EPILOGUE the Idea Ofprophecy in Medievaljewish Philosophy: an Overview It Is True That Often a Preoccupation with the Details Le

EPILOGUE The Idea ofProphecy in Medieval Jewish Philosophy: An Overview It is true that often a preoccupation with the details leads to the "story" getting lost. As is the case in every area, however, there is another way of looking at things, a different perspective. In trying to get to the "gist" of the story, might we not miss out on the details in which the story really lies? I readily confess that as a reader I find much more interesting those works that get to the "essence" of the matter in a few short sentences, reduce the entire Torah to a single rule (or while "standing on one foot" as the rabbinic saying goes, the Latin regula apparently becoming the Hebrew regelin an ingenious play on words). Reading these works,I am left with a sense of knowing something without being burdened by having to learn it. Did not Aristotle teach us that knowledge consists of knowing the incorporeal "essence" of a thing, and not the numerous sensory data that characterize its appearance. Of course someone has to do the "dirty work" and drudge through all the data in an effort to make sense out of it and get to the "essence". I leave it to each of the scholars in his/her respective field to do so. But why must the author burden the readers with all the minute details? Let each just present major "findings", relegating all the details, if they must be presented, to the notes in small print. Those who care about the details should turn to the primary texts themselves. This is the preferable path in any event. Nevertheless, I have chosen till now to tell a fairly detailed story, even if much of it is a summary of what the philosophers in question have to say about prophecy. My rationale is that for them, as for me, the story is in the details of their approaches to the topic, not just the general points. How these points are deve loped step by step and defended, while the points advanced by others - borrowed, critiqued or both, is where the unique contri bution of each thinker to the topic is to be found. The thinkers rooted their ideas in finely built conceptual structures. One must 588 EPILOGUE pay attention to the nature and quality of the construction to gain a fuller understanding of the idea. They approached prophecy from a multitude of perspectives and with a multitude of con siderations in mind, often leading to noteworthy shifts in their presentation. One must take a careful look at the textual and intellectual contexts of their views in order to appreciate the factors that shape their discussion. How complex a "sim ple " idea becomes when seen in this light! I strove for a balance between the alternative of reducing the philosophers' views on prophecy to their "bare outline", and that of letting each tell his story in his own words by simply creating an anthology of texts on prophecy, interlaced with some of my own comments. In this balance I hoped to convey to the reader a better sense ofwhat the giants of medieval Jewish philosophy thought about the topic, to capture their "original voice", without relinquishing my role as an active "interpreter", "guide", "narrator" (or "storyteller" if you will) . The topic upon which I focused intersects many other topics in the thought of the thinkers discussed here - the nature of God, the make-up of the human soul, providence, the Law , political thought, biblical exegesis. In writing this book,I cut off the "part" from the "whole"- that is, the topic of prophecy from the other topics that, when taken together, constitute the thinker's "philosophy". At the same time I tried to convey a sense of that "whole". Much of the story I told revolves around the problem of the relation between the details of an idea and their literary context, and how the details undergo modification as the context changes. At this point it may be helpful to look at the topic from a much broader perspective, a "birds eye view". Let me then take this opportunity to share with the reader how I see the outline of this topic and some of my thoughts regarding it. The story of prophecy in Jewish thought certainly changed a great deal from biblical times to the medieval period. This is the impression gained by any reader of the Bible and of rabbinic literature, who then turns to a study ofmedieval philosophic liter ature. For all the significant differences between the approaches of the philosophers discussed here, they are remarkably similar in contrast to the pictures of prophecy that emerge from the earlier sources. All the medieval Jewish philosophers developed EPILOGUE 589 their approaches in the broader context of an Aristotelian universe. Most of them were conscious of the fact that their approaches were based on the alternate acceptance and rejection of the views presented in the works of Aristotle and his medie val Islamic disciples. Even R. Saadiah Gaon, who clearly read no works of Aristotle, or other Greek philosophers and their interpreters, did not escape this influence. He drew heavily from Islamic theological literature that was permeated with Aristotelian and other Greek philosophical ideas. While Spinoza, at the other end of the spectrum both historically and philoso phically, sought once and for all to put an end to Aristotle's universe, he hardly ignored it in developing his views. More over, for all the differences between the ideas, structure and very nature of the treatises these philosophers wrote, they all dealt with the topic of prophecy in an overtly reflective manner. They analyzed the topic; they sought to explain. The story they told was a philosophic one. This is a far cry from biblical literature that tells us stories about the prophets without comment. We, like the medievals, must try to ascertain from these narratives what the ancients thought about prophecy. No overt contemplation is displayed on the part of the biblical storytellers. The picture they paint is one of God choosing an individual and conveying a certain mes sage to him (and occasionally, to her). Sometimes God speaks directly to the individual, sometimes an angel of God conveys the message. The prophet often beholds the speaker. Prophecy generally comes in a dream while the individual is asleep; it also comes while the individual is awake. Most of these mes sages consist of knowledge of the future and of admonitions. Often the prophet is given the mission to bring the message to others. At times a dialogue ensues between the prophet and God or the angel. How can God speak to human beings, why does God speak to some and not others, what is the nature of the angel and why does God at times employ angels for this task, among a host of other questions these narratives raise, are left unan swered. To be sure, the Bible leaves us with a number of "small" details concerning prophecy that allow the critical reader a glimpse into a much richer and more varied approach to this phenomenon in the thought of the ancients than suggested by a 590 EPILOGUE casual reading of the Bibl e.! The Bible mentions "schools" of prophets, th e strange behavior the prophets exhibited that led people to label them crazy (m eshuga') , the use of music to induce prophecy. It speaks of the prophet as a professional seer who eve n helps one find lost objects. It alludes to offi cial "court" prophets. It also tells ofvast numbers of prophets who lived at the same time and who were put to death by th eir royal adversaries, p rophets wh o left no trace of what they prophesied. Many add itional points abou t prophecy can be uncovered upon closer in spection. The biblical storytellers leave it to us, however, to try to make sense from their stories of wh at sense th ey made of prophecy. They themselves do not attempt to do the task. The talmudic sages more often than not "fill in" the details of the biblical stories with stories of their own. Here and th ere they also introduce sh ort explanatory statements, laying th e founda tion for a ratiocinative approach. Yet leaving aside Philo, one has to wait till th e medieval period to find J ewish thinkers who take upon themselves th e task to explain the phenomenon. We may say that the story of prophecy then is the story of how a living phenomenon becomes a recorded one and fro m th ere becomes an analyzed one. This is not to imply that it ceases to remain a living one once people begin to consciously think about it. For many, the opposite is the case. The attempt to understand what is prophecy at th e same tim e points to the direction of its attain ment. The idea of prophecy itself may change in th e process, but not necessarily the d esire to experience what is identified as such . The systematic analytic attem p t to an alyze and explain phe nomena is perhaps the greatest contribution of th e ancie n t Greeks to world civilization. Not just ideas abou t th e world are presented in Greek philosophy, but also probing, com preh en sive , detailed analyses of reality, together with the intellectual tools necessary to undertake such analyses. No one better exem plified this attempt than Aristotle. A vast philosophic literature grew out of his philosophy, together with th at of hi s teacher, Plato.

Load more