Tonight when we discuss nevuah, prophecy, it's not going to be a shiur in how to how to become a prophet, but it's just to explain what the Torah tells us, what halachah tells us, Chassidut tells us about nevuah, about prophecy. Prophecy, the fact that there is such a thing as prophecy, is one of the י״ג עיקרים, one of the 13 principles of faith. You know that the Rambam made a list of 13 principles of faith, which means that even though there are 613 mitzvot and there are many, many things that we have to do that are part of Yiddishkeit, but not everything is considered a a a principle. There are certain details. The Rambam chose 13 things which we find in the Torah that they are considered the principle, which means the foundations of Yiddishkeit. And among these principles the Rambam has the principle that Hashem is מנבא בני אדם, that Hashem sends, gives prophecy through human beings. And as the Rambam writes here, and I'm going to read here from Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah in the Rambam, he starts off by saying in פרק שביעי: מיסודי הדת לידע שהאל מנבא את בני אדם. It's one of the foundations of our faith that God communicates by prophecy with man. But this is a foundation, this is a yesod in Yiddishkeit. Actually, this is part of Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah. It's part of the halachot which are the foundations of Torah. So it's one of the foundations of Torah to believe that Hashem communicates by prophecy with man. And what I would really like to do, even though it'll take a few moments, just to read through this פרק of Rambam, because here the Rambam tells us the major details concerning nevuah, concerning prophecy. Sure, everybody could read it themselves, but nevertheless I'll just try to go through fast through this certain details, because by reading this פרק we will know more or less what prophecy is all about. It

says prophecy, I'm going to read in the English because it'll take too long to translate from the Hebrew, prophecy is bestowed upon only upon a very wise sage, of a strong character, who is never overcome by his natural inclinations in any regard. Instead, with his mind he overcomes his natural inclinations at all times. He must also possess a broad and correct perspective, and must look at everything properly. A person who is full of all these qualities and is physically sound is fit for prophecy. When he enters the פרדס, when this person enters the פרדס, now we know from Rambam before that פרדס refers to understanding two things: מעשה בראשית and מעשה מרכבה, which means understanding the depth of creation and the depth of the מרכבה. The מרכבה actually is the chariot of Hashem as it is described in the nevuah of Yechezkel, and the basis of all Kabbalah, of all spiritual matters that we learn in all the sefarim are all taken from the מעשה מרכבה. So פרדס, which is the garden, really refers to understanding the secrets of creation, of מעשה בראשית, and the secrets of Godliness of the higher worlds, which is called מעשה מרכבה. So when this person who had the qualities that we mentioned before, when he enters the פרדס and is drawn into these great and and concepts, if he possesses a correct perspective to comprehend and grasp them, he will become holy. He will advance and separate himself from the masses, and proceed in the darkness of the time. That's the expression he uses. He

must continue and diligently train himself not to have any thoughts whatsoever about fruitless things, which means about all gashmiyusdike thing, he has to stay away from all gashmiyus. Instead, his mind should constantly be be directed upward, bound beneath God's throne of glory, striving to comprehend the holy and pure forms, and gazing into the wisdom of the Holy One, blessed be He, in its entirety. And as Rambam says, in its manifold manifestations, manifestations from the most elevated spiritual form until the details here he goes, he understands all things from the top, from the highest level of spirituality all the way down to the way Hashem connects Himself to this world. Then he says like this: when the after these preparations, the spirit of prophecy will immediately rest upon rest upon him. When the spirit rests upon him, his soul becomes intermingled with the angels called ishim, and he will be transformed into the a different person and will understand with a knowledge different from what it was previously. He will rise above the level of any other wise men, as the prophet Shmuel told Shaul: The spirit of God will descend upon you and you shall prophesy with them, and you will be transformed into a different person. ונהפכת לאיש אחר, that's what he said to him. Then he says like this:

There are a number of levels among the prophets. Just as with regards to wisdom, one sage is greater than his colleague, so too with regard to prophecy, one prophet is greater than the other. They are all, however, they all share one common thing. They receive prophetic visions only in a visionary dream, or during the day after slumber has overtaken them, and he quote brings pesukim. When any of them prophesy, their limbs tremble, their physical powers become weak, and lose control with their senses, and thus their minds are free to comprehend what they see, and he quotes pesukim for that too. When a prophet is informed of a message in a vision, it is granted to him metaphoric imagery, in other words it's not clear, just metaphor, immediately the interpretation of this image is imprinted upon his heart, and he knows what it's its meanings. For example, the ladder with the angels ascending and descending that Yaakov Avinu saw was a mashal to the empires and what they're going to do to the Yidden. Similarly, the creatures Yechezkel saw, boiling pot and a rod from an almond tree, I mean Yirmiyahu saw, he saw that, and the scroll Yechezkel saw, and the measure seen by Zechariah, these are all mashalim. Let's skip further. Then he goes further:

all the prophets did not prophesy whenever they desire. Instead, they must concentrate their attention upon spiritual concepts and seclude themselves waiting in a happy, joyous mood, because prophecy cannot rest upon a person when he is sad, but only when he's happy. Therefore, the prophets' disciples would always have a harp, drum, flute, all kinds of instruments when they were seeking prophecy. This is what is meant, and he quotes a pasuk to prove this. Then he continues: those who aspire to prophecy are called the disciples of the prophets. Even though they concentrate their attention, it is possible that the Divine Presence will rest upon them, and it is possible that it will not rest upon them, in other words, not always would it happen. All the statements made above describe the path of prophecy of all the early and later prophets with the exception of Moshe Rabbeinu. He was the master of all prophets. What is the difference between Moshe Rabbeinu's prophecy and all the other prophets? Divine insight is bestowed upon all the other prophets in a dream or vision. Moshe Rabbeinu's prophecy was while he was standing awake. Divine insights and bestowed upon all other prophets are through the medium of an angel, therefore they perceive only an image. Moshe Rabbeinu would prophesy without an angel, and he quotes pesukim that where it proves this point. Then continues: all other prophets are over terrified and confounded by the revelations they experience, but Moshe Rabbeinu would not respond in this manner. It says in a pasuk that God spoke to him as a man speaks to a friend. Just as a person will not be awestricken from the hearing of a friend's words, so too Moshe Rabbeinu's mental power was sufficient to comprehend the words of prophecy while he was standing in a composed state.

All other prophets cannot prophesy whenever they desire. Moshe Rabbeinu was different. Whenever he desired, the Holy Spirit would envelop him, and prophecy would rest upon him. He did not have to concentrate his attention to prepare himself for prophecy, because his mind was always concentrated and prepared and ready to appreciate the spiritual truths as the angels are. He was promised by Hashem that whenever he wants he would be able to prophesy. The other nevi'im did not have to separate from their wives. Moshe Rabbeinu never returned to his original tent after Matan Torah. Therefore, he separated himself from women and everything nature of the day of that nature forever. He bound his mind to the eternal rock, which is means Hashem. Accordingly, the glory never left him forever. Now further, it's going to I hope it doesn't take too long, just a few minutes, because this teaches us, it's not long, there's a possibility that a prophet will experience prophecy for his own sake alone, which means to broaden his perspective and to increase his knowledge, allowing him to know more about the lofty concepts and more than he knew before. It's also possible that he will be sent to one of the nations of the world, or to the inhabitants of a particular city or kingdom to prepare them or to inform them what they should do, or to prevent them from continuing the evil which they are doing.

When he is sent on such a mission, he is given a sign or a wonder to perform so that people will know that God has truly sent him. Not everyone who performs signs or wonders would should be accepted as a prophet. Only a person who is known to be fit for prophecy beforehand, which means that he has the wisdom and his good deeds surpass those of all of his contemporaries. If he follows the paths of prophecy in holiness, separating himself from the worldly matters, and afterwards performs a sign or wonder and states that he was sent by God, it is a mitzvah to listen to him. Okay, basically this is what the Rambam explaining in this perek, which is the seventh perek of Yesodei HaTorah concerning the inyan of prophecy. So here we get a picture of what a prophet is. A person who first before he even becomes a prophet has to be completely involved in ruchniyus, in spiritual matters, he has to completely think only about Hashem, stay away from all gashmiyusdike things, and then he is able to become a prophet, maybe yes and maybe not, but he is able to become a prophet. Now, in the time of the Beis HaMikdash, there were hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands of such people. There were groups of prophets, complete groups of prophets. Just like we have yeshivos now where you study Torah, and now we don't even have so many, in the time of the Gemara you had yeshivot that each yeshiva might have had 20,000 students, 30,000 students, like Rabbi Akiva had 24,000 students. The the main story we always tell about Rabbi Akiva is the fact that his students died, but no one makes a big fuss that he had 24,000 students. I mean it's something special, but those times, that's how the yeshivot were. So too, were there were yeshivot of prophets, people who studied and trained themselves to become prophets. And what does that mean? They trained themselves to separate themselves from gashmiyut, to overcome the yetzer hara like the Rambam said, and to be ready to receive this prophecy. The Gemara tells us that altogether there were 1,200,000 prophets, from the beginning of prophecy till the end, which was at the time of the beginning of the second Beit Hamikdash. Even though we only know of 48 prophets, males, and seven prophetesses, which are women, so the Gemara says the reason we only know that many, only that few I mean, is because only those prophecies that were needed for future generations were written down in the תנ״ך, were written down in the prophets. Those prophecies that were said by other prophets that were only important or for themselves or for the time, and there is no need for these prophecies for the future, then those prophecies are not mentioned and we don't even know about them, because it's not noge'a and not important for us. But altogether you had 1,200,000, it's just double the amount of people that went out of Mitzrayim, that's the expression in the גמרא, כפליים כיוצאי מצרים, which is the cheshbon, the amount of people who went out of Mitzrayim was 600,000, this is 1,200,000 prophets. What it means is that there were so many people who were involved in elevating themselves and becoming holy people, and as he says, they mingled with the malachim, because they become so holy that their gashmiyut, their physicality, doesn't really mean anything to them, and they become similar to spiritual beings. That's the inyan of prophecy, that's the inyan of becoming a navi. Now the Rambam said that מיסודי הדת, it is from the foundations of our religion that Hashem communicates with prophecy, by prophecy with man. And as I said before, it's one of the י״ג עיקרים, one of the 13 principles of faith, that Hashem communicates with prophets, with a human being. Now the question is why does the Rambam refer to this as the foundation or one of the foundations of idishkeit? Why is it a foundation? It's a true fact! How do we know it's a true fact? Because the Torah says so, and anything it says in the Torah is true. But the Torah says many things. Not everything it says in the Torah becomes a foundation. In truth, if a Yid doesn't believe in one single word of the Torah, he's called an apikorus, and nevertheless not every single word of Torah is called a foundation. If someone will not believe that Yaakov Avinu went to Charan, just giving an example, this person does not believe in the Torah, because in the Torah it says he went. But no one is going to say that by not believing Yaakov went to Charan you're not believing in the foundation of Torah, it's not a foundation of Torah! It's a fact that the Torah says. The same here, why is the fact that Hashem communicates with prophets a foundation in the dat, in Yiddishkeit? It is a mitzvah, we know that there is a mitzvah upon the people to listen to the prophet. There is a din, a mitzvah in the Torah, one of the תרי״ג מצות, that if a prophet who is established as a prophet, and there are laws of how we establish who is a prophet, but there is a din that after this prophet who is established as a prophet says something, we must listen to him. The pasuk says אליו תשמעון, so it's a mitzvah. True, but not every mitzvah becomes the foundation of the Torah. Not every mitzvah is one of the principles of our faith, even though we have to keep every single mitzvah. So why is this the principle of our faith? And we see another interesting thing here. The Rambam, when he enumerates the principles of our faith, י״ג עיקרים, in Peirush HaMishnayot, he puts this ikar, this principle, right after the five principles of our belief in God. There's five principles concerning our belief in God: we have to believe that He's the only one, and we have to believe that He has no body, all kinds of things. The next one right after that is the principle that we have to believe that Hashem communicates with prophets. He brings it in before he even writes the principle that we have to believe that the Torah came from shamayim, the Torah came from heaven. Before he writes the principle that the Torah is eternal and will never change, which that is definitely a principle in Yiddishkeit to believe that Torah came from shamayim, from Hashem, and that Torah is eternal. Before that yet, and the order in the Rambam is definitely exact for a reason, he writes that there is a, we have to believe in this yesod, like he says, יסודי הדת, that the Torah, that the, that Hashem communicates with prophets, which is different actually than the ikkarim. There is a Sefer HaIkkarim who argues on the Rambam. Not everything the Rambam considers as a principle of faith, as from the י״ג עיקרים, he considers also as an ikar. For instance here, concerning nevuah, he says like this: the main thing is to believe that the Torah came מן השמים, that Torah came from heaven. As a se'nif, as a הסתעפות, something that is a result of that ikar, he says, is a branch to believe that Hashem sends nevi'im with prophecies. He writes clearly, and why don't I write, he says, that that's a, a principle in itself? He says because the main thing is that the Torah came from heaven, and Hashem sends prophets in order to teach the people how to keep the Torah. So, all it is is a branch of the truth of the Torah. Now, the Rambam himself also writes that the main thing of a navi, even though it wasn't in this perek, that the main thing of a navi is to, he sends nevi'im to teach us how to keep the Torah. He says also Hashem sometimes sends a navi to tell people what to do. But the main reason for nevuah is to teach the, tei-, the Yidden to warn them about keeping the Torah, etc., etc. So on that part the Rambam doesn't argue with the Ikkarim. So, just like the Ikkarim, because of that reason he writes that to believe in nevuah is only a branch of another ikar, but it's not an ikar, not a principle in itself, why does the Rambam hold that it's an ikar in itself? And not only that, it's an ikar in itself which is so important that it comes right after those principles that deal with Hashem Himself, with how to believe and what Hashem is. So, there must be something very special in this understanding what a, what prophecy is, and it's so important that this is the one that's right next after the belief in Hashem and the details of what we have to believe about Hashem. And that's what this is, that this is a continuation of our belief in Hashem. Our belief in Hashem is, and it's not only belief, we know this is the truth, that Hashem created everything, and everything has God within it, and Hashem gave us a job to reveal it. In other words, Hashem created the world, so therefore, its whole existence is only from Hashem. Like the pasuk says אין עוד מלבדו, there is nothing but Hashem. Nevertheless, the way He made the world was that you do not see it. When we look at the world, we don't see that everything is only Hashem. That's why the word world in Hebrew is עולם, and עולם has another meaning which is the word העלם, cover up, the world covers up on Hashem. And Hashem created the world so we, through our service of Hashem, should reveal Hashem in the world, to show that the truth of everything in the world is only Hashem. That's why He gave us Torah, He gave us mitzvot, that's our job. So what Hashem wants of us is to bring out how the world and everything in the world is really one with Hashem. The one thing that actually reveals this point is prophecy. In everything else that we do, we do not really see it, because when we do a mitzvah, we believe that whenever, every time we do a mitzvah, that means that Hashem is being revealed more, even though we don't see it, we believe it's there. Mashiach will come, it'll all come out into the open, but we don't actually see that when we take a pair of tefillin, which is a physical piece of leather, and we make a mitzvah out of it, which we know that there is Godliness within this mitzvah, otherwise we wouldn't put it on, I mean we know that, but we can't see it. If someone never studied about tefillin and never heard anything about it will come and look at the same tefillin as we do, he won't see anything holy in it. We are so used to it, holy tefillin, oh it's a holy object, if it falls, chas veshalom, you kiss it, you fast, this, all kinds of things, but it doesn't reveal in itself. Prophecy was one thing where actually the physicality of the world became one with Hashem. Because as the Rambam says, what happened was, and he explained it more in Pirush HaMishnayot, that the mind of the navi, his physical mind the way it is in its physical form, in its form the way it is, human mind, human, human intellect grasped the words of Hashem, grasped Godliness. So, the human mind as if was transformed into Godliness. And when we learn Torah, we say the same thing, every time we learn Torah you say that when you understand with your mind a word of Torah, and since the person's

mind becomes one with the topic, the subject that's learned, so then your mind becomes one with the Torah. And since the Torah are the words of Hashem, it's the wisdom of Hashem, so our mind becomes one with the wisdom of Hashem. But can someone see it? Because the When we learn Torah, actually we're dealing with physical matters. We just know that these physical matters are the wisdom of Hashem. When we deal with a Mishnah in Mishnayot, where it talks about two people, let's say, picking up an object and they're arguing who it belongs to, it's a Mishnah. These words are the words of Hashem. So one, the person's mind becomes one with these words, and since these words are the words of Hashem, so your mind becomes one with Hashem. But we don't see how the words שנים אוחזין בטלית, two people holding onto a tallit, are the words of Hashem. We don't see it. We know it, more than just believe it, but it's not seen. But when the navi, when his mind became one with the nevuah, these are actually a revelation of Hashem that was in a in a in a revealed form, it was a revelation of Hashem. So when we say Hashem created the world in order to make this connection between the world which covers up on Hashem, and Hashem, which happens through Torah u'Mitzvot, by נבואה, it happened even more. So whatever the goal of the creation is, and the goal of Hashem giving us Torah u'Mitzvot, expressed itself in a much stronger form in the inyan of נבואה. Because there, the combination, the connection, the communication between the world and Hashem was in a very revealed form. In other words, the world became ready, that part of the world, a human being is part of the world. So these human beings, which are part of this physical world, elevated themselves to a point that they, as physical human beings, became part and united with the words of Hashem. And that's why this is a foundation of Yiddishkeit, because the foundation of the whole religion is realizing that Hashem created the world, put us here, gave us a Torah in order to make this connection between Torah u'Mitzvot. We know the

famous Midrash where it says concerning Matan Torah, gives a mashal, a parable of a king who had two countries. One country was called רומי, one country was called סוריא. That's the names that the Midrash uses, Rome and Syria. I don't know why he uses these two, but that's what it says. And the king made a decree that the people from Rome should never visit Syria, and the people from Syria should never visit Rome. So they couldn't go. There was a gezeirah, a decree. Then one day the king got up and he says, he's מבטל הגזירה, nullified the decree. From now on he says, people from Rome could travel to Syria, people from Syria could travel to Rome. Same thing happened here. In the beginning of creation, what happened was, השמים שמים להשם והארץ נתן לבני אדם. There are two, there is shamayim, heaven, heavenly matters, doesn't mean the heaven when we look at the sky or we see the stars, that's part of of this low universe. We're talking about heaven spiritual worlds, spiritual inyanim, godly. And then you have physical, physicality. So it's השמים שמים להשם, heavenly matters are separate, worldly matters are separate, and there was a decree. As the expression of the Midrash is, Hashem said, עליונים לא ירדו לתחתונים, the ones from above cannot come down, תחתונים לא יעלו לעליונים, from below you can't go up. And it makes sense, you can't have a combination of godliness and and and physicality together, they don't mix. I think I once mentioned this mashal, to show that ruchniyut and gashmiyut don't mix, it's similar to if a person would try to mix logic, sechel, intellect with a piece of wood. You can't. You can't knock in, explain an idea into a piece of wood. A person who has sechel, he might have very low level of intellect, but if you'll explain something to him, if he doesn't understand, you go further, you explain it better, you could bring it down to him. But as much as you'll explain an idea to the table, it won't grab it won't absorb, because they're two different levels. So if that can't happen, if logic, sechel, can't mix with physical with a physical thing, certainly godliness, spirituality can't mix with physical things. So it's impossible for the gashmiyut, the ארץ, to mix with shamayim, two separate things. And that was, as in the Midrash, till Matan Torah. Came מתן תורה, אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא, וביטל הגזירה, השם nullified the decree. Just like the king in the mashal nullified the decree, He said, no, from now on עליונים ירדו לתחתונים, the higher worlds could come down to the lower worlds, עליונים תחתונים יעלו לעליונים, the lower worlds could go up. He

even said, אני המתחיל, השם said, you know, I'll start. And therefore it says, וירד השם על הר סיני, השם from there came down, ואל משה אמר עלה אל האלקים, to Moshe from down here, He said, you go up, and He said, from now on, you could mix the two. What it really means is, Hashem gave us the power to be able to mix the two, to reveal within the physicality godliness. And now a pair of tefillin, which is a physical object, contains spirituality, contains godliness, which we don't see, and we can't imagine how, but it's a fact. This is the whole yesod, foundation of our Hashem giving us the Torah, why He created the world, is to combine the two. In in prophecy, in the prophets, that's where it was done in the highest level and form. There the prophet, in his own mind, his physical mind, felt the spiritual words of Hashem, which we can't describe because we don't know what it is. It's not in our, you know, form, in our, you know, way of describing, because we're used to physical things. But it was that his mind turned into spiritual. So therefore the Rambam refers to this as מיסודי הדת, it's from the foundation of the religion, and he right afterwards he tells us the the five principles of believing in Hashem, before he even gets into the details of the Torah, he tells us that we have to believe in the inyan of prophecy. Because this is godliness entering into the mind of a human being and becoming one with the mind of a human being. And that is the reason why in order for a prophet to be able to become a prophet, before he even gets the prophecies, he has to, as we read in the Rambam before, he has to elevate himself to such a high level that gashmiyus, physicality, means nothing to him. He has to undress himself from gashmiyus so much, because as long as he is not at that level, he is no kli, he is no vessel to be able to receive the ruchniyus, the godliness. Because after all, gashmiyus is a contradiction to ruchniyus. And in order it should be able to be felt in a revealed way, not like in tefillin where we don't see it even though it's there, but in a way it's really you have to be a kli, you have to be a vessel, you have to be somebody who is able. And as long as gashmiyus is important to him, as

long as he has the yetzer hara, as long as he didn't overcome his inclinations, his his physical desires, he is not a kli to receive this ruchniyus, this godliness of the nevuah. And it's understood that the more a person reaches this level of undressing himself from gashmiyus, the higher level of a navi he will be. And we know there are many levels in nevi'im, and it would all depend on how much he prepared himself, how much he got rid of the gashmiyus so he should be the vessel to be able to receive the ruchniyus. And that's why there was a big difference between Moshe Rabbeinu, his nevuah, his prophecy, and then the prophecy of all other nevi'im. Because Moshe Rabbeinu was a person that he actually undressed himself, as we could say, from gashmiyus. He said, \"ונחנו מה,\" which means who are we? He was batel to Hashem completely. \"והאיש משה ענו מאד מכל האדם אשר על פני האדמה.\" Moshe was the greatest anav, most humble person. It doesn't only mean humble like we imagine humble, meaning a person who is not a baal gaavah, he doesn't have an ego, but it means his his whole being was nothing, his whole being was only the he felt as an extension, so to speak, of the creation of Hashem. He's there only because Hashem put him there. His being didn't mean anything to himself. Similar to what we find by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, we're getting close to Lag BaOmer now, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, which על פי קבלה רבי שמעון בן יוחאי was a gilgul of Moshe Rabbeinu, his neshamah was the neshamah of Moshe Rabbeinu, so Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai said, \"אנא סימנא בעלמא.\" I am only a sign. My whole being is only a sign of Hashem. He felt it. He felt that he is nothing in himself. And Moshe Rabbeinu is the highest madregah, and therefore the level of Moshe's nevuah was greater than everybody else's, because his bitul, his self-nullification of the gashmiyut, was in a higher level. And

that's why we see different things. One of the things it says like this, they had to, as we said before, fall on their faces, because after all, if they would stand straight, then there is a certain expression of gashmiyut. So they had to get rid of that. It says that they had to take off their clothes when they had nevuah, because clothes, which is gashmiyut and it's a separate object of gashmiyut, was a contradiction to be a keli, to be a vessel to receive the ruchniyut. Moshe Rabbeinu, it says, didn't have to, the way he was. And the reason is because his getting rid of the gashmiyut was in a different level than all the other nevi'im. And I'll explain just in short what the difference was. By the other nevi'im, they came to a level that their gashmiyut was unimportant at all, didn't mean anything to them. It doesn't mean that their gashmiyut turned into ruchniyut, so to speak, it didn't turn into spirituality. Gashmiyut still contradicted spirituality. So therefore to them it didn't mean anything, they got rid of it. Moshe Rabbeinu came to a level that his as he felt his gashmiyut, it felt was a form of ruchniyut. And that's why they had to get rid of more gashmiyut, they had to get rid of their coats, while Moshe Rabbeinu didn't, because his coat, which was gashmiyut to him, was a keli to ruchniyut, whichever way it was. Don't ask how should we explain it, I don't know, because if I would be able to explain it, I would be there myself, as אילו ידעתיו הייתיו. But this is what it says is the difference in Moshe Rabbeinu's bitul to Hashem, and therefore he was a keli more to ruchniyut. And because of that, when a prophet reaches that high level, he is a keli to receive, he's a vessel to receive the spirituality, the godliness of Hashem. And as the Rambam says, sometimes it's for himself, just for him to broaden his understanding, to reach higher levels. Sometimes he's sent to a nation, sometimes he's sent to the Yidden to say certain things, which means, and I'll explain what means like this, there are always, always, constantly spiritual messages, let's call it if we want, given over to the world by Hashem. But we don't hear it. Just using an example, it says in Pirkei Avot that every day a voice from heaven from from from Har Sinai comes out and says: אוי להם לבריות מעלבונה של תורה, oy vey to the people who embarrass the Torah. Who hears it? I never heard it, but it's there. So it says the reason Hashem does it so the neshamah hears, and sometimes because of these messages that were given from Hashem, a person could get נתעורר בתשובה. Sometimes is that a person could just, out of the blue, just walk in the street, but out of nowhere, get an awakening to do teshuvah. Where does it come from? Milah if he sits and learns, comes to a shiur, and someone speaks and he learns Torah and about, you got an awakening to become closer to Hashem, you want to do teshuvah. But just the middle of your work or the middle of just walking in the street, where does it come from? So it says the neshamah hears these announcements. And sometimes it affects the person so much that he decides to change. There are constantly these spiritual messages given over from Hashem to the world, which the neshamot hear, but the guf doesn't hear. A prophet, a person who reached a madregah where the gashmiyut is not important and he gets undressed completely from the physicality, he is sensitive to pick up these waves. The best mashal would be the radio. There are sound waves all over. They're going. All you have to do, you have to have the vessel, you have to have the keli, to pick up these waves. We are not kelim to pick up these waves. We are flesh and blood, and we are gashmiyut and it's important to us, so it's a contradiction. So it's a radio without a battery, I guess, or it's not plugged in, so we can't pick it up. A person who reached these high levels, automatically he becomes sensitive to pick up these waves. And that's what nevuah means to a certain degree. He becomes a navi, and all these thousands or millions of, million two hundred thousand people that we know that the Gemara says were neviim, they reached a level where they were able to pick up all these godly messages as that were given to the world that helped them reach higher levels. Sometimes there were special messages given to special people. A special navi was given a message by Hashem because he was capable of receiving it. So for some reason Hashem chose this navi out of all other million neviim, he should be the one to bring the message to these people, or to a different nation, or to the Yidden, or whatever it is. But it's all the same line, that they were kelim to be able to receive these messages. And this was a form of how Hashem brought about his ruchniyut, his godliness into the world in a way that the world an object of the world became united with it. And it's a foundation of Yiddishkeit, because that's the foundation of the whole Torah. Now

according to that, wouldn't it make sense that nevuah should always be, should always be such a special thing, should always continue to be? But the truth is, it seems the Gemara says that משמתו נביאים אחרונים חגי זכריה ומלאכי, פסקה נבואה מישראל or פסקה רוח הקודש מישראל, which means that after the last three prophets, who were Chagai, Zechariah, Malachi, after they passed away, פסקה נבואה, the nevuah was cut from this world. So it seems that there are no more neviim. The Rambam himself refers when he mentions later Malachi, he says as the last one of the neviim said. So obviously there's a last one. So that means that nevuah stopped. But the truth is not so. What the Gemara means that פסקה נבואה, that nevuah stopped, what it means is not that there is a stop of nevuah from Hashem to the world. What it means is that being that in order to be a navi you have to be such a high madregah, there are not too many people that reach that madregah to be able to receive these waves, these sound, air, these these these radio waves of Hashem. They're not able to receive it. But it's not that Hashem stopped sending those messages. The word paskah, even though it says פסקה נבואה מישראל, פסקה, the word paskah means cut. It doesn't mean that it stopped coming. It comes, but it doesn't get, doesn't penetrate. There is a Tosafot says, the Gemara says that משחרב בית המקדש, when the בית המקדש was destroyed, בטלה זכוכית לבנה. זכוכית לבנה means crystal. Crystal stopped being. So Tosafot says, what do you mean stopped? We know there is crystal now. So Tosafot says, even though the Gemara says batlah, it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist at all. It means it's not so common. That's even when the Gemara uses the words batlah. When the Gemara uses the word paskah, it's much less. So really what the Gemara means that it's not so common to have prophecy after these neviim died. And when the Rambam says the lashon that the last one said, what he means is it's impossible to have nevuah anymore. The Rambam, when he gives all the conditions here who a navi is and what a navi is, doesn't mention once that in order to have to have nevuah you have to be in time of the בית המקדש. He should have said. The Chinuch, the Sefer HaChinuch, when he has a list of all 613 mitzvot, in every mitzvah he writes whether it applies only in the בית המקדש, only in Eretz Yisrael, applies all time, not all time. The mitzvah of listening to a navi, he says like this: This is a mitzvah that applies to everybody, males and females. Whenever there is a navi around, there is a mitzvah to listen to him. He should have said, \"This is a mitzvah which only applies in the time of the Beit Hamikdash because otherwise there is no nevuah.\" He doesn't say that. Obviously, he doesn't say that there is no such thing as it's impossible to have nevuah. It's a condition that if you don't have a Beit Hamikdash you don't have nevuah. Here, the Rambam, after he mentions who the navi is, as I read before, he says, after he has all this, מיד רוח הקודש שורה עליו. Right away, the ruach hakodesh falls rests upon him. Obviously, that if a person, even nowadays, would fulfill these conditions, the nevuah would rest on him. That's what the Rambam says, that automatically, as soon as you have these conditions, the nevuah rests upon you. So

obviously we see from the Rambam that the concept of nevuah is not limited essentially to the time of the Beit Hamikdash. It's just that that time, till the beginning of the of the second Beit Hamikdash, you had many people who were at this level to be able to be neviim. Later on, there are very, very few. There are not too many people who are who are כלים to receive it, but not that it doesn't exist. We find expressions in the Rambam, when he talks later on here about a nevuah and one of the dinim of a navi is that even if a navi comes and says that you have to do something against the Torah, you have to listen to him if he's an established navi according to halachah. What just the way to establish a navi is or a previous navi testifies that this one is a נביא אמת, a true navi, and that's all you need, or he proves himself by saying, telling us the future and a few things and it comes true as the Rambam goes in. So if a navi that is established as a navi will tell us to go against the Torah in a temporary form, like as you would say, \"Hashem said that this Shabbos I want you to be mechalel,\" we must listen to him. If he comes and says, \"Hashem said from now on there is no more Shabbos,\" then we know he's a נביא שקר. That can't be, that's a false navi. But if he comes and says for one time, you have to listen to him, except if it comes to idol worship, then we know it's a false navi. So when the Rambam refers to that din, he uses an expression here. Let me just find it here. לפיכך. No, this is the the the נביא שקר, I feel. Okay. He says a navi can't change anything in the Torah, he says here. אם כן, למה נאמר בתורה... so I'll read in English. If so, what is meant by the Torah's statement, \"I will appoint a prophet from amongst their brethren like you, and I will place my mouth in his mouth, and he will speak\"? So he says, what does it mean? He's 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 transgressions. Also, a prophet might say, \"Do this and do that.\" One thing. Okay, this is really not what I was getting to. Alright. Here. וכן למדנו, okay, the sages, the early generation taught us, that a part of the oral tradition that if a prophet tells you to violate the precepts of the Torah as אליהו בהר הכרמל, listen to him with regard to all the things, except the worshiping of false gods. So he says, if the navi would come and tell us do something which is against the Torah, we have to listen to him. So where the Rambam puts the words, \"If the navi...\" In Perush HaMishnayot, the Rambam says it very clear: If a navi will come and tell us, \"Be מחלל שבת because Hashem said to be מחלל שבת,\" we have to listen to him. Now, the Rambam doesn't say, \"If in the time of the בית המקדש a navi would have come and would have said, you would have to listen to him.\" He

doesn't say that. He says, \"If a navi...\" Navi will come and will tell us. So obviously, the Rambam holds that in theory there is a possibility of nevuah even now. The only thing is that to be a person to receive the nevuah, you have to be very on a high madregah. The truth is we find even more than that. The Rambam writes in Iggeret Teiman, which is a famous letter, he writes like this, he quotes a pasuk from the nevuah, the prophecy of Bilam, where Bilam says, \"כעת יאמר ליעקב ולישראל מה פעל קל,\" which means like now they will say to the Yidden what Hashem what is Hashem doing. So the Rambam says like this, \"What does that mean? That Bilam said, 'Like now they will say to the Yidden and to the Yaakov what is Hashem doing?'\" So he says like this: \"קיבלתי מאבי ואבי מאביו, I received from my father, and my father from his father, and his father from his father, all the way to Moshe Rabbeinu. But what is the peshat in this pasuk? Peshat is like this: כעת יאמר ליעקב, like now, when the same amount of time will pass from now, from when Bilaam said it, as it passed from the beginning of creation till now, you again will be able to ask the Yidden what is Hashem doing. Who could tell you what Hashem is doing? A navi.\" So he says when that amount of time will pass, תחזור נבואה לישראל, the nevuah will come back. Now let's figure out which year that was. Bilaam said a nevuah in the year 2,488. The Yidden went out of Mitzrayim in the year 2,448, and Bilaam's nevuah was 40 years later, so it's 200 2,488. So Bilaam said if another 2,488 years will pass, the nevuah will come back. Which year is that? 4,976, which is very close to the Rambam's times, here the nevuah will come back. Then, in some prints of the Rambam, of this Iggeret Teiman, not not all prints have it, they have an additional part that the Rambam writes there about a certain person that lived in his time that said certain things will happen. And he gives an example. He said that in a few days blood is going to rain. And he says in a few days red water came down. When it was raining, it was red. And the Rambam writes on him: והוא היה נביא אמת ואין ספק. He was a real navi without a safek. So the Rambam writes actually in his time there was a person that he referred to him as a navi. Now, I doubt that the Rambam meant al pi halachah he had a halachah of a navi, that if he would tell you to do against the Torah we would have to listen to him, because that would need a lot of details. But the fact that he was a navi, the Rambam writes he was.

There is a Tosafot in Gittin, where Tosafot quotes a peshat in the name of one of the chachamim in his of Baalei Tosafot. And guess what his name was? Rav Ezra HaNavi. Tosafot says Rav Ezra HaNavi said! He was a navi. We know that it says that in the Beit Midrash of the ראב״ד, הופיע רוח הקודש. In the Beit Midrash of the Raavad, there was Ruach Hakodesh. We know concerning Rabbi Yehuda HaChassid that it says that in his he had nevuah in his in his in his yeshiva. Rabbi Yehuda HaChassid, Rabbi Yehuda HaChassid lived around the time of the Rambam. It's not a chassid that we're talking about from this chassid, that chassid. It's called Yehuda HaChassid. He's the author of the famous tzavaah of Yehuda HaChassid, his tzavaah that certain things we shouldn't do, we shouldn't do, anyway. So that time, you see, and this was not in the בית המקדש's time, and nevuah came back. Then what do we need more than the Baal Shem Tov and his talmidim, which said things mamash they they they they behaved and they said things similar to what we find concerning the neviim, concerning the chachamim of the Gemara who were that great? And all this is because, in concept, nevuah is not something that is limited to any time. It's something that Hashem sends always. It's just up to the people to prepare themselves to receive it. And if they do, they receive it. If not, not. So now, we don't have people like that or not too many, maybe just single few people in a generation. And these are the people that are able to receive the nevuah. And by these people, it would be similar to a navi that his mind, a person like that, the mind would become united with the words of Hashem, would pick up these vibrations that come from shamayim, or even special things. Now, we don't know halachically, I would assume halachically there's no halachah of a navi, but the general concept of what is supposed to happen, the Rambam does say, it comes out doesn't limit it to a certain time. Then there is another inyan. We

find an expression sometimes in the Gemara, in Chazal called ניבא ולא ידע מה ניבא. Sometimes a person would prophesy and not know that he prophesied. Even by Moshe Rabbeinu, who was the biggest prophet, we find such an expression. When he said in the שירה after קריעת ים סוף, he said, תביאמו ותטעמו בהר נחלתך, bring them in into your mountain of inheritance, which meant Eretz Yisrael. So Rashi says, why didn't he say bring us in? Moshe didn't know yet at that time that he's not going to enter Eretz Yisrael. So Rashi's ניבא ולא ידע מה ניבא. He prophesied, but he didn't know what he was saying, that he was prophesying. Which, why in certain things he would know, certain things he wouldn't know, I don't know, but this also comes from the same idea: since he is a person that is completely batel to Hashem, so therefore what he says is the truth. And what comes into his mind, not even knowing, is really the truth. And that's the idea of nibah, prophesied, but he didn't know what he prophesied. And these are stories we find concerning tzaddikim of our generation, that they would do things, and later you found out, and it doesn't necessarily mean that they knew it because they actually knew the future. There was a person that his brother moved to America from Russia, and he was a Lyubavitcher. And after he moved to America and he just made a living, he wrote a letter to his brother, \"Send me your son,\" he had a son, \"and let him come here, and I'll train him,\" whatever. So he came to the Rebbe, the Rebbe Rashab, and he asked him if he should send him, and he said, \"Don't.\" So he didn't. A few months later, he gets a letter again, and he asked again, and the Rebbe said again, \"Don't.\" He didn't listen, and he sends him. And on the way, the ship sank, and the child passed away. So he came running with complaints to the Rebbe: \"If you told me not to send him, obviously you knew what's going to happen. So why didn't you tell me? I wouldn't have send him.\" So the Rebbe answered like this: \"Gleyb mir az ich hob nisht gevust, ober az men zogt darf men folgn.\" \"Believe me, I didn't know, but if I said, you should have listened.\" Which means, I trust him, I believe him that he said, \"I didn't know.\" But the pshat is that because he's a person, such a great tzaddik, that his whole being is given over to Hashem, so if he felt no, then that means that min hashamayim they're telling him no, even though he didn't get a message from min hashamayim, but his whole feeling is only things that come with the truth. So he said, \"You should have listened.\" I

remember once, everyone remembers, before the Yom Kippur War, a whole summer the Rebbe was campaigning with one slogan, מפי עוללים ויונקים יסדת עוז, for children, make sure the children learn Torah, because in order to destroy our enemies, we have to get the children to learn Torah. The pasuk says, מפי עוללים ויונקים יסדת עוז להשבית אויב ומתנקם, to get to destroy the enemies, you have to have the little children learning Torah. A whole summer, and no one knew really, I remember like today, no one understood what was the special danger. Sometimes you see there's a danger situation, so the Rebbe came out you should learn Torah, do this, give tzedakah. That time didn't seem like any special danger. But a whole summer, I remember, then the camps, the Rebbe sent special letters, and I remember that time, Aseret Yemei Teshuvah, which was a few days before Yom Kippur, there was a special letter that the Rebbe gave out, which was not common. The Rebbe used to write letters, מכתב כללי, letters, general letters for the public before Rosh Hashanah. Aseret Yemei Teshuvah that we should gather children together, and they should say certain pesukim, and all this will destroy the enemies. I remember even, they had a big rally with children then in Oholei Torah, and I remember my son, first son was just born then, and I was walking back from that gathering, that rally, I was walking with my wife, holding the baby in the hands. I remember telling her, \"I don't know what is the Rebbe doing here, what's happening here, there's nothing.\" And I said, \"Whatever he's doing, he's going to accomplish, because by Mordechai it says, how did he destroy Haman, that he gathered 24,000 children to study Torah. Well, the Rebbe probably gathered half a million, because all over they in Crown Heights where I was they had probably 5,000 children, so all together, you see, so he's definitely going to accomplish, but what's he doing?\" And then came Yom Kippur, and there was the Yom Kippur War. So Simchat Torah, the Rebbe spoke about it, and the Rebbe said, \"A whole summer I was warning.\" And he said then, \"I didn't know,\" I'm just saying what he said, I don't know if you could trust him, \"I didn't know why I said this, but ניבא ולא ידע מה ניבא,\" he used that term, \"ניבא ולא ידע מה ניבא, and this was because of of the the the war, and we takeh don't know what this accomplished, the children's learning Torah and tzedakah and all the camps, I remember the tumult was so great. But this was because a person like that whose whole being is nothing but godliness,\" And which was anybody who just was involved a little bit knew the Rebbe's lifestyle without being a big chasid, that his whole being didn't have anything of his own. Everything was just the Aibershter and Torah and mitzvot. So, when he felt something, it was true. There's

another story, I don't know if there's time to tell stories now, but there's another time I remember also when once this was תשל״ב, 1972, the Rebbe came back from the Ohel on חמשה עשר בשבט and he said there's going to be a sudden farbrengen. And always used to Those times, a sudden farbrengen meant something special. But the farbrengen all he spoke about was the importance of learning Torah, learning Torah, and from then on, he started this slogan: כיבוש העולם על ידי תורה, to conquer the world with Torah. And for weeks and weeks, and there didn't, for no special reason. Then a while later, there was a movement in the government to take away the exemption from the army from the ישיבה בחורים. And all the yeshivot had, you know, all the roshei yeshivah and they got together to see what to do. First of all, what could we do, you know? Second of all, we should strengthen the yeshivot, the learning, so it should, you know, Hashem should see that they're learning. And they had one of the complaints that Lubavitch, the Rebbe did not join the whole movement. So, remember by a farbrengen the Rebbe said that they're complaining why Lubavitch didn't join to strengthen learning Torah after all this happened. So, he says, we did it before. He said, and this is what he said, I'm quoting him, חמשה עשר בשבט I was by the Ohel and I had an urge, these are the words he used, s'hat zich mir geshtupt, I had an urge to farbreng. So, I came back and I decided certainly to have a farbrengen. I didn't know what to talk about. So, in my mind came in, let's talk about the strengthening of importance of learning Torah. And that's how he started. And he says, later when this happened, I saw why this was pushed. So, the Rebbe said, the lesson I took from it is that from here on, whenever I'll have an urge to farbreng, I'll farbreng. Cuz earlier, he said, I sometimes had an urge and I didn't do it. But this here is an example of our times of the concept of a tzadik who has these feelings. But returning to the inyan of nevuah, obviously there are levels and we're not going to know to compare what's a geder of a navi or not, but the idea is that this person who is completely batel to Hashem has, gets these messages from shamayim. Now, a real official navi gets it in a form, official form, and certain things yes, certain things not. Other people who are not in the level of a navi, but this is the messages they get, and that's what nevuah is. And therefore, when the Rambam says in the Yesodei HaTorah that it's one of the foundation of our religion, so obviously if it's a fundamental thing, it has to always be. It's always there, and these messages are given. And there's always a possibility for a person to raise himself to a level to be able to be a kli to receive it. And if we receive it, then we're nevi'im. And if not, but if everyone in his own little level is able to do it with a little bit of emunah, we're able to reach such levels. Everyone in his own level. This is the concept of nevuah. Any questions? Ruach hakodesh is a lower level. It's also in the category of nevuah, but it's just a lower level. It says after nevuah stopped, they still continued using ruach hakodesh and using a bas kol, a voice from heaven, but it's still in the category of nevuah. It says the Arizal in one of the sefarim called Shaar Ruach HaKodesh goes through according to Kabbalah the different levels of what nevuah is and what ruach hakodesh is and what a bas kol is, and all kinds of different things. But it's all in the same category. Yes.

There is an expression in Gemara about certain things which is called a נבואה קטנה, small prophecy. Now, one of the things it says is when a person names his child, says the Arizal says that Hashem puts in We had a discussion on names, I brought it then, Hashem puts into the child into the parent's mind, that's really nevuah. Or the Gemara says if a person wakes up in the morning and a pasuk falls into his mind, a pasuk just just from out of nowhere falls into his mind, הרי זה נבואה קטנה, a small nevuah, which means that this is given from Hashem. The only thing is it says nowadays we can't really rely on that if a a pasuk falls into your mind that you should behave accordingly, I'll tell you why, because this really mean meant when a person was in a very high level, so we assumed that being he's batel to Hashem, so whatever comes in is from Hashem. Everything's from Hashem, but I mean directly from Hashem. But nowadays that we never know, maybe that's the pasuk we learned yesterday and I forgot, maybe who knows, we're so mixed up that we don't know, so now we can't rely on it. But there is such a concept, that's called a נבואה קטנה, a small nevuah. A

dream, by the nevi'im the nevuah used to come through a dream, and certain dreams are considered a certain nevuah, but again, not nowadays. Nowadays, being that we are not in control over our thoughts, so we never know whether it's min hashamayim or not. All the things that it says about dreams are only when a person was pure and a person was in control of his thoughts, and he was able to know whether I thought about it or not, because one thing is clear: whatever you think about, you dream. So if I know I didn't think about this inyan yesterday, I am sure I didn't. Now we are and therefore when it came, it was min hashamayim. Now that we're not in control of our thoughts, if you ask somebody what he thought about the last 10 minutes, he probably won't be able to tell you, so how can you know? So now nowadays, these dreams really don't mean much. But in truth, it says that a dream, there would be a certain level of nevuah. And why specifically in a dream? For the same reason, because as long as you're awake, your חושים, your senses are strong, so your gashmiyut is strong. It has to be sleeping, it has to be weak, and then the nevuah could come. By a tzaddik, when his gashmiyus is weak, then certainly his ruchniyus is stronger, especially it says that when you go to sleep, your neshamah goes l'maalah, and the neshamah gets involved in those things that you were involved during the day. So if a person was involved during the day in all kinds of narishkeitn, so it says his neshamah gets all kinds connections with I don't know, malachei chabalah, with all kinds of terrible malachim. But if a person was involved in Torah and in ruchniyus, in holiness, so his neshamah gets involved in higher things, and therefore he is able to to get What? Yeah, we hope a malach helps. That's why there was a person, one of the Baalei Tosafos wrote a sefer called She'elot Uteshuvot Min Hashamayim, questions and answers from heaven. What would he do? Before he would go to sleep, he would write it on a piece of paper, questions, put it next to his bed, and through the night, when his neshamah went up, he would come back, there was an answer written. But we're talking about such great tzaddikim. But for us, very. Yes. If if our masters teach today, can we still say that when a parent names his child that it is that it's a nevuah? Yes, that part it is. That part it says. I

mentioned by the child naming a child, I mentioned that time what the Belzer Rebbe once said to somebody. There was a person that asked him, \"What name should I give to my child?\" So he says to him, \"I don't understand you. Usually a Rebbe has ruach hakodesh, a chasid doesn't. Here you have a chance once in a lifetime, a few times in a lifetime to have ruach hakodesh, you want to also give it away to me? Keep it to yourself.\" Yes. I read once that one of the big maalot of Shlomo Hamelech is that he had two nevuot. Is it the case that a navi has one nevuah and just keeps finding more and more details about it, generally speaking, or they have No, it could be all kinds, could be that, could be different nevuot. What's the chidush that Shlomo Hamelech had two? No, but it probably means two directions. Probably I would imagine a navi with קו החסד would have nevuot of קו החסד and so on, and he was able to have two directions. That's a big thing, that to have combination of both. David. Give his first name. A very the big thing in in American culture for a while was ESP, and there are actually history where they recorded and they do statistics, they have all the information, of that they identified that, yes, a person pre-seen that this plane crash was going to happen, they documented it, and it did happen. And there's a couple of occasions. Does this have any relationship to That's a sense. That's one of the senses a person might have. But that's not nevuah at all. That's a sense. It's a sixth sense, like you smell things, you could feel things, sometimes there are certain vibrations that just It's a subtle sense? Yeah, yeah, yeah, but that's but that's a physical thing, that's not ruchniyus. Yeah. Just like when for instance, it says in sefarim that when someone is, when you look at somebody, even if he's not facing you, if you look hard enough, he'll turn around. Why? Because there are certain there are certain connections that come from you, and there are certain people who could drive him further, and it doesn't mean this is not spiritual. I mean, there is something, you know, not just a regular tangible gashmiyusdike thing, but it's not godly, let's put it this way. It comes from כוחות הטומאה? Could come from כוחות הטומאה or could come from gashmiyus, just as a nature. Jewish people in danger that they have this? They had the ability, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Morris. Do you know of anybody alive today who is known to be a A navi? Yeah. Not frankly. I don't know. I want to thank everybody for coming. Again, there are refreshments, please help yourself. We are always looking for sponsors for the refreshments, as I said before, they're 15 Thank you. How do we get the tapes to listen How do we get the text to listen to us and do what we want it to do? What does listening mean? It means you have