depending on if we count the year 0 or not. There could be a small discrepancy that comes from the changes in calendars, but the time for the coming of the Moshiach falls between 28 and 33 CE according to this calculation of Daniel.
 
Who claimed to be the Moshiach during those years, performed Messianic miracles, and then suffered a violent death after being judged in a trial during those years? Yeshua of Natzeret, the Son of Hakodesh Baruch Hu, came to Eretz Yisroel, offered himself as the ultimate Korban for our sins against the holy Toyreh, and then rose from the dead so he could defeat sin and death and continue his work as the Moshiach.
 
Not only did Daniel prophesy of the year of Moshiach’s coming and the kaporah he would make for us, but Yeshayahu ha-novi declares in perek מט' pasuk ו' :
 
וַיֹּאמֶר נָקֵל מִֽהְיֽוֹתְךָ לִי עֶבֶד לְהָקִים אֶת־שִׁבְטֵי יַֽעֲקֹב וּנְציּרֵי [וּנְצוּרֵי] יִשְׂרָאֵל לְהָשִׁיב וּנְתַתִּיךָ לְאוֹר גּוֹיִם לִֽהְיוֹת יְשֽׁוּעָתִי עַד־קְצֵה הָאָֽרֶץ:
 
“And he said, ‘It is too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Ya’akov and to bring back the remnant of Yisroel. I will make you a light to the goyim to be my salvation to the ends of the earth.”
 
This Branch of Dovid, Avraham’s seed, from the tribe of Yehuda, literally came when Daniel prophesied that the Moshiach was supposed to come, died the death it was prophesied he would die, and rose from the dead. Because of him, huge quantities of the goyim have come to worship Hashem, so he was the light of this prophecy of Yeshayahu.
 
Therefore, if 69 of the shavuim have already happened, we must investigate what is happening with the 70 th shavuim. This writer now wishes to assert that there has now also been a gap of 2000 years between the 69 th and 70 th shavuim. We know the 70 th shavuim has not happened yet because none of the six things mentioned in pasuk כד have happened for Am Yisroel.
 
Many times in the Tenach there is a gap of time between one sentence and the next. Sometimes there are thousands of years between one pasuk and another. An example of this is in Zecharyah perek ט' , pasuk ט' , which says, ”Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Yerushalayim. Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
 
גִּילִי מְאֹד בַּת־צִיּוֹן הָרִיעִי בַּת יְרֽוּשָׁלַם הִנֵּה מַלְכֵּךְ יָבוֹא לָךְ צַדִּיק וְנוֹשָׁע הוּא עָנִי וְרֹכֵב עַל־חֲמוֹר וְעַל־עַיִר בֶּן־אֲתֹנֽוֹת:
 
According to Besoros Matisyahu perek כא' pasuk ה' and Yochanon perek יב' pasuk טו' , this event already happened when Yeshua of Natzeret rode into Yerushalayim 2000 years ago with all Am Yisroel greeting him as the Melech Ha-Moshiach. Then pasuk י' says, “And I will cut off the chariot from Ephrayim, and the war horse from Yerushalayim, and the battle bow shall be cut off. He shall proclaim shalom to the Goyim; and his [Moshiach’s] dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the [Euphrates] River even to the ends of the earth.”
 
וְהִכְרַתִּי־רֶכֶב מֵֽאֶפְרַיִם וְסוּס מִירוּשָׁלַם וְנִכְרְתָה קֶשֶׁת מִלְחָמָה וְדִבֶּר שָׁלוֹם לַגּוֹיִם וּמָשְׁלוֹ מִיָּם עַד־יָם וּמִנָּהָר עַד־אַפְסֵי־אָֽרֶץ:
 
None of us who reads the newspapers or knows even a little bit about what is happening in the world has any delusions that there might be true shalom among the Goyim (or even among ourselves to be perfectly honest) or that the Moshiach is ruling over the world at the moment. Since these things have not happened, and we have shown that Yeshua came as the Moshiach exactly as pasuk ט' of Daniel perek ט' says, there have now been two thousand years between pasuk ט' , and pasuk י' .
 
Hashem has not left us without a korban or a way to be forgiven according to the mitzvah of needing a blood korban. In the Brit Chadasha, in the Sefer to the Yidn, Hakodesh Baruch Hu says, in perek י' , psukim יב'-יג' : “But when he [Yeshua] had offered up one Korban for sins for all time, he sat down at the right hand of Hashem forever, and since that time is waiting for his enemies to be made a footstool for his feet.” This passage is written based on Tehillim קי' , which is a prophecy regarding the Moshiach as well.
 
This prophecy from Daniel has brought many people, both from among the Yidn and the Goyim, to trust in Yeshua as the Moshiach who came to bring us geulah exactly at the time Hashem showed Daniel five hundred years beforehand. Through him we can have a true path to forgiveness and devekus with Hakodesh Baruch Hu.