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Part Two · Chapter Thirty-Six — Prophecy Defined: Overflow from the Active Intellect
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Know that the true nature and essence of prophecy is an overflow that overflows from God, mighty and exalted, through the intermediary of the Active Intellect, first upon the rational faculty, and then upon the imaginative faculty after that. This is the highest rank of man and the final perfection that can exist for his species, and that state is the final perfection of the imaginative faculty. This is something that cannot occur in every person in any way, nor is it something attained through mere perfection in the theoretical sciences and improvement of character, however excellent and beautiful — unless the perfection of the imaginative faculty is added to that at the peak of what is constitutionally possible. You know that the perfection of the bodily faculties, among which is the imaginative faculty, follows from the best constitution of the organ bearing that faculty, the best measure of it, and the purest matter of it; and this is something that cannot be made up for or completed in its deficiency by training, for an organ whose constitution has become defective from the start — the most that training can do is keep it in some kind of health, not restore it to its finest state. If the defect is in its measure, its position, or its substance — the matter from which it is made — there is no remedy. You know all this, and there is no use in elaborating on it.
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You know also the functions of the imaginative faculty: the retention of sensory impressions, their combination, and the imitation that is in its nature. Its greatest and most noble function occurs when the senses are at rest and cease from their actions; at that point a certain overflow comes upon it according to its disposition — and this is the cause of true dreams; it is also the very same cause of prophecy, differing only in more or less, not in kind. You know the saying that a dream is one-sixtieth of prophecy; for no comparison would be drawn between two things different in kind — one would not say the perfection of a man is such-and-such a fraction of the perfection of a horse. The Sages repeated this idea in Bereshit Rabba and said, 'a dream is the unripe fruit (nobelet) of prophecy' — a remarkable comparison, for the unripe fruit is the fruit itself but fallen before it was fully developed. Similarly, the action of the imaginative faculty in sleep is its action in the state of prophecy, except that in sleep it falls short and does not reach its goal. And why should we learn from the words of our Sages of blessed memory and leave aside the scriptural texts? 'If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision, in a dream I speak to him' (Num. 12:6). God has told us the true nature and essence of prophecy and informed us that it is a perfection coming in a dream or in a vision — mareh being derived from raah — and consists in the imaginative faculty attaining such perfection of action that it sees the thing as if from outside, and what originated within it comes to it as if arriving through external sensation. These two modes — vision and dream — contain all degrees of prophecy, as will be explained. And it is known that what a person in his waking state is greatly occupied with and earnestly desires — that is what the imaginative faculty acts upon in sleep when the intellect overflows upon it according to its disposition. To elaborate on this with examples and lengthy speech is superfluous, for this is a clear matter that every person knows, like the perception of the senses which no one of sound nature disputes.
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After these preliminaries, know: if a person's brain is constitutionally at the utmost equilibrium in purity of matter, in the particular temperament of each of its parts, in its measure and position, not hampered by constitutional defects due to another organ; and if that person has studied and mastered until he has passed from potentiality to actuality and has acquired a human intellect at its perfection and completion; and if he has a pure, balanced human character; and if all his desires are directed to knowing the secrets of this existence and the knowledge of its causes; and if his thought is always turned toward noble matters and his concern is solely the knowledge of God and the consideration of His actions, and what ought to be believed about that; and if his thought is freed from and his desire deadened toward animal matters — I mean the preference for the pleasures of eating, drinking, and cohabitation, and in general the sense of touch which Aristotle discussed in the Ethics, saying that this sense is a disgrace to us — and how well he said it, and how correct it is that it is a disgrace, for it belongs to us insofar as we are animals and nothing more, like the rest of the beasts, and there is nothing in it of the meaning of humanity; while other sensory pleasures such as smell, hearing, and sight — even though bodily — sometimes yield a pleasure for a person insofar as he is human, as Aristotle explained. We have digressed into matters not relevant to the purpose, but it is necessary, since most of the thinking of distinguished scholars is occupied with the pleasures of this sense and they are drawn to them, and yet they wonder how they do not prophesy, if prophecy is among the natural developments of man. Likewise this person must have freed his thought and deadened his desire for false domination — I mean the seeking of victory, or the magnification of the multitude's esteem and the acquisition of their honour and obedience for its own sake — but rather should regard all people according to their actual state: they are, without doubt, either like domestic cattle or like wild beasts, and the complete, solitary person when he thinks about them thinks only of how to be free from the harm of those dangerous ones if he happens to encounter them, or of making use of those useful ones if necessity requires it for some pressing need. The person of this description — when his imaginative faculty, which is at the most perfect it can be, acts, and the intellect overflows upon it according to his theoretical perfection — will perceive nothing but very extraordinary divine matters and will see nothing but God and His angels, and will feel and acquire knowledge only of matters that are correct opinions and general principles for the welfare of people with one another.
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It is well known that the perfect persons differ greatly in these three aims: namely, perfection of the rational faculty through study, perfection of the imaginative faculty constitutionally, and perfection of character by freeing the thought from all bodily pleasures and removing desire for the various types of base and wicked glorification. And according to the degree of difference in each of these three aims, the degrees of all the prophets differ.
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You know that every bodily faculty is at one time impaired, weakened, and disordered, and at another time in a healthy state. The imaginative faculty is certainly a bodily faculty; hence you find that prophets are deprived of their prophecy during grief or anger and the like. You know their saying: 'Prophecy does not dwell upon a person through sadness or idleness.' And Jacob our father received no revelation throughout the days of his grief because his imaginative faculty was occupied with the loss of Joseph. Moses, peace be upon him, received no revelation as he used to after the affair of the spies until the generation of the wilderness had passed away in its entirety — because the gravity of their matter weighed heavily upon him with the intensity of his grief over them — even though, peace be upon him, the imaginative faculty had no part in his prophecy at all; rather the overflow of the intellect came upon him directly without its mediation, as we have mentioned several times, for he did not prophesy in parables like the rest of the prophets. This will be explained, but it is not the subject of this chapter.
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You will also find that some prophets prophesied for a period of time and then prophecy was lifted from them, and this was not continuous because of some newly occurring impediment. This is the direct intrinsic cause of the cessation of prophecy in the time of exile without doubt — for what sadness or idleness can come upon a person in any state more severe than being a purchased slave, enslaved to the ignorant and dissolute who combine the absence of true reason with the fullness of animal desires? 'And none can deliver out of my hand.' With this we were warned, and this is what is meant by the words: 'They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it' (Amos 8:12); and it is said, 'Her kings and her princes are among the nations; the Torah is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the Lord' (Lam. 2:9). This is a correct and evident cause: the prerequisites have lapsed. And this is also the reason why prophecy will return to us in its accustomed manner in the days of the Messiah — may he be revealed speedily — as has been promised.