[Avodah] Rambam Prophesy

[Zev Sero]

> The words of Amos, a sheepbreeder from Tekoa, who prophesied concerning 
> Israel in the reigns of Kings Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam son of Joash 
> of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

I wrote my previous response without having looked at the meforshim. 
Having done so I see that the Abarbanel, anticipating R Joel, uses this 
pasuk to refute the Rambam, and the Malbim, anticipating R Alex, answers 
that it was a hora'as sha'ah.

Both of them take for granted that a lowly shepherd could not be the 
kind of person the Rambam is talking about. The Malbim, paraphrasing the 
Abarbanel, mentions "honor and riches" as traits of a prophet that Amos 
can be presumed not to have had.  I didn't see that in the Abarbanel's 
own words, and more importantly I don't recall seeing it in the Rambam.

As for the idea that such a lowly person would not have had the 
opportunity to "learn wisdom", I don't recall the Rambam requiring that 
either, but in any case why should he have been different from the many 
scholars in our history who were manual laborers?

As for the spiritual preparation that the Rambam says a navi needs, 
surely our entire history teaches us that shepherding is the ideal 
occupation for this!  Isn't that why the Avos, the Shevatim, Moshe, and 
David were all shepherds?

So I don't understand the question in the first place.

-- 
Zev Sero            Wishing everyone a healthy summer
zev at sero.name