[Avodah] Prophecy

[Zev Sero via Avodah]

On 07/20/2016 10:19 AM, Cantor Wolberg via Avodah wrote:
> I find it odd that a gadol like Rambam would omit sources to back his
> decisions, etc.

He saw no need for it.  His goal was to write one simple, easy-to-read
work that anybody with sufficient intelligence could study and know the
whole Torah, without having to plow through the mishneh and gemara.
He had done all the work for the reader, and all the reader had to do was
trust him.  If you didn't trust him then why were you bothering to read
it in the first place?  It didn't occur to him at that point that he would
have to deal with challenges from other rabbis.


> So if God will forgive those who have committed various sins thus
> annulling a negative prophecy, why couldn’t the converse be possible
> — namely, God condemning those who had been good and then turned to
> sin, thus annulling positive prophecy?

Because He gave us this test.  He said if a navi says something will
happen and it doesn't, "That is a thing that Hashem didn't say, the
navi said it wickedly, do not fear him".   And, through Bil`am, He
said "God is not a man that He should disappoint, or a human that He
should change His mind".   However we know that He *does* change His
mind about bad decrees, both because we have numerous examples of Him
doing just that, and because two authentic nevi'im described Him as
one "Who *changes His mind* about bad things".   Therefore His claim
that He doesn't must apply only to good prophecies.

(You missed this because the translator of the book you are reading
missed it too; to correctly translate something one must first understand
it, and he didn't.)


-- 
Zev Sero               Meaningless combinations of words do not acquire
zev at sero.name          meaning merely by appending them to the two other
                        words `God can'.  Nonsense remains nonsense, even
                        when we talk it about God.   -- C S Lewis