Ree 5771 - English

Rabbi Rami Pavolotzky
B’nei Israel Congregation, Costa Rica

Learning to Listen

This week’s parashah includes a rather odd text regarding prophecy.  It is written:  

If there arise in the midst of thee a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams--and he give thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spoke unto thee--saying: “Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them”; thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or unto that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God putteth you to proof, to know whether ye do love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.  After the Lord your God shall ye walk, and Him shall ye fear, and His commandments shall ye keep, and unto His voice shall ye hearken, and Him shall ye serve, and unto Him shall ye cleave.  (Deut. 13:2-5)

This paragraph presents several theological problems, difficult to understand, such as the fact that a prophet who exhorts to idolatry has the ability to perform miracles, and the justification that says God is testing humanity, to see if it loves Him.  Ancient midrashim already reflect these inner tensions of the passage, that are still a reason for analysis and study (see, for example, the different interpretations of Rabbi Yossi and Rabbi Akiva on Sifrei 84, 13:3).

Beyond these problems, it would be interesting to delve into the heart of the matter:  if there is a prophet before us (the Torah does not say if he is a “false prophet” or a “true prophet”) urging us towards idolatry, even when this message is accompanied by wonders to prove it, we must reject him.  Why?  Because a divine message cannot ever carry in itself the seeds of idolatry.

  

Of course, to recommend the rejection of a “true” wonder is difficult to assimilate.  After all, God Himself grants Moses the ability to show a miracle, so that the people would believe he was His messenger.  As I said at the beginning, this is not an easy text.  But if we can remove these difficulties at least for a moment, we may discover an important message in this passage.

The Torah establishes, as the variable to judge whether prophets should or should not be rejected, the content of their messages:  if a call for idolatry can be distinguished in them, the prophet is ruled out,  notwithstanding their oratory qualities, their charisma, reputation, behaviour or anything else.  In order to distinguish these illusory prophets, all you need is to be on the alert, to listen wisely to the message content, not allowing for any external sign to deceive you.  The intellectual clarity of the recipients of the message, is the final and single reliable mechanism to distinguish those who wish to encourage us on the good path, from those who have other dark purposes, not always visible at first sight.

Although our tradition (Babli Sanhedrin 11:a) establishes that, technically, prophecy ceased to exist in Israel with the prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi in the 6th century bCE, I don’t think I’m exaggerating if I project this conclusion to other type of speeches we hear these days. In these times of image consultants, marketing analyses, and words that change their meaning according to surveys, the Torah recommends for us to appraise our leaders according to the content of their message.  We must move toward those we believe lead us to God’s path, that of honesty, sincerity, rightfulness.  No one but ourselves can determine when a leader is worthy of our trust.  When we are invited to support without thinking, to hand over our “intellectual honesty” (in Heschel’s words) on behalf of other objectives, neither images nor beautiful words should be capable of seducing us or clouding our choices.
 

The Torah invites us to think and pay attention, to defend our freedom and our capacity to listen carefully, to evaluate our speakers not from what they say, not from what they represent nor from how they dress or what positions they occupy.  As the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words”, but it is also true that a kind and acute spirit listens carefully to words, not letting mere images deceive it.
 

Shabbat Shalom!
 

Rabbi Rami Pavolotzky
B’nei Israel Congregation
Costa Rica