‘‘To Rend the Entire Veil’’: Prophecy in the Teachings of Rabbi Kalonymous Kalman Shapira of Piazecna and its Renewal in the Twentieth Century

This is our desire: to rend the entire veil that covers all of life in one fell swoop. In a flash you will see yourself standing before His blessed glory amidst the great camp of fiery angels; you are one of them.

(The Piazecner Rebbe, Benei Mahashavah Tovah, p. 25)

TWO MODELS OF PROPHECY

Scholars of the Bible and scholars of mysticism have developed two distinct models for describing biblical prophecy: the ecstatic model and the emissary model. The ecstatic model characterizes prophecy as an event relevant only to the individual, in which a person’s physical body, sense of self, and connection to the world are totally negated. The ecstatic prophet experiences only the presence of God with great intensity. The emissary model, however, describes prophecy as a phenomenon related to the public sphere. The prophet functions as a messenger from God, sent to reprove the community and improve its ethical and moral behavior. In the first model, the prophet is interested only in the individual, and sometimes displays outright hostility to and alienation from the physical world–the prophet wishes to cut himself off from the world and to rise above it. In the second model, the prophet is deeply interested in the physical world and the community; and he has a positive, even sympathetic outlook upon the world and is involved in the affairs and problems of society.¹

Binyamin Uffenheimer has considered the ecstatic revelations recorded in Scripture, in which the prophet leaves his body and his personal identity is momentarily erased,² to be a marginal, temporary phenomenon found only rarely and in extenuating circumstances.³ He approached prophecy as an institution of messengers through whom God spoke, and as a neutralization of the magical and ecstatic elements that were associated with it in the ancient Near East.⁴ Based on the works of Yehezkel Kaufmann, Uffenheimer saw the prophet qua agent as an integral part of Israelite culture.⁵

Abraham Joshua Heschel also downplayed the ecstatic component of biblical prophecy for a number of reasons. Heschel believed that biblical prophecy lacked many of the important elements characteristic of ecstasy and mysticism: union with God, nullification of personhood, incommunicable experience, individualism, and yearning for the world beyond.⁶ Gershom Scholem similarly denied the existence of any ecstatic elements in prophecy, severing the connection between biblical prophecy and later Jewish mysticism.⁷

Not all scholars agree with Uffenheimer’s and Heschel’s rejection of the ecstatic component of biblical prophecy. Indeed, Henry Wheeler Robinson, and later on Haviva Pedaya, claimed that it is impossible to deny clear examples of ecstasy in Scripture, even though they may not be central.⁸ Biblical portrayals of prophecy often connect clairvoyance with ecstatic states, characterized by madness, fainting, or falling asleep. These include the story of Balaam, the group of prophets met by Saul, Elisha, and the ‘‘descendants (or ‘disciples,’ benei) of the prophets,’’ Ezekiel’s experience during his vision of the chariot, and others.⁹

Ron Margolin and Israel Koren’s research regarding the phenomenon of mysticism in general revealed a clear distinction between two types of mysticism with different attitudes toward the physical world. They demonstrated that alongside those who reject the world, many mystics view physical reality in positive terms.¹⁰ Margolin claims that a mystic who emerges from a religious culture in which God is identified with the concept of justice cannot be indifferent to ethics and morality. Just the opposite is true: an experience of the divine Presence strengthens the mystic’s resolve to fulfill the ethical commands of the same God who is present, and the mystic takes active steps to realize this.¹¹ New studies, such as those of Margolin and Koren, present a more complicated picture of mysticism. Their work demands a renewed examination of the mystical elements of prophecy, and raises the question of whether a single monochromatic description of a prophet–whether as ecstatic or messenger–may preclude more subtle models.

Indeed, a nuanced examination of the phenomenon of prophecy is...