Pemikiran Yahudi Yeremia 1:6: Derashot HaRan & Guide for the Perplexed

The answer: If the prophet required prophecy only to perfect himself and for no other person, then it would stand to reason that he should prophesy in whom there was found those qualities which perfect the soul, whether his body be perfect or defective. But the prophet, in that he prophesies to the multitude and apprises them of what the Blessed One has commanded them, must be acceptable and desirable to all classes — the lovers of wisdom, the lovers of wealth, and the lovers of strength — and he must embody all of the goodly virtues. It is well known, as a matter of fact, that he is called a prophet [navi] only because he constantly communicates to the masses what the Blessed One commands him, a spokesman being referred to as a "navi," as it is written (Exodus 7:1): "And Aaron, your brother, will be your prophet [navi]." The intent is not that the divine effluence shall adhere to Aaron and the future be inquired of him, but rather that he communicate what Moses "places in his mouth." It is for this reason that the prophet of the baal is also called "navi," the word being derived from "niv sefataim" [the expression of the lips]. The prophet must, therefore, possess the intellective and the social virtues. This is the reason for our sages' criterion of "tall," a tall person being more impressive to the masses, as they say (Bechoroth 45b): "How do we know that the Holy One Blessed be He glories in a tall person…" Accordingly only a tall person should address the masses, so that his words make a greater impact, as our sages have stated (Ta'anith 16a): "The rabbis taught: 'If an elder is present, he addresses them. If not, a sage addresses them. If neither an elder nor a sage is present, a man of imposing stature addresses them." And this is, likewise, the intent of (Jeremiah 1:6): "I do not know how to speak, for I am a youth." He does not say that he is not righteous or saintly, but that, though he is worthy of prophecy in point of spiritual perfection, since he does not know how to speak he should not be sent on the Blessed One's embassy and publicize what He has commanded him.

We must not be misled by the words of Jeremiah (i. 5), “Before I formed thee in the womb I knew thee, and before thou camest forth from the womb I have sanctified thee”; for this is the case with all prophets; there must be a physical preparation from the beginning of their existence, as will be explained. As to the words, “For I am young” (ibid. ver. 6), it is well known that the pious Joseph, when he was thirty years old, is called by the Hebrew “young” (na‘ar); also Joshua, when he was nearly sixty years old. For the statement, “and his minister Joshua, the son of Nun, was young,” occurs in the account of the Golden Calf (Exod. 33:11). Moses was then eighty-one years old, he lived one hundred and twenty years; Joshua, who survived him fourteen years, lived one hundred and ten years and must consequently have been at least fifty-seven years old at the time when the Golden Calf was made, and yet he is called na‘ar, “young.”