Pemikiran Yahudi Yesaya 46:10: Akeidat Yitzchak, Halakhah and Aggadah & HaEmunot veHaDeot

Rabbi Pinchas son of Chana explained the verse "He who announces the outcome at the outset, and beforehand things that have not yet occurred, says: "My counsel will prevail and I will carry out all My desires" (Isaiah 46,10). Anyone reading this verse might think that there are competing powers in Heaven; why else "all My desires I will carry out?" The meaning, however, is that G-d tries to find justification for all His creatures. He does not wish to find the wicked guilty, as we read, "You are not a G-d who takes pleasure in lawlessness." When G-d foretold Moses that Pharaoh would demand a miracle, He did not say "if Pharaoh will request a miracle," but "when Pharaoh will request a miracle." This is taken to mean that Pharaoh was within his rights to request such a miracle. If righteous people such as King Hezzekiah or Gideon requested signs from G-d, a lesser individual such as Pharaoh surely cannot be faulted for demanding that Moses prove both himself and his Sender, i.e. the One in whose name he claimed to speak (Tanchuma Parshat Nasso).

One of the basic characteristics of a prophet's personality is "humility." The Talmud in Avodah Zara 20, enumerates a list of personality traits, the highest of which "humility" is the one which leads one to "holy spirit," ruach hakodesh. The need for a prophet to possess first and foremost the normal attributes of man, can be understood simply. If someone were not familiar with natural laws, he would not realise that the heat of fire burns most materials. He would thus not be impressed if he saw Chananya and companions not being burned to a crisp in the fiery heat of Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. Such a phenomenon (miracle) would thus not lead such onlooker to acknowledge that a power greater than nature was at work here. Similarly, anyone unfamiliar with the laws of gravity would not be astounded when he observed the hail G-d brought upon the Egyptians being halted and suspended in mid air. The need to recognise cause and effect relationships extends equally into the merit/reward, or sin/punishment relationship one observes. This is why Moses was given several "signs" at the beginning of his mission. They were to impress both Pharaoh and Israel. Ordinary wisdom is the first step leading to recognition of the gevurot hashem; the mighty deeds of the Creator. Ordinary people tend to recognise the extent of a miracle when they observe something affecting a multitude of people such as the splitting of the sea, the Nile turning into blood etc. They are less impressed when they see a staff turning into a snake, a hand becoming leprous on command etc. Wise people, i.e. the elders, will recognise that it is not the size or the length of time of a supernatural occurrence that reflects the power of its perpetrator, but rather to what extent natural law is being defied. For that reason many nissim nisstarim, hidden miracles, testify to G-ds power in equal measure, but it requires a degree of insight to comprehend this. G-d told Moses to demonstrate two miracles (the staff turning into a serpent and the arm turning leprous). In the event that the Israelites would fail to be suitably impressed, He held in reserve the third miracle, that of converting water into blood. (Exodus 4, 1-9) G-d taught this lesson to Saul when Jonathan said to his adjutant that "the Lord will help whether it involves the few or the many." (Samuel I 14,6) Numbers do not impede the ability of G-d to grant success to an enterprise. From this we deduce that whenever a small group defeats a large group,- other factors being equal, -this is a manifestation of a ness nisstar, a hidden miracle, since natural law dictates that the many conquer the few. Experts in natural law make projections based on known factors. When these projections are not borne out, it reflects interference by hashgachah peratit, G-ds personal intervention in history. This in turn must alert a person to the reward and punishment factors that may underly the fact that G-d allowed natural law to be upset. In the words of Isaiah 46,10, "G-d has known the results ever since the beginnings, just as He has been aware since early on what will not materialise." Whatever happens or does not happen reflects the knowledge and active or passive planning of the Lord.

Divine intervention when applied to the Jewish people is the norm rather than the exception. Divine intervention, when applied to gentiles is restricted to a small segment of the people and occurs at rare intervals. Examples are: the deluge, Sodom, Nineveh, Avimelech and Pharaoh being punished on account of Abraham, Egypt's ten plagues and the kings of Canaan in their war against Joshua. We read in Psalms 33, 14, "G-d looks down from the heavens and relates to all the inhabitants of earth from His residence...the eye of the Lord is directed towards those who fear Him." Clearly, the application of Divine intervention when dealing with the gentiles has as its objective the protection of His people. When Isaiah 44,28, quotes G-d as saying "who says about Cyrus "He is My shepherd," it refers to Cyrus' dream in which he had seen himself as rebuilding Jerusalem and the temple in G-d’s honour. This is an instance of Divine intervention in the life of a gentile for the sake of the Jewish people. Since the tabernacle became the seat from which Divine intervention would emanate, we understand the Midrash which states that until the building of the tabernacle, prophecy was found amongst the nations of the world, only to be removed from them once the tabernacle had been erected. When Bileam prophesied, it was only for the benefit of Israel. The problem with the Midrash is that we do not really find gentile prophets either prior to or subsequent to the erection of the tabernacle. The few instances of visions in a dream that Pharaoh and Avimelech or Laban had experienced, are not to be equated with prophecy. (Maimonides Moreh section three, chapter 2) On the other hand, were we to assume that such prophets did exist, it seems unfair to remove such powers from them merely because of the erection of the tabernacle. Regarding Moses’s prayer (Exodus 33, 16) to withhold the shechinah from non Jews, and G-d’s acquiescence, this too seems a case of an improper request by a student, and a response by his teacher that hardly seems appropriate. One must consider however that the very paucity of Divine intervention until that time, had made it difficult for people to recognise G-d and His power, since people had only seen natural law at work. They believed these laws to be inexorable. For that reason, G-d had to allow prophets among the nations, so that people would become aware of an alternative to natural law, namely G-d’s Personal intervention in the affairs of man. Prophecy at that time, meant that astrology and such would be used by wise men to forecast the future. Once the string of miracles that had preceded the building of the tabernacle and continued afterwards became the norm, the relative wisdom of the astrologers, soothsayers etc. faded into insignificance. This is why Bileam said "Jacob has neither charms nor enchantments." (Numbers 23,33.) What he meant was that those who had the powers of charms and enchantments could not bring them to bear upon this nation, since that people was not subject to the rule of natural law as evidenced in horoscopes and the like. This is the removal of prophecy from the nations of the world that Moses had prayed for. In other words, Moses prayed that such enchantments become irrelevant to Israel's fate. He did not ask that real prophetic powers which the nations never possessed be removed from them. Moses wanted veniflinu, let us be distinguished; G-d responded "I shall do wonderful things." Israel, on the other hand, would be guided only by hashgachah peratit, and astrologers, enchanters etc. should not exist among them. This realisation came to the gentiles in stages. First, the Egyptians acknowledged "a finger of G-d." Vitro came to acknowledge "for I know that G-d is greater than any other deity." Rahav, who had harboured the spies that Joshua had sent to Jericho, expressed herself in similar fashion.