Q&A: Prophecies from the Torah
Prophecies from the Torah
Question
11:45
Hello, honored Rabbi. I recently had a discussion with an atheist friend, and I brought him examples of prophecies from the Torah as proof of its truth: in the Book of Deuteronomy chapter 28:
64 “And the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known, wood and stone. 65 And among those nations you shall find no ease, neither shall the sole of your foot have rest; but the Lord will give you there a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul. 66 And your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you shall fear night and day, and have no assurance of your life. 67 In the morning you shall say, ‘Would it were evening!’ and at evening you shall say, ‘Would it were morning!’ because of the fear of your heart which you shall fear, and because of the sight of your eyes which you shall see.”
And I said to him: how does the text know that the Jewish people would be exiled “from one end of the earth to the other,” which indeed happened over the course of history? There was no other people like the Jewish people, who were scattered everywhere, and there is almost no place in the world that has not had a Jewish community, either now or in the past.
And also, how does the text know that the Jews would have no rest there, because of the hatred of the nations?
Another example:
Book of Leviticus chapter 26
32 “And I will make the land desolate; and your enemies who dwell in it shall be appalled at it. 33 And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you; and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities a waste. …. 36 And as for those of you who remain, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a driven leaf shall chase them, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword; and they shall fall when none pursues. 37 And they shall stumble over one another as before a sword, when none pursues; and you shall have no power to stand before your enemies. 38 And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall consume you. 39 And those of you who remain shall waste away in their iniquity in the lands of your enemies; and also in the iniquities of their fathers they shall waste away with them.”
I asked him: how does the mysterious writer know that when the people of Israel are in exile, their enemies will not succeed in settling the land—“your enemies who dwell in it shall be appalled at it”? And in fact we know from the history of the Land of Israel that for two thousand years all the great empires were here, and they did not manage to do anything significant here, aside from a few isolated cities, but no one succeeded in establishing a real state here! Except for the people of Israel, who returned a little more than two hundred years ago!
And above all, the question arises: how can the text promise them that they will return to the land?!
In the Book of Deuteronomy chapter 30:
3 “Then the Lord your God will restore your captivity and have compassion upon you, and will return and gather you from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. 4 If any of your outcasts are at the ends of the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will take you. 5 And the Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will do you good and multiply you more than your fathers.” And indeed, we returned to the land by all kinds of improbable paths, and the Jewish people, in seventy years of statehood, achieved unprecedented accomplishments, such as no country founded in those years had achieved… Our ancestors’ ancestors could only have dreamed of what we have today… I was sure he would be left stunned, but very quickly he gave me answers that I found very hard to deal with: A. How does the text know that the Jewish people would be exiled “from one end of the earth to the other”?
Easy. That was a known practice in that period.
There’s no shortage of peoples to whom this happened.
Here are examples—from the Assyrian exiles alone!—
https://he.wikipedia.org/…/%D7%94%D7%94%D7%92%D7%9C%D7…
In other words, the “prophet” is prophesying based on what he sees and knows around him.
B. How does the text know that the Jews would have no rest there, because of the hatred of the nations?
“No rest” is a complicated concept and not really clear.
Have American Jews not had rest for over a hundred years?
Let’s try another way: can you give an example of an ethnic minority that “has it easy”?
Do Palestinians have it easy in Syria? Do Druze have it easy in Iraq? Do Armenians have it easy in Turkey?
I would be grateful if you could please explain to me what the difference is between the prophecy of the biblical prophet and the “prophecy” of this Jew:
http://wallstreet.bizportal.co.il/articles.php?id=86796
Does the Rabbi have answers to all these questions, which for me were very difficult? Especially the issue of American Jewry, and the nations that did in fact manage to establish themselves in the land despite the prophecy in the Torah.
Answer
I also do not see these “proofs” from the Torah’s prophecies as anything decisive, especially because the wording really is vague and open to interpretation. If this interests you, you can check with the organization Arachim, which deals with this.
Discussion on Answer
Hello Eldad. How did you jump from what I wrote to that conclusion? Is the prophecy about exile and return to the land false? What I wrote is that it is hard to prove the truth of the Torah from this, because it is open to interpretation, and according to your friend also because the ability to predict exile is not all that impressive (on that point I don’t really agree). But this prophecy was fulfilled.
In general, there is a difference between saying that it has not been proven that the prophecy was fulfilled, or that its fulfillment is not impressive, and saying that it was not fulfilled.
Thank you.
What is hard for me is the phrase “your enemies who dwell in it shall be appalled at it,” because seemingly that did not happen, since the nations did settle here quite well… and also “you shall find no rest” was not fulfilled, since in the U.S. it has always been wonderful for Jews. So either the prophecy is fulfilled in full, or we say it was fulfilled by a third, by half, by a quarter…
Because of lack of time, see the book Our Generation Facing the Questions of Eternity; there it explains the truth of the prophecies much better. Broadly speaking, this is by virtue of 4 rare parameters that are all fulfilled in the prophecies. Regarding “your enemies who dwell in it shall be appalled at it,” this is in the book of Leviticus, which deals with the Babylonian exile. But Ibn Ezra understands “shall be appalled” to mean they will be astonished at the destruction. When? Immediately afterward and close to it. As for the exile in America, it does not really bother us that there are exceptions. Is it not generally true that there was a state of unrest? Also, American Jews contribute to Israeli Jewry and thereby are part of the project of return, and in that sense how are they any less in exile? And besides, the entire new era stands under the sign of “redemption.” And if you insist that much: how do you know their tranquility will last forever? There is much more to elaborate.
They really did not settle here well. You chose the least successful example. Which nations settled here well? The gap between the situation before Zionism arrived and after is absolute and unequivocal.
And when it says you will know no rest, it does not mean every moment and every place, but a general description. You could also ask about people in the Holocaust who had some moment of relief. That is not serious. Broadly speaking, there is no doubt that exile was an ongoing trauma.
So I don’t understand—are these prophecies false? Did they never happen?