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the staff that was raised over the Nile and turned it to
blood and it was this staff that vanquished the might of
Pharaoh. The staff symbolizes the fourth kingdom - the
kingdom of Yisrael. Yisrael achieved tranquillity with the
building of the first Beis Hamikdash, when the staff - the
scepter - of Yehuda held sway. Then came the fire...

"And came the fire and burned the stick etc."
When the Jewish People turned aside from the Torah and
began to sin, a fire was dispatched out of Heaven. A lion
of fire appeared to blaze through the Paroches - the
curtain that divided the Holy from the Holy of Holies in the
Temple. This lion of fire, in terrestrial form, took the
shape of the Babylonian kingdom of Nebuchadnezar which
'burned the staff' of Yisrael. Nebuchadnezar became the
instrument of Heavenly justice to punish TheJewish

People. Nebuchadnezar razed Zion. The Temple was
burned to the ground and Yisrael was lead into slavery.
But fire can be doused by water...

"And came the water and doused the fire etc."
The sixth kingdom is that of Persia and Media, whose
fortunes swelled like the waters of the sea, extinguishing

the might of Babylon. "Their voices will roar like the sea."
Said the prophet Yirmiyahu, describing the torrent that
was to be Media.

"And came the ox and drank the water etc."
Taurus the bull is the astrological force appointed by
Hashem to steer the fortunes of Greece. In Jewish
thought, Greece is associated with spiritual darkness -
"And the earth was empty and void and darkness on the

face of the deep." (Bereishis 1:2) The Greeks tried to
darken the eyes of the Jewish People, claiming that they
had forfeited their unique connection to Hashem as a
result of the incident of the golden calf. They said "Write
upon the horn of a bull that you have no portion in the G-
d of Israel. This bull of Macedonian Greece came and

licked up the water that was Media.

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