What do the Prophets mean for us today?

It's easy to discount the four major and twelve minor prophets of ancient times. They had crazy visions and often spoke in language we struggle to comprehend in today's world. What was their role and main unifying theme in history is a fair question to ask and explore, for just maybe, these Prophets had much to do with significantly changing the course of history.

We find many themes in the accounts of the four great and twelve minor prophets, including ethics and concern for the poor and marginalized; attitudes toward the Temple, ritual, and Torah; covenant, threat of exile, promise of restoration, the role of Jerusalem and the future of Israel; the marriage metaphor, messianic hopes, interplay of universalism and particularism, condemnation of idolatry, and the promotion of worship of Yisrael’s G!d.

I believe it is fair to say that all of the prophets assert that they are speaking G!d’s message, and affirm that Yisrael has been chosen to be in a covenantal relationship with G!d. Their messages report how Yisrael has missed the mark in upholding its end of the covenant, so it is the prophets’ mission to issue a warning of coming judgement.

In his highly influential essay, “Who Will Stand in the Breach?” Yochanan Muffs reshapes our image of the biblical prophet as a perennial scolder and an occasional comforter by identifying a key role of the prophet as defender of the people, one who “stands in the breach.” He further develops this concept, that a prophet is not just someone who declares G!d’s harsh decrees, but also “an independent advocate...who attempts to rescind the evil decree by means of the only instruments at his disposal--prayer and intercession.”

But one must ask, “Is the primary unifying theme of the four major and twelve minor prophets that of those who stood in the breach interceding, while calling Yisrael to t’shuvah, to return to a true covenantal relationship with G!d? Or was there, perhaps, some role they played, some unifying primary message which was incredibly more critical both in terms of ongoing survival and future ways of relating to G!d? For that answer, I look no further than Max Dimont.

In his seminal work, Jews, God and History, Dimont notes that it was the Prophets who had already developed and perfected an exportable religion, which was critical to their ongoing survival throughout future exiles and the diaspora. About the Prophets, he says, “What, in essence, was it that the Prophets taught and exhorted? [it] was, in effect, that ritual and cult in themselves were of no value to G!d. Humanity, justice, and morality ... were superior to any cult. G!d... did not want rituals; [but] higher moral standards... G!d abhorred sacrifice... therefore, it was no sin if one did not offer sacrifices to G!d. The real sin... was corruption and perversion of justice.”

Dimont does not stop there. He continues his case for the critical role the Prophets played in Judaism’s future by preaching their “new doctrine,” foreshadowing Rabbinic Judaism and laying the groundwork to make it happen. He even takes it a step further, by stating that these Prophets took Judaism out of its role among Jews, placing it firmly as a spiritual and moral message of universal import: “These were fantastic and daring notions in those days, when sacrifice and ritual were religion itself. Among the Jews this new doctrine of the Prophets began to undermine the influence of the priests. The Prophetic message changed the character of the Jewish priest from a performer of ritual to that of rabbi, a teacher of Judaism.... [and] from the Prophetic teaching that the Jews must set an example for the rest of mankind grew the idea that ... the spiritual and moral message of Judaism was for all mankind.“

This role of the Prophets is particularly exciting, especially for the Modern* Rabbi! Dimont proclaims, “Judaism... begun as basically available to a few Jewish families, enlarged by Moses to include all the tribes of Israel, expanded by Josiah to bind the Jewish nation, was now made universal by the Prophets. With the ideas supplied by the Prophets, the Jews in Babylonian captivity set about renovating their religion and giving it a ‘new look.’ The Temple had been tied by law to Jerusalem, and sacrifice had to be offered in it according to rigid ritual and formula. By having undermined the value of sacrifice, by having made morality superior to ritual, the Prophets freed the Jewish religion from the confinement of time and place.”

He continues, “On the soil of Babylon the Jews created two new ideas.... Instead of a temple for sacrifice, the Jews built synagogues for religious assembly; instead of rituals for G!d, the Jews offered prayers to G!d. The synagogue became the prototype [for worship]... prayer became the universal symbol of devotion to G!d. Through synagogue and prayer, the Jew no longer was tied to any specific priesthood, temple, or country. He [sic] could set up shop in any land and be in direct communication with G!d—without intermediaries. The Jewish religion, which had been immobile and rigid, now became an exportable commodity, resilient and invisible. Survival of the Jews in captivity and in dispersion was assured.”

Dimont concludes his thoughts on the prophets: “Eight hundred years after the death of Moses the Jewishness of the Jew had been established as a result of the reforms of Josiah, the doctrines of the Prophets, and the innovations of Ezra and Nehemiah.” We must wonder if, of all the unifying themes and main messages of the Prophets, perhaps the most important is that which Max Dimont puts forth, which insured that Judaism survived the coming ages, and would do so with a unique vitality that could not have been predicted?

The critical message of the Prophets elevated the essential Jewish ideals to a universal level, heralding the coming of the age of Rabbinic Judaism. Were it not for these prophets, Judaism might have faded into history as a religion centered around a peculiar notion of a single G!d Who required Temple sacrifices for a specific ancient peoples, and little more.
*I use the specific term "Modern Rabbi" as used by Rabbi Gelberman, z'l, in his Modern Rabbi program.