Shalom to Israel, and all who love her,
    We are an insignificant part of her...all who love her.
    But our Creator, YHVH, didn't place some of us within her boundries, instead he placed her within our hearts.  Something to be thoughtful of!
    Anyway, as this Pesach, Passover, season of cleaning out the Chametz, and taking on the Matzos....I am tangled up in the stories of Daniel, and Esther.
    Daniel entered the land of diaspora 70 years, before his prayer and fasting season of Passover.  He came to Persia (Iran-Iraq and the rivers Tigres and Euphrates)...which incidentally were within the original land given to the Israelites).  He came with the group that Nebuchadanezzar took for his possecion, when he destroyed the Temple and the city of Jerusalem.
    Daniel was a youngster, probably of Bar-mitzvah age...because he was already deemed "wise".
    He is now a very old man, in the royal household of Esther and Ahasuerus and their SON who is to become KING Darius the Persian.  I don't know the exact age of Esther or Ahasuerus or even Darius...but they came into the picture of diaspora when Cyrus King of Persia and the Entire known world, heard from the LORD to "rebuild Jerusalem"  and to rebuild the Temple.
    The line-up of the Kings of Persia since Daniel had come to this place had been:
    Nebuchadnezzar, Evil Merodach, Belshazzar-the last Babylonian King, Darius the Mede conqured Belshazzar (who by the way had nearly the same name as Daniel), then Cyrus.  Cyrus only reigned 3 years...then Ahasuerus took over.
     It is interesting to see the #6 in this line up.  There were 6 Kings.  3 were the destroyers of Israel and the Temple then came 3 sympathizers (mellowers).  Then came the 7th. Ahasuerus...sort of a hazzard to the Jewish People.  Who knows what might have happened if he had not met up with, and fallen in love with Esther.
     She was probably a girl of a little more age that BATH-MITZVAH age, but still a virgin.  So both she and Daniel have something in common....YHVH chose them when they were young, but of PURITY .
    Here is another commonality...they both have a PASSOVER EXPERIANCE.  Their   experiences seemed to be separated by about 3 years.
    She saves a Nation (People) after they have been given back their Holy City.  Cyrus decreed that...then he died.
    According to the notes in the Tanach....Daniel returned to Jerusalem with Cyrus's edict to rebuild.
    But, Dan.10:1 states "In the third year of Cyrus, King of Persia, a matter was revealed to Daniel, who was named Bel (TZ) shzzar-the matter was true, but for a long time off- to understan the matter, and to explain it to him through a vision."
    Soooooooo!
    Dan. 10:2 "In those days, I, Daniel, had been mourning for three weeks of days.
3) I ate no disirable BREAD; MEAT or WINE did not enter my mouth, and I did not anoint myself, until the completion of THREE WEEKS OF DAYS. 4) Then, on the TWENTY FOURTH day of the FIRST MONTH, I was next to the great river, wich is HIDDEKEL."
    The Tanach identifies this river as the Tigres.
     Daniel's prayer time...durring Passover, plus a few days. Nissan 3-24.  Phrases "Bread" matzo's?  "Meat or Wine" passover seder?
     We have to go back to the 9th. chapter to get some more insights. Indeed we have to go backward for the reigns of the two proceeding kings to really get a picture of what is happening.  The reigns of Belshazzar (the king who has almost the same name as Daniel, except it has no Tzadik in the name).  Ch. 8 starts with the comment that it was in the 3rd. year of Belshazzar...Daniel has a dream vision.
    Belshazzar reigns from 3386 till 3389  (three years)...the evil Marodach has died, and Belshazzar has taken over.  It was at this time that Daniel had his dream of the remaining kingdoms of the world.
    But it was 3 years before this...when we get a clue to why there was a difference in the spelling of the names for Daniel and Belshazzar.  In ch. 5: 22 "But you, his grandson Belshazzar, did not humble your  HEART, ALTHOUGH YOU KNEW ALL THIS."   The difference between Daniel BEL(TZ)SHAZZAR and Belshazzar was in how they revered "The Lord of Heaven".
    Belshazzar (the King) has the dream of Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin.  Daniel (Bel(tz)shazzar enterprets it..."your days are numbered...and terminated".  It is interesting to look at the words in the Tanach that Daniel enterpreted.  Mene means "counted", Tekel means"weighed", and then instead of "Upharsin"...Daniel uses "Peres" which is the plural of Upharsin...and he enterprets it this way...the first eludes to "break-up or divide" but the second refers to "Persia".  But I am reminded of the twins of Tamar.  Remember they are the seed of Judah...through his wife, Shua.
    Shua was the daughter of Shua...we only know her by that fact...she was Bath-Shua.  Tamar was the daughter-in-law, by marriage to Er (co-incidence? that his name is the same as the Land from which Abraham left).
    In this story we see a story of two people...perhaps both descendents of Bath-Shua, and Judah.  For Bath-Shua was a gentile.  And Belshazzar (the king) was also.   But Judah, from whom Daniel descends..is Bel(TZ)shazzar.
  And the daughter-in-law of Judah gave birth to his twins...Pere(tz) and Zerah....re-read Gen. 38:27-30.
   Did YHVH, in essence...reunite the children of  Judah, in their captivity, to the gentiles from which He took Abraham from?
   Now back to the scene of Daniel, and his prayer and fast time---a Passover Period; and Esther (another gentile-jew connection) and Ahazuerus and Her Passover Period.
   The twins of Tamar (a gentile) and Judah (a Jew): (TZ)erah the first born...marked with a Red-thread (symbol of blood connection)..stuck his hand out reason for marking...then Pere(TZ) with force came forth first.   TZerah representing the weaker of the two, PereTZ the stronger of the two....representing the gentile and the jew.  YHVH chose the stronger of the two to carry His message of SHUA(salvation)!!  Shown in the difference between the two Bel (TZ) shazzar's...Daniel and the King.
   And in the two women...Esther and Tamar...through them the whole creation is preserved for Salvation both to the Jew first, then to the Gentile.
   Esther and Daniel the two Jews (Judahites) that through prayer and fasting during Passover Season bring us this story at the END OF DAYS as revealed in Dan. 12.
   Oh, by the way....the kings invovled that connect Daniel and Esther are devided by Darius the Mede (who conquered and reigned for only 1 year).  The King before was Belshazzar, and he reigned for 3 years (perhaps 3 1/2) and the King after was Cyrus, and he likewise reigned for 3 years (perhaps 3 1/2).  And on the spiritual level the really futuristic determining ones were Esther  and Daniel.
   The son of Esther authorized the Temple completion (that is the temple that, though redone many times, Ya'Shua used).  So you could say that Esther who preserved the people, also produced the Son who built the Temple.
   And Daniel...he just prayed and fasted, and made tshuva...so that YHVH made a path for all of His creation to travel on.  Daniel still awaits his resurrection at the end of days.
   Perhaps, in this story is the story of the 7 years of tribulation...divided by Mene,Mene (two counts) The de-termination of things created; Tekel (weighed-and found wanting of redemption); Peres (broken-two pieces of FIRST FRUITS of Salvation) ???

    And it ends in the day count perhaps of  1260 (Mar. 12)...1290 (Apr. 11)...and 1335 (May 26) of 2004.   Dan 12
Counted from the beginning of the Intafada. (Rosh Ha Shanah Jewish Calendar), Sept.28/ 29, 2001 until 2300 Hundred fold days (Dan.8:14) ...after which the days of 2004 fall(Gentile Calendar) on days marked by Gentiles and Jews as Holy Days..easter/frirst fruits....and ending just short of Shavuot/Pentecost.

You see...the Omer count is supposed to be 49 days  (7 weeks beginning on Shabbath) plus one day.  It was on First Fruits that Ya'Shua was resurrected...and it became easter (the two Holy Days of the Jew and the Gentile) that 1290 marks.
   But, Shavuot, and Penticost fall on different days in everyone's calendar.  And so, 1335 does likewise.   1290 + 45 = 1335!   That is half way between when Ya'shua ascended (on the 40th. day) and when Penticost fell (on the 50th. day).  Hummm!

No wonder why YHVH let us be confused as to which day to begin the Omer count!
  But He says "Praiseworthy is he who reaches the 1335th. day".
     I am sure there is much more hidden in these two stories of Esther and Daniel, but  I'll let it go for now.

Shalom,
Meriam Brown