Episode #20 The Father of Prophecy
In this episode, Rabbi Reinman discusses the singular nature of Moshe’s prophetic powers and the journey by which he arrived at them.
CHAPTER TWENTY
The Father of Prophecy
Moses was born during the period when the Egyptians were drowning Jewish male babies. His mother placed him in a basket of reeds and set him adrift in the river. Pharaoh’s daughter found him, protected him and brought him up in the palace. Moses knew full well that he was Jewish, but he had little contact with his birth people. At the age of twenty, he killed an Egyptian who was assailing a Jewish man, and he had to flee for his life. Eventually, his travels led him to Midian where he married Tziporah, the daughter of Jethro. Sixty years after fleeing from Egypt, he returned as God’s messenger.
The rest of the story is told in the Torah in great detail. He is the great hero of Jewish history. He redeemed the Jewish people from bondage in Egypt. He brought them to Mount Sinai to receive the Torah from God. He taught them the Torah in the wilderness for forty years until they reached the threshold of the Holy Land, at which point he passed away.
The concluding verses of the Torah are an epitaph to his life. The Torah lauds him as the greatest prophet of all time, the one who encountered God face to face, so to speak. He is considered the father of prophecy. Elsewhere, the Torah is more specific.
Because of the frequency and unpredictability of his prophetic encounters, Moses had stopped having connubial relations with his wife. Miriam remarked to Aharon, “Does God speak only to Moses? He speaks to us as well.” In other words, why does he consider himself so holy that he must become celibate? We are also prophets, and we are not celibate.
Although this was an affront to Moses, the Torah tells us that he did not take offense, because he was more humble than any other person on the earth. But God did not let this pass. He summoned the three of them to the Tent of Meeting, and He said to Miriam and Aharon, “Heed My words. If there should be prophets among you, I will make Myself known to them in a vision. I will speak to them in a dream. But it is not so with My servant Moses. He is trusted in My entire house. I speak to him mouth to mouth in a clear vision without riddles. He gazes at the image of God. Why aren’t you afraid to speak against My servant Moses?”
Here we see the clear differentiation between the prophecies of Moses and the prophecies of other prophets. Moses received his prophecies with perfect clarity while fully awake. This is called aspaklaria meira, through a clear lens. Other prophets received their prophecies in the form of symbols and riddles conveyed through visions and dreams. This is called aspaklaria she’einah meira, through a translucent lens.
Moses was able to achieve the highest form of prophecy, something no one else before or after could achieve. His prophecies were Shechinah medaberes mitoch grono, the Divine Presence speaking through his throat. The words he spoke were the exact words God said to him. Other prophets interpreted the symbols and riddles in their visions and formulated the prophecies in their own words. Nonetheless, says the Rambam, there was no room for error. Once the prophet deciphered the puzzle, there could be no question about the solution. If there was even the slightest doubt about the correctness of the interpretation, says the Rambam, how could Abraham have been ready to sacrifice his son based on his prophecy?
In order for Moses to fulfill his mission, it was critical that God put the exact words into his mouth. He would receive the Torah from God and deliver it to the people. Every word, every letter had incalculable significance. Every word, every letter would be studied intensely for thousands of years. They had to be God’s exact words, not text formulated by a human being to convey a message from God.
The Rambam writes in the Moreh and in the Yad that a person had to reach high levels of intellectual and moral perfection before he could receive prophecy. It follows, therefore, that for Moses to achieve the ultimate levels of prophecy he had to reach levels of personal perfection higher than those of any other prophet.
How did he reach such a sublime level of prophecy? Was it given to him as a gift so that he could deliver the Torah to the Jewish people? Clearly not. During his first prophetic encounter with God at the burning bush, the Torah tells us that an angel spoke to him from the flames. At that point, he had obviously reached high levels of intellectual and moral perfection. Otherwise, he could not have received prophecy. But his powers of prophecy were still ordinary at most. How did he reach the heights he achieved? What was the process of his growth?
Another point we must consider is the seemingly paradoxical statement of the Torah. Before we are told that he was the greatest prophet who ever lived, we are told that he was more humble than any person on earth. He was the greatest yet the most humble. Is this really a paradox? Or is one the cause of the other?
There is no doubt that Moses was fully aware of his personal qualities, his brilliance and his incredible prophetic powers. But he also knew to the very depths of his soul that the purpose of his existence was to be the painting that recognizes the Painter, to serve God to the best of his ability. He had total self-abnegation. Even Abraham said, “I am but dust and ashes.” But Moses went even further. He said, “I am nothing.” Not even dust and ashes. He had absolutely no independent existence.
The Rambam writes that God always speaks to a prophet through an angel. Moses was the exception. Why does He speak through an angel? It’s to impress on the prophet that although he is receiving a divine message, God is infinitely removed from him. He receives his prophecy in symbols and riddles for the same reason. It’s to add emphasis to the distance. His prophecy passes through layers before it reaches him. Why does he need this emphasis? Because if a prophet has any ego, he does not have a full appreciation of the unfathomable distance of God from the material world. If he did, the material world would vanish in his perception. There would be no place for ego. We are nothing. Ein od milevado. We have no independent existence. We have no personal needs or interest that do not serve God’s commands.
How does a person get closer to God? By recognizing God’s infinite distance. The greater the recognition the greater the closeness. Moses had absolutely no ego. He had the highest appreciation of God’s infinite distance possible. Therefore, he came closest to God. Therefore, he is trusted in God’s entire house. Therefore, God speaks to him face to face. Therefore, there is no need for angels and symbols and riddles to impress upon him God’s distance from the material world. Moses showed that he understood this on his own by eliminating his ego. It took a lot of effort, but he did it.
When God first spoke to him at the burning bush, Moses objected that he was unworthy of approaching Pharaoh and demanding the release of the Jewish people. God responded to this objection, and Moses raised another objection. This went on for seven days before he finally accepted his mission.
It is really amazing. Who would do such a thing? God sends a person on a mission and assures him that he will be protected and successful, and he argues for seven days? And yet, this is what Moses did. Why did he do it?
Moses understood that in order to be worthy of this mission he had to eliminate his ego. If he had said, “Sure, I’m on it. I’ll do it,” he would have immediately disqualified himself. God wanted him to claim he was unworthy, and by doing so he gradually became worthy. Seven days, one day after the other, Moses chipped away at his ego, reducing it, reducing it, until it was practically gone.
The final step took place when he took leave of his father-in-law and prepared to travel to Egypt. God said to him, “When you go and return to Egypt, consider all the wonders I have placed at your command.” Rashi brings the interpretation of the Sages that God was in effect saying to him, “Know full well that you are going to perform My mission heroically. Perform all My wonders before Pharaoh, and do not fear him.”
In what way was Moses required to be heroic? All he had to do was say everything God told him to say and do everything God told him to do. God would do the rest. He did not have to add anything heroic of his own. It would seem that anyone could have done what he did.
The singular heroism needed for the mission appears in the last statement. “Do not be afraid.” If Moses had harbored any fear in his heart, he would have disqualified himself from the mission. The point of the wonders and the plagues was to demonstrate that God was the absolute master of the world. Nothing else had any independent existence. Everyone, including the great Pharaoh, was completely inconsequential, not worthy of being feared.
God’s telling him not to be afraid indicates that Moses still had some miniscule sense of self that Pharaoh might harm. Moses removed this last vestige of ego, undoubtedly with intense emotional and spiritual effort, and thereby he became the humblest person in the entire world. At this point, he became worthy of receiving prophecy through a clear lens. From this point on, God spoke to him directly.
