Q&A: Questions About Prophecy
Questions About Prophecy
Question
I previously asked whether, according to Tosafot (Yevamot 50), it is possible that a prophet has no way of knowing the future. The Rabbi answered that this is indeed what Tosafot and also the Shelah say. If so, then prophecy tells us nothing about the future? How, then, does the Torah say, “When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, and the thing does not happen and does not come about, that is the thing the Lord did not speak; the prophet spoke it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him”? Besides that, many prophecies describe things that are going to happen with complete certainty.
I also asked whether it is possible that some prophecies will not be fulfilled, for example the prophecies that describe the Messiah as poor and riding on a donkey, and others that describe him as riding on the clouds, with the Sages’ answer being that these are two possible paths. If so, after the Messiah comes and one of those paths is fulfilled, the second prophecy turns out not to be true—meaning it is not a prophecy that was destined to be fulfilled? Are prophecies only an option?
Thank you very much
Answer
At the stage when they test the prophet, the Holy One, blessed be He, will presumably make sure that his prophecies are fulfilled. Prophecies that are said about the future always carry an air of certainty, but that is not necessarily correct.
As for the paths of redemption, I explained that it is indeed possible that these are two possibilities, only one of which will be realized. That does not mean the second one was not true. It said that if they were worthy, “I will hasten it,” but they were not worthy. See the previous paragraph.
Please don’t open a new thread for every question. Add this as a continuation of the original thread where this was being discussed.
Put the link here and I’ll move it there.
Even in the Torah, God Himself does not know the future and conducts experiments. So how would a prophet know? The Torah explains to the foolish person, in a simple way, how to identify charlatans.
Prophecy, in the form that many fools understand it, is basically just another word for magic, divination, and the rest of the nonsense that fools believe in and that the Torah forbids.