Truth and Illusion

T H E JE W I S H Q UA R T E R LY R E V I E W, Vol. 94, No. 1 (Winter 2004) 19–22 Truth and Illusion SUZANNE LAST STONE SEVERAL YEARS AGO I was invited to comment on various rabbinic texts about true and false prophecy. One text, in particular, resisted quick interpretation. The text, bSanhedrin 89a, begins: ‘‘Rabbi Isaac said: The same communication [signon, from the Latin signum, meaning watchword] occurs to several prophets, yet no two prophets prophesy the same communication [signon].’’ Rabbi Isaac cites Jeremiah and Obadiah, who each delivered the same message from God but expressed it with stylistic variation . Rabbi Isaac’s comment on the literary record of prophecy is identified by the Talmud as the test of true and false prophecy used by the King of Judah to judge the four hundred prophets of King Ahab false. All predicted victory in battle ‘‘with one mouth,’’ in identical language (1 Kgs 22). Is the prophet’s individual speech the work of the prophet or of God? Moshe Greenberg cites Rabbi Isaac to show that premoderns, although formally adhering to the doctrine of divine dictation, readily conceded the human contribution in prophecy when reflecting on the literary evidence. Rabbi Isaac’s comment, however, recalls midrashic descriptions of the overflow of meaning in a single divine statement, which human speech cannot replicate. The varied formulations of a single message from God may be one more example of the multiplicity engendered from singularity that is a mark of divine speech. In either case, how does the Talmud understand the relationship of the prophet’s speech to truth? Is individual expression a test of true prophecy or of the true prophet, pointing to the qualities of mind or character of those who are trusted to convey God’s word? Or is the test, as other rabbinic texts suggest, an application of the laws of testimonial witnesses to prophets, who also claim private knowledge of the truth? Still other questions are suggested by the continuation of this talmudic passage, which more clearly focuses on the human factor in prophecy. The Talmud searches for a legal justification for punishing Zedekiah, who The Jewish Quarterly Review (Winter 2004) Copyright 䉷 2004 Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. All rights reserved. 20 JQR 94:1 (2004) was among the four hundred. Zedekiah, the rabbis scrupulously note, did not utter a false prophecy with the intention to deceive. He was seduced by a lying spirit sent by God. ‘‘What could he have done?’’ the Talmud asks. And the Talmud answers: ‘‘He ought to have scrutinized the matter in light of Rabbi Isaac’s tradition’’ that no two prophets deliver even the same message from God in identical language. The Talmud adopts Rabbi Isaac’s tradition as a normative test of true prophecy, binding on the prophet himself. But why can’t the prophet take his own spontaneous experience and sincere apprehension of prophecy as true? Ancient and modern psychology converge here. The Talmud implicitly recognizes that the human capacity to perceive the difference between a genuine external event and illusion is fragile. Here, a lying spirit deceives. Elsewhere in Scripture, false prophecy is said to have its origins in the wishes, dreams, or imagination of the prophet and is often stimulated by a need to express the agreeable (Jer 23). So, the Talmud imposes a duty on the prophet himself to search his truth claim for error, in light of objective methods the law deems truth-acquiring. With this passage, the Talmud invites us to reflect on the human capacity and obligation to discern and convey the truth, a question as relevant for moderns as for the ancients. How do we ascertain the truth of claims of private knowledge that, as Kant said, ‘‘has its grounds in the particular character of the subject?’’ Whom do we trust to speak truthfully in public life and how do we understand the relationship of truth to self-expression and individuality? How do those who hold themselves out as transmitters of knowledge or true information in society resist not only external pressures such as popular sentiment but also internal forces of self-deception, wishful...