Arise to your destiny at the end of time

Daniel 12:13

Amichai Lau-Lavie (he/him)

Apr 27, 2025

Walter_Benjamin, the Jewish-German thinker, another victim of history’s Holocaust, famously wrote these lines about Paul Klee’s 1920 Angelus Novus known as the "Angel of History."

"A Klee painting named Angelus Novus shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress."

The Book of Daniel concludes with the angel of history’s message — and with the idea that nothing really ends.

As Daniel imagines the end of days he introduces the concept that will from then on make its way into Jewish thought, although never as a done deal and conclusive ideology: What do we know or believe about the notion of the "resurrection of the dead"?

This is how Daniel describes this future phenomena:

וְרַבִּים מִיְּשֵׁנֵי אַדְמַת־עָפָר יָקִיצוּ אֵלֶּה לְחַיֵּי עוֹלָם וְאֵלֶּה לַחֲרָפוֹת לְדִרְאוֹן עוֹלָם׃

Many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, others to reproaches, to everlasting abhorrence.

My brother and teacher, Rabbi Benny Lau writes:

“This is both the final chord of this book - and of an entire era. Nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible do we find such a direct and forceful expression of the concept of resurrection. There are prophetic stories about children being brought back to life, but these are exceptional cases that do not establish a broader phenomenon. Even regarding Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones, Maimonides asserted that it is merely a prophetic vision (Guide for the Perplexed, Part II, Chapter 46).

This profound innovation in Daniel was born in Jewish thought precisely during this era of the Greek religious war against the faithful of the Torah—those who were willing to give their lives for their religion. All the earlier biblical wars dealt with earthly matters—political conflicts between nations. Only with the renewal of the Second Temple period did the question of life and death for the sanctification of God’s name arise in Israel.

Out of these experiences, a theology of reward and punishment began to take shape, and its origins are in the concluding verses of the Book of Daniel, which set the stakes for one of the foundations of Jewish belief: the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the dead.”

What will happen at the end of life - for each of us, for the nation, for the planet - is what this final chapter is about, and yet it gives on simple answers.

Rather, Daniel’s final words and visions have opened portals for generations of seekers and mystics, still trying to make sense of the sacred secrets of the soul. The final vision, by the banks of a river, includes two angels who cryptically tell him that the future redemption will happen only when “it will be a time, times, and half a time.” When he asks more about it he is told to be patient - all will be revealed - in time.

How will we know when it’s time? This is where the Maskilim that he referred to in the previous chapter, those who are wise enough to penetrate the layers of all things, will rise and shine:

וְהַמַּשְׂכִּלִים יַזְהִרוּ כְּזֹהַר הָרָקִיעַ וּמַצְדִּיקֵי הָרַבִּים כַּכּוֹכָבִים לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד׃

And the knowledgeable will be radiant like the bright expanse of sky, and those who lead the many to righteousness will be like the stars forever and ever.

The original Hebrew here refers to the ‘bright expanse of the sky’ by using the word ‘Zohar’ - and thus, this verse has profoundly influenced Jewish mystical thought, particularly in the naming and conceptual framework of the medevil work - The Zohar, the central text of Kabbalah.

In “A River Flows from Eden: The Language of Mystical Experience in the Zohar”, my teacher and friend Melila Hellner-Eshed discusses how the imagery of light in Daniel 12:3 is emblematic of divine presence.

She notes that the Zohar expands upon this metaphor, incorporating a rich tapestry of colors and sensory experiences to convey the ecstatic nature of mystical encounters.

This reflects the Zohar's portrayal of spiritual enlightenment as an immersive, transformative experience. Daniel’s visions can be shared by all who devote their lives to exploring the sacred realms - the Maskilim, or wise ones, is how the creators of the Zohar, referred to themselves. For modern mystics and seekers of teh sacred - the invitation still applies.

The translator and scholar of the Zohar, Daniel C. Matt offers a poetic interpretation in his introduction:

“The enlightened will shine like the זהר (zohar), radiance, of the sky (Daniel 12:3)—like musical intonations, whose melody is followed by the letters and vowels, undulating after them like troops behind their king... Will shine—letters and vowels shining as one on their journey into a mystery of concealment, a journey on concealed paths. From this all expands.”

The Book of Daniel ends with these cryptic invitations to keep exploring what’s hidden and what’s between the lines. It includes specific dates and possible markers for the anticipated end-of-days but also advises: ‘Happy are those who patiently wait..”

The final word here belong to the angel, perhaps Gabriel, here in his role as the angel of history, telling Daniel, and all of us, a concluding cryptic verse that has become popular in eulogies and funerals - whether we believe in the afterlife - or not:

וְאַתָּה לֵךְ לַקֵּץ וְתָנוּחַ וְתַעֲמֹד לְגֹרָלְךָ לְקֵץ הַיָּמִין׃

But you, go on to the end; you shall rest, and arise to your destiny at the end of the days.”

Thank you Daniel, whoever you were and whenever you lived or were written or all about… We transition to the epic saga of the building of Jerusalem, where history meets more evidence and is written by its builders and creators, not without some firm agenda.

Enter - Ezra.

Image: Paul Klee, Angelus Novus, 1920

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Below the Bible Belt

Arise to your destiny at the end of time

Daniel 12:13

Walter_Benjamin, the Jewish-German thinker, another victim of history’s Holocaust, famously wrote these lines about Paul Klee’s 1920 Angelus Novus known as the "Angel of History."

The Book of Daniel concludes with the angel of history’s message — and with the idea that nothing really ends.

As Daniel imagines the end of days he introduces the concept that will from then on make its way into Jewish thought, although never as a done deal and conclusive ideology: What do we know or believe about the notion of the "resurrection of the dead"?

This is how Daniel describes this future phenomena:

וְרַבִּים מִיְּשֵׁנֵי אַדְמַת־עָפָר יָקִיצוּ אֵלֶּה לְחַיֵּי עוֹלָם וְאֵלֶּה לַחֲרָפוֹת לְדִרְאוֹן עוֹלָם׃

Many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, others to reproaches, to everlasting abhorrence.

Daniel 12:2

My brother and teacher, Rabbi Benny Lau writes:

Out of these experiences, a theology of reward and punishment began to take shape, and its origins are in the concluding verses of the Book of Daniel, which set the stakes for one of the foundations of Jewish belief: the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the dead.”

What will happen at the end of life - for each of us, for the nation, for the planet - is what this final chapter is about, and yet it gives on simple answers.

How will we know when it’s time? This is where the Maskilim that he referred to in the previous chapter, those who are wise enough to penetrate the layers of all things, will rise and shine:

וְהַמַּשְׂכִּלִים יַזְהִרוּ כְּזֹהַר הָרָקִיעַ וּמַצְדִּיקֵי הָרַבִּים כַּכּוֹכָבִים לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד׃

And the knowledgeable will be radiant like the bright expanse of sky, and those who lead the many to righteousness will be like the stars forever and ever.

Daniel.12:3

The original Hebrew here refers to the ‘bright expanse of the sky’ by using the word ‘Zohar’ - and thus, this verse has profoundly influenced Jewish mystical thought, particularly in the naming and conceptual framework of the medevil work - The Zohar, the central text of Kabbalah.​

In “A River Flows from Eden: The Language of Mystical Experience in the Zohar”, my teacher and friend Melila Hellner-Eshed discusses how the imagery of light in Daniel 12:3 is emblematic of divine presence.

She notes that the Zohar expands upon this metaphor, incorporating a rich tapestry of colors and sensory experiences to convey the ecstatic nature of mystical encounters.

The translator and scholar of the Zohar, Daniel C. Matt offers a poetic interpretation in his introduction:

The Book of Daniel ends with these cryptic invitations to keep exploring what’s hidden and what’s between the lines. It includes specific dates and possible markers for the anticipated end-of-days but also advises: ‘Happy are those who patiently wait..”

The final word here belong to the angel, perhaps Gabriel, here in his role as the angel of history, telling Daniel, and all of us, a concluding cryptic verse that has become popular in eulogies and funerals - whether we believe in the afterlife - or not:

וְאַתָּה לֵךְ לַקֵּץ וְתָנוּחַ וְתַעֲמֹד לְגֹרָלְךָ לְקֵץ הַיָּמִין׃

But you, go on to the end; you shall rest, and arise to your destiny at the end of the days.”

Daniel 12:13

Thank you Daniel, whoever you were and whenever you lived or were written or all about… We transition to the epic saga of the building of Jerusalem, where history meets more evidence and is written by its builders and creators, not without some firm agenda.

Enter - Ezra.

Image: Paul Klee, Angelus Novus, 1920

Discussion about this post

The original Hebrew here refers to the ‘bright expanse of the sky’ by using the word ‘Zohar’ - and thus, this verse has profoundly influenced Jewish mystical thought, particularly in the naming and conceptual framework of the medevil work - The Zohar, the central text of Kabbalah.