Wha t Makes Moshe’s Prophecy Unique? by Shmuel Reichman

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What Makes Moshe’s Prophecy Unique?

By Shmuel Reichman

Human beings are creative, intelligent, and powerful, but at the same time, we are exceedingly limited. Our experience of this spectacular physical universe is limited to our five senses. We can only be in one place at any given point in time. There is a vast, almost infinite, world of wisdom that we have no grasp of whatsoever.

But what if this wasn’t the case? Imagine a life beyond the one you currently experience – one with new senses and sensations, new colors added to your field of vision, new sounds to your range of hearing. What if you had abilities that far surpassed anything you can imagine? Consider a reality in which you had access to all wisdom and could experience and grasp it all instantaneously. It is so difficult to imagine this because it is nearly impossible to think about something that you have never experienced before – just try thinking of a color that doesn’t exist.

Moshe’s Prophecy

The Rambam famously quotes thirteen principles of faith which he believes to be the absolute foundational pillars of Jewish belief and strongly emphasizes how every Jew must believe in these principles. The sixth principle states that all the words of the nevi’im (prophets) are true. The seventh principle states that the prophecy of Moshe Rabbeinu is true and that he was greater than all other nevi’im, both those that came before him and those that

came after him.

The sixth principle is obviously crucial; the seventh seems redundant. If all of the nevi’im’s words were true, of course Moshe’s were true as well. Why did the Rambam deem it necessary to state this as a separate principle?

More generally, what does it mean that Moshe was the greatest prophet to ever live? What was unique about Moshe’s prophecy? We know that Moshe received the Torah from Hashem and brought it down to the Jewish People, a role he seemed uniquely suited for. The Torah itself is called “Toras Moshe,” indicating an intrinsic tie between Moshe and the Torah. Moshe was the sole person capable of receiving the Torah, to the extent that it is identified with him. What was the greatness of Moshe’s prophecy that earned him this unique status? What was so special about Moshe’s nevuah that rendered it fundamentally different from all other nevi’im who came before and after him?

In order to understand Moshe’s prophecy, we must first develop an understanding of nevuah in general.

The Nature of Prophecy

We live in a world devoid of prophecy, therefore, attempting to understand it is like trying to understand a human sense of sight by hearing someone describe it to you. However powerfully you can describe sight, it won’t mean much to a person who has been blind from birth. Likewise, a deaf person could read about hearing, but he has no past experience or mental construct in which to place it. Similarly, in a world devoid of prophecy, it becomes exceedingly difficult to understand or even relate to the experience. However, we will try to paint as clear a picture as possible.

Throughout the Middle Ages, there were various attacks against Judaism by secular and non-Jewish philosophers. One area commonly targeted was prophecy, resulting in many Jewish philosophers attempting to clearly describe their understanding of nevuah. While there is variance within their opinions, the basic consensus is as follows: a prophet must be a great tzaddik, spending his entire life building to the stage where he is worthy of receiving prophecy. This includes both a mastery of Torah knowledge and commitment to its observance, as well as a mastery over one’s middos (character traits) and intellect. Once he achieves this exalted status, he is capable of receiving prophecy, and Hashem will choose whether or not to grant him prophecy.

The prophetic experience itself was an other-worldly experience. Hashem opened and expanded the navi’s consciousness, allowing him to connect to a higher dimension of existence, one that lies far beyond the limitations of time and space, far beyond the capacity of the regular human mind. In doing so, the navi became capable of experiencing lofty ideas and intellectual truths which

he would otherwise not have access to. These ideas and truths would then filter down through the navi’s intellect and get translated through his imaginative faculties, resulting in his unique and subjective experience of those objective truths. In a very deep sense, nevuah was an other-worldly and angelic experience of the spiritual world that a navi experienced while still in this world.

Building off this general understanding of prophecy, we must now ask: what made Moshe’s prophecy unique?

Clarity of Vision

The most unique characteristic of Moshe’s prophecy was his level of clarity. The Gemara (Yevamos 49b) states that while all other prophets saw through a clouded lens, Moshe saw through a clear lens. In other words, we all perceive reality through our own unique lens. A tremendously developed and wise person will see the world through a much more sophisticated lens than an immature child. One of them sees many layers of depth behind every aspect of reality, while the others sees nothing more than the surface. One of them looks at the Torah and sees layers of wisdom, while the other looks at the same Torah and sees meaningless scribbles. As this child matures, he has the ability to expand his understanding and develop a more sophisticated approach to life.

The same is true regarding prophecy; there were many different levels. As humans, our consciousness is limited in that we only see the physical, not the spiritual. Since prophecy was a window into the spiritual world, the metaphor Chazal used was an aspaklaria, loosely translated as a window, lens, or mirror. The greater the prophet, the clearer his vision and the more he was able to understand; the lesser the prophet, the more opaque and cloudy his vision was, and the more hazy his understanding was.

While all other nevi’im’s vision had some measure of cloudiness, Moshe saw Hashem and the spiritual world with absolute clarity, or with as much clarity as possible for a human being. In other words, while other nevi’im saw a reflection of the spiritual world and its truths, Moshe saw the spiritual world itself, with no filters. As the Ramchal puts it in Derech Hashem, Moshe was looking through a glass window, seeing the spiritual world as it is, with absolute clarity.

Rav Dessler beautifully explains that this is why the word aspaklaria also means mirror, because the prophet’s experience was a reflection of himself, as the prophecy was filtered through his own consciousness. If there is even the slightest degree of ego involved, or the smallest distance between the navi and Hashem, the prophecy will be blurred accordingly. This is why the commentaries state that each navi had their own unique style of writing. Nevuah was filtered through each navi’s unique mind and personality, then recorded accordingly. The words and ideas were completely from Hashem but were received based on how they flowed through the navi’s personal consciousness.

Moshe, however, completely negated his ego. He was a transparent was one hundred percent pure. He experienced his prophecy without any translation, filtration, or distortion; he received it exactly as it was given by Hashem. All other newords they transmitted were only a reflection of that truth, shaped by their own minds and personalities. Moshe, however, saw the objective truth itself and was able to transmit that truth in its purity and entirety. The words he wrote were the actual truth, not a filtered down reflection. Moshe added nothing of his own – he was purely the medium and vessel through which Hashem gave the Torah. This is what Chazal mean when mitoch grono shel Moshe,” Hashem spoke from the throat of Moshe. Moshe wasn’t speaking; Hashem was. Moshe simply gave over what Hashem said, in contrast to other nevi’im who received prophecy from Hashem and then expressed it in their own unique way.

As a result, Chumash and the rest of Nach are on two fundamentally different levels. Chumash is absolutely pure and reflects spiritual reality in its most potent and true form. All of spiritual truth is contained within the Torah. The rest of Nach is a manifestation of Torah on a lower level, in a more limited form, reflecting the lower level of the nevi’im who received it. Interestingly, there are different episodes in Nach which describe the Kisei Ha’Kavod (the Divine Throne) and each description is different. If you look at the descriptions in Yechezkel, Yeshayah, and Daniel, some descriptions are more detailed, some longer than others.

He experienced his prophecy without any translation, filtration, or distortion

reflection of Hashem, and his nevuah vi’im saw an image of truth, but the they say that “Shechinah midaberes One way to understand this is that they all saw the same prophecy, but each of them received and transmitted it according to their own unique style and level.

This is why the Gemara often teaches the principle that no halacha can be derived from Nach that wasn’t already introduced in the Torah. Torah is the root, and Nach is its expression. There is nothing in the expression that cannot be found within the root, just like there is nothing in a tree that can’t be traced back to its original seed.

We can now explain why the Rambam separates between the sixth and seventh ikar of emunah. The sixth ikar is our belief in nevuah itself, that it is a truthful message from Hashem. Moshe’s nevuah, however, was not only true, but of a fundamentally different category. One could easily mistake Moshe’s nevuah as being no different from any other navi’s. As a result, if a navi claimed to have received a new Torah, perhaps he’s right, and we should replace Moshe’s Torah. The Rambam is therefore clarifying that Moshe didn’t just receive prophecy – he received the highest prophecy possible. This level of prophecy is Torah. Every other navi is on a lower level. Therefore, if a navi contradicts Moshe’s Torah, we know he is a navi sheker, a false prophet. This sheds new light onto why Korach’s rebellion was so severe. By challenging Moshe, he was trying to uproot the entire foundation of Torah!

Moshe as a Source of Inspiration

To many, Moshe may not serve as a classic role model. He wasn’t merely great; he was practically perfect. He didn’t accomplish a lot; he accomplished everything. To some, this may be more overwhelming than inspiring, more daunting than encouraging. But I believe that we can all connect to Moshe in a very deep way.

Moshe shows us what humanity is capable of. Sometimes you need to see an example of human perfection before you can personalize it to your unique mission in life. True, you can’t be as great as Moshe, but that’s not your job; your job is to be the greatest version of you possible. Perhaps Moshe can inspire us to challenge ourselves a bit more, to add one more layer to our self-expectations, to question our own limits, to genuinely ask ourselves if we’re giving it everything we have.

Moshe was a complicated figure; when he separated from his wife, Miriam and Aharon didn’t understand or even agree with it. He was not a man of this world. But that was not his role; he serves as an eternal model of transcendent perfection, a star in the night sky guiding each of us on our own unique journey through life. In moments of selfdoubt, in moments of opportunity, in moments of fear, just think of Moshe and remember that in a very deep way, the sky is the limit.

Or is it?

Shmuel Reichman is an inspirational speaker, writer, and coach who has lectured internationally at shuls, conferences, and Jewish communities on topics of Jewish thought and Jewish medical ethics. He is the founder and CEO of Self-Mastery Academy (ShmuelReichman.com), the transformative online course that is revolutionizing how we engage in self-development. You can find more inspirational lectures, videos, and articles from Shmuel on his website, ShmuelReichman.com.