I think that a million people experiencing something together is very powerful, and presumably they all weren't mistaken, because they all experienced it and judged it to be real.

But with a prophet I don't have evidence of that.
We're talking about a monarchical, dictatorial period, so it's possible that a prophet advanced himself by force or persuaded a small number of people.

After all, the prophet didn't go around to every single person in Israel and perform a sign for him, so I don't know the group that saw the sign and made the decision.

How do we know he really was a prophet?

After all, some of the Jewish people also believe that the Tannaim and Amoraim could raise the dead, and that the Ari dealt with divine inspiration. And more and more.

So how do we know that something similar didn't happen in the period of the prophets?

With God's help, 9 Cheshvan 5783

To E.R. — hello,

The prophets in their own generation were outcasts and were persecuted by "high society." They were humiliated with cries of "the man of spirit is mad" and "seer, go flee." Isaiah testified: "I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not hide my face from disgrace and spitting." Jeremiah was thrown into prison and they tried to eliminate him. So where are the charisma and the power?

Their strength was, first and foremost, in being people of values. The people saw that they were not only preaching morality and faithfulness to God, but also realizing in their own way of life the values they preached. Integrity teaches credibility. And therefore their successors too — the Tannaim and Amoraim, the medieval authorities (Rishonim) and the later authorities (Acharonim) — merited the faith of the nation, which saw in them an example of loyalty to the Torah and its values.

But the truth of their prophecies was proven to all through the fulfillment of the prophecies. They prophesied the destruction of the Temple and the exile, and also the return to the Land after seventy years, when contrary to all political logic, the kings of Persia and Media allowed a nation exiled because of its rebelliousness to return to its homeland and establish there a Temple and a capital that stirred the national consciousness of the Jews throughout the empire. There were endless advisers who prosecuted against them — Sanballats and Hamans, Ammonites and Cutheans — who "wrote accusations," and it did not help them. The Jews returned to their land and began to build it and restore it.

And what happened in the "first return," after 70 years of exile, is happening before our eyes even more intensely in our own generations, when after 2,000 years of exile, the anguished and persecuted people returned "from the land of the north and from all the lands to which I had banished them there." And our own eyes see in wonder the "mountains of Israel" bearing their branches and yielding their fruit "for My people Israel, for they are soon to come." And you ask where the proof is for the truth of the prophecies?

Best regards,
Amiauz Yaron Schnitzler

In contrast to the prophets of Israel, who were accepted by their nation (and later by humanity in general) without a drop of political or military power, the "prophets" of Christianity and Islam did indeed impose their faith by force on hundreds of millions, while their "disciples" became rulers of empires that lasted for hundreds of years. They had power, and we — only credibility…

Okay.
What does Rabbi Michael Abraham think?

I wrote what I think. People today believe that Amoraim revived the dead. I haven't seen people in their own time who believed that. But really, we've exhausted this discussion.