The 70 year factor in the Stages of Exile and Redemption
Metzudat Dovid to Daniel chapter 9 verse 2, explains that at the outset Daniel understood the prophecy of the prophet Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) chapter 29:10 to be telling us that there would be a full redemption 70 years after the King of Bavel (Babylon) entered Judea and turned it into a vassal state during the days of the Judean King, Yehoyakim.
An angel revealed to Daniel that his understanding about the redemption was incorrect.
Instead just like the Babylonian exile was in stages with a lighter oppression and exile, during the days of Yehoyakim which was followed by heavy oppression and exile and destruction of the Temple in the days of Tzidkiyahu (Zedekiah), so too would the redemption of Israel be in stages.
The Bavel (Babylon) Empire fell approximately 70 years after the initial takeover of Judea in the days of Yehoyakim. According to our Sages one year after the fall of Bavel, Coresh (Cyrus) decrees his support for the return of the Jews to Israel and the rebuilding of the Temple.
Afterwards the Persians become sour in their support for Zionism and “freeze”
the rebuilding of the land of Israel and the Temple. The building freeze is annulled 70 years after the destruction of the first Temple in the second year of Daryavesh (Darius) and by year 6 of Daryavesh the Temple is fully rebuilt (Ezra 6:15).
The state of Israel was established in Jewish Year 5708 which is the secular year 1948. At the time this post is being written, the state of Israel is 71 years old and headed for a second surprise election before the year is over, on the 17th of Elul (September 17).
The fact that a lot of surprise events are taking place around the 70 year mark of the state of Israel given the Biblical significance of 70 years makes me feel that Hashem is setting up facts on the ground that will bring some major change for the Jewish people and possibly the world as a whole.
To what extent will the change be positive will probably be based on the extent of how far religious Zionists push for change by natural means.
As I cited from Kol Hator chapter 5 in a separate post:
“Assistance of Heaven in general, and in particular in a miraculous way,
comes measure for measure. In accordance to the measure that a man measures
out, it is correspondingly measured out to him by heaven. That is to say that
in accordance to the measure that the mitzvah was performed by man through
natural efforts, in the same manner comes assistance from heaven, the level in
correspondence to level, on the base of 499 and a half from the left and 499
and a half from the right (Kabbalistic terms, used to explain the Biblical
verse, “The least one shall become [or alternately translated reach] a
thousand”) in accordance to the explanation of our Rabbi the Vilna Gaon in
many places ( and in particular in his work Yahel Ohr, Sod Barak Hashachar ).
And if the questioner shall ask, ‘and how can we act at the outset and all the
more so endanger ourselves on the basis of half by natural means, half by
miracle, behold we do not at the outset rely on a miracle.’ Yet the calculation
is thus, that the miraculous side goes up by many percentage points from a
number of causes and in what is related to the activities of Ikva Demashicha,
the footsteps of the Messiah, and all the more so in activities performed by
the community. It turns out, that the accounting, in accordance to the Vilna
Gaon, is that the miraculous assistance of heaven is many times greater than
measure for measure, and at times the heavenly assistance goes up to a thousand
times (the naturalistic strivings)……”
New Addition
It has come to my attention that the terms “Religious-Zionists” and “Natural Strivings” have vastly different meanings to different people given their background. Sometimes the speaker himself has a different meaning in mind when the type of people in his audience that he is addressing switches. Therefore for more precise definitions I refer my reader to The Link Between the Book of Yehoshua & Mashiach Ben Yosef and in particular to the English Translation of Kol Hator which can be accessed by going to that article.
The permanent location of this post is at https://vilnagaon.org/the-70-year-factor-in-the-stages-of-exile-and-redemption/