If found worthy, Israel would be redeemed after 1150 years, i. e. in the year 1218 c. E.; otherwise they would be redeemed in 1358 c. E., or if again proved unworthy, they would be redeemed in 1403 c. E. The exile under no circumstances would extend beyond this last date.59 He gives as the authority for his reasoning Rabbi Hananeel ben Ḥushiel," who is often quoted in his commentary.

2. In Par. Bereshit Bahya's calculations are more extensive and are based largely on those of Naḥmanides commentary on Gen. 2.3. The seven days of Creation and of the heavenly rest are indicative of the seven millennia of the earth's existence and of the final destruction. The fifth day is symbolic of the fifth millennium, which will be entirely an era of exile. The sixth day (in which it was said "Let us make a man = Messiah") is symbolic of the sixth millennium, in which the Messiah will come. "We are now," says Bahya, "in the 51st year of that millennium." He was therefore writing his commentary in the year 1291 c. E. "On the sixth day the animals were created first, and then man; hence the first part of the sixth millennium will be spent in exile before Man= the Messiah, will appear. But the Messiah will appear very early in the sixth millennium, shortly after its dawn, just as a man goes forth to his labors soon after sunrise."61 To be more exact, at the end of the first tenth of the millennium (i. e. in the year 5100 A. M.=1340 c. E.). To be still more exact, in the year 5118 A. M.=1358 c. E., to conform with the prophecy of Daniel (12.11), 1290 days. The fifth millennium, which is the exile era, began 172 years after the destruction and lasted 1,000 years. The Messiah will come in the 118th year of the sixth millennium. Hence 172 plus 1000 plus 118=1290, which is the figure of Daniel. Baḥya is here following Naḥmanides closely.

The figure in Dan. 12.12, 1335 days, which is 45 dayyears later, refers to the close of the period of the wars which the Messiah's coming will usher in.62 The date

1335-1403 C. E. is the absolute ultimate date. The Messiah's coming cannot be delayed beyond this date.

He arrives at this last conclusion along another line of reasoning. The Messianic age must last 837 years. (The world will be destroyed at the close of the sixth millennium.) This figure-837-is suggested in the Gematria of Is. 9.6, "," that the government may be increased"=837.63 Already in Talmudic times this word with its closed Mem was regarded as holding Messianic meaning. Furthermore, the years of rejoicing in the future must equal the years of rejoicing in the past.65 These amounted to the 410 years of the first Temple, the 420 years of the second Temple and the seven happy years of the building of the first Temple, which give a total of 837 years; hence the Messiah must come not later than 6000 minus 837, which is equal to 5163 A. M. = 1403 C. E.

Again, the number 1335 is suggested in Dan. 7.25: "Until a time and times and half a time." The first "time" is not to be counted. The "times" refer to the period between the exodus from Egypt and the building of the first Temple, which is equal to 480 years, and the period of the first Temple, which is equal to 410 years; total, 890 years. The "half a time" is equal to 445 years. The sum total is therefore 1335 years.66

8. Joshua ibn Shoeib (first half of the 14 c.), another pupil of Solomon ibn Adret, in his book of sermons based on the Parashot of the week67 presents a Messianic date in the sermon on the last day of Passover. He finds a Messianic reference in the Song of Songs, 6.10-8.14, which he paraphrases after the manner of Mid. R. Shir ha-Shir. VI. 16ff.: "Who is she that looketh forth as the dawn, fair as the moon?" The moon is the future reign of David. "I went down into the garden to see whether the

63 The Mem in n' is "closed."

64 See supra, p. 14, and San. 94a.

65 Deut. 28.63. Here follows in modified form the reasoning of Bar Hiyya and of my. See supra, pp. 71 and 86.

66 Saadia's calculation.

67 n. ed. Cracow, 1573.

vine budded." The Shekinah went down into the exile to see whether Israel had repented and was ready for Redemption. "Return, return, O Shulammite, return, return." The four "returns" refer to the four kingdoms, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome, under whom the Jews at one time or another lived. "Thy neck is as a tower of ivory" refers to the Temple. "Thine eyes as the pools in Heshbon" refers to the prophets. "Thy nose is like the tower of Lebanon" refers to the high priest. "Thy head upon thee is like Carmel" refers to the King Messiah or King David. "The king is held captive in thy tresses" refers to the King Messiah who is in prison for our sins. "I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, why should ye awaken or stir up love until it please." This is a warning not to hasten the end until it pleases God to bring it about. "Who is it that cometh up from the wilderness" refers to the resurrection in the days of the Messiah. "We have a little sister ... what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?" This is the cry of the ten tribes who will be the first to return to Palestine, inquiring whether their little sister-the tribes of Judah and Benjamin-is ready to return. "Solomon hath a vineyard in Baal-Hammon" refers to Israel in exile." Solomon, the man of peace, is God. BaalHammon by refers to the lands of the Gentiles where Israel is scattered. "My own vineyard is before Me." God will remember his vineyard. "Thou, O Solomon, shalt have the thousand" refers to the sixth millennium when the Messiah will come. "And those that keep the fruit thereof 200." Two hundred years later (5200=1440 c. E.) the resurrection will take place. The Messiah will therefore come between 1240 and 1440 C. E.68

68 Op. cit., pp. 43b-44a. The Song of Songs was treated allegorically by the Rabbis as early as the second century. (At the Council of Yamnia toward the close of the first century the book's canonicity was still a subject of dispute.) In the Christian Church it was first intrepreted allegorically as celebrating the relations between Christ and the Church by Hippolytus of Rome and Origen in the third century. They followed the exegesis of the Rabbis.

9. We have also scattered references to numerous other calculators. 1. A Tosafist commentator of Genesis, quoted in Da'at Zekenim,69 gives the year 1240 c. E. as the Messianic year. "And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering (ny) in the field."70 Here the angel Gabriel revealed to him (Joseph) the three exiles: (1) Egypt, 400 years='n; (2) Babylon, 70 years;'y (3) Edom, 5000 years='. At the close of the year 5000 (1240 c. E.) the exile will end. May it come soon in our lifetime. I received it from my father. A like statement I received from Rabbi Benjamin (n concerning the verse: "And I stayed until now ('n'n'y This, too, refers to the three exiles: 'y=70, Babylon; 'n=400, Egypt; n=5000, the year of the final Redemption.

2. Abraham ben Alexander of Cologne, pupil of Eleazar of Worms, who lived in the middle of the thirteenth century, and author of a small Kabbalistic work, Keter Shem Țob, gives the year 1329 as the Messianic year. 72 The Messiah, according to Abraham of Cologne, will reveal the hidden meanings of the Torah, and the secret of the twenty-two letters of the alphabet, which are the foundations of all creation. 73

3. Zunz brings the Messianic speculation of an Italian Rabbi, Isaac Ha-Kohen, who found in Ruth 4.6 the key to the Messianic year: "And the 'redeemer' said, I cannot redeem it for myself lest I mar mine own inheritance. Take thou my right of Redemption on thee"

The Gematria of these five words .(א"ל ל"ך את"ה א"ת גאלת"י)

is 1335. The Messiah is therefore to be anticipated in the year 1403.74

4. Zunz also quotes a manuscript in which Moses ben Judah (13 c.) announced 1260 as the Messianic year.

75

5. Levi ben Abraham (France c. 1240-c. 1315) gives

69 pt пy, ed. Livorno, 1783, p. 19a.

70 Gen. 37.15.

71 Gen. 32.5.

72 See Zunz, Erlösungsjahre, Ges. Schr., III, p. 227.

73, in Jellinek, Auswahl kabb. Mystik., p. 43.

74 Op. cit. III, p. 228.

75 Ibid., p. 227.

the year 1345 as the Messianic year. Geiger quotes a München manuscript of Levi ben Abraham's Liwyat Hen in which this date is given."

C. PSEUDO-MESSIAHS

We have previously spoken of the Messianic pretensions of Abulafia. Two of his disciples, one, Samuel, called the Prophet, in the city of Ayllon, in the Spanish province of Segovia, and the other, Abraham, in Avila, in Old Castile, continued his Messianic prophecies and pretensions. Abraham, concerning whose activities Solomon ben Adret was consulted, announced that the Messiah would appear on the last day of the fourth month (Tebet or Tammuz) in the year 1295.78 The mystic-minded community of Avila believed him and awaited the appointed day with eagerness. The people assembled in the synagogue on the designated day and great confusion and distress ensued when the prophecy failed of fulfilment.79

Adret availed himself of this affair of Abraham of Avila to read the people a lesson in the proper precautions which should be taken by Jews when confronted with a Messianic pretender. He urges upon the people not to be easily misled by miracle-mongers and by freaks of nature. "Even Baalam's ass saw an angel."80 Every case should be most thoroughly investigated by scholars and competent men.81 The prophecies of a would-be Messiah must be severely tested, and his character, conduct and motives carefully scrutinized. 82

Graetz believes it very likely that the Kabbalist Joseph ben Abraham Gikatilla (1248-after 1305), known as Baal Ha-Nissim, the "Miracle Worker," a pupil of Abulafia, also belonged to this group of false prophets.

83

the year 5105, the 13th

year

of the 269th cycle