[Avodah] Prophet - mashgiach or godol hador?

[Daniel Eidensohn]

I recently realized that the Rambam's concept of a prophet seems to be 
that of mashgiach. He is concerned with human perfection - both 
individual and national - but not halacha nor with leadership. He is not 
an authority or posek. For example Moreh Nevuchim (2:36). Furthermore he 
doesn't even seem to require that the prophet be a Torah scholar Finally 
the prophet as prophet is prophibited to be involved in halacha.

In contrast there are a number of sources which view the prophet as the 
ultimate leader - the godol hador. The following indicate that true 
leadership involves some aspect o prophecy

*Ramban(Devarim 17:11): Left and Right.  *...t he Torah was given to us 
in writing and it is known that people don’t think identically in all 
matters. Therefore it would be natural for disputes over what the Torah 
means to continually multiply and it would end up that there would be 
many Torahs instead of one. That is why this verse tells you that one 
must obey the Sanhedrin which convenes in G‑d’s presence in the Temple – 
in everything they say concerning the understanding of the Torah. There 
is no difference in the requrement to obey whether this Torah 
understanding is part of the Tradition which goes back what G‑d told 
Moshe or what their understanding of the meaning or intent of a Torah 
verse.  This requirement to accept their Torah understanding is because 
the Torah was in fact given to us according to their understanding. 
Therefore they must be obeyed even if their view contrasts with your 
understanding as left contrasts with right and surely if you agree with 
their understanding. That is because G‑d’s spirit is on those who serve 
in His Temple and He does not desert His pious ones. G‑d always protects 
them from error and mistake. The Sifri (Shoftim 154) says that you must 
obey them even if appears that they have reversed right with left and 
left with right.

*Chinuch (#516): *We are commanded to listen to all the prophets in all 
that they command us to do. They are to be obeyed even if they tell us 
to temporarily do something against one of the mitzvos of the Torah or 
even many of them - except for idol worship. Since he is a true prophet 
all his intentions are for the good and whatever he does it is to 
strenghten the religion and the belief in G‑d. This is clearly stated in 
the Torah (Devarim 18:15) and is explained in the Sifre (175). The basis 
of this mitzva is that the ultimate level that a man can achieve is that 
of a prophecy. Furthermore for a human being in this world, prophecy is 
the highest level of knowledge of the truth possible. It is knowledge 
that is not open to dispute since it comes from the fountain of truth 
itself. Few people achieve the level of development that is required to 
reach prophecy. The ladder needed to reach it is immense with its feet 
on the earth and its top in the heavens. Who is the man with the proper 
fear of G‑d who has the merit to ascend G‑d's mountain and stand in His 
holy place? Only one of hundreds of thousands of men achieves this level 
and only in a generation that is deserving of it. Therefore the Torah 
commanded us that one who in fact achieves this ultimate level of human 
achievement and he is known to us as having the spiritual qualities and 
conduct of a true prophet – he is to be obeyed in all that he commands. 
That is because he is the one who knows the way of truth and therefore 
he will guide us in it. We should not be so arrogant as to defy his 
words and to disagree with him because any dispute with him on any 
matter is a total error and can only be because of the lack of knowledge 
of the truth.


Kuzari (*3:40-41): T*he prohibition (Devarim 4:2) of not adding or 
subtracting from the Torah only applies to the masses. It means that the 
masses should not innovate commandments on their own and attribute 
these  contrived commandments to the Torah as the Karaites do. In other 
words they were  commanded by the Torah not to add or subtract from the 
Torah on their own – but rather that they should accept new commandments 
from the prophets that came after Moshe  as well as the priests and the 
judges. The intent of the Torah is to prevent the addition to the 
commandments given by Moshe in the Torah or that which has been 
legitimately commanded by the prophets or to add on to that which we 
have been told by the priests and the judges of the Sanhedrin. The 
reason for obeying the additions of these authorities is that they have 
received Divine assistance in their judgments – which is not true for 
the masses. Additionally since these authorities are very large in 
number it is not likely that they would agree amongst themselves to 
something which is against the Torah. Furthermore it is very unlikely 
that they would err because of their great wisdom  which they have 
acquired – partly because of inherited tradition, partly because of 
their natural superior intelligence and partly because of their personal 
effort.  It is known through tradition that the Sanhedrin was required 
to have mastered all the branches of wisdom. In addition the Sanhedrin 
existed at the period where prophecy - or bas kol which took its  place 
- had just ended.

Is it reasonable to conclude that only the Rambam views the prophet or 
one with ruach hakodesh as mashgiach while others view him as the godol 
hador with Daas Torah i.e., - the infallible rosh yeshiva, posek, leader 
etc?


Daniel Eidensohn


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20061208/da0c9d64/attachment-0001.htm>