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Chapter 16

Prophecy

טז - הנבואה

In this chapter (19)
  1. 1. Prophecy
  2. 2. The Work of the Prophet
  3. 3. Prophecy as a Substitute for Diviners and Sorcerers
  4. 4. Prophecy in Israel
  5. 5. Prophecy for Israel
  6. 6. Prophecy in the Land of Israel
  7. 7. The Prerequisites of a Prophet
  8. 8. The State Required for Receiving Prophecy
  9. 9. The Level of Moshe and the Other Prophets
  10. 10. The Revelation at Mount Sinai: The Foundation of the Torah
  11. 11. A Prophet Who Instructed to Abolish Something from the Torah
  12. 12. The Mitzva to Heed a Prophet
  13. 13. Who Is Considered a Prophet
  14. 14. A Prophet Whose Prophecy Was Not Fulfilled
  15. 15. The Punishment of One Who Prophesies Falsely
  16. 16. The Difficulty of Distinguishing between a True Prophet and a False Prophet
  17. 17. The Conditions for Distinguishing between a True and a False Prophet
  18. 18. The Departure of Prophecy
  19. 19. The Legacy of the Prophets
16:1

Prophecy

הנבואה

Out of God’s love for human beings, whom He created in His image, God chose the people of Israel to be His treasured people, and He revealed Himself to the chosen ones of His people and granted them prophecy, in such a way that they are able to absorb and understand His light and give it expression in speech, and through them all human beings can merit God’s guidance and blessing.

Through prophecy, the prophet merits rising beyond the limits of the body, connecting to God, and cleaving to Him. As a result, he merits attaining in his consciousness lofty perceptions beyond the limits of the human intellect, and all at once he sees a complete and complex picture, through which he is elevated in understanding the Divine matter revealed in the world and the ways of His governance (Derekh Hashem 3:3:4; 6). Through prophecy, the prophet is filled with love and awe of God and is strengthened in his connection to Him, and from then on, all his days, he will continue to long and yearn for the revelation of the Divine light and for the visions of prophecy (Kuzari 4:3-5; 15; 5:22). He will want to reveal the image of God within him, to be a partner in perfecting and refining the world, and to inspire his family, his friends, his people, and all of humanity to cleave to faith and morality according to the guidance of the Torah.

Prophecy is absorbed in the imagination and clarified by the intellect, and the awareness absorbed through it is certain and clear compared to the awareness absorbed through the intellect. Therefore, through prophecy a person can understand the essence and meaning of life and faith more than through the intellect alone. However, since prophetic awareness is absorbed with the help of the imagination, it must be accompanied by intellectual scrutiny, so that the person will not err in understanding the prophecy; therefore, the prophet must be complete in his intellect and familiar with the branches of wisdom (Kuzari 1:11; 4:3; 11; Ha-ikkarim 3:10; and see Middot Ha-Re’iya, Emuna 7).

There are levels among the prophets. Some had prophecy for themselves alone, through which they were elevated in understanding faith and the meaning of the Torah, and as a result continued to rise in refining their character traits and in good deeds, and exerted a good influence on those around them. Most prophets, in addition to their personal virtue, were sent by God to make His word known to other people or to the public. And some even merited prophecy intended for all generations, and these are the words of prophecy included in the books of the Prophets. The Sages said (Megilla 14a): “Many prophets arose for Israel, double the number of those who left Egypt.” However, the Men of the Great Assembly included in the Tanakh only the prophecies that were needed for the generations. The pinnacle of prophecy was at the Revelation at Mount Sinai, at which Moshe Rabbeinu and all of Israel received the Torah, and by virtue of this prophecy the world exists to this day and advances toward its redemption (below, halakha 10; above 1:7-8). It emerges, then, that prophecy is the foundation of the faith of Israel, for through it the Torah was given, and through it God revealed Himself to Israel over many generations.

A person cannot be a prophet unless he is wise and moral and has refined his character traits to the utmost degree (below, halakha 7). Even so, it is not necessary that he will be a prophet; rather, only if the time is fitting for it and God chooses him will he actually merit receiving prophecy (below, halakha 1).¹

Notes (1)
  1. Navi (prophet) derives from niv (speech), for the prophet speaks in the name of God to the people (Rashi, Shemot 7:1). Prophecy also connotes bringing, for the prophet brings the word of God to the people (Abarbanel, Yeshayahu 13:1). The prophet also speaks on behalf of human beings to God, like our forefather Avraham, who, after hearing the verdict of the people of Sedom, prayed for them; and like Moshe Rabbeinu, to whom Yitro suggested (Shemot 18:19): “And you shall bring the matters to God” (Ḥeshek Shlomo, Shorashim, “ba”). Likewise: “And Moshe reported the words of the people to the Lord” (Shemot 19:8). Prophecy can also be for the prophet himself (Rambam, Hilkhot Yesodei Ha-Torah 7:7), but it is named for speech, that is, the prophet’s influence on his surroundings. This is like the Torah, whose central purpose is to extend its influence, and therefore it is called Torah after hora’a (instruction); and therefore the mitzva of Torah study was stated primarily as a mitzva to teach children and students, as it is stated (Devarim 6:7): “And you shall teach them diligently to your children” (Sifrei there). However, according to Ramḥal, the essence of prophecy is the attainment of the Divine revelation, and the branch is the prophets’ being sent to others (Derekh Hashem 3:4:6; and see Da’at Tevunot 175-190; Kelaḥ Pitḥei Ḥokhma 5-11). Because of the great importance of prophecy, two of Rambam’s Thirteen Principles of Faith deal with it (6-7), because prophecy is the foundation of the Torah, and it is through faith in prophecy that we received the Torah (above 1:21).
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