Rabbi Avdimi of Haifa said: From the day that the (First) Temple was destroyed, the prophetic gift was taken away from the prophets and given to the Sages (Rabbis).” The Gemara asks: “[Can it be] that before the destruction of the Temple, no Sage was a prophet? What Rabbi Avdimi meant to say was that, when the Temple was destroyed, although prophecy was taken from the prophets (who were not Sages), prophecy was not taken from the Sages (i.e., they retained their prophetic power even after the Temple’s destruction).” See ibid. for a protracted discussion of this subject. (English translation from the Schottenstein Edition of Talmud, Artscroll.)
According to some opinions, there were 1,200,000 prophets from the time the Jewish people left Egypt until several years after the destruction of the First Beis HaMikdash (see Megillah 14a).
There are different levels of intellect among them as there are people in that group. The same is true with prophecy. But how can there be levels in prophecy? Isn’t it true that a prophet either knows what’s happening on a higher spiritual plane or doesn’t?
The answer is that there are many spiritual levels in the G-dly realms. As we learn in chassidic and Kabbalistic teachings, there are four spiritual worlds — Atzilus, Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah — and each is defined by the quantity and quality of G-dly revelation within it. Within these four spiritual worlds, each has ten levels which are known as the ten sefiros.
Within each of the ten sefiros, there are not only several more levels but hundreds and thousands of levels. This basically means that within each world there are hundreds, thousands and even millions of additional levels of spiritual existence.
So when we say that a prophet is a person who has raised him or herself to a higher spiritual plane and can now see things on a higher spiritual level, the question is, which level? Does he or she have the ability to see things on the level of Atzilus? The level of Beriah, the level of Yetzirah or Asiyah?
Once it is established that a prophet perceives holy vision from a particular spiritual world, at what level is his prophecy within that world? If there were thousands of prophets who could perceive spiritual realities as high as the world of Beriah, for example, it is possible that the level of perception would be different for each one of them. Each could possess the ability to perceive on any one of the infinite levels of spiritual reality existing in that world.
So when we speak about a prophet’s specific level and manner of prophecy, we are referring to the spiritual world and level within that world to which he is connected.
Many people think that the definition of a prophet is one who communicates his or her spiritual vision to others. In reality, a person has the designation of prophet when he or she fulfills the qualifications mentioned earlier in the chapter. Relaying G-dly communications such as foretelling future events and warning people to change their behavior, for example, are acts of prophecy, but are not factors in determining who is a prophet.
Therefore, a person who fulfills the Rambam’s requirements of being a vessel for prophecy can also receive this heightened spiritual awareness solely for his or her own spiritual growth. If they so choose, they may never communicate these revelations to others, but they are prophets nonetheless. This may give some insight into why, among the hundreds of thousands of prophets who prophesized during the age of prophecy, only 48 male and 7 female prophets are recorded in Tanach.
So while some prophets may warn, foretell or convey their holy vision to others, a qualified prophet need only possess a deep level of spiritual understanding of G-d and of the Torah, and a deeper understanding of world events.
Notes
The ten sefiros are the ten attributes, or building blocks, with which G-d creates and sustains the world. The first three, chochmah, binah and daas — wisdom, understanding, and knowledge — are intellectual attributes, while the remaining seven, chessed, gevurah, tiferes, netzach, hod, yesod, and malchus — kindness, severity, compassion, endurance, humility, bonding and sovereignty — are the emotional attributes. Within each sefirah there exists on a lesser level the same configuration of ten, ad infinitum, for example, there may exist the quality of chessed within the chessed that is within gevurah, that is in netzach, etc.
Talmud, Megillah 14a, which also lists there the names of the seven recorded female prophets. For the names of the 48 male prophets, see Seder Olam. Prophets whose prophecies did not apply to all future generations were also not recorded.
An acronym for Torah (the Five Books of Moses), Neviim (Prophets), and Kesuvim (Writings).
