The Prophetic Call

A common feature that recurs in many of the books of the Prophets in the Hebrew bible is God's call to the individual prophet to step forward and claim his destined rôle. I want to look at this motif both within the context of the prophets in those days, and also in the context of our life today, in particular from my personal point of view here in Jerusalem on Shabu‘ot 5785.

I have no intention of ignoring the massive difference between these contexts: the books of Prophets are talking about prophets, and about prophesy, and one only has to read Rambam's description of what it means to be a prophet to understand how far away it is from anything that you or I have experienced or are ever likely to experience:

אין הנבואה חלה אלא על חכם גדול בחכמה, גבור במדותיו, ולא יהא יצרו מתגבר עליו בדבר בעולם, אלא הוא מתגבר בדעתו על יצרו תמיד, בעל דעה רחבה נכונה עד מאד: אדם שהוא ממולא בכל המדות האלו, שלם בגופו, כשיכנס לפרדס וימשך באותן העניינות הגדולים הרחוקים, ותהיה לו דעת נכונה להבין ולהשיג, והוא מתקדש והולך, ופורש מדרכי כלל העם ההולכים במחשכי הזמן, והולך ומזרז עצמו ומלמד נפשו שלא תהיה לו מחשבה כלל באחד מדברים בטלים ולא מהבלי הזמן ותחבולותיו, אלא דעתו תמיד פנויה למעלה, קשורה תחת הכסא להבין באותן הצורות הקדושות הטהורות, ומסתכל בחכמתו של הקב"ה כולה מצורה ראשונה עד טבור הארץ ויודע מהם גדלו, מיד רוח הקדש שורה עליו: ובעת שתנוח עליו הרוח, תתערב נפשו במעלת המלאכים הנקראים אישים, ויהפך לאיש אחר, ויבין בדעתו שאינו כמות שהיה, אלא שנתעלה על מעלת שאר בני אדם החכמים, כמו שנאמר בשאול "והתנבית עמם ונהפכת לאיש אחר" (שמואל~א'~י':ו')

רמב״ם משנה תורה הלכות יסודי התורה ז׳:

Prophecy is bestowed 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 very broad and accurate mental capacity. When a person who is full of all these qualities and is physically sound enters the Pardes and is drawn into these great and sublime concepts, if he possesses the precise mental capacity required to grasp them, he will be gradually sanctified, and will separate himself from the masses who are embedded in the darkness of the times. He must go on diligently training himself not to have any thoughts whatsoever about worthless things or the vanities and intrigues of the times. Instead, his mind should constantly be directed upward, tied beneath God's throne in the effort to comprehend the holy and pure forms, contemplating the wisdom of the Holy One, blessed be He, in its entirety from the most elevated spiritual form to the navel of the earth, and through them appreciating His greatness. The divine spirit will immediately rest upon him, and when it does so, his soul will become connected to the level of the angels called ishim, and he will be transformed into a different person and will understand on a different level of awareness than before. He will rise above the level of other wise men, as the Bible says about Saul [I Samuel 10:6]: "The spirit of God will descend upon you and you shall prophesy with them, and you will be transformed into a different person.

Rambam Mishne Tora Hilchot Yesode Hatora 7:1

However, there is an important principle that everything that was written down in the books of the prophets was written down for posterity, for future generations to learn from. A baraita in Masekhet Megilla states: 

 הרבה נביאים עמדו להם לישראל כפלים כיוצאי מצרים אלא נבואה שהוצרכה לדורות נכתבה ושלא הוצרכה לא נכתבה

בבלי מגילה י"ד.

Many prophets arose for the Jewish people, numbering double the number of those who left Egypt. However, only prophecies that were needed for future generations were written, and those that were not needed were not written down.

Talmud Babli Megilla 14a

(A thought about this baraita: why the number of double those who came out of
Egypt? Perhaps because those who were counted as leaving Egypt were only the men, but prophets can also be women)

So from this we can see that the narratives of the prophetic call were needed for future generations and we are entitled, or even obliged, to learn something from them about our own non-prophetic call, and our response to it.

One could write a whole book about each of these narratives: Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Jonah -- each one with its own features and its own lessons, but I want to focus on just one: Habakkuk. What stands out to me in Habakkuk is that the call is not just in one direction. Just as God calls on the prophet, so too the prophet calls on God, and even calls first. From the first verse after the heading, Habakkuk turns to God with an appeal and a heartfelt call:

 עַד אָנָה י״י שִׁוַּעְתִּי וְלֹא תִשְׁמָע אֶזְעַק אֵלֶיךָ חָמָס וְלֹא תוֹשִׁיעַ 

 How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save?

Habakkuk responds to the shattering events of his time, describing a situation of cruel warfare beginning with a barbarous attack by a bloodthirsty enemy. I reread the first chapter last week and even without the repetitions of the word Ḥamas, it read like a description of October 7:

כִּי הִנְנִי מֵקִים אֶת הַכַּשְׂדִּים הַגּוֹי הַמַּר וְהַנִּמְהָר הַהוֹלֵךְ לְמֶרְחֲבֵי אֶרֶץ לָרֶשֶׁת מִשְׁכָּנוֹת לֹּא לוֹ׃ וְקַלּוּ מִנְּמֵרִים סוּסָיו וְחַדּוּ מִזְּאֵבֵי עֶרֶב וּפָשׁוּ פָּרָשָׁיו וּפָרָשָׁיו מֵרָחוֹק יָבֹאוּ יָעֻפוּ כְּנֶשֶׁר חָשׁ לֶאֱכוֹל׃ כֻּלֹּה לְחָמָס יָבוֹא מְגַמַּת פְּנֵיהֶם קָדִימָה וַיֶּאֱסֹף כַּחוֹל שֶׁבִי׃

I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwellings not their own. Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their cavalry gallops headlong; their horsemen come from afar. They fly like an eagle swooping to devour; they all come intent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand.

In the first chapter Habakkuk describes the atrocities of the war and the actions of the terrible enemy, but he receives no response to his appeal. However, in the second chapter he changes his approach: instead of looking for an answer from outside, he turns inwards and looks within himself, saying:

עַל מִשְׁמַרְתִּי אֶעֱמֹדָה וְאֶתְיַצְּבָה עַל מָצוֹר וַאֲצַפֶּה לִרְאוֹת מַה יְדַבֶּר בִּי וּמָה אָשִׁיב
עַל תּוֹכַחְתִּי׃

I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say within me, and what answer I am to give to my complaint.

And to this appeal, he receives a response:

וַיַּעֲנֵנִי י״י וַיֹּאמֶר כְּתֹב חָזוֹן וּבָאֵר עַל הַלֻּחוֹת לְמַעַן יָרוּץ קוֹרֵא בוֹ׃ כִּי עוֹד חָזוֹן לַמּוֹעֵד וְיָפֵחַ לַקֵּץ וְלֹא יְכַזֵּב אִם יִתְמַהְמָהּ חַכֵּה לוֹ כִּי בֹא יָבֹא לֹא יְאַחֵר

Write down the vision and make it plain on tablets so that the reader may run with it. For the vision has its appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.

The call that I hear to myself from within this response given to Habakkuk is a call to take my own vision and write it down for those who may read it. May my vision come from my own portion of the Tora that I heard from Mt. Sinai and which was written plainly on the tablets of the Covenant, and may I have the merit to be a teacher of Tora and contribute to the Jewish people. For the vision has its appointed time — every vision has its own time, and every time has its own vision, and it will certainly come.

Simon Montagu
Shabu‘ot 5785, June 2025