Daniel 12

(9) And he said, go Daniel, for closed and sealed are the words until the time of the End. (10) Many will be refined, whitened, and the wicked will do wickedly, and the wicked will not understand, and the enlighted will understand. (11) And from the time of the cessation of the Tamid, and to the giving of the Desolate Abomination, days: one thousand two hundred and ninety. (12) Happy is the one who waits and arrives to days: one thousand three hundred and thirty five. (13) And you Daniel, go to the end, and rest and stand for your destiny for the End of the Right.

The Introduction to Tikkunei Zohar on page 4b

Immediately when they went out, "and they went without strength in front of a pursuer" (Eichah 1:6), and because of this, the masters of the Mishnah have stated that everyone who says "Amein y'hei shmeh rabba" with all his strength, (they, in heaven) tear up a sentence of 70 years, which are 70 years after the 1200 years, that the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed.  And there are those that calculate it from the time that the daily offering ceased, because the redemption is dependent on the level of Yaakov, whose level is that of Truth, and that is what is written "You will give truth to Yaakov" (Michah 7:20), which is the sign for 1290, and there are those that add on to it another 2, (from) "close is Hashem to all of his callers, to all that call to him in truth" (Tehillim 145:18, truth with a bet, gematria of 2, appended at its beginning), "to know in the land Your way" (Tehillim 67:3), thus also here "land", a thousand ra"tz, (Gematria of 290), to fulfill in them "truth will sprout forth from the land" (Tehillim 85:12), when they will be out of it, like the value of "land", but the sentence is 70 years.

I do not want to enter in to the subject that is actually being discussed, which is 1200 years of Exile.

Note the following:

• The time of the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash is taken as a different year than the cessation of the Tamid. When dealing with years, 3 weeks (between the 17th of Tamuz and the 9th of Av) is not significant.
• The juxtaposition of the two year counts, 1200 and 1290, indicates that the tradition of the 1200 years is related to the prophecy at the end of Daniel.

So the question is, are we referring to the 1st Beit HaMikdash or the 2nd Beit HaMikdash?

The GR"A's peirush on the Tikkunei Zohar answers this. On the words "and there are those who calculate it from the cessation of the Tamid", he writes that the Tamid ceased to be brought 20 years prior to the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash. This explains Daniel having 1290, and this teaching having 1270. In his notes on the bottom of the page, on the issue of the 2 years for the letter beit, he writes that in reality it was 18 years.

(Explanation - We go 20 years back, and then count 1292 years, or go forward 2 years before counting 1290. Alternatively, subtract 18 from the year of destruction.)

Let's look at the 2nd Beit HaMikdash, destroyed in 3828.

3828 - 18 + 1290 = 5100

The GR"A explains that this is the (implied) calculation. What is the problem, which the GR"A does not say explicitly? The Tamid did not cease 18 years prior; the events leading to the Churban started less than a decade prior to the actual Churban. Indeed Rashi on Daniel 12:11 says the Tamid of the 2nd Beit HaMikdash stopped 6 years prior to the Churban, and even this seems to be difficult, since the revolt that lead to the destruction only started approximately 4 years before the Churban.

The 1st Beit HaMikdash was destroyed in the year 3338. If we look 18 years prior, we find the year that Nevuchadnezar first came to Yerushalayim. The sod of the Tikkunei Zohar is referring us to this year as our starting point.

So theoretically, if we add 1290 years to this point, we should find our answer as to the identity of the Desolate Abomination.

• 3338 - 18 = 3320
• 3320 + 1290 = 4610
• 4610 - 3760 = 850 CE

What happened in 850 CE of note that might shed light on the matter? Nothing.

However, according to the physical reality, the 1st Beit HaMikdash was not destroyed 2430 years ago, but rather a further 163 years prior in the year 3175 (586 BCE).

• 3175 - 18 = 3157
• 3157 + 1290 = 4447
• 4447 - 3760 = 687 CE

That year was the beginning of the construction of the Dome of the Rock.

That is it.

The verses say to count days. Why would it say days if the meaning is years? I propose that the word days is given to indicate to us that these are physical years. Why? If I tell you to count a number of days, you can actually count the number of days very easily. If I tell you to count a number of years, you will most likely find an outside event as a reference point for your beginning and end. Days represent the physical reality, while years represent a different, yet not contradictory, spiritual reality based on the Jewish year count.

It is clear as day that 45 years later (i.e. 1335 years from the starting point) was not something to rejoice over. We must start over at 0 and count to 1335 starting the next year.

4448 + 1335 = 5783

Construction continued until 4451.

4451 + 1335 = 5786

Indeed happy we will be to witness the events that will occur during those years.

• The calculation for the exact year comes directly from an ancient Jewish source, Tikkunei Zohar, made more explicit by the GR"A.
• The "secular" dating of Churban Bayit Rishon also has its place in Torah.
• If the Geulah follows the order of prayer, we can have a further sense of where we are and where we're going.