Sanhedrin 134

נושא: Sanhedrin

Sanhedrin 134

BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI

נְבִיא הַשֶּׁקֶר הַמִּתְנַבֵּא עַל מַה שֶׁלֹּא שָׁמַע וּמַה שֶׁלֹּא נֶאֱמַר לוֹ, מִיתָתוֹ בִידֵי אָדָם. אֲבָל הַכּוֹבֵשׁ אֶת נְבוּאָתוֹ וְהַמְוַתֵּר עַל דִּבְרֵי הַנָּבִיא וְנָבִיא שֶׁעָבַר עַל דִּבְרֵי עַצְמוֹ, מִיתָתָן בִּידֵי שָׁמַיִם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: "אָנֹכִי אֶדְרשׁ מֵעִמּו"":

The false prophet is one who prophesies about something which he has not heard and which has not been spoken to him: his death in is the hands of man. But he who suppresses his prophesy, he who dismisses the words of a prophet, or the prophet who transgresses his own words – their death is in the hands of heaven, as it is said, "I shall demand of him".

6:
Our long excursus into part of the biography of a biblical prophet, Jeremiah, has served to highlight the biggest problem of all: how is one to distinguish between the true prophet and the false prophet? We note that even Jeremiah himself, faced with the thespian heroics of Ĥananyah whom he knew to be a false prophet, could not prove either that Ĥananyah was a deceitful rogue or that he himself was an honest agent of the divine. The written Torah recognizes this problem, but does not really solve it. Moses was the prototype of the true prophet, but according to the Torah Moses' prophethood had been more than adequately bolstered by indications of divine provenance. Indeed, the Torah itself concludes with the note that

Never did there arise again in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom God knew face to face, with all the signs and indications that God sent him to perform in the land of Egypt, to the pharaoh, all his courtiers and all his country; and the strong hand and great awe that Moses created in the sight of all Israel [Deuteronomy 34:10-12].

A rabbinic saying is that sometimes one can hear the negative through the positive: often what is stated positively implies a mirror negative. And so it is in this case: if a prophet with Moses' stature was never to arise again this could only mean that future prophets would not be backed up with signs, indications, a strong hand and great awe. That there would be prophets in the future, after Moses, is stated categorically by the Torah, so the uniqueness of Moses can only have been in his capacities. God is speaking to Moses:

I shall raise up for them, out of their own brethren, a prophet like you. I shall put my words into his mouth and he shall tell them everything I command him [Deuteronomy 18:19].

But if the prophets of the future would not have visible, obvious, irrefutable divine backing two great difficulties can be foreseen – and the Torah foresees them. Firstly, if one needs no credentials anyone can claim that he is a prophet. No one else would know that he was not: even Jeremiah could not disprove the claim of Ĥananyah ben-Azor to be a prophet of God! We have already seen that this problem is mentioned in Deuteronomy 18:20 –

A prophet who shall dare to utter in my name that which I have not commanded him to say … that prophet shall die.

The second problem is also stated clearly and honestly by the Torah:

And if you say to yourself, "How can I know what it is that God has not said?" [know that] that which is spoken by a prophet in God's name and which does not come about – that is something that God has not spoken and which the prophet has uttered in brazen defiance [Deuteronomy 18:21-22].

Thus, with benefit of hindsight we can say that Jeremiah was a true prophet and that Ĥananyah ben-Azur was a false prophet. But this would not be very helpful either to Jeremiah or to his contemporaries, faced as they were with two conflicting claims.

7:
It would thus seem impossible to make any objective assessment that a claimant is indeed a prophet of God, and all assessments would have to be subjective by the very nature of the situation. Time and again people have claimed to be prophets in order to promote an idea or a claim or a claimant: one of the most recent examples would be Nathan of Gaza who was "the prophet" heralding the Messiah-ship of Shabbetai Zvi.

Shabbetai Zvi [Turkey, 1626-1676 CE] claimed to be the Messiah and his claim was recognized for a short time by many throughout the Jewish world – even as far west as Amsterdam! Nathan of Gaza [1643-1680 CE] was one of the central figures of the Shabbatean movement. His full name was Abraham Natan ben Elisha Ĥayyim Ashkenazi, but he became famous as Nathan the Prophet of Gaza and after 1665 his admirers generally called him "the holy lamp" (buzina kaddisha). Nathan was born in Jerusalem. Shortly before or after Purim 1665 he had a significant ecstatic experience accompanied by a prolonged vision (he speaks of 24 hours). Through this revelation he became convinced of the messianic mission of Shabbetai Zvi, whose figure he saw engraved on the divine throne. The whole escapade evaporated when Shabbetai Zvi was arrested by the Turkish authorities: in order to escape death he converted to Islam.

8:
The seifa [last section] of our mishnah is concerned with deviants from prophetic orthodoxy whose fate is not in the hands of man, but left to divine judgment. The first of these is "he who suppresses his prophecy". This refers to a true prophet who does not proclaim the word of God that has been vouchsafed to him. Presumably this could be because of fear – we have already noted that one of Jeremiah's greatest characteristics was a fearlessness that sometimes may have been misinterpreted as brazen defiance. At the very outset of his career he was warned never to fear. But there could well be other reasons why a prophet would not wish to fulfill his mission: there's something for everyone to think about next Yom Kippur afternoon when we read the book of Jonah! The other two deviants are the person who rejects the words of a prophet and the prophet who acts contrary to his own prophecy.

9:
A curious story is recounted in I Kings 13, which perhaps illustrates not only the point made in the seifa, but further accentuates the problematica raised by the reisha.

A man of God came from Judah, sent by God to Bethel where [King] Jeroboam was standing by an altar about to offer incense… And the king invited the man of God home to dine with him and to receive a gift. But the man of God replied, "If you were to give me half your household I will not come with you, I will not eat nor shall I drink water in this place – for such was God's command to me…"

And the prophet went on his way. Meanwhile, he was overtaken by another person who found him sitting in the shade of a tree.

And he said to him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" and the latter replied, "I am". He then said to him, "Come home with me and eat." He replied, "I will not come with you, I will not eat nor shall I drink water in this place – for such was God's command to me." He now said to him, "I am a prophet like you, and an angel of God told me to take you back to my home to eat and to drink." And he went back with him and ate and drank.

Our prophet, having contravened the word of God vouchsafed to him was "killed by a lion" while on his way back to Judah.

Steven Spronz has sent me the following message:

Several days ago you mentioned the mitzvah of wearing Tzitzit "during daylight hours". I imagine the "U're'eetem Oto" portion of the text being the basis for this statement, but I have never seen, or heard of, anyone taking Tzitzit off at sunset. Are Tzitzit to be taken off at darkness, even if the wearer continues his daily "awake" activities into the night? Or, does our common use of electricity extend "Ure'eetem Oto" until we go to sleep, such that they are not to be taken off until undressing for the night?

I respond:

The mitzvah is to wear tzitzit [tassels] so that they may be seen and serve as reminders of God's commandments. This is as Steven has surmised. The ambivalence of our sources as regards the wearing of tzitzit in the hours of darkness was noted by us nearly four years ago when discussing the third paragraph of the Shema…

which consists of Numbers 15:37-41. It would perhaps be helpful to quote the relevant part of the passage: "Tell the Israelites to set a tassel on the corners of their garments… When you see it you will recall all God's commandments and do them… I am God who brought you out of the land of Egypt…" The main purpose of the tassels [tzitzit] is that they be seen, otherwise they cannot fulfill their function. Obviously, without artificial light, they can only be seen by daylight, and therefore the sages concluded that the mitzvah of tzitzit is only operative during the hours of daylight. That being the case, one could easily conclude that it was superfluous to recite the third parashah of the Shema at night, when the mitzvah that it enshrines is not operative. (Some scholars even think that at an early stage in liturgical development even the morning Shema did not include parashat tzitzit; only gradually did it achieve liturgical recognition, first in the morning and then in the evening.) However, the sages note that this third parashah also contains another topic: the duty of being ever-mindful of the event which was the crucible in which the nation of Israel was refined and produced – the Exodus from Egypt.

Where does this leave us? The Shulĥan Arukh [Oraĥ Ĥayyim 18] states categorically that night is not the time for tzitzit – for the reason already mentioned by Steven in his message. On the other hand, the garment itself is required to have the tzitzit. Therefore, we can summarize, the accepted law is that we do not have to take off the tzitzit at night, but if we put them on at night we certainly do not say a berakhah. It is well known that on the evening of Yom Kippur it is customary to wear tzitzit for worship. In view of what we have said so far it should be clear why it is important to arrive at the synagogue before dark in order to recite the berakhah before putting on the tallit (to which the tzitzit are attached). Someone who arrives too late should not recite the berakhah if they put on the tallit. In some congregations it is the custom for the person who leads the service at night to wear a tallit (in honour of the congregation). Obviously, no berakhah should be recited under such circumstances.