חדש באתר: עוזר בינה מלאכותית המבוסס על כתביו ושיעוריו של הרב מיכאל אברהם

Q&A: How Prophets Became Prophets All of a Sudden

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Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.

How Prophets Became Prophets All of a Sudden

Question

Hello,
If I understand correctly, there were prophets in the Hebrew Bible who simply “became” prophets all of a sudden.
I don’t understand that—how can a person suddenly become a prophet?
After all, prophecy is also a very elevated spiritual state, as I understand it. In other words: if a person is not accustomed to spirituality on a very high level, how can he suddenly be able to become / contain such a “status” of the Creator Himself speaking with him (even if it is not direct like Moses our Teacher)? Doesn’t something like that require “training” and spiritual ascent over many years?
Besides that, being a prophet in the sense of speaking to the people and so on requires various skills in public speaking, phrasing and conveying messages, dealing with opposition from different people and movements, and all the different human skills required of a person who is supposed to chart a path for millions of people. It’s like, for example, a soldier can’t jump straight to Chief of Staff without going through many ranks, training programs, and different courses. And to become Chief of Staff too, I assume you need to go through many courses in management, economics, resource management, and the like. Any leader also needs breadth of understanding, or at least some familiarity with different fields such as history, philosophy, psychology, economics, and so on.
I just can’t understand how an “ordinary” person can, within a few minutes, become a prophet and start prophesying and charting a course for the whole people.
So either I did not understand the Hebrew Bible correctly and the various prophets were at a very high spiritual and human level, or they went through some sort of “training” that is not written in the Hebrew Bible, or there really is such a thing as undergoing a “transformation” in a short time (but I don’t understand technically how that is possible—how can you suddenly “rise” so many levels mentally / spiritually and beyond? How is that different, for example, from stories about people who won the lottery and were unable to handle it and squandered all their winnings in a short time?), or prophecy does not require these things and I do not understand prophecy correctly, or we are talking about people who are some kind of “prodigies” who grasp things very quickly, or some other explanation.
Thank you

Answer

I don’t understand the question. First of all, who told you they didn’t undergo training, or that their personality was not shaped toward this over time? Second, if the Holy One, blessed be He, wants, then even a broom can shoot and a wagon driver can prophesy (and not like Rashba in responsum 234, part 4).

Discussion on Answer

Beiti (2021-02-22)

A well-known chapter in Guide for the Perplexed 2:32 https://tinyurl.com/1m7jzl9w

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