Q&A: Divine Involvement and Prophecy
Divine Involvement and Prophecy
Question
Hello,
Rabbi’s thesis about divine involvement in reality argues that such intervention existed in the past, but no longer exists today. The claim that today there is no involvement is completely reasonable; there are no signs of such involvement.
But if so, isn’t it more reasonable to conclude from this that there never was any divine involvement in reality? What reason is there to think there was involvement in the past, and why did it stop?
The same question also applies to prophecy. We do not see prophets today, so why think there were any in the past?
Answer
Because I have trust in the Torah and in our tradition.
Discussion on Answer
That question is too long for the responsa. I discussed it at length in the fifth talk of The First Existent. But if you’ve already gotten to the revelation at Mount Sinai, the road is not a long one.
Sorry for butting in. As I understand the witness argument, its entire force rests on the inextricable link between the historicity of the revelation at Mount Sinai and the text that reports it (which was revealed at the event). Otherwise, what do you think the witness argument is even talking about..?
From my limited familiarity, the witness argument rests on the fact that millions of people believe in a revelation.
Maybe this is already spilling over into a question that ought to be given a different title, but why do you have such trust?
I understand that there is a sort of inferential chain here: the Torah is from Heaven -> what is written in the Torah is true. Therefore, divine involvement. The Torah says that prophets are destined to arise -> therefore there is prophecy, and there is no reason not to believe that those prophets were Isaiah and Jeremiah.
But the first link is weak. Why is the Torah from Heaven? The only argument I know on this subject is the witness argument, but at most it proves that the revelation at Mount Sinai took place, and how can one get from there to the Torah?