<html><head></head><body><P><FONT size=2><FONT face="Courier New">Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2006 R' Daniel Eidensohn <yadmoshe@012.net.il> wrote:<BR><BR>R' Zvi Lampel wrote: <BR>> Rabbi Daniel Eidensohn Fri, 03 Nov 2006, wrote: <BR>> <BR>> "Sefer Haikarrim 3:17 says that prophets other than Moshe are fallible <BR>> i.e. they can misunderstand what they are seeing. <BR>> <BR>> New ZL: <BR>> But he also says in what sense the prophets misunderstood., and the sense is as <BR>> I stated. Again: They sometimes saw things that were false in their literal <BR>> sense, and in this sense "misunderstood," but were also perfectly aware that <BR>> what they saw was meant in a non-literal sense. What they lamented was the fact <BR>> that unlike Moshe Rabbeynu, they were not on the level to be priveleged to <BR>> perceive the prophecy in a non-metaphorical representation. This is clear from <BR>> the words of the Sefer HaIkarrim: <BR>> <BR>> "Yeshaya said ... ?Oy li that my eyes saw the King Hashem Tsevakos and /I know/ <BR>> that this is the work of the imaginative faculty, because it is without <BR>> question impossible to attribute any form to Him, Yisborach.?" The Sefer <BR>> Ikarrim is therefore clear that the prophet is /aware/ that the "literal" image <BR>> is false, and that the real message is solely in the nimshal to which that <BR>> imagery alludes (as RDE himself wrote: "He [Yeshaya] himself said that his <BR>> perception of Gd was in fact a mistake because of the involvement of his <BR>> imagination"). The Sefer Ikarrim clearly holds that the imagery the prophet <BR>> perceives is true in its message, although untrue in its "literal" sense.* <BR>> <BR>> <BR>RDE:<BR>IMHO your understanding of Sefer HaIkkarim is inaccurate.. In the <BR>section immediately before that which you cited above is: <BR><BR>"We know that the words of Moshe are true according to their literal <BR>meaning without any question. In contrast the words of Yeshaya - who is <BR>on a lower level then Moshe - are not correct. Therefore because of his <BR>lower level Yeshaya said, "I saw G-d." YESHAYA THOUGHT THAT HE WAS <BR>SEEING G-D - but it wasn't so. This image was the result of his <BR>imaginative faculty. .... But Yeshaya [in contrast to Moshe] utilized <BR>the imaginative faculty in his prophecy - that which is called by our <BR>Sages as "aspaklaria she'eino me'ira". He was brought to error and to <BR>imagine that he had actually seen Gd. <BR><BR>He is clearly saying that Yeshaya mistakenly thought - when he saw the <BR>vision - that it was literally true. It was only later that he realized <BR>it was a mistake. <BR></FONT><BR><BR><BR><BR></FONT></P><br></body></html>