NJ Jewish News | The puzzle of prophecy

by Dr. Neil Gillman
professor of Jewish philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and author of The Death of Death: Resurrection and Immortality in Jewish Thought and The Way Into Encountering God in Judaism.

You must be wholehearted with the Lord your God.” This isolated verse in the middle of this week’s Torah portion caught my eye. It is quoted again and again throughout our tradition because it captures succinctly the essence of Jewish piety. To be “tamim,” wholehearted, means that we should not be divided, inwardly, in our devotion to God. No dual loyalties here. God demands undivided faith.

The verse is “isolated” because of the peculiar context in which it appears, at the heart of a 14-verse passage dealing with prophecy. (Devarim 18:9-22) Preceding this verse are four verses forbidding the Israelites to consult soothsayers, sorcerers, diviners, necromancers, and the like, all functionaries who are consulted by the pagans of the land. Then, precipitously: “You must be wholehearted with the Lord your God,” followed in turn by a longer passage promising that for the Israelites, those pagan functionaries will be replaced by the prophet.

What does being wholehearted have to do with necromancy and prophecy?

The problem with those abhorrent, pagan practices is that they all rely on some form of magic. Magic is at the heart of pagan religion. Pagan religions assume that certain rituals, if performed accurately, will bend the forces of nature to ensure a desired outcome. The ritual works, predictably, because it taps the ultimate powers that control the universe. In pagan religions, even the gods perform magic because they too depend on those ultimate powers. Pagan gods are not ultimate.

Prophecy, in contrast, is under God’s control. Our passage is explicit: “Instead…” — this key word, not explicitly in the Hebrew text, is added by Professor Jeffrey H. Tigay in his commentary (to 18:15) in order to establish the contrast between the pagan practices and prophecy. “Instead, the Lord, your God, will raise up for you a prophet from among your own people…. I will put My words in his mouth, and he will speak to them all that I command him.” The authentic prophet speaks God’s words. The false prophet is one who speaks his own words or words inspired by another god.

But how is one supposed to know which words are the words of God and which the words of a false god? Our text supplies an answer: If the prophecy comes true, the words are God’s; if it doesn’t, the prophet is a false prophet. This is a singularly unhelpful answer because the outcome of the prophecy may not be clear for years to come. In the meantime, how is one supposed to respond?

Even more problematic, this discussion of prophecy does not reflect the institution of prophecy as it developed during the age of the great prophets. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the rest rarely predicted the future. If anything, they predicted a conditional future, events that might come to pass if Israel did not heed their words. In fact, we have at least one instance where the prophet’s words were confirmed precisely because the predictions did not come to pass. Jonah was our only successful prophet and his predictions of doom did not come true, because Nineveh repented.

Apparently then, there is prophecy and there is prophecy. The prophecy referred to in our parsha is not the one described in the books of Isaiah, etc. Tigay suggests a subtle difference by referring to the former as “mantic” prophecy, a form of prophecy that resembles divination. The difference is that the biblical mantic prophet can predict the future not because of any inherent power, but because God tells him what to say.

If there is a key to unraveling this puzzle and to the insertion of the “wholehearted” verse in the midst of this discussion, it lies not unexpectedly in one single word. In verse 15, Moses claims that God will “…raise up for you a prophet from among your own people, like myself.” The Hebrew for “like myself” is the single word, “kamoni.” The “myself” here is, of course, Moses.

If Moses is the model prophet, then what is referred to here may include the mantic prophet but also much more: a prophet that is much closer to Isaiah and Jeremiah. This man is not simply a diviner who predicts the future. Like Moses, he exercises a complex political role communicating God’s will in religious, domestic, and foreign affairs. Most important, he holds his people to the terms of the covenant.

And such a person will be wholehearted in his devotion to God. As was Moses. As should we be. No dual loyalties here.