Chapter 7 opens a new section in the Book of Daniel. The first part of the book recounted the events of Daniel's life: what happened to him under Nebuchadnezzar and later under Darius. From here on, the book begins to deal with Daniel's prophecies. These prophecies are not related to his personal life, but rather are revelations in which the Holy One, Blessed be He, communicated to him what will occur in the future. Some pertain to the future relative to Daniel's own era, and some relate to our own times and the coming of Mashiach.
An important point: these were not prophecies given to a prophet to convey a message to the people living in exile. These were prophecies given specifically to be written down. The very writing is their publication, and in this way they are made known and inform us of the future. Therefore, after the book related who Daniel was, where he came from, and what he endured, it now moves on to recount his prophecies concerning the future.
בִּשְׁנַת חֲדָה לְבֵלְאשַׁצַּר מֶלֶךְ בָּבֶל, דָּנִיֵּאל חֵלֶם חֲזָה וְחֶזְוֵי רֵאשֵׁהּ עַל מִשְׁכְּבֵהּ, בֵּאדַיִן חֶלְמָא כְתַב רֵאשׁ מִלִּין אֲמַר. - In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head upon his bed; then he wrote down the dream, narrating the essential matters.
Chazal explain that the first verse of the chapter was written by the Men of the Great Assembly (Anshei Knesses HaGedolah), who authored the introduction; while from the next verse, "Daniel began and said," it is Daniel's own words, recording what he saw.
The Abarbanel explains: Yirmiyahu prophesied regarding Nebuchadnezzar that the nations would serve him, his son, and his grandson, and we have also seen why he was granted this gift. Therefore, when Belshazzar reigned, who was his grandson, the Holy One, Blessed be He, showed him that the kingdom was about to end swiftly, and that the kingdoms to follow would not be a continuation of Nebuchadnezzar. We already saw this two chapters earlier with the writing of "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin" upon the wall of the palace where he sat.
Regarding Nebuchadnezzar, the verse states, "dreamed dreams," whereas here the phrasing is different: "chalam chaza" (saw a dream). "Chalam" is from the root of a dream, but "chaza" denotes a vision (chizayon), language of prophecy, as in "revealed in a vision to Avraham." A vision is a higher level, akin to prophecy, which was not the case with Nebuchadnezzar. With Nebuchadnezzar, it was merely an accurate and true dream, but not a prophecy. Here, the text teaches us that this was not merely an ordinary dream, but a prophetic dream.
"And visions of his head upon his bed" - there are two types of dreams. There are dreams that stem from a person's physiological faculties: from the circulation of blood, from the nefesh whose seat is in the heart, presenting images to the person. And there are dreams that originate in the brain, which is a loftier realm, the seat of intellect and thought, the place where the neshamah shines and casts its sparks. Therefore, the verse emphasizes "visions of his head" - visions of his head arose upon his bed, and not visions of his heart, lest one think it was a corporeal dream stemming from bodily circulation.
As soon as he awoke from his sleep, he recorded the dream so that he would not forget its details. For it is known that a dream is among the things quickly forgotten - one of the inherent qualities of a dream is that it fades rapidly, as Scripture says, "It shall fly away like a dream." Even in common parlance, when speaking of something that has come and gone, people say: "like a dream." Furthermore, there is a special property in that writing down a dream aids in its fulfillment. Therefore, as soon as he arose, he wrote it down immediately.
The first explanation in the Malbim: When someone writes sacred scripture, he must first articulate the words with his mouth and only then write them down. Thus, a scribe writing a mezuzah or a Sefer Torah must say "Bereishis bara Elokim" and only then write it, for that is the proper manner of writing. Here too, Scripture informs us, "he declared the substance of the words" - before recording these matters in a book, he uttered them with his mouth, for this refers to a person writing words imbued with the sanctity of the Holy Scriptures.
The second explanation in the Malbim: The core principles we will see here in Daniel's dream - namely, the four kingdoms - were already introduced in Nevuchadnezzar's dream of the statue. There he saw the head representing Nevuchadnezzar's kingdom, followed by the chest and arms of silver - Media and Persia, and so on. Thus, the essential outlines had already been stated. What now appears in Daniel's personal dream is a detailed expansion of those matters that were previously outlined in broad strokes. This is the meaning of "he declared the substance of the words": the headlines and main themes had already been conveyed, and now we will see the details and fine points - how those same kingdoms mentioned briefly in Nevuchadnezzar's dream are presented here at length. And one must remember that all these things were recorded before those kingdoms ever ruled, and all of this is prophecy.
עָנֵה דָנִיֵּאל וְאָמַר: חָזֵה הֲוֵית בְּחֶזְוִי עִם לֵילְיָא, וַאֲרוּ אַרְבַּע רוּחֵי שְׁמַיָּא מְגִיחָן לְיַמָּא רַבָּא. - Daniel spoke and said: I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of the heavens stirred up the great sea.
Here Daniel's own words begin, whereas the previous verse was spoken by the Men of the Great Assembly. "I saw in my night vision, and behold, the four winds of heaven were bursting forth into the great sea."
Why the emphasis on "in my vision by night"? Sometimes a person dreams and it appears to him in his dream that it is daytime. Here Daniel says: It was not so; rather, in the vision it appeared to me as night. And to what is exile compared? To night. He comes to convey that what he saw pertains to what we will endure throughout the exiles - even within the dream I saw that it was night, even within the dream I saw that it was within the realm of exile. As Scripture says, "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?": Who protects Israel in their exile? The Holy One, blessed be He, the Watchman who protects from the night, from the exile.
"The four winds of the heavens stirred up the great sea" - I saw four winds coming from the four directions of the world, blowing upon the great sea and battling upon it. The four winds represent the four kingdoms, for each kingdom has dominion, as it were, over one of the directions of the world. And when Scripture wishes to convey that kingdoms are warring against one another, it describes the winds of heaven warring with each other. The four kingdoms are: Babylon, Media and Persia, Greece, and Rome, and they are the subject of this vision. The world is compared here to the great sea upon which the winds blow, because the winds are felt far more intensely on the sea than on dry land, and there their power and dominion are most evident.
וְאַרְבַּע חֵיוָן רַבְרְבָן סָלְקָן מִן יַמָּא, שָׁנְיָן דָּא מִן דָּא. - And four great beasts came up from the sea, differing one from another.
The four beasts are these very same four winds, except that they are compared at times to winds and at times to beasts. The winds symbolize the supernal forces, the heavenly ministering princes who channel their vitality; while the beasts symbolize the physical nations down below. Every nation in the world has a guardian prince in heaven, and the battles take place up there between the princes - as Daniel himself will recount later, when he saw the prince of Persia. The winds symbolized the celestial princes in heaven, and the beasts symbolize those forces and kingdoms here on earth, which are the earthly manifestations of those supernal forces.
"Great beasts" - huge creatures. And if there are great ones, it implies that there are small ones as well: the small ones are the minor kingdoms, the rest of the kings. The great beasts emerged, as it were, from the sea to rule over the entire world. "Differing one from another" - the nature of their rule differed from one another in character and governance, and each kingdom was distinct in its form from its peer. Later on, the vision will describe what each beast looked like and what it symbolized regarding that particular nation.
קַדְמָיְתָא כְאַרְיֵה וְגַפִּין דִּי נְשַׁר לַהּ, חָזֵה הֲוֵית עַד דִּי מְּרִיטוּ גַפַּהּ וּנְטִילַת מִן אַרְעָא, וְעַל רַגְלַיִן כֶּאֱנָשׁ הֳקִימַת, וּלְבַב אֱנָשׁ יְהִיב לַהּ.- The first was like a lion, and it had eagle's wings; I watched until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and was made to stand upon two feet like a man, and a human heart was given to it.
The translation of the words: The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings; I was watching until its wings were plucked and it was lifted from the earth, and made to stand on its feet like a human, and a human heart was given to it.
The first beast that came up from the sea was in the form of a lion, and Chazal say that this represents the Babylonian Empire. Yirmeyahu also envisioned Babylon as a lion: "A lion has come up from his thicket." It is likewise said of it, "Behold, he swoops down like an eagle," for it was also allegorized as an eagle. It ruled supreme, as Babylonian dominion was absolute over the entire world, just like a lion, which is the mightiest of beasts, fearing nothing and reigning over all. Similarly, in the dream of the statue, Nevuchadnezzar was compared to gold: first, he is the head, foremost among all; and second, gold, the most precious of all. Moreover, the standard of Assyria and Babylon bore the image of a lion.
"And it had eagle's wings" - the wings signify that they were swift in flight, soaring with great speed. Of Nevuchadnezzar it was said, "As an eagle swooping down to devour," and Yechezkel compared him to a great eagle with broad wings. An eagle glides effortlessly from place to place, and so too did Nevuchadnezzar conquer every land and hold universal dominion - by means of eagle's wings he could soar and effortlessly reach out to conquer the entire world.
Yet his kingdom was limited, destined to come to an end. "Its wings were plucked" - behold, I see the decline of the Babylonian Empire, its wings being plucked away. By the days of Belshazzar, it no longer possessed wings to conquer territories, and Media and Persia had already risen to rebel and wage war against it. "And it was lifted up from the earth" - I saw Belshazzar removed from the earth and slain, marking the end of the Babylonian Empire.
"And was made to stand upon two feet like a man" - it was no longer a ferocious lion; rather, it was made to stand on its two hind feet. The two legs symbolize Babylon and the Chaldeans, which were two realms within Babylon. "Like a man" - like an ordinary human being; no longer a beast of prey, possessing neither ferocity nor supreme might, which reflects its weakness. "And a human heart was given to it" - their heart became soft like the heart of mortals, indicating that all their former valor had evaporated and was forgotten. They grew weak, reverting to mere ordinary mortals, and the immense prowess they once wielded vanished completely.
וַאֲרוּ חֵיוָה אָחֳרִי תִנְיָנָה דָּמְיָה לְדֹב, וְלִשְׂטַר חַד הֳקִמַת, וּתְלָת עִלְעִין בְּפֻמַּהּ בֵּין שִׁנַּהּ, וְכֵן אָמְרִין לַהּ: קוּמִי אֲכֻלִי בְּשַׂר שַׂגִּיא.- And behold, another beast, a second one, resembling a bear; it was raised up on one side, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and so they said to it: 'Arise, devour much flesh.'
Translation: And behold, another beast, a second one, resembling a bear, standing on one side, with three ribs in its mouth between its teeth, and thus they say to it: Arise, devour much flesh.
"Another beast" - another beast, because it is fundamentally different in nature from the preceding one. This corresponds to the empire of Media and Persia, just as we saw with the statue: the head of gold was Nevuchadnezzar's Babylon, and the two arms of silver represented Media and Persia. Media and Persia are compared to a bear, which lacks the regal might of a lion. This hints that they did not exercise absolute world dominion as Nevuchadnezzar did; rather, their dominion was more limited and restrained, which is also why they were likened to silver rather than gold. Furthermore, Chazal state: This is the Persian Empire, who are clumsy like a bear and eat and drink like a bear - Chazal likened the Persians to bears.
"And it was raised up on one side" - it stood on one side. Media and Persia were two separate kingdoms that merged into one. Darius the Mede received the kingdom from Belshazzar, and initially the dominion leaned toward both Media and Persia, two distinct sides, since the empire was a composite of two powers. However, after Darius died, he was succeeded by his son-in-law Cyrus the First, who ruled Persia, and his dynasty continued until Darius the last. Thus, for a brief period the empire had two sides, but afterward it stood permanently on one side - on the side of Persia.
"And it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth" - three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It seized three kingdoms: the kingdom of Babylon, the kingdom of Assyria, and Media and Persia - three sides (ribs) of the world, and ruled over all three. This is why we saw in the earlier chapters that Darius appointed three chief ministers, three high ministers placed over the one hundred and twenty subordinate officials, for these corresponded to the three primary kingdoms over which he ruled: Babylon, Assyria, and Media and Persia.
One should also note that the ribs are held between its teeth. A bear's diet is not strictly meat; a bear eats meat, but also various plants, vegetation, and honey. If you serve a lion a vegetable salad, it has no use for it. This alludes to the fact that initially, the Persians did not destroy the peoples they conquered, because unlike a lion, they did not devour everything in sight. They granted them a mild, benevolent government and ruled over them without an iron fist. Nebuchadnezzar was like a lion - devouring everything, an absolute mortal peril; whereas with a bear, as long as it is not provoked, being near it is not nearly as dangerous.
"And so they said to it: Arise, devour much flesh" - and yet, it is commanded to devour much flesh. And who commands it? The prophets. They command Persia to destroy and kill all the inhabitants of Babylon. This does not stem from the bear's innate nature, but the prophets, as it were, come and say: since Babylon afflicted us, let the kingdom of Persia arise, afflict them, and devour much flesh.
בָּאתַר דְּנָה חָזֵה הֲוֵית, וַאֲרוּ אָחֳרִי כִּנְמַר, וְלַהּ גַּפִּין אַרְבַּע דִּי עוֹף עַל גַּבַּהּ, וְאַרְבְּעָה רֵאשִׁין לְחֵיוְתָא, וְשָׁלְטָן יְהִיב לַהּ. - After this I looked, and behold, another beast, like a leopard, which had four wings of a bird upon its back; the beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it.
Translation: After this I looked, and behold, another beast like a leopard, which had four bird's wings upon its back, and the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it. A terrifying beast, possessing four heads and four wings, into whose hands dominion was delivered.
The Malbim explains: "And behold, another beast, like a leopard" - this is the kingdom of Greece. The leopard belongs to the same feline family as the lion, yet it is more brazen-faced than the lion. This alludes to Alexander the Great (Alexander of Macedon), who was bolder and more brazen than all other kings and rulers.
"Which had four wings of a bird upon its back" - wings signify rapid conquest, the ability to fly swiftly and conquer many territories. Four wings - meaning he flew to all four directions of the world in a short span of time to conquer them all. "The beast also had four heads" - after Alexander's death, his empire was divided among four heads, as will be seen later: "Four kingdoms will arise out of the nation." "And dominion was given to it" - Alexander himself was granted absolute dominion over all of them. Do not wonder why the four heads are seen on the beast itself, for this does not mean that four heads coexisted during his lifetime; during his reign he possessed absolute sole rule, and the four heads emerged only after his death, when his empire dispersed and divided into four powers that continued to govern.
בָּאתַר דְּנָה חָזֵה הֲוֵית בְּחֶזְוֵי לֵילְיָא, וַאֲרוּ חֵיוָה רְבִיעָאָה דְּחִילָה וְאֵימְתָנִי וְתַקִּיפָא יַתִּירָה, וְשִׁנַּיִן דִּי פַרְזֶל לַהּ רַבְרְבָן, אָכְלָה וּמַדֱּקָה, וּשְׁאָרָא בְּרַגְלַהּ רָפְסָה, וְהִיא מְשַׁנְּיָה מִן כָּל חֵיוָתָא דִּי קָדָמַהּ, וְקַרְנַיִן עֲשַׂר לַהּ. - After this I looked in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible and exceedingly strong; and it had great iron teeth; it devoured and crushed, and stamped the residue with its feet; and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.
Translation: After this I looked in the visions of the night, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful, terrible, and exceedingly strong, possessing great iron teeth, devouring, grinding, and crushing, and trampling whatever remained with its feet - annihilating everything and leaving nothing behind; and it was different from all the beasts that preceded it, and it had ten horns.
First, the Malbim notes the precision in the phrasing, "After this I looked in the night visions": this vision occurred on a different night, and was not merely a continuation of the same night. The first three beasts were shown on one night, and the fourth was shown on a subsequent night - it was evidently too overwhelming for a single night. And why? Because the exile under the fourth beast is the longest of all exiles. Therefore, Scripture also states, "in the night visions": night represents exile, and this exile is destined to be long and dark as night.
Chazal state, and so explain Rashi, the Ramban, and the Rambam, that the fourth beast is the Roman Empire.
Why does Daniel use three distinct descriptions? The Abarbanel explains: Rome and its empire achieved success in three areas. The first is cruelty. They possessed a terrifying cruelty, and what frightened the nations was their sheer savagery; concerning this it says *dechilah* ("dreadful"), meaning that whoever sees it begins to tremble. The second is great wisdom. The Roman Empire resembles the nations of Europe, possessing great intellectual sophistication. No one would seek to attribute such wisdom to the Arabs - cruelty, perhaps, but one does not hear of the famous Arab scientist; they fall under the category of a "wild man," where the wildness precedes the man, and if they happen to have an engineer, he is an engineer of bombs. By contrast, one can certainly say of the European nations that they possess wisdom, and about this it is said, "If someone tells you there is wisdom among the nations, believe it." Leadership guided by profound intellect inspires fear and awe, and this is *eimatani* ("terrible"). Look, for example, at Germany: they possessed both immense cruelty and meticulous terror - horrifyingly precise record-keeping. And the third is supreme physical might, which is *takifa yetira* ("exceedingly strong").
"And it had great iron teeth" - teeth grind food, and through this process the food enters the human body and becomes part of it. Such was the practice of the Roman government: when it conquered a nation, it annexed it entirely. There were empires that conquered a nation and granted it autonomy under an appointed governor, allowing it to continue living according to its own customs; but with Rome, this was not the case. Rome transformed the conquered nation to become completely like itself, an integral part of the Roman Empire. Not only that, but they would torment, trample, and ruin the populace. Therefore, it is compared to great iron teeth capable of chewing even the hardest bones - even the most formidable of nations they succeeded in crushing. This is "it devoured and broke in pieces," grinding it exceedingly fine. And whoever refused to submit beneath their rule - "and stamped the residue with its feet," those they would trample underfoot, slaughtering and destroying them.
"And it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it" - it did not resemble the preceding beasts in any way. The earlier beasts, though different from one another in form, shared some degree of external resemblance; but this beast, which is the Roman Empire - its conduct, its dominion, its power, and its longevity were completely different from the earlier kingdoms. The first was like a lion, the second like a bear, the third like a leopard - and what did the fourth resemble? Nothing at all. It could not even be given the description of a known animal; the others can be identified as recognized zoological species, whereas this was a completely different entity, unlike anything else. What was it, then? A terrifying, formidable, frightening beast with great teeth that tramples everything, possessing ten horns.
This dream is an expanded explanation of Nevuchadnezzar's dream of the great statue, except that here the same reality is depicted through beasts and in far greater detail. In the statue, we saw the feet with ten toes. The Malbim explains: the ten horns here correspond to the ten toes that Nevuchadnezzar saw in his dream. The meaning of this is that the Roman Empire would ultimately divide into ten parts.
And who represents the Roman Empire in our generation? Rome is the nations of Edom: America, Russia, France, Britain, Germany - all the nations of Edom. Scripture informs us that toward the end of the exile, they will divide into ten kingdoms. Anyone who wishes can calculate the ten, swapping one out and inserting another. One cannot say that there is a single nation named Rome ruling today, but no one can dispute that global dominion rests in the hands of the nations of Edom: they decide to form coalitions, enter Iraq, and attempt to impose order there; if they wish, they can impose an agreement upon us, and if they wish, they can also crush the Arab nations. In whose hands does dominion rest? In Rome's. Yet this is not the Rome of the past, a single monolithic empire ruling the globe, but rather ten kingdoms.
Call it NATO forces, call it the Quartet, call it what you will - it is an alliance of nations. There is no single nation among the Western powers that rules alone; rather, there is a division of Roman power into ten kingdoms, which are the ten horns. And the other powers are merely subsidiary to them: the European Union also includes countries that are not counted among the major powers at all, remaining in the category of subsidiaries. The leaders among them constitute the ten horns.
Regarding the third beast, we saw four heads, reflecting how Alexander the Great was an individual ruler whose empire subsequently fractured into four. So too here, Daniel informs us in advance: this kingdom would initially be one head, one body, one beast, and later ten horns would emerge from it.
In Scripture, a horn always represents martial strength. When speaking of succeeding in battle against enemies, the phrase used is "may our horn be exalted," and in the daily prayer, "May the sprout of David Your servant flourish speedily, and may his horn be exalted." The horn represents the power to gore and strike down foes. We also saw this with Tzidkiyah ben Kena'anah, who made iron horns for himself and proclaimed, "With these you shall gore Aram." And likewise, "with them he shall gore nations together to the ends of the earth." Thus, a horn alludes to goring and combat. This is what the text is telling us here: Know that there will be ten powers possessing the might to wage war against the nations. Just as the leopard had four heads, here there are ten horns emerging from that primary power called Rome, and they gore the nations.
Chapter 7 opens the prophetic section of Sefer Daniel. In the first year of Belshazzar, Daniel saw a prophetic vision - not a physical dream, but "visions of the head," a vision emanating from the intellect and the soul - and wrote it down immediately lest it be forgotten. In the vision, four beasts rise from the Great Sea, corresponding to the four winds of the heavens, which are the four supernal ministering angels: a lion with eagle's wings - Babylonia under Nevuchadnezzar, which held global dominion, after which its wings were plucked and its might waned; a bear raised up on one side with three ribs in its mouth - Media and Persia, whose dominion was more limited, and who initially acted with restraint until commanded, "arise, devour much flesh"; a leopard with four wings and four heads - Greece under Alexander of Macedon, who held absolute rule, and after whose death his empire was divided into four; and the fourth beast, bearing no resemblance to any known animal - the Roman Empire, cruel, cunning, and mighty, whose iron teeth devour the nations and assimilate them, and whose ten horns are the ten kingdoms of the nations of Edom that retain dominion until the end of the exile. All of this was recorded in prophecy long before those kingdoms ever rose to power.