(7) Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eyes were undimmed and his vigor unabated. (8) And the Israelites bewailed Moses in the steppes of Moab for thirty days. The period of wailing and mourning for Moses came to an end. (9) Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands upon him; and the Israelites heeded him, doing as the LORD had commanded Moses. (10) Never again did there arise in Israel a prophet like Moses—whom the LORD singled out, face to face, (11) for the various signs and portents that the LORD sent him to display in the land of Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his courtiers and his whole country, (12) and for all the great might and awesome power that Moses displayed before all Israel.
What makes a prophet "false?" What makes a prophet legitimate?
(15) The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet from among your own people, like myself; him you shall heed. (16) This is just what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb, on the day of the Assembly, saying, “Let me not hear the voice of the LORD my God any longer or see this wondrous fire any more, lest I die.” (17) Whereupon the LORD said to me, “They have done well in speaking thus. (18) I will raise up a prophet for them from among their own people, like yourself: I will put My words in his mouth and he will speak to them all that I command him; (19) and if anybody fails to heed the words he speaks in My name, I Myself will call him to account.
What are the two criteria for a "real" prophet?
How is Moses Different?
וְהָכְתִיב: ״אֵלֶּה הַמִּצְוֹת״ — שֶׁאֵין הַנָּבִיא רַשַּׁאי לְחַדֵּשׁ דָּבָר מֵעַתָּה!
The word “these” underscores that a prophet is not permitted to introduce any new element related to the Torah and its mitzvot from here on.
עָמַד רַבִּי יְהוֹשֻׁעַ עַל רַגְלָיו וְאָמַר: ״לֹא בַשָּׁמַיִם הִיא!״ מַאי ״לֹא בַּשָּׁמַיִם הִיא״? אָמַר רַבִּי יִרְמְיָה: שֶׁכְּבָר נִתְּנָה תּוֹרָה מֵהַר סִינַי, אֵין אָנוּ מַשְׁגִּיחִין בְּבַת קוֹל, שֶׁכְּבָר כָּתַבְתָּ בְּהַר סִינַי בַּתּוֹרָה ״אַחֲרֵי רַבִּים לְהַטֹּת״.
Rabbi Yehoshua stood on his feet and said: It is written: “It is not in heaven” (Deuteronomy 30:12). The Gemara asks: What is the relevance of the phrase “It is not in heaven” in this context? Rabbi Yirmeya says: Since the Torah was already given at Mount Sinai, we do not regard a Divine Voice, as You already wrote at Mount Sinai, in the Torah: “After a majority to incline” (Exodus 23:2).
(א) דָּבָר בָּרוּר וּמְפֹרָשׁ בַּתּוֹרָה שֶׁהִיא מִצְוָה עוֹמֶדֶת לְעוֹלָם וּלְעוֹלְמֵי עוֹלָמִים אֵין לָהּ לֹא שִׁנּוּי וְלֹא גֵּרָעוֹן וְלֹא תּוֹסֶפֶת שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר אֵת כָּל הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוֶּה אֶתְכֶם אֹתוֹ תִשְׁמְרוּן לַעֲשׂוֹת לֹא תֹסֵף עָלָיו וְלֹא תִגְרַע מִמֶּנּוּ. וְנֶאֱמַר (דברים כט כח) "וְהַנִּגְלֹת לָנוּ וּלְבָנֵינוּ עַד עוֹלָם לַעֲשׂוֹת אֶת כָּל דִּבְרֵי הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת". הָא לָמַדְתָּ שֶׁכָּל דִּבְרֵי תּוֹרָה מְצֻוִּין אָנוּ לַעֲשׂוֹתָן עַד עוֹלָם. וְכֵן הוּא אוֹמֵר חֻקַּת עוֹלָם לְדֹרֹתֵיכֶם. וְנֶאֱמַר (דברים ל יב) "לֹא בַשָּׁמַיִם הִיא". הָא לָמַדְתָּ שֶׁאֵין נָבִיא רַשַּׁאי לְחַדֵּשׁ דָּבָר מֵעַתָּה. לְפִיכָךְ אִם יַעֲמֹד אִישׁ בֵּין מִן הָאֻמּוֹת בֵּין מִיִּשְׂרָאֵל וְיַעֲשֶׂה אוֹת וּמוֹפֵת וְיֹאמַר שֶׁה' שְׁלָחוֹ לְהוֹסִיף מִצְוָה אוֹ לִגְרֹעַ מִצְוָה אוֹ לְפָרֵשׁ בְּמִצְוָה מִן הַמִּצְוֹת פֵּרוּשׁ שֶׁלֹּא שָׁמַעְנוּ מִמּשֶׁה. אוֹ שֶׁאָמַר שֶׁאוֹתָן הַמִּצְוֹת שֶׁנִּצְטַוּוּ בָּהֶן יִשְׂרָאֵל אֵינָן לְעוֹלָם וּלְדוֹרֵי דּוֹרוֹת אֶלָּא מִצְוֹת לְפִי זְמַן הָיוּ. הֲרֵי זֶה נְבִיא שֶׁקֶר שֶׁהֲרֵי בָּא לְהַכְחִישׁ נְבוּאָתוֹ שֶׁל משֶׁה. וּמִיתָתוֹ בְּחֶנֶק עַל שֶׁהֵזִיד לְדַבֵּר בְּשֵׁם ה' אֲשֶׁר לֹא צִוָּהוּ. שֶׁהוּא בָּרוּךְ שְׁמוֹ צִוָּה לְמשֶׁה שֶׁהַמִּצְוָה הַזֹּאת לָנוּ וּלְבָנֵינוּ עַד עוֹלָם וְ (במדבר כג יט) "לֹא אִישׁ אֵל וִיכַזֵּב":
(1) It is a clear and manifest principle concerning the Torah that as a Law it is permanently established forever and evermore; and that it is not subject to mutibility, nor to diminution, nor to amendment; for it is said: "All this word which I command you, that shall ye observe to do; thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it" (Ibid. 13.1); and it is further said: "But the things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law" (Ibid. 29.28). Herefrom we learn that according to all the words of the Torah we are commanded to do forever. It is, moreover, said: "a statute forever throughout your generations" (Num. 15.15); and again it is said:1See Baba Mezi’a 59. C. "It is not in heaven" (Deut. 30.12); herefrom we learn that no prophet is thereafter permitted to make any innovation. Therefore, should a man rise up, whether he be from among the Gentiles or whether from among Israel, and deliver a token and perform a miracle saying, that God hath sent him to add a commandment, or to diminish a commandment, or to interpret a certain commandment of among the commandments with such interpretation as we have not heard by tradition from Moses; or he said, that these commandments with which Israel was charged are not forever and throughout all generations, but that they were commandments in keeping with those times only, behold him, he is a false prophet, seeing that he came to deny the prophecy of Moses; and his punishment is death by strangulation, because he wilfully spoke in the name of God concerning that which He did not charge him; for He, blessed is He! commanded Moses, saying, that this enactment was "unto us and unto our children forever" (Deut. 29.28); and, "God is not a man that He should lie" (Num. 23.19).
will place My words in his mouth and he will speak..."? He is not coming to establish a [new] faith, but rather to command the people [to fulfill] the precepts of the Torah and to warn against its transgression, as evidenced by the final prophet [Malachi], who proclaimed [Malachi 3:22], "Remember the Torah of Moses, My servant."
Also, a prophet may command us to do something which [is neither permitted nor forbidden by Torah law] - for example, "Go to such and such a place," "Do not go there," "Wage war today," or "Do not do so," "Build a wall," or "Do not build it."
[In these instances,] it is a mitzvah to listen to him. Anyone who violates his directives is liable for death at the hand of God, as [Deuteronomy 18:19] states: "And a person who will not heed My words which he speaks in My name, I will seek [retribution] from him."
According to the rabbis, the Oral Torah contains knowledge of the social practices, legal procedures, and interpretive principles needed to interpret and apply the written laws. As the rabbis understood it, the two Torahs do not constitute two bodies of law but rather one body given by God with the full weight of Mosaic authority behind it.
It follows that normative practices not mentioned in the written Torah were given to Moses and passed on by word of mouth to post-Mosaic prophets, and eventually to the rabbis of the Talmud. Thus, for the rabbis, practices not mentioned in the written Torah do not constitute additions to the original revelation that Moses received from God.
What about mitzvot derived after Torah: Prime Example = Channukah!
אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן: מִיּוֹם שֶׁחָרַב בֵּית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ, נִיטְּלָה נְבוּאָה מִן הַנְּבִיאִים וְנִיתְּנָה לַשּׁוֹטִים וְלַתִּינוֹקוֹת.
Rabbi Yoḥanan said: From the day that the Temple was destroyed, prophecy was taken from the prophets and given to imbeciles and children.
The prophet is a man who feels fiercely. God has thrust a burden upon his soul, and he is bowed and stunned at man’s fierce greed. Frightful is the agony of man: no human voice can convey its full terror. Prophecy is the voice that God has lent to the silent agony, a voice to the plundered poor, to the profaned riches of this world. It is a form of living, a crossing point of God and man. God is raging in the prophets’ words.
The prophets had disdain for those to whom God was comfort and security; to them God was a challenge, an incessant demand. He is compassion, but not a compromise; justice, but not inclemency. Tranquility is unknown to the soul of a prophet. The miseries of the world give him no rest. While others are callous, and even callous to their callousness and unaware of their insensitivity, the prophets remain examples of supreme impatience with evil, distracted by neither might nor applause, by neither success nor beauty. Their intense sensitivity to right and wrong is due to their intense sensitivity to God’s concern for right and wrong. They feel fiercely because they hear deeply.
The weakness of many systems of moral philosophy is in their isolationism. The isolation of morality is an assumption that the good is unrelated to the morally neutral values. However, there is an interrelatedness between the moral and all other acts of man, whether in the realm of theory or in the realm of the technical application, and the moral person must not be thought of as if he were a professional magician, moral in some situations and immoral in others.
Consequently the moral problem cannot be solved as a moral problem. It must be dealt with as part of the total issue of man. The supreme problem is all of life, not good and evil. We cannot deal with morality unless we deal with all of man, the nature of existence, of doing, and meaning.
The prophets tried to overcome the isolationism of religion. It is the prophets who teach us that the problem of living does not arise with the question of how to take care of the rascals, of how to prevent delinquency or hideous crimes. The problem of living begins with the realization of how we all blunder in dealing with our fellow men. The silent atrocities, the secret scandals, which no law can prevent, are the true seat of moral infection. The problem of living begins, in fact, in relation to our own selves, in the handling of our emotional functions, in the way we deal with envy, greed, and pride.
Abraham Joshua Heschel, “Religion in a Free Society,” in The Insecurity of Freedom: Essays on Human Existence (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1959), 11–12.
Heschel argues that people still experience the voice of God and communicate it. To eliminate prophecy would be to rob Judaism of the spontaneity and vitality that were prevalent in ancient times. Needless to say, modern prophets both experience and communicate their revelations differently than their biblical predecessors, since in this day and age, few people would pay heed to someone who defended their position by proclaiming: “Thus says the LORD.”
Heschel’s position is appealing, but it comes with a price. At a fundamental level, it jeopardizes Mosaic supremacy and the guaranteed stability of Judaism based on Torah law. By claiming that the age of prophecy is over, the rabbis sought to uphold the supremacy of Moses’ prophecy and avoid all the problems associated with God’s promise to raise up other prophets—most especially the prospect of the Torah being amended.
The price the rabbis pay for this view is that for anyone living after the destruction of the Second Temple, the voice of God can only be heard as part of a historical narrative and no longer as a living force. Which approach is preferable religiously speaking remains an open question.