Eight Chapters
Chapter Seven (Part 1)
We're about to discuss what differentiated one prophet from another, and
what set Moses apart from the lot of them. And we're going to do that in
order to further explore the role that character plays in everyone's make-
up -- even those of us on such lofty perches. But while Rambam doesn't
delve into it in this work, it's important for us to see just how he
explained what prophecy is, how someone came to assume that role, the
place prophecy assumed in the Jewish Tradition, and more at this point.
For while Rambam did indeed discuss prophecy in the introduction to this
work, and we ourselves raised a few tenuous questions about it there,
we'll now need to discuss it in more detail.
As we'd pointed out, most people have heard of certain prophets aside from
Moses, like Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah; and many are even familiar with
some of their more famous statements. Many have been enthralled by the
spiritual heights the prophets undoubtedly reached when they declared for
example, "I saw the L-rd sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and
His train filled the Temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each with six
wings ... and one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the L-rd
of hosts: the whole earth is full of His Glory" (Isaiah 6:1-3); "The L-rd
of hosts will prepare for all the peoples a feast (in the end of days) ...
and will destroy on this mountain the covering that is cast over all the
people, and the veil that is spread over all the nations. For He will
destroy death for ever; the L-rd G-d will wipe away tears from off all
faces" (Isaiah 25:6-8); "The word of the L-rd came to Ezekiel ... and the
hand of the L-rd was there upon him. And I looked (Ezekiel said), and,
behold, a storm wind came out of the North, a great cloud, and a fire
flaring up, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst of it ...
came the likeness of four living creatures .... " (Ezekiel 1:1-5), and the
like.
And who could fail to be impressed by the likes of Moses, to whom "G-d
spoke ... face to face as a man speaks to his friend" (Exodus 33:11)?
In fact, we're told that there were many hundreds of thousands of prophets
in the course of ancient Jewish history, both male and female. So, what
sort of mortal could achieve such heights? And what would he or she had to
have done to come to that? Let's see.
Text Copyright © 2007 by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org