[Avodah] Prophet - mashgiach or godol hador?

[David Riceman]

According to the Rambam a prophet has the status of a prophet only when he 
is prophesying in God's name.  The rest of the time he's a normal civilian, 
and he is entitled to any position he's qualified for, including head of the 
Sanhedrin (e.g., Shmuel) or king (e.g., melech hamashiah).

According to the Sefer Hahinnuch as understood by the Minhath Hinnuch 
(henceforth SHAUBTMH) a prophet always has the status of a prophet.

It seems to me that RDE's deductions go far beyond these premeses.

From: "Daniel Eidensohn" <yadmoshe at 012.net.il>

> My suggestion is that the Rambam views the prophet in the same way as we 
> view a mashgiach - in relationship to to a rosh yeshiva or a magid in 
> relationship to a rav. Someone who advises or suggest rather than having a 
> position of leadership. Someone who is sensitive, wise and insightful  - 
> but doesn't have political or decision making power.

The problem with this is that, as I pointed out above, the Rambam doesn't 
restrict what a prophet does when he isn't prophesying.  In fact he can be a 
king or a member of the Sanhedrin.

Rather, the plausible understanding is that the Rambam assigns no role to a 
prophet who is not prophesying simply because he's not a prophet then.  When 
he acts as a prophet he is no longer himself, he is God's emissary, and in 
that circumstance we are obliged to obey him..

This is why RDF is wrong when he says:

From: <dfinch847 at aol.com>
> By Rambam, the prophet is a prescient intellectual who would know when to 
> invoke G-d's command and when to invoke the lesser province of reason and 
> argument.

The prophet has no (halachic) choice: he violates halacha if he prophesies 
when not so instructed by God and if he fails to prophesy when so instructed 
by God.

Back to RDE:

> In contrast we today view our gedollim as being endowed with ruach 
> hakodesh.

I don't know who you mean by "we".  I'm not sure, however, that the Rambam 
would necessarily dispute the possibility of ruah hakodesh in this context. 
See MN II:45, the first and second degrees.

> A specific example is that the Rambam does not allow the involvement of 
> ruach hakodesh in the Sanhedrin while the Ramban does.

Where is this Ramban? The Rambam doesn't proscribe ruah hakodesh, he just 
proscribes other members of the Sanhedrin letting it influence them.

> Another distinguishing factor between the Rambam's concept and others is 
> whether the prophet must be obeyed in everything he says or just what he 
> says in G-d's name.

Other than the SHAUBTMH I don't know of anyone who says this.  Are there 
explicit sources? It's true that Halevi says that a prophet is qualitatively 
different from a normal person, but so does the Rambam.

David Riceman