In other words, even though the Jewish people were not actually on the level of prophecy, they were nevertheless inherently worthy of attaining that level; at the spiritual roots of their souls the potential existed for a connection to prophecy. And it was not only the scholars or the elite among them who divined the halacha; rather, the entire nation under the direction of the scholars showed itself capable of determining the true dictates of the Torah. All of the Jewish people were blessed with the level of Ruach HaKodesh of the “sons of prophets,” which enabled them to determine the truth.
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Of course, we do not always rely on the abilities of the Jewish people as the “sons of prophets” to determine the halacha. What circumstances permit us to rely on those instincts?
The answer can be found in the very first instance this took place. In Parshas Shemos (4:29-31), the Torah relates, “Moshe and Aharon went and gathered all the elders of Bnei Yisrael. Aharon spoke all these things that Hashem spoke to Moshe, and he performed the signs before the eyes of the nation. The nation believed and heard that Hashem had remembered Bnei Yisrael and that He had seen their afflictions. They prostrated themselves and bowed down.”
The order of ideas in this pasuk is somewhat difficult to understand. The Torah states first that Bnei Yisrael “believed” and only afterward that “they heard that Hashem had remembered Bnei Yisrael.” Presumably, the order should have been inverted. Didn’t they first see the signs that Moshe performed and hear his proclamation that Hashem would redeem them – including the words “pakod pakadeti,” which they had been taught would be spoken by their true redeemer – before they “believed” that it was so?
Moreover, there seems to be a discrepancy within the wording of the pasuk. To express the fact that the nation “believed,” the Torah uses the word vayaamen in the singular form, yet it then states vayishme’u, “they heard,” in the plural. Why the shift?
HaRav Moshe Alshich explains that the pasuk indicates that when Bnei Yisrael believed that Moshe came to redeem them, it was not a result of the signs he performed, nor was it because he used the words “pakod pakadeti.” Rather, the Jewish people believed on their own accord that Moshe had been sent by Hashem to carry out their redemption. They sensed the truth, even before it was proven to them. This points to an important principle: The Jewish people’s faith in Moshe Rabbeinu stemmed from the Ruach HaKodesh they possessed as the “sons of prophets” – the same Ruach HaKodesh that later enabled them to divine the true halacha in the times of Hillel and the Bnei Beseirah.
This Ruach HaKodesh emanates from the unity of the Jewish people. When Bnei Yisrael come together “like one man, with one heart,” attentive to the guidance of their Torah leaders, they are endowed with the spiritual perception of “the sons of prophets” that is their legacy from their holy forebears.
An example of the powerful potency of unity can be found in an event that occurred 120 years ago, when the Yeshiva of Volozhin – the mother of yeshivas – was closed by the Russian authorities. The historians of that time describe the spirit of unity that swept through the Jewish people: Jews everywhere were devastated by the closing of the yeshiva, regardless of the circles with which they identified. Even people who lacked an understanding of the value of the yeshiva were embittered by its loss; everyone instinctively understood that the closing of the yeshiva was a devastating blow to the Jewish people.
