THE LEGENDS OF THE JEWS VOLUME IV BIBLE TIMES AND CHARACTERS

B >> BY LOUIS GINZBERG >> THE LEGENDS OF THE JEWS VOLUME IV BIBLE TIMES AND CHARACTERS

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BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST

When God resolved to take revenge upon Babylon for all the
sufferings it had inflicted on Israel, He chose Darius and Cyrus as
the agents of vengeance. Cyrus, the king of Persia, and his
father-in-law Darius, the king of Media, together went up against
Belshazzar, the ruler of the Chaldeans. The war lasted a
considerable time, and fortune favored first one side, then the
other, until finally the Chaldeans won a decisive victory. To
celebrate the event, Belshazzar arranged a great banquet, which
was served from the vessels taken out of the Temple at Jerusalem
by his father. While the king and his guests were feasting, the
angel sent by God put the "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin" on the
wall, Aramaic words in Hebrew characters, (1) written with red
ink. The angel was seen by none but the king. His grandees and the
princes of the realm who were present at the orgy perceived
nothing. The king himself did not see the form of the angel, only
his awesome fingers as they traced the words were visible to him.

The interpretation given to the enigmatical words by Daniel put an
end to the merry-making of the feasters. They scattered in dread
and fear, leaving none behind except the king and his attendants.
In the same night the king was murdered by an old servant, who
knew Daniel from the time of Nebuchadnezzar, and doubted not
that his sinister prophecy would be fulfilled. With the head of King
Belshazzar he betook himself to Darius and Cyrus, and told them
how his master had desecrated the sacred vessels, told them of the
wonderful writing on the wall, and of the way it had been
interpreted by Daniel. The two kings were moved by his recital to
vow solemnly that they would permit the Jews to return to
Palestine, and would grant them the use of the Temple vessels.

They resumed the war against Babylonia with more energy, and
God vouchsafed them victory. They conquered the whole of
Belshazzar's realm, and took possession of the city of Babylon,
whose inhabitants, young and old, were made to suffer death. The
subjugated lands were divided between Cyrus and Darius, the
latter receiving Babylon and Media, the former Chaldea, Persia,
and Assyria. (2)

But this is not the whole story of the fall of Babylon. The wicked
king Belshazzar arranged the banquet at which the holy vessels
were desecrated in the fifth year of his reign, because he thought it
wholly certain then that all danger was past of the realization of
Jeremiah's prophecy, foretelling the return of the Jews to Palestine
at the end of seventy years of Babylonian rule over them.
Nebuchadnezzar had governed twenty-five years, and
Evil-merodach twenty-three, leaving five years in the reign of
Belshazzar for the fulfilment of the appointed time. (3) Not
enough that the king scoffed at God by using the Temple vessels,
he needs must have the pastry for the banquet, which was given on
the second day of the Passover festival, made of wheaten flour
finer than that used on this day for the `Omer in the Temple.

Punishment followed hard upon the heels of the atrocity. Cyrus
and Darius served as door-keepers of the royal palace on the
evening of the banquet. They had received orders from Belshazzar
to admit none, though he should say he was the king himself.
Belshazzar was forced to leave his apartments for a short time, and
he went out unnoticed by the two door-keepers. On his return,
when he asked to be admitted, they felled him dead, even while he
was asseverating that he was the king. (4)

DANIEL UNDER THE PERSIAN KINGS

Daniel left Belshazzar and fled to Shushtar, where he was kindly
received by Cyrus, who promised him to have the Temple vessels
taken back to Jerusalem, provided Daniel would pray to God to
grant him success in his war with the king of Mosul. God gave
Daniel's prayer a favorable hearing, and Cyrus was true to his
promise.

Daniel now received the Divine charge to urge Cyrus to rebuild the
Temple. To this end he was to introduce Ezra and Zerubbabel to
the king. Ezra then went from place to place and called upon the
people to return to Palestine. Sad to say, only a tribe and a half
obeyed his summons. Indeed, the majority of the people were so
wroth against Ezra that they sought to slay him. He escaped the
peril to his life only by a Divine miracle. (5)

Daniel, too, was exposed to much suffering at this time. King
Cyrus cast him into a den of lions, because he refused to bow
down before the idol of the king. For seven days Daniel lay among
the wild beasts, and not a hair of his head was touched. When the
king at the end of the week found Daniel alive, he could not but
acknowledge the sovereign grandeur of God. Cyrus released
Daniel, and instead had his calumniators thrown to the lions. In an
instant they were rent in pieces. (6)

In general Cyrus fell far short of coming up to the expectations set
in him for piety and justice. Though he granted permission to the
Jews to rebuild the Temple, they were to use no material but
wood, so that it might easily be destroyed if the Jews should take it
into their head to rebel against him. Even in point of morals, the
Persian king was not above reproach. (7)

Another time Cyrus pressingly urged Daniel to pay homage to the
idol Bel. As proof of the divinity of the idol the king advanced the
fact that it ate the dishes set before it, a report spread by the priests
of Bel, who entered the Temple of the idol at night, through
subterranean passages, themselves ate up the dishes, and then
attributed their disappearance to the appetite of the god. But
Daniel was too shrewd to be misled by a fabricated story. He had
the ashes strewn upon the floor of the Temple, and the foot-prints
visible the next morning convinced the king of the deceit practiced
by the priests. (8)

Pleasant relations did not continue to subsist forever between
Cyrus and Darius. A war broke out between them, in which Cyrus
lost life and lands. Fearing Darius, Daniel fled to Persia. But an
angel of God appeared to him with the message: "Fear not the
king, not unto him will I surrender thee." Shortly afterward he
received a letter from Darius reading as follows: "Come to me,
Daniel! Fear naught, I shall be even kinder to thee than Cyrus
was." Accordingly Daniel returned to Shushtar, and was received
with great consideration by Darius.

One day the king chanced to remember the sacred garments
brought by Nebuchadnezzar out of the Temple at Jerusalem to
Babylon. They had vanished, and no trace of them could be
discovered. The king suspected Daniel of having had something to
do with their disappearance. It booted little that he protested his
innocence, he was cast into prison. God sent an angel who was to
blind Darius, telling him at the same time that he was deprived of
the light of his eyes because he was keeping the pious Daniel in
durance, and sight would be restored to him only if Daniel
interceded for him. The king at once released Daniel, and the two
together journeyed to Jerusalem to pray on the holy place for the
restoration of the king. An angel appeared to Daniel, and
announced to him that his prayer had been heard. The king had but
to wash his eyes, and vision would return to them. So it happened.
Darius gave thanks to God, and in his gratitude assigned the tithe
of his grain to the priests and the Levites. Besides, he testified his
appreciation to Daniel by loading him down with gifts, and both
returned to Shushtar. The recovery of the king convinced many of
his subjects of the omnipotence of God, and they converted to
Judaism. (9)

Following the advice of Daniel, Darius (10) appointed a
triumvirate to take charge of the administration of his realm, and
Daniel was made the chief of the council of three. His high dignity
he was second to none but the king himself exposed him to envy
and hostility on all sides. His enemies plotted his ruin. With
cunning they induced the king to sign an order attaching the
penalty of death to prayers addressed to any god or any man other
than Darius. (11) Though the order did not require Daniel to
commit a sin, he preferred to give his life for the honor of the one
God rather than omit his devotions to Him. When his jealous
enemies surprised him during his prayers, he did not interrupt
himself. He was dragged before the king, who refused to give
credence to the charge against Daniel. Meanwhile the hour for the
afternoon prayer arrived, and in the presence of the king and his
princes Daniel began to perform his devotions. This naturally
rendered unavailing all efforts made by the king to save his friend
from death. Daniel was cast into a pit full of lions. The entrance to
the pit was closed up with a rock, which had all of its own accord
rolled from Palestine to protect him against any harm
contemplated by his enemies. (12) The ferocious beasts welcomed
the pious Daniel like dogs fawning upon their master on his return
home, licking his hands and wagging their tails.

While this was passing in Babylon, an angel appeared to the
prophet Habakkuk in Judea. He ordered the prophet to bring
Daniel the food he was about to carry to his laborers in the field.
Astonished, Habakkuk asked the angel how he could carry it to so
great a distance, whereupon he was seized by his hair, and in a
moment set down before Daniel. They dined together, and then the
angel transported Habakkuk back to his place in Palestine. Early in
the morning Darius (13) went to the pit of the lions to discover the
fate of Daniel. The king called his name, but he received no
answer, because Daniel was reciting the Shema at that moment,
(14) after having spent the night in giving praise and adoration to
God. (15) Seeing that he was still alive, the king summoned the
enemies of Daniel to the pit. It was their opinion that the lions had
not been hungry, and therefore Daniel was still unhurt. The king
commanded them to put the beasts to the test with their own
persons. The result was that the hundred and twenty-two enemies
of Daniel, together with their wives and children numbering two
hundred and forty-four persons, were torn in shreds by fourteen
hundred and sixty-four lions. (16)

The miraculous escape of Daniel brought him more distinguished
consideration and greater honors than before. The king published
the wonders done by God in all parts of his land, and called upon
the people to betake themselves to Jerusalem and help in the
erection of the Temple.

Daniel entreated the king to relieve him of the duties of his
position, for the performance of which he no longer felt himself
fit, on account of his advanced age. The king consented on
condition that Daniel designate a successor worthy of him. His
choice fell upon Zerubbabel. Loaded with rich presents and amid
public demonstrations designed to honor him, Daniel retired from
public life. He settled in the city of Shushan, where he abode until
his end. (17) Though he was no prophet, God vouchsafed to him a
knowledge of the "end of time" not granted his friends, the
prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, (18) but even he, in the
fulness of his years, lost all memory of the revelation with which
he had been favored. (19)

THE GRAVE OF DANIEL

Daniel was buried in Shushan, on account of which a sore quarrel
was enkindled among the inhabitants of the city. Shushan is
divided in two parts by a river. The side containing the grave of
Daniel was occupied by the wealthy inhabitants, and the poor
citizens lived on the other side of the river. The latter maintained
that they, too, would be rich if the grave of Daniel were in their
quarter. The frequent disputes and conflicts were finally adjusted
by a compromise; one year the bier of Daniel reposed on one side
of the river, the next year on the other. When the Persian king
Sanjar came to Shushan, he put a stop to the practice of dragging
the bier hither and thither. He resorted to another device for
guarding the peace of the city. He had the bier suspended from
chains precisely in the middle of the bridge spanning the river. In
the same spot he erected a house of prayer for all confessions, and
out of respect to Daniel he prohibited fishing in the river for a
distance of a mile on either side of the memorial building. (20)
The sacredness of the spot appeared when the godless tried to pass
by. They were drowned, while the pious remained unscathed.
Furthermore, the fish that swam near it had heads glittering like
gold. (21)

Beside the house of Daniel lay a stone, under which he had
concealed the holy Temple vessels. Once an attempt was made to
roll the stone from its place, but whoever ventured to touch it, fell
dead. The same fate overtook all who later tried to make
excavations near the spot; a storm broke out and mowed them
down. (22)

ZERUBBABEL

The successor to Daniel in the service of the king, Zerubbabel,
enjoyed equally as much royal consideration and affection. He
occupied a higher position than all the other servants and officials,
and he and two others constituted the body-guard of the king. (23)
Once when the king lay wrapped in deep slumber, his guards
resolved to write down what each of them considered the mightiest
thing in the world, and he who wrote the sagest saying should be
given rich presents and rewards by the king. What they wrote they
laid under the pillow on which the head of the king rested, that he
might not delay to make a decision after he awoke. The first one
wrote: "Wine is the mightiest thing there is"; the second wrote:
"The king is the mightiest on earth," and the third, Zerubbabel,
wrote: "Women are the mightiest in the world, but truth prevails
over all else." When the king awoke, and he perused the document,
he summoned the grandees of his realm and the three youths as
well. Each of the three was called upon to justify his saying. In
eloquent words the first described the potency of wine. When it
takes possession of the senses of a man, he forgets grief and
sorrow. Still more beautiful and convincing were the words of the
second speaker, when his turn came to establish the truth of his
saying, that the king was the mightiest on earth. Finally Zerubbabel
depicted in glowing words the power of woman, who rules even
over kings. "But," he continued, "truth is supreme over all; the
whole earth asks for truth, the heavens sing the praises of truth, all
creation quakes and trembles before truth, naught of wrong can be
found in truth. Unto truth belongeth the might, the dominion, the
power, and the glory of all times. Blessed be the God of truth."
When Zerubbabel ceased from speaking, the assembly broke out
into the words: "Great is truth, it is mightier than all else!" The
king was so charmed with the wisdom of Zerubbabel that he said
to him: "Ask for aught thou wishest, it shall be granted thee."
Zerubbabel required nothing for himself, he only sought
permission of the king to restore Jerusalem, rebuild the sanctuary,
and return the holy Temple vessels to the place whence they had
been carried off. Not only did Darius grant what Zerubbabel
wished for, not only did he give him letters of safe-conduct, but he
also conferred numerous privileges upon the Jews who
accompanied Zerubbabel to Palestine, and he sent abundant
presents to the Temple and its officers. (24)

As unto his predecessor Daniel, so unto Zerubbabel, God
vouchsafed a knowledge of the secrets of the future. Especially the
archangel Metatron dealt kindly with him. Besides revealing to
him the time at which the Messiah would appear, he brought about
an interview between the Messiah and Zerubbabel. (25)

In reality, Zerubbabel was none other than Nehemiah, who was
given this second name because he was born in Babylon. (26)
Richly endowed as Zerubbabel-Nehemiah was with admirable
qualities, he yet did not lack faults. He was excessively
self-complacent, and he did not hesitate to fasten a stigma publicly
upon his predecessors in the office of governor in the land of
Judah, among whom was so excellent a man as Daniel. To punish
him for these transgressions, the Book of Ezra does not bear the
name of its real author Nehemiah. (27)

When Darius felt his end approach, (28) he appointed his
son-in-law Cyrus, (29) who had hitherto reigned only over Persia,
to be the ruler over his kingdom as well. His wish was honored by
the princes of Media and Persia. After Darius had departed this
life, Cyrus was proclaimed king.

In the very first year of his reign, Cyrus summoned the most
distinguished of the Jews to appear before him, and he gave them
permission to return to Palestine and rebuild the Temple at
Jerusalem. More than this, he pledged himself to contribute to the
Temple service in proportion to his means, and pay honor to the
God who had invested him with strength to subdue the Chaldeans.
These actions of Cyrus partly flowed from his own pious
inclinations, and partly were due to his desire to accomplish the
dying behests of Darius, who had admonished him to give the Jews
the opportunity of rebuilding the Temple.

When the first sacrifice was to be brought by the company of Jews
who returned to Jerusalem under the leadership of Ezra, and set
about restoring the Temple, they missed the celestial fire which
had dropped from heaven on the altar in the time of Moses, and
had not been extinguished so long as the Temple stood. They
turned in supplication to God to be instructed by Him. The
celestial fire had been hidden by Jeremiah at the time of the
destruction of the Holy City, and the law did not permit them to
bring "strange fire" upon the altar of God. An old man suddenly
remembered the spot in which Jeremiah had buried the holy fire,
and he led the elders thither. They rolled away the stone covering
the spot, and from under it appeared a spring flowing not with
water, but with a sort of oil. Ezra ordered this fluid to be sprinkled
upon the altar, and forthwith an all-consuming flame shot up. The
priests themselves scattered in fright. But after the Temple and its
vessels were purified by the flame, it confined itself to the altar
never more to leave it, for the priest guarded it so that it might not
be extinguished. (30)

Among the band of returned exiles were the prophets Haggai,
Zechariah, and Malachi. Each one of them had a place of the
greatest importance to fill in the rebuilding of the Temple. By the
first the people were shown the plan of the altar, which was larger
than the one that had stood in Solomon's Temple. The second
informed them of the exact location of the altar, and the third
taught them that the sacrifices might be brought on the holy place
even before the completion of the Temple. On the authority of one
of the prophets, the Jews, on their return from Babylonia, gave up
their original Hebrew characters, and re-wrote the Torah in the
"Assyrian" characters still in use at this day. (31)

While the Temple work was in progress, the builders found the
skull of Araunah, the owner of the Temple site in the time of
David. The priests, unlearned as they were, could not decide to
what extent the corpse lying there had defiled the holy place. It
was for this that Haggai poured out his reproaches upon them. (32)

EZRA

The complete resettlement of Palestine took place under the
direction of Ezra, or, as the Scriptures sometimes call him,
Malachi. (33) He had not been present at the earlier attempts (34)
to restore the sanctuary, because he could not leave his old teacher
Baruch, who was too advanced in years to venture upon the
difficult journey to the Holy Land. (35)

In spite of Ezra's persuasive efforts, it was but a comparatively
small portion of the people that joined the procession winding its
way westward to Palestine. For this reason the prophetical spirit
did not show itself during the existence of the Second Temple.
Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi were the last representatives of
prophecy. (36) Nothing was more surprising than the apathy of the
Levites. They manifested no desire to return to Palestine. Their
punishment was the loss of the tithes, which were later given to the
priest, though the Levites had the first claim upon them. (37)

In restoring the Jewish state in Palestine, Ezra cherished two
hopes, to preserve the purity of the Jewish race, and to spread the
study of the Torah until it should become the common property of
the people at large. To help on his first purpose, he inveighed
against marriages between the Jews and the nations round about.
(38) He himself had carefully worked out his own pedigree before
he consented to leave Babylonia, (39) and in order to perpetuate
the purity of the families and groups remaining in the East, he took
all the "unfit" (40) with him to Palestine.

In the realization of his second hope, the spread of the Torah, Ezra
was so zealous and efficient that it was justly said of him: "If
Moses had not anticipated him, Ezra would have received the
Torah." (41) In a sense he was, indeed, a second Moses. The Torah
had fallen into neglect and oblivion in his day, and he restored and
re-established it in the minds of his people. (42) It is due to him
chiefly that it was divided up into portions, to be read annually,
Sabbath after Sabbath, in the synagogues, (43) and he it was,
likewise, who originated the idea of re-writing the Pentateuch in
"Assyrian" characters. (44) To further his purpose still more, he
ordered additional schools for children to be established
everywhere, though the old ones sufficed to satisfy the demand. He
thought the rivalry between the old and the new institutions would
redound to the benefit of the pupils. (45)

Ezra is the originator of institutions known as "the ten regulations
of Ezra." They are the following: 1. Readings from the Torah on
Sabbath afternoons. 2. Readings from the Torah on Mondays and
Thursdays. 3. Sessions of the court on Mondays and Thursdays. 4.
To do laundry work on Thursdays, not Fridays. 5. To eat garlic on
Friday on account of its salutary action. (46) 6. To bake bread
early in the morning that it may be ready for the poor whenever
they ask for some. 7. Women are to cover the lower parts of their
bodies with a garment called Sinar. (47) 8. Before taking a ritual
bath, the hair is to be combed. 9. The ritual bath prescribed for the
unclean is to cover the case of one who desires to offer prayer or
study the law. (48) 10. Permission to peddlers to sell cosmetics to
women in the towns. (49)

Ezra was not only a great teacher of his people and their wise
leader, he was also their advocate with the celestials, to whom his
relation was of a peculiarly intimate character. Once he addressed
a prayer to God, in which he complained of the misfortune of
Israel and the prosperity of the heathen nations. Thereupon the
angel Uriel appeared to him, and instructed him how that evil has
its appointed time in which to run its course, as the dead have their
appointed time to sojourn in the nether world. Ezra could not rest
satisfied with this explanation, and in response to his further
question, seven prophetic visions were vouchsafed him, and
interpreted by the angel for him. They typified the whole course of
history up to his day, and disclosed the future to his eyes. In the
seventh vision he heard a voice from a thorn-bush, like Moses
aforetimes, and it admonished him to guard in his heart the secrets
revealed to him. The same voice had given Moses a similar
injunction: "These words shalt thou publish, those shalt thou keep
secret." Then his early translation from earth was announced to
him. He besought God to let the holy spirit descend upon him
before he died, so that he might record all that had happened since
the creation of the world as it was set down in the Torah, and
guide men upon the path that leads to God.

Hereupon God bade him take the five experienced scribes, Sarga,
Dabria, Seleucia, Ethan, and Aziel, with him into retirement, and
dictate to them for forty days. After one day spent with these
writers in isolation, remote from the city and from men, a voice
admonished him: "Ezra, open thy mouth, and drink whereof I give
thee to drink." He opened his mouth, and a chalice was handed to
him, filled to the brim with a liquid that flowed like water, but in
color resembled fire. His mouth opened to drink, and for forty days
it was not closed. During all that time, the five scribes put down,
"in signs they did not understand," they were the newly adopted
Hebrew characters, all that Ezra dictated to them, and it made
ninety-four books. At the end of the forty days' period, God spoke
to Ezra thus: "The twenty-four books of the Holy Scriptures thou
shalt publish, for the worthy and the unworthy alike to read; but
the last seventy books thou shalt withhold from the populace, for
the perusal of the wise of thy people." On account of his literary
activity, he is called "the Scribe of the science of the Supreme
Being unto all eternity." (50)

Having finished his task, Ezra was removed from this mundane
world, and he entered the life everlasting. But his death did not
occur in the Holy Land. It overtook him at Khuzistan, in Persia, on
his journey to King Artachshashta. (51)

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