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Part Two · Chapter Forty-One — Prophetic Vision (Maʾra): Four Forms of Scriptural Report
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I need not explain what a dream is. As for the maʾra — referred to in the phrase 'in a vision (be-mareh) I make myself known to him' (Num. 12:6) — it is also called mareh ha-nubuwwa (prophetic vision), yad YHWH (the hand of the Lord), and also maḥaze. It is a terrifying, overwhelming state that accompanies the prophet while awake, as was made clear in Daniel's words: 'I saw this great vision and no strength remained in me; my comeliness was turned to corruption in me and I retained no strength' (Dan. 10:8); and: 'I lay in deep sleep upon my face, my face toward the ground' (ibid. 9). The angel's address to him and his setting him upright — all that was in a prophetic vision. In a state like this the senses too cease from their action, the overflow reaches the rational faculty and from it overflows upon the imaginative faculty, which becomes perfect and acts. Sometimes revelation begins with a prophetic vision, then the great terror and intense emotion following the perfection of the imaginative faculty's action increases — and then the revelation comes. This is what happened with Abraham: the beginning of that revelation is 'The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision' (Gen. 15:1), and its end is 'a deep sleep fell upon Abram' etc., and after that: 'And He said to Abram' etc.
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Know that for every prophet mentioned as having received revelation: some ascribe it to an angel, others ascribe it to God — even though it undoubtedly came through an angel. The Sages, of blessed memory, stated this explicitly, saying: 'And the Lord said to her' — through an angel. Know also that every text stating that an angel spoke to someone or that speech came to them from God — that can only occur either in a dream or in a prophetic vision.
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The accounts in the prophetic books of the speech that reached the prophets appear in four literary forms. The first: the prophet explicitly states that the address came from an angel in a dream or vision. The second: he mentions the angel's address to him only, without explicitly stating that this occurred in a dream or vision — relying on what is already established that no revelation comes except in one of the two modes, 'In a vision I make myself known, in a dream I speak to him' (Num. 12:6). The third: no angel is mentioned at all; the speech is ascribed to God as having said it to him — but he explicitly states that this speech came to him in a vision or a dream. The fourth: the prophet says outright that God spoke to him, or told him: 'Do or make or say such-and-such' — without explicit mention of either an angel or a dream, relying on what is already known and established that no prophecy or revelation comes except in a dream or vision and through an angel.
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Instances of the first form: 'And the angel of God said to me in a dream' (Gen. 31:11); 'And God said to Israel in visions of the night' (Gen. 46:2); 'God came to Balaam'; 'And God said to Balaam' (Num. 22:20). Instances of the second form: 'And God said to Jacob, Rise up, go to Bethel' (Gen. 35:1); 'And God said to him, Your name is Jacob' (ibid. 35:10); 'And an angel of the Lord called to him from heaven'; 'And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time' etc. (ibid. 22:15); 'And God said to Noah'; 'And God spoke to Noah' (Gen. 6:13). The third form is illustrated by: 'The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision' etc. (Gen. 15:1). Instances of the fourth form: 'And the Lord said to Abram' (Gen. 12:1); 'And the Lord said to Jacob, Return to the land of your fathers' (Gen. 31:3); 'And the Lord said to Joshua' (Josh. 5:9); 'And the Lord said to Gideon' (Judg. 7:2) — and likewise the words of most of the prophets: 'The Lord said to me'; 'The word of the Lord came to me'; 'The word of the Lord was'; 'And behold, the word of the Lord came to him'; 'The word of the Lord came expressly'; 'The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea'; 'The hand of the Lord was upon me' — and this form is very numerous.
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Every passage introduced by any of these four forms is prophecy and its speaker is a prophet. But the phrase 'God came to so-and-so in a dream of the night' does not indicate genuine prophecy at all, nor is that person a prophet. Rather it means that an attention-call from God came to that person, and it then made clear to us that this attention-call occurred in a dream of the night — for just as God may cause this person to move to save another person or to destroy him, so He may cause events to occur whose occurrence He desired through a dream-vision. For we have no doubt that Laban the Aramean was a thoroughly wicked person and also an idolater; and Abimelech, though he was an upstanding man among his people, Abraham our father said of his town and kingdom: 'Surely there is no fear of God in this place' (Gen. 20:11). Yet of each of them — Laban and Abimelech — it is said: 'God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night' and similarly with Laban 'in a dream of the night.' Note this and reflect on the distinction between 'God came' and 'God said,' and between 'in a dream of the night' and 'in visions of the night.' With Jacob it says 'And God said to Israel in visions of the night,' but with Laban and Abimelech it says 'God came' etc. 'in a dream of the night.' That is why Onkelos rendered them ata memar min kodam YHWH and did not say va-itgeli YHWH.
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Know that the phrase 'And the Lord said to so-and-so' may be used of a person who is not a prophet and to whom no revelation ever came — but it was said to him through a prophet, as in the text: 'And she went to inquire of the Lord' (Gen. 25:22); the Sages explained this refers to the school of Eber, and he answered her — and so it says of that: 'And the Lord said to her' (ibid. 25:23). Although it is also said 'And the Lord said to her through an angel,' this may be interpreted to mean either that Eber was the angel — for a prophet is sometimes called an angel, as we will explain — or that it refers to the angel who brought Eber this prophecy; or it may be to state explicitly that wherever speech is attributed to God outright, it is through an angel in the case of all other prophets, as we have explained.