Daniel's Prayer (continued)

An assumption is made that Daniel’s prayer in chapter 9, a prayer that was necessary in order to bring redemption, was uttered at the time when prayer was prohibited with punishment of death in chapter 6. In Daniel’s prayer, a confession and acceptance of Divine judgment is followed by his supplication. Gavriel the angel relates to Daniel a time of ‘seventy weeks’. The Sages and commentators interpret this to mean a time period of 490 years between the destruction of the two Batei Mikdash. There are several difficulties with this approach and alternative suggestions are raised, but the ultimate meaning remains a mystery.