Happy is One Who Waits...

Daniel 12

9. And he said, go Daniel, for closed and sealed are the words until the time of the Keitz. 10. Many will be refined, whitened, and the wicked will do wickedly, and the wicked will not understand, and the enlighted will understand. 11. And from the time of the cessation of the Tamid, and to the giving of the Desolate Abomination, days: one thousand two hundred and ninety. 12. Happy is the one who waits and arrives to days: one thousand three hundred and thirty five. 13. And you Daniel, go to the end, and rest and stand for your destiny for the Keitz HaYamin.

The Introduction to Tikkunei Zohar on page 4b

And immediately after it went up, "and they went without strength before the pursuer", and because of this the masters of the mishnah have set up, that everyone that says Amen Yehei Shmeh Rabba with all his might, (in heaven) they tear up a sentence of 70 years, that these 70 years, are after 1200 years, that the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed, and there are those that calculate it from the time that the Tamid ceased, because the Keitz of the Redemption is dependent on the level of Yaakov, which is the level of Truth, and that is what is written "Give truth to Yaakov" (Michah 7), which is the sign for 1290, and there are those that add a further 2, from "Close is Hashem to those that call Him, to all those that call Him in truth (in truth has 2 more in gematria), to know in the land Your ways, thus it is here with land, Aleph Ra"tz (i.e. Elef, or 1000, and Ra"tz which is the gematria of 290), 90, to fulfill with it Truth sprouts up from the Land, so that there will be a value of Land (i.e. 1290), but the sentence itself is 70 years.

I do not want to enter in to the subject that is actually being discussed, which is 1200 years of Galus.

Note the following:

• The time of the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash is taken as a different year than the cessation of the Tamid. When dealing with years, 3 weeks (between the 17th of Tamuz and the 9th of Av) is not significant.
• The juxtaposition of the two year counts, 1200 and 1290, indicates that they start at the same time.

So the question is, are we referring to the 1st Beit HaMikdash or the 2nd Beit HaMikdash?

The GR"A's peirush on the Tikkunei Zohar answers this implicitly. On the words "and there are those that calculate it from the cessation of the Tamid", he writes that the Tamid ceased to be brought 20 years prior to the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash. In his notes on the bottom of the page, on the issue of the 2 years for the letter beit, he writes that in reality it was 18 years.

(Explanation - We go 20 years back, and then count 1292 years, or go forward 2 years before counting 1290. Alternatively, subtract 18 from the year of destruction.)

The 1st Beit HaMikdash was destroyed in the year 3338. If we look 18 years prior, we find the year that Nevuchadnezar first came to Yerushalayim. The writers of the Tikkunei Zohar are referring us to this year as our starting point.

So theoretically, if we add 1290 years to this point, we should find our answer as to the identity of the Desolate Abomination.

• 3338 - 18 = 3320
• 3320 + 1290 = 4610
• 4610 - 3760 = 850 CE

What happened in 850 CE of note that might shed light on the matter? Nothing.

However, according to the physical reality, the 1st Beit HaMikdash was not destroyed 2430 years ago, but rather a further 163 years prior in the year 3175 (586 BCE).

• 3175 - 18 = 3157
• 3157 + 1290 = 4447
• 4447 - 3760 = 687 CE

That year was the beginning of the construction of the Dome of the Rock.

That is it.

The verses say to count days. Why would it say days if the meaning is years? I propose that the word days is given to indicate to us that these are physical years. Why? If I tell you to count a number of days, you can actually count the number of days very easily. If I tell you to count a number of years, you will most likely find an outside event as a reference point for your beginning and end. Days represent the physical reality, while years represent a different, yet not contradictory, spiritual reality based on the Jewish year count.

It is clear as day that 45 years later (i.e. 1335 years from the starting point) was not something to rejoice over. We must start over at 0 and count to 1335 starting the next year.

4448 + 1335 = 5783

Construction continued until 4451.

4451 + 1335 = 5786

Indeed happy we will be to witness the events that will occur during those years.

Note how this period coincides with the time that Moshiach ben Yosef will finally be completely free of the Klipah of the Left as I wrote in The Sprouting of Moshiach. The implication is clear. The reason that we are to pray for the survival of Moshiach ben Yosef during the blessing regarding the building of Yerushalayim is now understood. Moshiach ben Yosef will build the Beit HaMikdash. He will be in danger at that time, but he is destined to succeed, for Moshiach ben Yosef does and he succeeds.

Postscript: The chidush here is not the simplicity of seeing that 3175 is about 1290 years before the Dome of the Rock was built, but rather:

• The calculation for the exact year comes directly from an ancient Jewish source, Tikkunei Zohar, made more precise/explicit by the GR"A.
• The "secular" dating of Churban Bayit Rishon also has its place in Torah.
• If the Geulah follows the order of prayer, we can have a further sense of where we are and where we're going.

Further, it opens up further interesting questions to ponder:

• What date was the introduction to Tikkunei Zohar written?
• Though the GR"A obviously lived after the Dome of the Rock was built, did he know the actual year it was built?