פירוש על דברים 18:21

וכי תאמר בלבבך AND IF THOU SAY IN THINE HEART [HOW SHALL WE KNOW THE WORD WHICH THE LORD HATH NOT SPOKEN]? — you will once ask this — when Hananiah the son of Azur (the false prophet) comes and prophesies (Jeremiah 27:16) “Behold, the vessels of the Lord’s house will now shortly be brought again from Babylon”, whilst Jeremiah (the true prophet) stands and proclaims (Jeremiah 27:19—22) “concerning the pillars, and concerning the laver, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue of the vessels [which remain in this city which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not,…]” which did not go into exile to Babylon with Jeconiah, king of Judah, “they shall be carried to Babylon [and there they shall remain]” together with Zedekiah when he will go into exile (Sifrei Devarim 178:2).

V’CHI'(AND WHEN) THOU SAY IN THY HEART: ‘HOW SHALL WE KNOW THE WORD WHICH THE ETERNAL HATH NOT SPOKEN?’ “You are destined to say this when Hananiah the son of Azur [the false prophet] will come and prophesy, Behold, the vessels of the Eternal’s House shall now shortly be brought back from Babylon²¹⁵Jeremiah 27:16. while Jeremiah [the true prophet] stands and proclaims concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue of the vessels²¹⁶Ibid., Verse 19. which were not exiled with Jeconiah,²¹⁷Eleven years before the destruction of the First Temple, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took into captivity Jeconiah, king of Judah, together with some of the vessels of the Temple. In the interim, during the reign of Zedekiah the last king of Judah, the false prophet told the people that shortly the sacred vessels will be brought from Babylon and that, therefore, Zedekiah need not submit politically to Babylon. Jeremiah the true prophet warned that, if they would not submit to Babylon, even the vessels still remaining in the Sanctuary would be carried away. they shall be carried to Babylon²¹⁸Ibid., Verse 22. with the exile of Zedekiah.” This is Rashi’s language from the Sifre.²¹⁹Sifre, Shoftim 178. This interpretation [of the Sifre] is based on the fact that the verse does not state “v’im (and if) thou say in thy heart” [but it states ‘v’chi’ — (and when) thou say in thy heart]. This is as I have mentioned²²⁰Above, 4:25. that the Torah tells future events through allusions. But the purport of the verse is to say, “How shall we know the word which the Eternal hath not spoken, so that we can slay the one who so prophesies?” And he commanded that if the event does not come to pass then he should be killed because the Eternal hath not spoken it.²²¹Verse 22. Do not fear him²²¹Verse 22. because of his wisdom or because of the sign that he gave [even though] the sign or the wonder did come to pass.²²²Above, 13:3. Similarly the people could ask, “How shall we know the word which G-d had spoken, to which we have been obligated to hearken in whatever He shall command?” But this [Verse 22] is the answer to both questions,²²³I.e., how shall we know the word which G-d had not spoken, and how shall we know the word which He had spoken? for, in the case of every prophet we should look ahead to that which he foretold. If it does not come to pass we shall know that he is a false prophet and he is to be killed, and if all that he predicted does come to pass he is established to be a prophet of the Eternal,²⁰⁵I Samuel 3:20. and we are bound to hearken to him in all that he commands in the name of G-d, just as he said, unto him ye shall hearken.²⁰⁹Verse 15. Even to transgress the words of the Torah, [we are required to obey him] provided that it is to meet the particular need of the time, as in the case of Elijah on Mount Carmel²²⁴I Kings 18:23-39. See also Ramban above, 13:4. [who, in his attempt to discredit idolatry, brought offerings to G-d on Mount Carmel despite the fact that it was forbidden to do so outside the Sanctuary Court in Jerusalem]. This is the sense of the expression, [a prophet] like unto me,²⁰⁹Verse 15. [And G-d said, I will raise them up a prophet] like unto thee,²²⁵Verse 18. meaning that he will first be established a prophet of the Eternal either by a sign or wonder, similar to what is said [of Moses], and he did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed,²²⁶Exodus 4:30-31. — or that he foretells some future event and it occurs. And thus the Rabbis have said in Tractate Sanhedrin:²²⁷Sanhedrin 89 a-b. “Whoever disobeys a prophet, is liable to death by the hands of Heaven, as it is written, I will require it of him.”²²⁸Verse 19. And there the Rabbis asked: “And how is one to know that someone is a prophet [and that, for refusing to obey him,] he will be punished? If the prophet gave him a sign. But in the case of Micaiah²²⁹In I Kings 20:35 it is told that, following a decisive battle in which Ahab king of Israel defeated Ben-hadad of Syria, Ahab befriended Ben-hadad instead of killing him as a prophet had commanded him to do. To show G-d’s displeasure with Ahab, Scripture relates, And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said unto his fellow by the word of the Eternal: ‘Smite me, I pray thee.’ And the man refused to smite him. The following verse says that the man was slain by a lion because of his refusal to obey the prophet. The lesson was clear: just as that man was punished, so would Ahab be punished for disobeying the prophetic command to smite Ben-hadad. Now this certain man of the sons of the prophets is identified by tradition as having been Micaiah [a prophet mentioned there in Chapter 22 Verse 13]. When Micaiah ordered the man to smite him, he gave no sign that he was a prophet, yet the man was punished for disobeying! Hence the Gemara’s question: How was he to know that Micaiah was a prophet? the prophet gave him no sign and yet he was punished [for refusing to hearken to him! The Gemara answered]: It is different when a person is known to be an established prophet [in which case he need not give a sign]. And if this is not the case, how did Isaac hearken to Abraham on Mount Moriah [to submit himself to slaughter, a command, which had been given to Abraham but not to him]? And how did we rely on Elijah on Mount Carmel to bring offerings outside [the Sanctuary Court in Jerusalem? Obviously we must say that] it is different if the prophet is established [in which case he must be obeyed even if he does not offer a sign].”
Now Rashi wrote:²³⁰Verse 22. Rashi attempts to answer the question, how we are to know when to obey some one who claims to be a prophet? Regarding such a case, he writes, “they have already etc.” “They have already been commanded that if one comes to entice you from [observing] one of the commandments [of G-d] you are not to hearken to him²³¹Above, 13:9. unless it has been clearly established by you that he is an absolutely righteous man, like Elijah on Mount Carmel [who brought the offerings outside the Sanctuary Court] because of the needs of the time. Therefore it states, unto him ye shall hearken.”²⁰⁹Verse 15. — But this does not appear to be correct, for the necessary verification is not that he is a righteous man but that he is a true prophet known to all by having previously foretold future events which indeed came to pass, this being his “sign” as referred to in this section,²³²Verse 22: When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Eternal, if the thing follow not … or some wonders which he has done in our presence.²³³Above, 13:2. This constitutes the presumption of prophets. In saying “a perfectly righteous man,” perhaps Rashi meant what Harav Rabbeinu²³⁴“The Rabbi our teacher.” Moshe [ben Maimon] wrote in Hilchoth Yesodei Hatorah:²³⁵“The laws of the Foundations of the Torah,” 7:7. “When a prophet is assigned a mission, he is given a sign or wonder so that the people might know that G-d had truly sent him. We do not believe everyone who shows a sign or wonder to be a prophet. Only a man whom we already know to be worthy of prophecy — by reason of his wisdom and deeds wherein he stands pre-eminent among all his contemporaries, and follows the paths of prophecy, in its sanctity and renunciation [of physical lust] — who then comes and performs a sign or wonder and says that G-d sent him, it is a commandment to hearken to him, as it is said, unto him ye shall hearken.²⁰⁹Verse 15. It is possible that such a man may perform a sign or wonder and still not be a prophet [in which case] the sign must have some [other] meaning.²³⁶“There is something hidden in this matter which requires scrutiny” (Rashi, Kethuboth 111a, in explanation of a similar expression in the Gemara there). Nevertheless, it is a commandment to listen to him, since he is a great man, learned and worthy of prophecy, we assign him the presumption [that his claim is true], just as we have been commanded to render a decision [in court] by the testimony of two proper witnesses even though it is possible that they testified falsely, because we consider them to be legitimate witnesses [having no basis to assume the contrary] we assign them the presumption of legitimacy in their testimony. On such matters it is said, The secret things belong unto the Eternal our G-d,²³⁷Further, 29:28, meaning that we are required to judge human affairs based only on the available evidence. and it is further said, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Eternal looketh on the heart.”²³⁸I Samuel 16:7.

?איכה נדע את הדבר; when the authentic prophet commands a specific commandment such as when Elijah sacrificed on a private altar, something that had been forbidden for hundreds of years, or when Joshua waged war against Jericho on the Sabbath with all the violations this involved. (Kings I 18, and Joshua 6)