[Avodah] Prophets are infallible?

[Daniel Eidensohn]

R' Zvi Lampel wrote:
>
> Every human being, even Moshe Rabbeynu, is fallible. But when true 
> prophets report a prophecy, the Sefer Ikarrim 3:17 cited succinctly 
> begins "sheh-kall divrei ha-neveim amti'im b'li safek,"--all the words 
> of the prophets are true without question (as is indeed the 6th of the 
> Rambam's 13 Ikarrim).
>
Where does it say in the Rambam's 6th principle that all the words of 
the prophets are true? In fact it doesn't even say that we must accept 
all of Moshe's prophecy as being true in the 7th principle. The 8th 
principle states that the Torah we have is what was given to Moshe at Sinai.
>
> The Sefer Ikarrim says--as does the Torah--that the prophets other 
> than Moses perceived and related Hashem's thoughts through imagary and 
> riddles. Thus, they perceived "seeing" Hashem which, as an 
> impossibility, is an erronous sight. Nevertheless, he says, they were 
> fully aware that the image they saw was not literally true, but only 
> true for the message intended. They did not misunderstand what they 
> saw, any more than one misunderstands a model of an atom when he knows 
> it's only a model of an atom.
>
I disagree with your reading of the Sefer HaIkkarim. He is saying that 
the words of the prophets are true in some sense - but not necessarily 
absolutely true. He is clearly saying that Yeshaya had misunderstood 
what he saw and that he lamented his error.

The Sefer HaIkkarim says: "Even though that all the words of the 
prophets are true without doubt, nevertheless according to the greatness 
of the prophet and his level of prophecy is the truth that comes from 
his words strengthened.. [In other words the statements of some prophets 
are more truthful than others. He then explains this by saying that the 
lower level  prophets did not see so clearly and this is equivalent to 
being able to see the object but not being able to distinguish the color 
or some other detail. However there is another distinction in accuracy 
of prophecy. Not only did the prophets differer on the amount and nature 
of the details but that there was a major difference between the 
prophecy of Moshe to that of the other prophets. The other prophets saw 
through visions and symbols while Moshe saw directly. Visions and 
symbols can be misunderstood and therefore  there was an additional rule 
that a prophet could not report seeing something that violated a 
principle that Moshe had reported in his prophecy.] Thus Moshe said that 
it is impossible to see Gd and therefore even though a prophet might 
mistakenly think he saw Gd - he had to know that it was an erroneous 
perception. Thus he says, "Gd spoke mouth to mouth to Moshe and not in 
riddles as with the other prophets [Bamidbar 12:6-8]. From this verse we 
know that the words fo Moshe werre absolutely true without any doubt and 
in contrast the words of Yeshaya who was on a lower level were not 
correct. Due to Yeshaya's inferior level he said, "I saw G-d". Yeshaya 
mistakenly thought that he saw G-d. However what he saw was the product 
of his imagination. In contrast Moshe's prophecy did not involve the 
faculty of imagination at all ... and he said that no man can see Gd and 
live - which is the truth. But Yeshaya utilized in his prophecy the 
faculty of imagination which our Sages call the "unclear lense" . He was 
thereby brought to error and to imagine that he had seen G-d. He himself 
said that his perception of Gd was in fact a mistake because of the 
involvment of his imagination. He states in this prophecy that he was 
brought to this error because he was not as spiritually refined as was 
Moshe. He said "I am a man of impure lips". Furthermore his character 
was not properly refined as he sat among bad peeople causes a 
degradation of a good person. that is why he says "Woe is to me that I 
imagined" In other words that he had been misled by the power of his 
imagination.and that he did not have the pure prophecy of Moshe... 
Consequently we learn from all of this that any prophet on a level lower 
than another prophet can not possibly contradict the words of the 
prophet who is superior to him.Since the Torah testifies that Moshe was 
the greatest prophet it is impossible to listen to any propeht who 
disagrees with him or rejedts his words...."

Furthermore Rashi, Metzudos Dovid and Redak note that Yeshaya is upset 
that because he was impure when he saw Gd he was going to die.Thus these 
commentaries are stating that Yeshaya was conviniced that He literally 
saw G-d..

The problem that comes from this analysis is that since Yeshaya realized 
he had erred - why did he record the erroneous understanding in his 
sefer? If he was required to record all his prophesy why didn't he 
clearly state that it could not have been an accurate report? The Sefer 
HaIkkarim notes that [Yevamos 49b] when Yeshaya was sentenced to death 
for stating that he had seen Gd he had not defended himself. But that he 
could have stated that even those in Moshe's time had made this error 
and it had been recorded in the Torah [Shemos 24:10]. But why was an 
erroroneous description recorded in the Torah without any indication 
that it was an error?

Daniel Eidensohn