Demonstration 19: A Letter against the Jews, because they say that they will be gathered together

A Letter against the Jews, because they say that they will be gathered together. The voice of the Holy One was heard by Moses, and He sent him to bring out His people from Egypt, from the house of Pharaoh, from the servitude of the Egyptians. And He said to him, "Say to Pharaoh, 'My firstborn son is Israel.' I said to you, 'Send my son, and he will serve me.'" And when He brought them out from Egypt, with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and a high arm, and with great visions, He made them cross the desert, and He led them there for forty years. He brought them into the land of the Canaanites, and He made them cross the Jordan. And He gave it to them as an inheritance, when its inhabitants were destroyed before them. And they dwelt in it for four hundred and forty years, until Solomon built the Temple; and for four hundred years, until the king of Babylon ruled over them. And because of their sins, which were many, he uprooted and scattered them among every people, because they did not listen to the prophets whom He sent to them. And when they were in Babylon for seventy years, again the covenant of their fathers was remembered for them, and proclamation was made concerning them through the prophets who had gone up from Babylon, for seventy years. And when the seventy years were fulfilled, as Jeremiah had prophesied, Daniel prayed and offered a petition, that their captivity might be turned and that he might have mercy on them. And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, and a proclamation went out throughout his entire kingdom, and he proclaimed to them and said, "Whoever remains of the people of the Lord, and whose God is with him, let him return and go to Jerusalem of Judah." But they, because they had mingled with the nations, and had married and intermarried and taken root in the land of their captivity, did not wish to go up, not all of them entirely; but some of them went up, and some of them remained. And because God knew their evil inclination, He did not compel them to go up from Babylon; rather, without compulsion, Cyrus, the king of Persia, proclaimed to them, just as also when He brought them up from Egypt through Moses.

If it were not for the oppression of Pharaoh that pressed upon them, they would not have been willing to go up from Egypt, as they said to Moses when they were being tormented in the desert: "That word which I spoke to you in Egypt, 'Let me go and serve the Egyptians,' because it was good for me in Egypt." And see, even when they were oppressed by servitude, they were not willing to go up from Egypt, until the Egyptians compelled them to go out from their land, when they saw that their firstborn were dying, and they said that all the firstborn were dying. And it is written that the Egyptians compelled the people to go out from their land. And even from Babylon, if they had been gathered together by the oppressors, all of them would have gone up. This I have written to you because the Jews hold a vain hope and say that it is still possible for Israel to be gathered together, because the prophet said thus: "I will not leave any of them among the nations." If the whole people had not been gathered together, why do the Jews today wander among every people? Concerning these, my beloved, as much as your wisdom can perceive, there is no longer any gathering together for Israel forever, because they rely on this: that not all the prophets gave hope to Israel. Hear also the head of Israel: God did not give a law to him, or is there anyone above him who can judge him for what he did? For he said: "If I speak concerning a people and a kingdom to build and to plant, and afterwards they do evil before me, I also will falsify my word and turn away from them the good that I decreed over them, and by their iniquity and their sins I will destroy them. And if again I speak concerning a people and a kingdom to build and to plant, and afterwards they uproot, destroy, overthrow, and if again I speak concerning a people and a kingdom to uproot, destroy, overthrow, and to annihilate, and they do what is good before me, I also will turn away from them the evil that I decreed over them." And Isaiah also said: "Woe to those who plunder, for you shall not plunder.

and they lie, and they do not lie in you. And when you wish to be scattered, you are scattered. And when you wish to be deceived, you are deceived. And in this there is no head that desires the will of God. And I will write and show you that God never accepted your goodness, neither Moses nor all the prophets. For Moses said to them: "You were rebellious before the Lord from the day I knew you." And again he said: "That people whose guidance is lost, and there is no understanding in them." And again he said: "They angered me with their idols, and with their terrors they terrified me; I also terrified them with a people that is not a people, and with a foolish people I angered them." And Moses again said to them: "I know that after my death you will corrupt and be corrupted, and you will stray from the path I commanded you, and many evils will befall you at the end of days. And behold, while I am alive with you, you have embittered the Lord." And Hosea said: "I have cut off the prophets, and I have killed them with the word of my mouth; and you, O children of Israel, have not turned from your iniquity from the days of your fathers." And again he said: "Your goodness is like the morning cloud, and like the dew that comes before and passes away." And again he said: "Woe to them, for evil has come upon them." And again he said: "They went up to Baal-peor, and they were shamed by their disgrace." And again he said: "Like a bird, their honor flew away from them; even if they had multiplied in sons, I would have cut them off from among the sons of men, and I would have put an end to the desire of their entrails." And again Jeremiah said: "They called you despicable silver, because the Lord despised you." And Hosea said: "I have driven them out of my house, and I will not again have mercy on them." Now, since he said that he would not again have mercy on them, what do they have to say? And again he said: "The Lord despised them because they did not listen to him." And again he said: "They are scattered among the peoples." And again he said concerning them:

as the abundance of your land increased the altars, and they sought idols. And again he said: "Ephraim and Israel are ashamed of their pasture." And again he said: "Ephraim, Judah, and the house of Israel wander in falsehood." And again he said: "Your destruction, Israel, who will help you?" And again he said: "I gave you a king in my anger, and I took him away in my wrath." And Micah said: "Do not raise up your walls, and do not walk in a simple posture." And again he said: "Arise, go, because this is not my desire." And again he said: "They are ashamed, those who see visions, and they are ashamed of the diviners, and they all cover their lips, because God did not answer them." And why did he say concerning the diviners and concerning those who see visions, that they are ashamed and cover their lips? For this is a blow for which there is no cure. For it is written in the Law that when leprosy occurred in Israel, he covered his lips, and his garments were torn, and his head was uncovered, and he was placed outside the camp, and he called himself unclean all the days that the leprosy was in him. Because of this, the prophet who proclaims with his lips of falsehood receives the blow of leprosy, and covers his lips all the days, and sits in shame like Uzziah, king of the house of Judah, who, when he desired to take the priesthood, leprosy came forth before the sanctuary of the holy one, and struck him on his forehead, and he sat in the house secretly, being ashamed all the days, and there was a great earthquake throughout the whole people, as Zechariah said: "Flee as you fled in the earthquake that happened in the days of Uzziah, king of the house of Judah." And he saw that they did not accept correction from their days. For he said: "I struck you with hail and with cold, and the abundance of your orchards the locust ate, and you did not turn to me," says the Lord.

And again he said: "I have overturned you as God overturned Sodom and Gomorrah." And he made known that they have no further hope, for she fell and will not rise again, the virgin of Israel. And again he said: "She was left upon the earth, and there is none to raise her up." And again he said: "In all the streets of the dancers, and in all the deserts, they were saying, 'Alas, alas,' and they cast and threw their idols before him." He said: "I have rejected and cast aside your festivals, and I have not delighted in your assemblies." And again he said: "I have not been pleased with your sacrifices, nor have I looked upon the beauty of your offerings." And again he said to them: "What, forty years in the wilderness? Did you offer me sacrifices or offerings, O house of Israel?" And concerning the fact that he cast them off, Jeremiah said: "I have left my house, I have left my inheritance." And again he said: "I have given to the daughter of my people a bill of divorce." Because they boasted that they had sinned with their God, the prophet called out and said to them: "Behold, like the sons of the Cushites you are to me, O house of Israel. Behold, O house of Israel, I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Arameans from Kir, and the eyes of the Lord of Lords in the sinful kingdom, and I destroyed them from the face of the earth." Know that he considered them like the Philistines. And Jeremiah said concerning the harlotry of Israel: "Your planting is a divorce of all the seed of truth, and you have come, you have turned and rebelled against me, like a foreign vine." And Moses said: "Their vine is from the vine of Sodom, and from the planting of Gomorrah, and their grapes are bitter grapes, and their clusters are gall for them." And David said: "I brought a vine out of Egypt; it was late and its planting uprooted it." And he said: "I destroyed the peoples and their planting." And when they sinned, he said: "The boar of the forest ate it, and the beasts of the field grazed it." And Ezekiel said concerning the vine: "Its two branches fire consumed, and its midst was dry." For he said:

when the vine was without blemish, it did not go to waste. But now that the moth has eaten it and it has withered like a place, it has gone to waste. And concerning the whole vineyard, Isaiah lamented and said: "I had a vineyard for my beloved in a corner of a famous region; I planted it and surrounded it with a fence; I set shoots in it; and when the vineyard bore fruit, the gate of its fence was broken down, its tower was overthrown, and it was made unfit for cultivation; and all its branches were such that no rain fell upon it." And concerning the false prophets, he said: "Woe to those who are gathered to Zion in bloodshed, and to Jerusalem in iniquity." And again he said concerning them: "From the prophets of Jerusalem, impiety went out into the whole land." And concerning the cities of the nations, Isaiah said: "In the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be set at the head of the mountains, and it will be raised above the heights; and the nations will gather to it, and many nations will go and say: 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob'; and they will learn from its ways, and walk in its paths, because from Zion the law went out, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And when the law went out from Zion, where then did it go?" For he said: "They will dwell among the nations, and will cover many nations that are far away." And concerning them, Isaiah said: "Separate yourselves from them, and call them impure, because they have forgotten the Lord." And again the prophet said: "They have forgotten their good deeds like the surface of a moth-eaten garment." And again he said: "They have become angry with their paths, and with the Lord their God they have been disturbed and have feared." And again he said: "I will burn your thorns with fire, and your hedges the sword will consume." And again he said: "Woe to the city of blood, which is full of all falsehood, and in which there is no cessation of breaking." And Micah said: "Deceit and falsehood have been wrought in Israel and in Jerusalem, because Judah has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord." And he said: "You have strayed from the path and have caused many to stumble from the law.

and your covenant of Levi has been nullified. I also gave you judges and humble ones among all the people. Because you did not keep my ways, and concerning the peoples he said: I turned against them a chosen lip, and concerning them my angel said that you are not for the Lord in your words. And again he said: You are the sons of Jacob, but you did not pass over from your iniquity, and from the days of your fathers you did not keep my commandments. Now hear, my beloved: only twice did God deliver Israel—once from Egypt, and a second time from Babylon. From Egypt through Moses, and from Babylon through Ezra, by the agency of Haggai and Zechariah. For Haggai said: Build this house and be established in it, and be glorified in it, said the Lord. And again he said: Work because I am with you, and my spirit stands in your midst. Do not fear, because thus says the Lord of hosts. Again, one time the mover stirred the heavens and the earth, and the sea and the dry land, and stirred all the peoples, and brought the desire of all the peoples, and filled this house with glory, and the last glory of this house became greater than the first. All these things were spoken in the days of Zerubbabel, and in the days of Haggai and Zechariah, and they were zealous for the building of the house. And Zechariah said: I was moved with compassion over Jerusalem, and my house was given within it. And again he said: The provinces of the cities are empty of good things, and the Lord desires Zion, and again he chooses Jerusalem. And again he said: In Zion and in Jerusalem a great error was committed, and great wrath was kindled against the peoples who are stirred. And again he said: Jerusalem will be inhabited by a multitude of sons of men and cattle within it, and I will be in it like a wall of iron, and I will be for praise within it, said the Lord. And again he said: Woe, woe, flee from the land of the north, said the Lord.

because my four winds of heaven are not in your court, nor has the remnant of the captivity of Babylon been saved. And again he said: The Lord turned Judah from his error upon the land of his holiness, and again he will be gathered in Jerusalem. And again he said: The hands of Zerubbabel laid the foundations of this house, and his hands will complete it. All these things Zechariah said. And in the captivity of Israel that was with Babylon, it was fulfilled and completed, and not as they say, that Israel still stands to be gathered. Hear, then, my beloved, this also: that Israel was redeemed twice, once from Egypt and the second time from Babylon. For Isaiah said: The Lord will again stretch out his hand to gather the remnant of his people that remained from the land of Assyria and from Egypt, and from Tyre and from Sidon, and from Hamath and from the distant islands. For if it were established that they would be gathered and redeemed, why did Isaiah say: The Lord will again stretch out his hand to gather the remnant of his people that remained? For if they still have a redeemer, it would not be for Isaiah to say: The Lord will again stretch out his hand to gather the remnant of his people, and he did not say "again." Again, hear this also concerning the prayer that Daniel prayed before his God, and he besought and entreated on behalf of the sons of his people, that they might return and turn back from Babylon. For Daniel was a man of desire, to whom secrets were revealed, and he knew the end, because he was a prophet. He inquired concerning the words of the prophets. For when he was taken captive with his people to Babylon, false prophets arose among them, and they were speaking in falsehood and deception, and they were saying: Thus says the Lord: "He will smite the two gates, he will break the horn of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, with the rock of all the peoples." Then, when Jeremiah heard the false prophecies of the false prophets, he wrote a letter and sent it to Babylon.

do not listen to the false prophets among you, who deceive you and say: When seventy years are completed, you will return from Babylon. For thus said the Lord: Build houses and dwell, plant gardens and eat their fruits, take your daughters as wives and give your daughters to men. For until seventy years are fulfilled for Babylon, then you will return from there. And Daniel, who was clothed in the spirit, knew that the prophecy of Jeremiah was true. And when seventy years were fulfilled, then he prayed and besought and entreated before his God, in the first year of Darius son of Ahasuerus, from the race of the Medes, who reigned in the kingdom of the Chaldeans, one year of his reign. I, Daniel, was tested in the book concerning the seventy years, and I saw that the word of the Lord which Jeremiah the prophet spoke was true. When the destruction of Jerusalem was completed, seventy years, I lifted up my face before the Lord God, to beseech in prayer and entreaty, and in fasting and sackcloth and ashes, and I prayed before the Lord my God, and I confessed and said: I beseech you, Lord God, great and mighty, keeper of the covenant and of grace to those who love him, to those who keep your commandments, sinners and fools, and the wicked and rebels, and those who stray from your commandments and from your laws, and who did not listen to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name, concerning kings and nobles, and concerning fathers, and concerning the whole people of the land. Yours, Lord, is the victory, and mine is the shame of the face, as today. To the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, near and far, to all the lands to which they were scattered there, because of the iniquity they committed against you, Lord. Mine is the shame of the face before kings and nobles and fathers, because I sinned against you. For the Lord God is merciful and forgives sins, for he rebelled against him.

and do not listen to the voice of the Lord your God to walk in His law which He gave before you, through the hand of His servants the prophets. And all Israel transgressed against your law, and they turned away and did not listen to your voice. And curses and plagues came upon them, which are written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, concerning those who sinned before Him. And He established His words which He spoke concerning them, and concerning the judgments of David, to bring upon them a great evil, such as had not been done under heaven, as was done in Jerusalem, as is written in the law of Moses. All this evil which came upon them, and they did not pray before the Lord your God, that they might again repent of their sins, and that your faith might be known, and the Lord aroused evil and brought it upon them, because the Lord your God is righteous in all His deeds which He did, and they did not listen to His voice. Therefore, Lord your God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand and a high arm, and made a name for yourself as of old, they sinned and did evil, O Lord, as all your righteousness which you did with them. May your wrath and anger turn away from your city Jerusalem and from your holy mountain, because of the sins and iniquity of your fathers with you, they were scattered in every place. Jerusalem became a reproach to all the nations. Therefore, hear, O God, the prayer of your servant and his supplication, and show your face in your sanctuary which is ruined, for the sake of your name, O Lord. Lengthen, my God, your ears and hear, and open your eyes and see your ruins and your desolations, and the city upon which your name is called. Not because of your righteousness do they trust in you and pray before you, but because of your abundant mercies. O Lord, hear, O Lord, spare, O Lord, listen, and act and do not delay, for the sake of your name, my God, because your name is called upon your city and upon your people. Then, when Daniel finished his prayer, he said: And until when shall I pray and confess my sins and the sins of my people Israel?

And I raise my hands in supplication before the Lord my God, upon His holy mountain, and I continue to speak in prayer. And the man Gabriel, whom I saw before, flew and came from the heavens, and approached me at the time of the evening offering, and came and spoke with me and said to me: "Daniel, now you have gone out to teach that you may be known. At the beginning of your prayer, a word went forth, and I have come to show you, because you are a man of desire. You inquired concerning the word, and you were made known through the vision. Seventy weeks of years will be completed for your people and for the city of your sanctuary, to fulfill the debts and to complete the sins, to leave behind iniquity, and to bring righteousness from the world, and to complete the vision and the prophets, and for the holy of holies to be anointed, and you will know and be known from the outcome of the word, for the return and the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and for the coming of the anointed king. Seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, and they returned and rebuilt Jerusalem, its streets and its squares, for the completion of the time. And after sixty-two weeks, the anointed one will be killed, and he will have nothing, and the city of the sanctuary will be destroyed along with the king who comes. And at the end, by the handful, and until the end, of the war of the divisions of destruction, and the covenant will be shaken for many. One week and half a week, and the sacrifices and offerings will cease, and upon the rocks of the flood, destruction. Look then, my beloved, and understand, in the prayer that Daniel prayed, and in the vision that was interpreted for him, for the completion of seventy years for the destruction of Jerusalem. He prayed and confessed at the hour of Darius, and when he confessed his debts, and my debts with him, Israel, then Gabriel, the receiver of prayers, came to him and said to him: "At the beginning of your prayer, a word went forth." For the word at the beginning of his prayer was this: that the captivity would return from Babylon. And again Daniel considered, how then would it happen to the people after their redemption? Then Gabriel said to him: "Because you are a man of desire, I will show you.

What happened to your people at the end of days. Now I was asked about the word and I was made known in the vision. Seventy weeks are extended over your people, and over the city of your holiness, to complete the debts and to finish the sins, to leave iniquity, and to bring righteousness that is from the world, and to complete the vision and the prophets, and the holy Messiah of the holy ones, and you will know and be made known from the outcome of the word, to return and to build Jerusalem, and for the coming of the Messiah the king, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, and they returned and built Jerusalem, its streets and its suburbs, to the completion of the sacrifice. And after sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be killed and he has no one, and the city of holiness will be destroyed with the king who came. And the end in the flood until the end of the war of the pieces of destruction, and the covenant will be made for many, one week and half a week, and the sacrifice and offerings will cease, and upon the rocks of the flood destruction. For he said that seventy weeks are extended over your people, and over the city of your holiness, seventy weeks, four hundred and ninety years, from the sacrifice that Zayil offered, until Jerusalem was destroyed, its final destruction, and it will not be inhabited again. And he said that seven weeks they returned and built Jerusalem, because when the captivity went up by the hand of Ezra, and they began to build the house, from the days of Cyrus and Darius, they laid the foundations of the house, and they ceased the enemies of their enemies in the days of Darius and Artaxerxes, and other Persian kings, and they did not allow them to build and complete. And I will show you the sign of the word. For thus it is written in Zechariah the prophet, that I saw a lampstand and seven lamps upon it, and seven times seven their mouths of the lamps, forty-nine, which are seven weeks. And he said in it in the prophecy that that word of the Lord concerning Zerubbabel, not by force and not by power.

but in spirit, and above it says, that by the hands of Zorobabel the foundations of this temple were laid, and his hands completed it. So all the days from the day the foundations of the temple were laid until the completion of the building of the temple were forty-nine years. These are the seventy weeks of years, and that is the vision of the lampstand, of the seven branches, and the forty-nine lamps, and this is the word of the Lord that was concerning Zorobabel, these forty-nine years. And after these seven weeks of the building of the temple, in the days of Zorobabel, then Jerusalem was inhabited for sixty-two weeks, four hundred and thirty-four years. And above it says, seventy weeks are extended over your people and over the city of your holiness, and below they were seven and sixty-two, which are all sixty-nine. But below it says, a week and a half of a week abolished the sacrifices and the offerings. Behold, one week from the seventy in which the sacrifices were abolished. Thus it was reckoned concerning them, like those seventy years that they were dwelling in Babylon, that the land was at rest during its captivity, all the days of its desolation. So it is clear that after these weeks the Messiah came and was killed, to the end of the vision and the prophets. Also Jacob our father said, when blessing Judah, that a tribe would not be cut off from Judah, and a diadem from between his feet, until one who belongs to him comes to whom the kingdom belongs. Be clear, my beloved, and understand that the weeks have ended, and the visions and the prophets have ceased, and the kingdom has been cut off from Judah, for behold, Jerusalem has been destroyed and its people have been scattered among every people, and the children of Israel have settled without sacrifices and without an altar, and until the end of the divisions, Jerusalem has been destroyed and laid waste to ruin, the vineyard has been destroyed and filled with carobs.

and the two beams of the vine consumed the fire; the third, the shoot of the vineyard, and the tower was overthrown, and its enclosure was destroyed; the silver was taken away, and there is no light in it. A bill of divorce was written for Jerusalem. Now this is a brief explanation that I have written to you, so that you may go out in spirit, since the matter was pressing to complete the discourse, and so that the understanding of the hearer may be strengthened. But do not be disturbed by their explanations, for they are not receptive to explanations, because they have closed the books, so that they do not hear and are not persuaded. Concerning everyone who loves God, he says about them: "This people honors me with their lips, but in their heart they are far from me." And to Jeremiah they say: "The word that you spoke to me in the name of the Lord, I do not hear from you." And concerning these visions of Daniel, my beloved, as far as I have understood, I have written to you. However, I knew that after Gabriel interpreted it when it happened to his people, then at the third hour of Cyrus, the word was revealed to Daniel, and he said that the word was true and was being interpreted with great force in the vision. And he said that I sat in mourning for three weeks of days, and I did not eat bread of desire, and meat and wine did not enter my mouth. And he saw that at the third hour of Cyrus, Daniel saw this vision, on the twenty-fourth day of the first month, which is Nisan, after two hours when a proclamation was made in his kingdom, that the captivity should return to Jerusalem. At the first hour of Darius, son of Ahasuerus, he prayed before God, and for seventy hours he completed the words of Jeremiah. And as is known, the matter is one: the hour of the kingdom of Darius the Mede, because when he killed Belshazzar, he reigned in his place; he served a little in his kingdom, and Cyrus the Persian received it. And in the first year of Darius, he received the kingdom.

But as is evident from the matter, because the vision that Daniel interpreted for Belshazzar was completed, when he said to him, "This is the interpretation of the word and the reading of the writing: 'You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting; your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.'" Therefore, Darius arose first in the kingdom, as the vision was fulfilled, and after him Cyrus the Persian received it. At the end of seventy years, at the time of Daniel's prayer, the captivity was to be turned over into his hand, as was foretold concerning him by Isaiah: "He is the one who said, 'I have called you, and I have sent your captivity away.'" And Cyrus said, "The God of heaven has given you the kingdom of the earth, and he commanded me to build him a house in Jerusalem in Judah." And he saw that Daniel's fast was after his prayer. Concerning this, he fasted; concerning the seventy weeks, Jerusalem was inhabited, and after that, the sword was drawn and destruction was let loose forever, until the completion of the decrees. End of the letter against the Jews.