Shoftim (parsha) - in Classical Rabbinic Interpretation - Deuteronomy Chapter 18 - Rules For Prophets

Rules For Prophets

Mishnah Sanhedrin 7:7 and Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 64a–b interpreted the laws prohibiting passing one's child through the fire to Molech in Leviticus 18:21 and 20:1–5, and Deuteronomy 18:10.

Rabbi Assi taught that the children of Noah were also prohibited to do anything stated in Deuteronomy 18:10–11: "There shall not be found among you any one that makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one that uses divination, a soothsayer, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or one that consults a ghost or a familiar spirit, or a necromancer."

The Mishnah defined a “sorcerer” (מְכַשֵּׁף, mechashef) within the meaning of Deuteronomy 18:10 to be one who actually performed magic, in which case the sorcerer was liable to death. But if the offender merely created illusions, the offender was not put to death. Rabbi Akiva said in Rabbi Joshua's name that two may gather cucumbers by “magic,” and one was to be punished and the other was to be exempt. The one who actually gathered the cucumbers by magic was to be punished, while the one who performed an illusion was exempt.

Similarly, the Sifre defined the terms “augurer,” “diviner,” “soothsayer,” and “sorcerer” within the meaning of Deuteronomy 18:10. An “augurer” was one who took hold of a staff and said, “Whether I should go or not.” Rabbi Ishmael said that a “soothsayer” was someone who passed something over his eye. Rabbi Akiva said that soothsayers calculated the seasons, as did those who declared that the years prior to the seventh year produced good wheat or bad beans. And the Sages said soothsayers were those who performed illusions. The Sifre defined “diviners” as people who said that something could be divined from, for example, bread falling from someone’s mouth, a staff falling from someone’s hand, a snake passing on one’s right or a fox on one’s left, a deer stopping on the way before someone, or the coming of the new moon. And the Sifre taught that a “sorcerer” was someone who actually carried out a deed, not merely performing an illusion.

Rabbi Johanan taught that sorcerers are called כַשְּׁפִים, kashefim, because they seek to contradict the power of Heaven. (Some read כַשְּׁפִים, kashefim, as an acronym for כחש פמליא, kachash pamalia, “contradicting the legion .”) But the Gemara noted that Deuteronomy 4:35 says, “There is none else besides Him (God).” Rabbi Hanina interpreted Deuteronomy 4:35 to teach that even sorcerers have no power to oppose God’s will. A woman once tried to take earth from under Rabbi Hanina's feet (so as to perform sorcery against him). Rabbi Hanina told her that if she could succeed in her attempts, she should go ahead, but (he was not concerned, for) Deuteronomy 4:35 says, “There is none else beside Him.” But the Gemara asked whether Rabbi Johanan had not taught that sorcerers are called כַשְּׁפִים, kashefim, because they (actually) contradict the power of Heaven. The Gemara answered that Rabbi Hanina was in a different category, owing to his abundant merit (and therefore Heaven protected him).

In Deuteronomy 18:15, Moses foretold that “A prophet will the Lord your God raise up for you, from your midst, of your brethren.” The Sifre deduced from the words “for you” that God would not raise up a prophet for other nations. The Sifre deduced from the words “from your midst” that a prophet could not come from abroad. And the Sifre deduced from the words “of your brethren” that a prophet could not be an outsider.

In Deuteronomy 18:15, Moses foretold that "A prophet will the Lord your God raise up for you . . . like me," and Rabbi Johanan thus taught that prophets would have to be, like Moses, strong, wealthy, wise, and meek. Strong, for Exodus 40:19 says of Moses, "he spread the tent over the tabernacle," and a Master taught that Moses himself spread it, and Exodus 26:16 reports, "Ten cubits shall be the length of a board." Similarly, the strength of Moses can be derived from Deuteronomy 9:17, in which Moses reports, "And I took the two tablets, and cast them out of my two hands, and broke them," and it was taught that the tablets were six handbreadths in length, six in breadth, and three in thickness. Wealthy, as Exodus 34:1 reports God's instruction to Moses, "Carve yourself two tablets of stone," and the Rabbis interpreted the verse to teach that the chips would belong to Moses. Wise, for Rav and Samuel both said that 50 gates of understanding were created in the world, and all but one were given to Moses, for Psalm 8:6 said of Moses, "You have made him a little lower than God." Meek, for Numbers 12:3 reports, "Now the man Moses was very meek."

The Mishnah taught that the community was to execute a “false prophet” within the meaning of Deuteronomy 18:20 — one who prophesied what the prophet had not heard or what was not told to the prophet. But Heaven alone would see to the death of the person who suppressed a prophecy or disregarded the words of a prophet, or a prophet who transgressed the prophet’s own word. For in Deuteronomy 18:19, God says, “I will require it of him.” The Mishnah taught that only a court of 71 members (the Great Sanhedrin) could try a false prophet. The Mishnah taught that the community was to execute by strangulation a false prophet and one who prophesied in the name of an idol. And the Mishnah taught that one who prophesied in the name of an idol was subject to execution by strangulation even if the prophecy chanced upon the correct law.

A Baraita taught that prophecy died when the later prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi died, and the Divine Spirit departed from Israel. But Jews could still on occasion hear echoes of a Heavenly Voice (Bat Kol).