The Water and Herod

The water that put out the fire is King Herod, who killed all the descendants of the Hasmonean dynasty and left no survivors. He wrested the kingdom from their grasp and took it for himself. The word maya is the acronym of a sequence of phrases that read: “He will be descended from Antipater; his mother was a Jewess (Sotah 41). Who shall reign afterwards? Agrippas, the Jewish king. Who shall kill him? King Aspasyanus (Vespasian); he shall take his kingdom and destroy our Temple. Who shall redeem us? A dove from the true line. Who shall bring him? Eliyahu and Mashiach, together. When shall Mashiach come? When Bnei Yisroel despair of all hope of his arrival.”