Q&A: Prophecies That Came True
Prophecies That Came True
Question
Hello and blessings,
In your book you addressed the issue of prophecies that came true, mainly in the area of exile and return.
Do you not think it is plausible that these things were written in the Book of Deuteronomy—which is entirely a completion and updating of the Torah—after the exile and return of the First Temple? As if to explain after the fact how these things happened, rather than as a prophecy about the future?
Answer
I don’t think so. But discussion of these kinds of speculations is not really interesting to me. There is no real way to decide such questions. a0
Discussion on Answer
You do understand that you’re begging the question, right? You assume it isn’t from Heaven, and then the prophecies also can’t be true, so it must have been written after the exile.
No, I’m not begging the question. In any case, I’m not coming to philosophically spar; I’m asking because it genuinely bothers me.
So why can’t it be that a genuine prophecy was written in the Torah?
Besides, these are questions of biblical criticism, which Rabbi Michi addresses less. For questions like these, in my opinion it would be better to ask Rabbi Sherki.
I don’t understand why this is so speculative.
It is written in the Torah that God brings us to the land.
We were exiled from the land.
So it would need to be added to the Torah that not only can this happen, it will happen. And that’s why there’s all the insistence on “I call heaven and earth to witness against you,” etc., so that you won’t say this was unexpected.