In his commentary on Shemot, Avraham Abulafia points out the interesting juxtaposition in our parsha of the enumeration of names, the emergence of Moshe, and the beginning of his unsurpassed career as prophet who encountered the Divine “face to face.” Abulafia uses this as a springboard for his discussion of the entire book of Shemot, with a special emphasis on the methods and best practices for achieving prophecy and using it to transform the world for good. We will focus here briefly on his introduction that brilliantly ties together these seemingly diverse elements. (Those who are interested in this material – highly recommended – can find it in Mafteach HaShemot, which was published in a clear Hebrew edition by Amnon Gross a little over 20 years ago.)
The power of names and the notion of naming is found again and again throughout Scripture and in Jewish tradition as something that confers power upon the one doing the naming and establishes a relationship of control and understanding deriving from the use of names. We also touched on this in last week’s column in the context of Yaakov’s two names and the naming of his sons (and grandsons). Abulafia explains that this parsha and this Book are called Shemot, literally “Names,” because they deal with the refinement of prophecy, and this is integrally connected with the calling of names. However, before we deal with prophecy, we have to understand the nature of thinking altogether, and by extension the calling of names.
Thinking (and reason) is inexorably bound up with our free choice and the determinations we make in our lives that shape the past, present, and future. In a sense, although we often think of prophets as individuals who see the future – this largely due to gentile influences – in fact the knowledge of the future is incidental to what the prophet actually does. Probably one of the most important roles of the prophet vis à vis the passage of time is how he or she shapes the future by the transmission of information they have received from a Divine source and the manner of that transmission.
Abulafia teaches in the tradition of Rambam that the prophet becomes capable of this higher level of awareness by virtue of his or her refinement of intellectual and spiritual faculties. What he stresses in his introductory remarks on our parsha is the difference between thought, which is merely reflective (machshava), and that which constructively directs action (eitza). This is all following Shlomo Hamelech in Mishlei (chiefly 20:18 but elsewhere as well.) The fundamental difference between these modes of thinking has to do with the extent of moral conditioning of the thinker and the manner in which he or she directs their thoughts toward certain outcomes. Thus, the thinking, on its highest level, is indispensable to moral choice and to free will, but placing the seat of this thinking in the human mind gives every individual the power, at least in theory, to control outcomes. This power might be limited to an individual, or it might be expanded across tribes and nations, even all of humanity, as is the case with the prophet.
It’s interesting to note that Abulafia’s approach here closely parallels and anticipates by hundreds of years the radical but highly influential thesis advanced by Julian Jaynes in The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind of 1976. We find that thought sets the stage for free choice, and that free choice – when shaped by thought and informed by godliness and moral purity – is constructive of redemption, as it is in the context of our parsha. According to Abulafia, this is the foundation upon which prophecy is constructed.
But the prophecy of Moshe is, as we noted above, unique in its extent, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Moshe sees what no other prophet can see and he sees it much more clearly. It’s easy enough to say that Hashem sees fit to reveal more or less to each of His prophets, but again, Abulafia understands in the tradition of Rambam that the prophet prepares for prophecy. A major theme in his work is how the manner of this preparation shapes the nature and extent of the prophecy.
In his opening discussion of our parsha and of the career of Moshe, he emphasizes the personal qualities of Moshe as a human being, as a shepherd, as a leader, and as a prophet. In particular, he emphasizes (and perhaps Rambam would have disagreed) that the would-be prophet must develop in balance the faculties of sensitivity, imagination, and reason. Each of these refines the others, and when all three are developed to perfection, then the intellect becomes a suitable vehicle for prophecy.
Ultimately, however, the work of the prophet is done with the mouth. If he is just a sensitive or empathic individual, then he might be a seer or a mystic but he will never be a prophet. The prophet performs his or her function as a direct consequence of, and in conjunction with, the naming of names. The mystic sees forms just as the drunk or the madman might, but only the prophet knows how to attach words to these forms in a manner that is transformative of reality. Thus, in our parsha we see multiple instances of naming. To name (pardon the pun) just a few, we have: the name of the parsha and the Book it begins; the names of the descendants of Israel who came to Mitzrayim; Moshe being named by the daughter of Pharaoh; Moshe naming his sons; and perhaps most important of all, Moshe asking the Divine Presence in the burning bush what name to call It and receiving an answer.
Perhaps we will continue this topic next week when the Divine Being who has shared His name begins to explain to Moshe how He is seen by His various prophets.