[Avodah] Why Lie When Truth Can Also Achieve Peace

Arie Folger afolger at aishdas.org
Wed Jan 2 09:10:11 PST 2013


RZS wrote:
> Why are you even dragging nevuah into this?  First of all, a navi
> *is* "a soothsayer or prognosticator".  When your donkeys go
> missing, you go to the navi to ask him where they are.   When
> you're sick, you go to him for a cure.

I figured you were goign to refer to Shaul and Shemuel. Well, just
because people, including Kish, would go for that to the navi doesn't
mean that the navi always or often knew the answer.

The text contains insufficient information to know how often the navi
would be able to provide such information, as to where the donkeys
are, and I posit that Shemuel knew because G"d wanted him to know so
as to send Shaul on his particular journey, where he ended up
prophetising, too. Of course, you will claim the opposite, but it is
really unprovable, both claims are plausible. Except ... such
occurrences are rather rare in Tanakh, which is why I suggest that
prophets really aren't running some massive lost and found operation,
but rather guide Jews (and non Jews occasionally) to do teshuva. Only
what he needs to know for his tafkid is revealed to him.

Now as far as praying for someone, well, gedolim do this today, too,
why should it have been different then? Since neviim were so much
greater, of course people wanted them to pray for them, guide them in
prayer to G"d. Nothing controversial about that. On the other hand,
whether they were all ba'al moftim like Eliyahu and Elisha, well, I
would deny that. Those two were extraordinarily exceptional, and
Eliyahu couldn't even guarantee that Elisha would get those gifts,
because even prophets weren't that great.

Kol tuv,
--
Arie Folger,
Recent blog posts on http://ariefolger.wordpress.com/
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