topic we're going to discuss discuss tonight is the concept of nevuah, prophecy. We know that the Rambam, when he made, set up the 13 principles, the י״ג ikkarim, so one of the 13 principles is that השם, הקדוש ברוך הוא מנבא בני אדם, that Hashem gives prophecy to human beings. And that is actually his sixth ikar, it's the sixth principle. As he writes in his commentary on מסכת, in Pirkei Avot, he writes, that's where he sets up the 13 principles, and he writes that the sixth principle is the principle that Hashem gives nevuah, gives prophecy to human beings. And it's interesting that this is such an important principle that this is the sixth, coming before other principles in the Rambam which would seem more important. For instance, principle number eight is that Torah is מן השמים, that the Torah was given from Hashem, from heaven. Principle number nine is that the Torah is נצחי, that the Torah is eternal, Torah is forever. And principle number six, which is the one before, the Rambam says that this is that הקדוש ברוך הוא, השם מנבא בני אדם, that Hashem gives prophecy, prophesizes, gives prop- gives prophecy to human beings. And in this, the Rambam happens to argue with the Sefer HaIkkarim. There's another great codifier called the Sefer HaIkkarim, and he writes that the fact that there is nevuah, that there is prophecy, is not an ikar in itself. It's not considered a principle in itself. Everything in Torah is important, so obviously when we speak about principles, what we're trying to say is that these are the most fundamental aspects of the Torah. There are 613 mitzvot. Not every mitzvah is considered a principle. Not every mitzvah is considered an ikar. So obviously, then when the Rambam decided that these 13 are ikkarim, these 13 are the most important ones in the Torah, like for instance, one, to believe in Hashem, that's obviously the most important one. So here the Rambam writes that to believe that Hashem gives over prophecy to human beings is also an ikar, and a very important ikar. But the Sefer HaIkkarim, Sefer Ikkarim writes that it's not an ikar in itself. We cannot consider the fact that Hashem gives prophecy to human beings is considered a principle in Yiddishkeit. And he gives a reason why: because the main purpose why Hashem would give over nevuah to people through the nevi'im is because this was a way he could strengthen the fulfillment of Torah. Since Hashem wanted the Yidden to keep the Torah and do the mitzvot, so one of the ways he would strengthen the keeping of Torah is sending neviim from time to time, prophets from time to time, with different prophecies which would give them the chizuk, the strength, to keep the mitzvot. So therefore he says that this should be like a branch within the principle of the importance of Torah. So another aspect of the importance of Torah is that Hashem, to make sure that we recognize it and we strengthen it, Hashem would send neviim. But the Rambam obviously doesn't hold like that. The Rambam holds that prophecy in itself is an ikkar, is a principle in itself. Even though the Rambam himself writes, when he writes in in in his Pirush HaMishnayot about the 13 Ikkarim, 13 principles, he says that the purpose of the nevuot, why Hashem would send a navi, he writes is to strengthen the fulfillment of mitzvot by Yidden. He adds, and also sometimes he would send for other things. And whenever the navi comes and says things over in the name of Hashem, we are obligated to listen to him, as the pasuk says אליו תשמעון. But the Rambam himself seems to be saying the main purpose of why Hashem sends neviim is in order to strengthen the Torah. And still, the Rambam argues with the ikkarim, and the Rambam holds that it is an ikkar in itself, it is a principle in itself. Now

what we have to understand is, why is it a principle at all? Why is this inyan of having a navi, and there's a halachah that we have to listen to the navi whatever he says, why is that considered a principle? It is a halachah, we have to listen to the navi, but there are many halachot. There are 613 mitzvot, and each mitzvah has tens and 20, 100s of halachot and they're not called ikkarim. So this is another halachah that we have to listen to the navi, אליו תשמעון. If a navi comes and says something in the name of Hashem and he is a navi that's an established navi as the Rambam explains how you establish that a navi is called a navi emet, a true navi, we have to listen to him. That's a mitzvah. That's one of the תרי״ג mitzvot. But why does the Rambam consider this as an ikar? So before we go to answer that question and explain the concept of nevuah, I'd like to read some details about nevuah from the Rambam. The Rambam in Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah, which are the laws of the foundations of Torah, so in these halachot, the Rambam put in a few types of things. One of the things is from פרק שביעי and on, from the seventh perek of Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah, the Rambam discusses the concept of nevuah. So I would like to read some of the halachot because this explains what nevuah is. I'm not going to go through פרק ז׳ and ח׳ and ט׳, all the different perakim and פרק י׳, where the Rambam describes and explains the idea, what the idea of a navi is, but I'll just read a little bit from פרק ז׳, from the seventh perek. And I'll just, I guess read it in English even though the Rambam wrote it in Hebrew:

From the foundations of our religion is to know that Hashem gives nevuah, gives prophecy to people. Then he says prophecy will only come to a person who's a chacham gadol, very smart in chochmah, strong in his middot, that means that he always overcomes his evil inclination, his yetzer hara never overcomes him, he always overcomes the yetzer hara, a person with a wide understanding, very wide understanding, a person who is full of these middot that we just said, and is complete in his body, which means he is not a baal mum, he's without a blemish. When he will enter the פרדס, enter the garden, and that is an expression for a person with his mind entering the spiritual worlds, realizing and thinking about Hashem completely as the Rambam will explain. So when a person that fits to what we said before will enter the פרדס, and he will follow these great ענינים which are far from us, and he will have a great and wide and deep understanding in all that, he becomes holy. He will become holy, and he will separate himself from the ways of the ordinary people who follow the darkness of time, which means they follow the gashmiyut, the physicality of this dark world. And this person will go and strengthen himself and teach himself that he should not have any thought of the דברים בטלים, of the how would you translate דברים בטלים, insignificant things, and not with the stupidities of the time and all its things, but his mind will always be open to above, tied as he says, under the כסא הכבוד, under the chair of Hashem, to understand these holy and pure images. And he looks into the chochmah of Hashem from the top to the bottom, and he knows all the depth of the chochmah of Hashem, right away the Ruach HaKodesh, the holy spirit, will dwell upon him. And when this holy spirit dwells, the Ruach HaKodesh comes upon this person, his nefesh, his soul, will mix with the malachim, and a certain type of malachim, and he will be changed into a different human being. And he will know in his mind that he is not the same as he was before, but he became a person higher than an ordinary person. As it says by Shaul when he became a navi, then King Shaul became a navi, it says, ״והתנבית עמם״, you will be a navi with them, ״ונהפכת לאיש אחר״, you will be turned into another person. And then he goes on that there are many different levels of nevi'im, just like in chachamim there are higher levels of chochmah, lower levels of chochmah, so too there are different levels of nevi'im. But one thing is all the nevi'im only see their nevuah through a vision of the night or when they fall asleep. And when they prophesy, when they get this nevuah, their limbs shake and their body becomes weak and their mind gets mixed up of all the gashmiyut, and their mind becomes only only could concentrate on what they see. He brings pesukim from Avraham. Also he says, when they notify a navi a prophecy, it's through a mashal. It's only in a form of a parable. And this navi, in his mind, sees the mashal and understands what this parable is supposed to mean. For instance, he says, when Yaakov Avinu saw the ladder in his dream, it was nevuah, but right away he understood that that ladder represents the fact that we're going to being in galut under other governments. And then he gives other examples here. Then he goes on that the nevi'im would not prophesy anytime they wanted, but they would with their mind concentrate and sit and be in a happy mood, because nevuah does not come in a person when he is lazy or when he is sad, and they would sing, and then he would wait there for nevuah. Now, sometimes they would get nevuah, sometimes they would not get nevuah. All the people who are ready for nevuah are called בני הנביאים. It doesn't mean children of nevi'im, but means children who are nevi'im. Then the Rambam continues:

all this that we said are only concerning the other nevi'im, whether it's the נביאים ראשונים, the נביאים אחרונים, the first nevi'im, the later nevi'im, but not Moshe Rabbeinu. What's the difference between Moshe Rabbeinu and other nevi'im? So he says: all the nevi'im would see it in a dream or in a vision, Moshe Rabbeinu would see it direct. Moshe Rabbeinu did not see it through a parable, he would see the direct nevuah and direct with Hashem. All the nevi'im would shake, would fall to the ground when they would see nevuah, Moshe Rabbeinu would stand. The Rambam doesn't bring here, but it says by all the nevi'im would have to take off their clothes, Moshe Rabbeinu did not. All the nevi'im not always were, when they wanted to hear nevuah, would the nevuah come, as we said, Moshe Rabbeinu, anytime he wanted to speak to Hashem and have nevuah, the nevuah would come. And then the Rambam goes on exactly how we know who is a navi, and then he goes on with Moshe Rabbeinu, all kinds of things. This is really what the idea of a navi is and nevuah is. Now, from this that we see that the Rambam tries to tell us that a navi is a certain level of a human being. A person who reaches that level is called a navi, but it doesn't necessarily mean that he will get nevuah. He reaches the level of a navi and then he is fit for Hashem to give nevuah to this person. In other words, nevuah is a level of bitul, a level of a person's selflessness, a person's self-nullification to Hashem. As the Rambam said, a person who overcomes his yetzer hara, in his mind he doesn't have anything to do with גשמיות, it's only, his mind is only connected to Hashem. And then Hashem comes and reveals Himself to him. Now, this revelation of Hashem to a נביא is a very, very important fundamental ענין, aspect in Idishkeit, in Torah uMitzvot. Now,

I'll explain why according to Chassidut, the way Chassidut explains it. Because the whole purpose of the creation of the world is לעשות לו יתברך דירה בתחתונים. Hashem created the world in order that Hashem should be in this world. But the way the world was created, the world conceals, covers up on the truth of Hashem. And then the job is to reveal within this low world, to reveal the truth of Hashem. נבואה means that within this physical world, in the mind of a physical human being, there is the revelation of Hashem. And that's when Hashem really fulfills His desire. Hashem's desire is that in this physical world there should be the revelation of Hashem. And the truth is, every time we do a mitzvah and every time we learn Torah, we do it, but not in a revealed way. It's not revealed. When we put on tefillin, we know that we're bringing Hashem into this world, but we don't see it. נבואה is the revelation of Hashem in a revealed way. So when Hashem comes down into this world and reveals Himself in the mind of a human being, this is the true fulfillment of דירה בתחתונים, of the dwelling of Hashem in this world, more than through any mitzvot that we do. Because when we do mitzvot, we know it's there, but we don't see it. We know in the future it will be revealed, now it's not revealed. נבואה is, in a revealed way, Hashem coming down into this world, in a revealed way, uniting with this physical world, because He's uniting Himself with the mind of a human being, which is גילוי אלקות. And that is the reason why, in order for a person to be deserving נבואה, has to himself reach a level of bittul to Hashem. Now, I'll explain why. When we talk about the revelation of Hashem, there are two types of revelations. Now,

we'll use the words of Chassidut: there's a revelation מלמטה למעלה, and there's a revelation מלמעלה למטה. There's a revelation that comes from down up, and There is a revelation that comes from up down. There is a revelation that comes from within us: a person who reaches a level because he works on himself, and he learns a lot, and he works on his מדות a lot, and he fights his יצר הרע a lot, and he reaches a level where he really feels the truth of Hashem, that's a revelation of Hashem. The fact that a Id feels, and in his mind it is clear that that Hashem exists, and he really feels honestly and truthfully, be'emet, that there is nothing but Hashem, that person reached a level of revelation of Hashem. What does revelation mean? Let's understand: what does it mean that something is revealed? Something is clear. When you see something clearly, that's called it's revealed to you. So when a person works on himself, and he sees clearly in his mind the truth of Hashem, that's a level of revelation of Hashem. But it's a revelation that comes mil'matah l'ma'alah. The person picked himself up, overcame certain things, overcame the concealment of the truth of Hashem. He overcame the the barrier that the gashmiyut of the world does and blocks the truth of Hashem, and he overcame, and he reached a point where he sees Hashem to a certain degree. But since it's something that he did on his own, how much can a person already accomplish? How far can a person reach in through himself in reaching the feeling seeing the revelation of Hashem? So a person is supposed to do as much as he is able to do, but then Hashem says, if you do mil'matah l'ma'alah from your side as much as you're able to do, then I will come mil'ma'alah l'matah. Hashem says, I will come and reveal Myself to you in the way I can. Now what we could do on our own is a certain very limited, because we're doing as much as we can, and we are after all human beings, so a human being has a body, and the body blocks and covers up, so we could reach only a certain point. But Hashem says if you do as much as you can, I will come and reveal Myself to you. And this is the idea of nevuah. There were, the nevi'im, people who would go out into the fields and lock themselves up and constantly think about Hashem, and do, on their part, as much it was possible on their part to get rid of the gashmiyut which covers up on the truth of Hashem, and reach a point of revelation that they could feel, that they could see the truth of Hashem. So Hashem said, if you do that, then you will be fit, as far as you're concerned, that I should come down and reveal Myself to you. And this is something very special. This is the דירה בתחתונים. Hashem wants that we should change the gashmiyut into making it into a spiritual world. So when a Yid does as much as he can to get rid of the gashmiyut on his own, and then Hashem comes and reveals Himself in the gashmiyut, this is the fulfillment of Hashem's desire of a דירה בתחתונים, of having this world a dwelling place of Hashem. That's why the Rambam says that this is an ikar. This is a very important ikar. This is a principle, a fundamental idea in Torah, because the foundation of Torah is that we know that the whole thing was Hashem wants this world to be elevated and to be brought that it should have a revelation of Hashem. Where do we see it? In nevuah. That's where it happened. The person would pick himself up to a level of revelation as much as the human being is able to do, and then Hashem would reveal Himself to him. And this was a lifestyle of certain people. It's not like we think that there were a certain nevi'im, a few great leaders of the generations, and they were the great nevi'im. There were schools of nevi'im. There were schools of nevi'im that had thousands upon thousands of students. Just like we have nowadays yeshivot where you study Gemara, you study chasidut, and you have, one yeshivah has 500 students, or a 1,000 students, 100 students, they had yeshivot of thousands and thousands of students who were called בני הנביאים. And these were people who reached this level, ready for nevuah. Some of them had got the nevuah, some of them didn't, but they all reached the level of being בני הנביאים. And there were groups of them. The Gemara actually tells us in Megillah that throughout Jewish history we had a million point two nevi'im, a million point two nevi'im. כפלים כיוצאי מצרים, it says. Double of how many Yidden went out of Mitzrayim. Yidden, 600,000 Yidden went out of Mitzrayim, there were double. But we only know of 48. We know of 48 nevi'im and seven nevi'ot: 48 male nevi'im and seven female nevi'ot. How can we say that there were a million point two nevi'im? So the Gemara says: נבואה שהוצרכה לדורות נכתבה, נבואה שלא הוצרכה לדורות לא נכתבה. Only those prophecies that were are important for later generations, they have something to tell us for all later generations, they were written. The nevi'im that are these people gave, said, were only important for that moment, they had no effect, no application to later generations, so they were not written, and we don't know anything about them. But really, there were a million point two nevi'im. And as I understand that means, I'm not even sure, that a million point two nevi'im means people who said nevi'ot. But as we said before, not everyone who reached the level of a navi actually came and said nevi'ot. So could be there were many more, but that's for sure that they had yeshivot of thousands and thousands of students, just like they had yeshivot in learning. We know Rabbi Akiva had a yeshivah of 24,000 talmidim. The big fuss we make about the yeshivah of Rabbi Akiva was that these 24,000 talmidim died, that's the whole tumult. But we don't make a whole fuss of the fact that he had 24,000 talmidim, because it wasn't the only yeshivah. The yeshivot in the time of the Gemara were such big yeshivot, like lehavdil the colleges you have nowadays, they have 20,000 students in a college, 10,000 students. That's how the yeshivot were. So there were yeshivot not just for learning, but there were yeshivot where the people became nevi'im. That's why it says the first time that Shaul was a navi, they looked at him and they saw him going with the group of neviim, they said, \"הגם שאול בנביאים? He's also amongst the neviim?\" Because there were people neviim and they were surprised that he was also, because they didn't know that he was such a great person. But this is what nevuah is. Nevuah is a lifestyle of a person who reaches a level of being a complete tzaddik, and then this person is ready for the nevuah should come down. And that's the difference also between Moshe Rabbeinu and the other neviim.

Why was Moshe Rabbeinu different? Because Moshe Rabbeinu, when he elevated himself and he reached the level of ביטול מלמטה למעלה from that part, and he had the godly revelation from his side, it was a much higher level than the godly revelation that the other neviim reached. And therefore, since they reached one level, the revelation that came down to them was a certain level. Moshe Rabbeinu, which reached a higher level, so the revelation that came to him was also on a higher level. Basically, the nekudah, the point of the difference between the level of Moshe and the rest of the neviim, says chasidut, is like this: The rest of the neviim reached a level that gashmiut did not mean anything to them, completely away from gashmiut. But still, gashmiut was gashmiut. The physicality of the world is physicality, it didn't bother them, they didn't care about it at all. But since gashmiut is still gashmiut, when it came to the revelation of Hashem, they had to get rid of their gashmiut. So the physical clothes that they wore had to get off. The fact that they're standing, which is an expression of your gashmiut, of your metziut, they had to fall to the ground. Their gashmiut, the body, was shaking because their gashmiut, the body, was still gashmiut, and the revelation of Hashem is a contradiction to gashmiut. So they were kelim, vessels to receive it, but at the same time, they had to get rid of it. Moshe Rabbeinu, it says, reached a level that there was no gashmiut by him anymore. He reached a level that he saw, he felt the gashmiut in itself was ruchniut. We can't imagine what that means, that the gashmiut itself should be ruchniut. And therefore, there was no contradiction between his physical clothes, or his physical body, or the fact that he was standing straight upright to the revelation of Hashem. So he didn't have to fall to the ground, he didn't have to take off his clothes, because his gashmiut was actually ruchniut. It's hinted in a pasuk. The pasuk refers to Moshe Rabbeinu with a very interesting title, which is very strange: וזאת הברכה אשר ברך משה איש האלקים. They call Moshe Rabbeinu Ish HaElokim האלקים, the godly man. Or we say even in Tehillim, in davenen on שבת, תפלה למשה איש האלקים, the godly man. What does it mean, a godly man? God is not a man, and a man is not God. And here we have a person who is a godly man. And the Midrash actually has an interesting interpretation. The Midrash says what it means is: מחציו ולמטה איש, מחציו ולמעלה אלקים. He's a person that from half and down he was a man, and from half and up he was a God. Now, chas v'shalom to say Moshe Rabbeinu was God. Moshe Rabbeinu was a human being, Moshe Rabbeinu is not God. But Moshe Rabbeinu reached such a level that his physicality of himself, to him, he saw in it that he's nothing but an extension of Hashem's will. How is a human being created? It's Hashem wanted. But He created us in such a way that even though all it is is an expression of His will, but He made it so that we feel ourselves as an entity. In truth, we're not a separate entity, but we can feel it. No human being Almost no human being is able to feel that. And therefore, gashmiyut remains gashmiyut. So, as much as gashmiyut is not the important part, and you don't care about it, and you reach a very high level, it's still gashmiyut. Only Moshe Rabbeinu or the very few like Moshe Rabbeinu were able to reach that high level that gashmiyut in itself is ruchniyut. To him the gashmiyut was transparent. To him this was, basically his hand was godly. It was physical. He's not a God. But he saw, he felt the truth that this is nothing but an expression of God. It's like the famous vort, this is a similar vort, we don't, can't compare anybody to Moshe Rabbeinu, the great tzadik, the Kozhnitser Magid once told his son when he was already in his old age, he said: \"You know, I reached such a level that my body is not body anymore. I don't feel it, it's not body. It's ruchniyut, it's spiritual.\" So his son says, \"tatteh, I don't understand. How come when I touch your hand, I feel body?\" He says, \"Because you're touching with body, because your hand is body, is gashmiyut, so you think and you feel it in relationship to your hand. But in truth what I see is this is not gashmiyut.\" Now, it doesn't mean he didn't see gashmiyut, but he was so close that the gashmiyut to him himself was a vessel to ruchniyut, and that's the level of Moshe Rabbeinu. Other nevi'im did not reach that level, but still a navi means he reached such a level of completely being undressed of any importance of gashmiyut, and his mind, as we have read from the Rambam before, completely in Elokut. And when he did that, then Hashem revealed himself to him. Now, when we talk about this revelation of Hashem to the navi, I'll explain it a little bit differently in a different words. The truth is, there are constantly revelations of Hashem into this world. Hashem reveals himself, if you are a kli, if you are a vessel to pick it up, then you feel it. Just to use a mashal, the mashal of the radio with the radio waves, there are sound waves of the radio all over. All you have to do is you have to have a radio to pick up the waves. When you plug in your radio and you open the radio, it's not the pshat you're creating at that time the sound. You have a kli that picks it up. Now, we are not kelim to pick it up. Why don't we pick up these waves? Because we have gashmiyut, and gashmiyut blocks out from the waves from coming. We could call it, just like some they they they when they wanted shouldn't pick up the waves, what did they do? They they jam, they they jam, they jam the waves of the radio. The yetzer hara jams these waves. The gashmiyut itself, Hashem created the world in such a way that there is a jam on these waves, and you have to purify yourself in such a way that now you're able to pick up these waves. And these neviim picked up these waves. It's similar to what it says, similar, that there are certain voices, בת קול'ס, כרוזים, announcements that come out of heaven and say different things. It says in Pirkei Avot every day a bat kol comes out from heaven and says אוי להם לבריות מעלבונה של תורה, woe to the people who embarrass the Torah. Then it says other bat kols come out and say שובו בנים שובבים, let the children return. Different bat kols. And the question that's always asked is, what's the purpose of these voices if we don't hear it anyway? And the answer is, the neshamah hears it. And from the neshamah, there's an effect on the body, too. But that's a very indirect way. A great tzadik hears it. Why? The neshamah hears it because the neshamah is spiritual, so it hears the spiritual announcements. The body is gashmiyut, the body can't hear this announcement. But if a person's body is not the ikar and his neshamah is the ikar, he would hear it. Similar to that, but even much more, is the concept of nevuah. That the nevuah is these are the announcements that come from Hashem. It's not announcement, revelation, Hashem shines into the world in a way that if you are a kli, you could pick it up. Sometimes these nevuot come along with certain message, this message is to give over to the people. But when we say there were a million point two neviim, not everyone had a message to give over. But they were nevuot that they got. This is as the Rambam I'll use the lashon, here it says, I didn't read it before, in פרק ז' הלכה ז', הנביא אפשר שתהיה נבואתו לעצמו. The navi, sometimes his nevuah is for himself, להרחיב לבו, to broaden his heart, ולהוסיף דעתו, to add to his mind, עד שידע מה שלא היה יודע מאותן הדברים הגדולים. So, he would know more things he didn't know before. What do we mean know? He would get closer to Hashem. He'd have a greater revelation of Hashem. Sometimes it's ואפשר שישלח לעם מעמי הארץ, sometimes he's sent with a message to different nations, or to the to the city. or to a certain government, to teach them what to do, to stop them from doing bad. Okay, then he goes on, when they come, they ask him for a sign that he's a navi, but the idea of the navi is this, that he gets this revelation that's there. And this is why it says when Mashiach will come, וניבאו בניכם ובנותיכם, all our children, the children even will be nevi'im. What does that mean? Why will the children be nevi'im? Why will everybody be a navi? Very simple, because the nevuah is there! The problem is that we are not vessels, we cannot, we're not the radio to pick up these these these these waves. When Mashiach will come and we will all be batel, we will all be like the Rambam describes these people who are called the בני הנביאים, that the gashmiyut doesn't mean anything and the main thing is Hashem and everything their mind is only thinking about Hashem and the yetzer hara never takes takes over them, and all these things, we will be there. So automatically we will be a navi. Like the Rambam says, if a person does this, ומיד רוח הקודש שורה עליו, like right away ruach hakodesh, there's no other condition. You get the nevuah. So if we'll be in that level, we'll get the nevuah. But I want to add another thing, according to what I just said now, comes out that the concept of nevuah is not limited to any period in history, because it's always coming. The difference is that you have to have a person to pick it up. But in that case, nevuah should always be. Ikkar in yiddishkeit that there has to be nevi'im. If it's an ikkar in yiddishkeit, then it should always be! Why only a certain time? It should always be! And actually, doesn't say anywhere that nevuah is limited to the time of the Beis Hamikdash, or to a certain time. The Rambam writes all the halachot. In these chapters here of Yesodei HaTorah, he writes Hilchot Nevuah, the laws of nevuah. Not one word is mentioned here that there is a restriction for nevuah that could only be in the time of the Beis Hamikdash or in certain times, only...doesn't say it! Because there is no restriction for nevuah. Actually, the Chinuch, the Sefer HaChinuch, who writes all the mitzvot according to the Torah, to the parashiyot of the Torah, the Sefer HaChinuch, when it comes to the mitzvah of אליו תשמעון, that you have to listen to the navi, the Rambam the Chinuch writes, like in every mitzvah he writes if it's a mitzvah that only in time of the בית המקדש, only in Eretz Yisrael, only for men, only for women, whatever, he writes all the... So when it comes to the mitzvah of listening to a navi, he says this this mitzvah applies to men and women at all times! Whenever there is a navi, at all times. In other words, he says clearly that this is a thing that could be all times. Then the question is, why does the Gemara say in Yoma that משמתו חגי, זכריה ומלאכי נסתלקה רוח הקודש מישראל? That when Chaggai, Zechariah, Malachi, these are the three last nevi'im, when they passed away, nevuah was nistalek, went away from the Yidden, as if saying that from that time on there is no nevuah. But nevuah is a principle in Yiddishkeit, and it doesn't say anywhere it goes away. And the Rambam himself, he says when he quotes a nevuah of Malachi, he says האחרון שבהם, as the last navi said. So obviously there is an end to nevuah. Is it so? But why should there be an end to nevuah? So the Rebbe explains a chiddush and he says it's true, there is no limit to nevuah that it only has to be in the time of the בית המקדש. Nevuah could be anytime. This that the Gemara says that after Chaggai, Zechariah, Malachi, which are referred to as the last of the נביאים אחרונים, what happened then, nistalkah means it became less common. Nistalkah means it went away, not that... it went away because there is nothing to hold it. What means, in very simple terms, till then there were people, many people who are in the level that they should have nevuah. From that time on, the level of the Yidden went down, and therefore there are not too many people in that level. And therefore the nevuah went away. It doesn't say nevuah stopped, ceased from being. And he brings an example in Tosafos. Tosafos in Shabbos says, the Gemara says that one of the things that happened by the חורבן בית המקדש is that זכוכית לבנה, פסקה זכוכית לבנה. Zechuchit, what it means crystal, crystal stopped. Till then there was crystal and no more crystal. Different things it says stopped. So Tosafot says, what do you mean crystal, so we have crystal nowadays? So he says, well, it was much more common. Stopped mean it's not so common. So if that what it means there, it means the same thing here. That נסתלקה מישראל means that it's not common anymore. That means there are not too many people who are able to pick up the vibes, because we said nevuah is there anyway, it's coming. We just have to have people to pick up the vibes. There are not too many people because people are not the same level. But every generation there are some people who are able, who are in the level of bitul that are able to pick up these vibes. And actually we find in the Rambam an interesting thing. In Iggeret Teiman, Rambam has a letter called Iggeret Teiman, and there the Rambam writes an interesting thing. He says קבלתי מאבא ואבא מאבא, I received tradition from my father, who heard it from his father, who heard it from his father, heard it from his father, going back all the way to Moshe Rabbeinu. And this is what he heard. This is not something that's written in the Gemara, written anywhere. The Rambam says he personally received it. And this is a peshat in the pasuk. Bilam, when he said his prophecy, Bilam said כעת יאמר ליעקב ולישראל מה פעל קל, which means like now, the translate like now we will be saying to the Jews what is Hashem doing. So the Rambam says what does that mean? That a time will come that nevuah will come back, and we will be able to speak to yidden and ask yidden what is Hashem doing, like you would ask a navi. When will that happen? Says I heard from my father that the word כעת, Bilam said כעת means like now, that when the same amount of years that passed from creation of the world till the day Bilam said this, the same amount of years will pass again, that's when it's going to happen, the nevuah will come back. And which year is that? Bilam said the nevuah in the year 2,488. We know that the yidden went out of Mitzrayim in the year 2,448. This was said, Bilam said it 40 years later at the end of the 40 years in the desert. So it was the year 2,488. So the Rambam says I heard from my father going back from Moshe Rabbeinu that when another 2,488 years are going to pass, nevuah will come back. And which year is that? 4976, which is in the time, around the time of the Rambam. So the Rambam says it'll come back then. And this is not the time of the Beit Hamikdash, and nevertheless, it'll come back. What does it mean? There will be more people at that time that will be able to pick up the nevuah. And the Rambam adds a very interesting thing, which is not printed in all the prints of this letter of the Rambam. Look what he writes, that I know there was a person, and he calls him by name, who, first of all he writes claimed he was Mashiach. And he was a tzadik. And this person said nevuot, said things of the future. The Rambam says one of the things he said was that within a few days it's going to rain blood. כך הוה, a few days later, it was raining red water. And the Rambam writes, and this person, he moved away to Eretz Yisrael, he was not Mashiach. He wasn't Mashiach hashaker. You see, Mashiach hashaker means someone who lied. Obviously, he was a person that was fit, if the time would have been right, could be he would have been Mashiach, he wasn't lying. But the Rambam writes he was not Mashiach, but הוא היה נביא אמת בלי ספק. He was definitely a true navi. And this is not in the time of Chagai, Zechariah, Malachi, or in the time of the first neviim. In Tosafot, there is a Tosafot where Tosafot has, you know, all the different chachamim who say different peshatim, there's one of the chachamim who he quotes is called Rav Ezra HaNavi. One of the Baalei Tosafot who lived about 700 years ago, his title was Rav Ezra HaNavi, he was a navi. Tosafot refers to him as a navi. We know it says that by the ראב״ד, הופיע רוח הקודש בבית מדרשו של הראב״ד. That in the Raavad, he was also in the time of the Rambam, there was ruach hakodesh in his beit midrash. Rav Yehuda HaChasid was known with his ruach hakodesh. Rav Yehuda HaChasid lived in the time of the Rambam, maybe even earlier. So there were, so we see there were nevuah in these times. And then what do we need more than later on in the time of the Baal Shem Tov and his talmidim, and the Mezritcher Maggid and his talmidim, we saw open maasim, mamash nevuah. So we see that this nevuah, as much as it's scarce, and the Gemara says it's left, that didn't leave completely. And there are tzadikim, and the reason is because nevuah is something that if a person is ready for it, it'll come, it'll have to come. So there are not too many people ready, but there were always great tzadikim who had the ruach hakodesh and had a nevuah come to them. And this is what the idea of nevuah is. I want to add there is another point in nevuah that sometimes it says there is a nevuah that you don't even realize it's nevuah. נבא ולא ידע מה ניבא it says, like on Moshe Rabbeinu he says nevuah not even knowing it's nevuah. And we find that by different tzadikim also, that they would say things and it would come true and they didn't even realize themselves that they were saying nevuah. By the Rebbe we saw quite a few things that happened, and the Rebbe himself referred to it as נבא ולא ידע מה ניבא. And it comes for the same reason. Where does this concept come from that you say nevuah without knowing? The concept comes if a person is completely batal to Hashem, automatically this revelation is there. Now, sometimes for some reason you feel it as a revelation from above, sometimes you don't. But the fact that the revelation comes and you are a level that you're sensitive to pick it up, then you will certainly pick it up. So, for some reason sometimes you sense that this is a revelation that comes from Hashem, sometimes you don't know, but if this is the, if a person is in that level, then automatically, naturally, he picks up these vibes and feels the things that come in shamayim. Then there are other types of nevuah it says. For instance, it says that some tzadikim would through Torah would see the future or see things in the other side of the world. Like it says concerning the Baal Shem Tov, a story that once somebody came to the Baal Shem Tov and said that his father lost a whole bunch of oxen, what should he do, where should he find it. So there was a Zohar laying on the table, and the Baal Shem Tov opened it up, looked into it, and he said, \"Go to the city of Breslov, you'll find them.\" And he went and he found them. And they asked the Baal Shem Tov, \"Well, obviously you have ruach hakodesh, you know what's going on other places, what was the idea of opening the Zohar? In the Zohar it said where this guy's בהמות, animals will be found?\" So he says, \"You don't understand. It says that when Hashem created the world, the light that was created on the first day of creation was so strong that אדם ראה בו מסוף העולם ועד סופו, you were able to see from one end of the world to the other with this light. ראה הקדוש ברוך הוא, השם saw that the world is not worthy of using such a strong light, עמד וגנזו לצדיקים לעתיד לבוא. He hid it, Hashem hid it, for the tzadikim in the future.\" Then the Midrash asks, where did he hide it? He hid it some place, where did he hide it? BaTorah, in the Torah. So Baal Shem Tov said, \"So if I want to see what's doing some place far, I have to get this light. And since the light is hidden in the Torah, so I opened up a sefer, the Zohar, and I looked in and I got the light of, the strong light, and I was able to see. So I saw what was going on in Breslov. So I saw this guy's animals.\" For the same thing, you could see the future, because with this light you could see everything, could see the future. So this is also a form of nevuah, and it comes for the same reason. Why was the Baal Shem Tov able to see this light? How come when we open the sefer we don't see the light? Well, the light is there, Hashem put it in. The reason we don't see it because you have to be a kli to see it, you have to be sensitive to it, and that is

through what the Rambam said, what a navi does. If you're batal to Hashem, then you're a kli to have nevuah, you're a kli to see the light of the Torah, and you're a kli for nevuah. And that is, as I said before, when Mashiach will come, we'll all be in that level, and therefore, ונבאו בניכם ובנותיכם, we'll all be neviim, because we're all going to be at that level. And we could imagine that Moshe Rabbeinu, Mashiach, and all the great tzaddikim will be within that level itself, a higher madregah. But we will all be in that level and we just hope it's going to happen very, very soon, bimheirah beyameinu. Amen. Yes. I have one question still on. I was looking at the clock whether to start off with Bilam or not. He's asking, if you have to be batal in order to be a navi, how was Bilam a navi? Well, בגלל השם made that the goyim should have neviim for free choice. The goyim complained that, \"How do you expect us to be the way you want if you didn't give us any neviim?\" So Hashem said, \"You know what? I'll give you neviim.\" Ai, you have to be a, so even though they're not really worthy of it, but Hashem made it that they should have, so they shouldn't be able to complain. Basically it means for bechirah chofshit, for free choice. Iyov, was Iyov a tzaddik? He was a tzaddik, but I'm saying with Bilam you're asking, and Bilam is a good question. Now, it's for the sake of free choice. Just like we find other things that really the reason why a certain thing happens is only because of a certain reason, which doesn't apply to, as an example, it says, how does food give a person health? A person is in a higher level than the food. So how could food, which is lower, give something to the person that on his own he doesn't have? If anything You should take something higher to give him, but not something lower. The answer is because the food has the דבר השם, the words of Hashem, that gives the food its existence, and it's not the food that gives us life, but it's the words of Hashem gives us life. And when a person eats, he purifies the food. If you

eat l'shem shamayim, you bring out the kedushah that's there in the food, and that kedushah, that ניצוץ של קדושה gives you life. The question is asked, okay, that's only if you eat לשם שמים. What about a goy who has not who doesn't make a bracha, eats? So the answer is, imagine if Hashem would make that if you eat לשם שמים, you stay healthy, if you don't, you die, so obviously there would be no free choice. So in order to give free choice, Hashem made them also have it. Other things also, same thing here also, Hashem gave him nevuah because of free choice. But the question is, how did he get the nevuah if after all he's not batal? The answer is at the moment when he had the nevuah, he was batal. Hashem made it so that at the time it came to him a nevuah, he made him become batal to Hashem. Now he wasn't ready for it before because he was terrible, oy, he did magic, and he was all kinds of immoral things it says Bilaam did. So he wasn't like a Yid, a navi, who actually works himself up to that level. But Hashem gave him nevuah because Hashem wanted they should also have, as free choice. But at that moment, in order to be able to hold the nevuah, Hashem made him batal. Yes.

Since Moshe was certainly the greatest of the neviim, yeah, how could they be higher? It says ולא קם עוד נביא בישראל כמשה. In Tanya, he has the kushya, he says it wasn't that they were higher, it was only the metzius, not the mahut. The Alter Rebbe has the kushya. It says that nevuah of Moshe Rabbeinu came from the level of Netzach of Atzilut, and then the Arizal z"l, he writes, was talking about higher madregot than Atzilut, so obviously he understood higher madregot, so how could he be higher than Moshe? So he says that Arizal z"l or the other tzadikim understood the existence of those levels, but that's what's called ידיעת המציאות. They knew those levels and they knew what they are, but they didn't have ידיעת המהות. They didn't grasp the essence of what it really is. And Moshe Rabbeinu, in the level that he went, grasped the mahut, and nobody like Moshe had that מדרגה, ידיעת המהות in Elokut. In the future, like Moshe, no, not ידיעת המהות level, no. Not even Mashiach will have. The

Rambam describes Mashiach and he says he'll be a chacham, smarter than Shlomo HaMelech, he'll be a king greater than Dovid HaMelech, everything, and he'll be a navi close to Moshe, not greater. There is one girsa says greater, but most girsaot are not greater because it can't be. There's a pasuk it says, ולא קם עוד נביא בישראל כמשה. There will never be a navi like Moshe. So Mashiach will be close to Moshe. Huh? No, it means both. Never will be. The kam in that it doesn't mean it would never happen. It's a fact. No one can get up, there will never be, there is no navi like, not that there wasn't, there is no navi like Moshe. Yes. Shaul HaMelech was a navi? Yeah. Why was he not He did something wrong. So after he did something wrong, he lost his his madregot. Yeah, at that time he lost his madregot, he went down. The question is how was he able to do something bad, that's a different sheilah, how is a tzadik like Acher, Elisha ben Avuya, I mean, that's a different sheilah, but because he went down, הא ודאי, if he would be still in the same madregah, he would be able to go through nevuah and speak to Hashem, he didn't have to go to the to this magician. Yes. Huh? Kishuf? That's something else, that's not nevuah. What I said was that there is nevuah. There are individuals, there is such a thing, very very few, but I mean it has to be every generation, it's a ikar. Now we have to know who it is, and how, but with the Rebbe, we saw openly certain things that happened that was See, I wouldn't say in halachah the halachah of a navi, there's certain halachot what makes a person a halachah of a navi, but the concept of a navi, definitely. Alter Rebbe, the Baal Shem Tov, the concept of a navi, for sure. Yes. That's a certain level, but that's called hashgachah pratit, that Hashem makes it happen that you should be able to see it, like it says sometimes one of the things if a person doesn't know what to do, it says you should open a Chumash and whatever comes up, that's hashgachah pratit, but we have to be, you can say, a meivin on hashgachah pratit, we have to know exactly how to how to interpret it, how to translate, we have to know it's not everyone is capable of doing it, so we have to Like just a story about this, once somebody went to the Rebbe, he just got married and he was going to go on shlichut to different places, so he had a few choices, and just the date, that day that he went into yechidut, someone offered him a certain place, so he went to the Rebbe, he wrote, \"I have this choice This this choice. Then he said, \"I imagine that since today, right before my yechidut, this and this person offered me this and this choice, hashgachah pratit, it's probably this is the place I should go.\" And everything is hashgachah, we know that, so the Rebbe turns around and he says, \"Since when do you consider yourself an interpreter of hashgachah pratit? Sure it's hashgachah, but how do you know this is the interpretation? You're interpreting hashgachah pratit?\" And I think the Rebbe told him to go someplace else. So hashgachah pratit, but we have to know how to interpret it. So the same thing here, we have to know what to do. These are... Says other things in the Gemara: a

person wakes up in the morning and a certain pasuk falls into his mind, הרי זה נבואה קטנה, that's a small prophecy. No, probably by everybody, probably by everybody. I would imagine it's by everybody. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Again,