Rav Kook: Prophecy in Reach | Rabbi Aaron Goldscheider

see everyone this morning and thank you very much for being here and for uh for learning together this morning as we delve into the uh the very deep and very beautiful teachings of Riv cook and let me just begin with the the sponsor of today's year who is a sponsor for the Academic Year 2025 Le nishas Miriam shal so we're going to look at a really a fasc ating Topic in uh in the world of R cook and the teachings of R cook and that is uh the topic of niua of Prophecy prophecy so I think for many of us when we think about prophecy we think about the prophets of old we think about yahu and yeshayahu we may think about mosenu as well as the great prophet but ruk is going to uh gonna open the door to the idea that prophecy is not only something of the past but it's something that's very much in the present as well and the potential that we all have for prophecy it's not something that we grew up with we think about prophecy again as the open of Tanakh and we can learn about prophecy but to speak about prophecy in uh in real terms and uh as something that is attainable that's achievable it's really a fascinating idea so that's what we're going to discover this morning I want to begin with a following teaching which is uh really comes from one of the Great one of the great rabbis of the last 150 years who was a rebi to Riv cook and that's why I find this to be even more meaningful or significant to begin with this teaching now this is a story that we're all familiar with an A P that we're familiar with and it speaks about MOS who making his way into the Wilderness and he's going to have the great revelation of the that he's going to see the uh the uh the bush that is on fire and hear the word of God so the PK says the following this is inim this is Page One the top of page one and he was with his flock he was shepherding the flock of yro his father-in-law and he brought the the flock he brought the Sheep he brought it to the midbar and he came to a mountain the Mountain of God okay now the term or the phrase that's a little bit of a uh that's a little bit out of the ordinaries what does it mean even to translate that term what does it mean the P should just say that he brought its own to the midbar what's AAR so what is yeah Beyond yeah you say beyond beyond okay yeah that's yeah maybe that's a translation AAR Beyond yeah after that's right after it could be after as well so again yeah how do you translate this so Rashi says the following I don't you may remember this Rashi so what was he doing going to this midbar which sounds like somewhere beyond or somewhere after somewhere distant in the midbar Rashi says so why did he go to some distant place in the midbar that's what rash is addressing this issue what's soar means he went to find a place where he was sure where he was certain that he was not going to take his flock that belonged to anyone that he would not be stealing from anyone that is the interpretation of Rashi so now we look at the Berlin the NV and he has a fascinating interpretation which is going to lead us into the uh into our discussion today so what's a look at the writings of the am what's interesting is the nav gave shur who was one of the uh one of the famous features of of his life and his Yesa that he gave and that became this classic work and it could be I would I could Envision ruk who was sitting there and studying with his rebi with anv and he was hearing this idea from the so what does he write he says all it needs to say in the p is midb why does it say what does it he wanted to go to a very distant place in the midbar now why is that we heard rashi's explanation he went to that place and here's the key what was he doing in that place meditating he wanted to find a place of solitude where he could meditate where he could meditate on godliness and on God which means and again this is I think a very different way of thinking about the story or the way that I grew up learning the story is that mosha is just walking in the wilderness and he comes upon the burning bush that he happens to see a burning bush but according to the N that's not what happened that mosenu was meditating on God and maybe this wasn't the first day that he did it maybe this was the hundredth time that he did this that every day that he was thinking about that he had a Consciousness that he was thinking in a very deep way about God meditating he had to find just the right place to do that where he would not be disturbed he allowed maybe the Sheep to kind of go off and knew they were in a secure place and now mosh raenu according to the ham and that's what the is highlighting is that was the way that he received the prophecy it doesn't come automatically it doesn't come easily it's something that we need to be in a mindset and a and a Consciousness in order and a closeness and a Deus with Hashem in order to receive it so again that's I think it's a very different way of thinking about the story and thinking about what Mosher Renu was doing that day so here I want to share with you the following which is really and and this is also like a foundation to our discussion this morning and that is the idea of niua and who is it that has the the the um the blessing of receiving niua now we got I think for many of us we think about naua as prophecy is only for very particular individuals and yet the rambam speaks about prophecy as something that is accessible to all of us to any person first of all where does the rambam places he places it in the Mish Torah in Hil T and here in the section he's he's sharing in in different areas of Jewish law and then he comes in per Z in T he comes on this discussion or opens the laws related to Nan look at what he writes so he writes the following this is perion the first so the r is I want you to know the very Foundation of Jewish faith is Le is to know that God communicates with man with prophecy now that already is quite a awesome idea in other words there isn't Only a God in heaven there is a God in heaven there's a God everywhere but a God that can actually speak to us as well that we can have a communication that we can receive direct communication from Hashem that we can hear a message from Hashem that really is an astounding idea and not only is that something again for the for something that we read about in days of old I'll take your question in a moment but the rambam says the following it's something that is possible the potential is there for any person now this is what's required so just um take a deep breath for a moment it's it does require a lot of a person but look at what he says you need to be a person of great wisdom by the way this true we know this for a man or a woman we have the great women of of n as well you have to be exceptional in your and you have to overcome your right and all those things the world right you're able to overcome your on a regular on a constant basis and you possess the translation a broad and correct mental Outlook and he goes on to say if you're filled with these your person a whole in body as well physically you have to be sound you have to be physically strong I guess this is we know R cook speaks about the importance of having a healthy body as well the raah says you need it for says you enter the parades the parades means going the you're going into the deepest ideas of of Judaism that in that very deep thought that you're able to comprehend those ideas and that person is Sanctified you separate yourself from from what everyone else is doing you separate yourself from those that are caught up in the darkness of the of regular life that you're not caught up in any way with thing with what yeah extraneous things you're not you're not on Facebook you're not watching the news you're you're person that's just your T and you're not involved in any way in the vanities and intrigues of the times this says the rambam he doesn't say anything about about you know being a navi requires something that's superum this is something that's accessible what's interesting the rambam also does not say and this is something that ruuk is going to touch on it doesn't require being in any particular place where RI cook feels that you really need to be in the land of Israel in order to receive NAA and we're going to see that in in a couple of moments I'll just share the following incident or the following story about ruk when he first came to the vajan Yeshiva so there were uh there were many students at that time they were studying seriously but along with their studies they were kind of getting caught up a bit in the HCA in some of the the secular literature that was coming out and many of them along with their gamarra like underneath their gamarra Ser of in their stender they would have other literature that they were looking at so uh a couple of students went to the N of Alan to the rashash Shiva and they said that we noticed that Ru cook that he also has in his gamar and in his shender we see that he also has these papers these folded papers and and it could be that he's also you know reading material that he should not be reading so the uh the NV said you can you can trust the you know cook he he's he's saintly famously he said he's a yasher you don't have to worry about Riv cook so this student actually the his name is his name is zelik bis who actually became a chief Rabbi of yal later in life he was a great to so at that time he was friendly with rev cook but he was concerned about rev cook and one night late at night he went into his gamarra and went into his shender and to see exactly what those papers were so he opened the the papers and on all the papers each of the papers was y was the name of Hashem and that Rook was looking at the name of God that he was meditating on the name of God and actually this is one of the one of the methods in cabala that we we look at the name of God and theu oot of the name of God of moving around the letters of the name of God and one the ways of of meditating on God so that's what Ru cook was doing when he Wasing at those papers late at night okay and by the way we'll get to that question in a moment or in towards the end and the question is did Riv cook do we believe that RI cook became a prophet was he a navi so we'll get to that we'll we'll hold on to that all right we go now to page two and we're going to we're going to see a very very important teaching of ruk in just a moment but just one more introduction to uh to naua into prophecy into the loss of Prophecy that we've uh that we've gone a long time without prophecy it's one of the things that the book of speaks about in per in it says the following so the PK says to translate the P her gates are sunk into the ground he has destroyed and broken her bars her King and her princes are among the Nations and says the the in Torah that we've lost the Torah we have lost the prophets May Hashem and they find no vision from Hashem from God so when we think about what it means to lose the BET mikdash what happened with our destruction and Exile one we lost the bet mikdash we were exiled but according to the book of a there's something else that was lost in the Exile and that was neua prophecy was lost and that it says in the PK and in the kenos as well it speaks about that uh that loss of Prophecy this is from the second Kina that is recited in the morning and it says the following just that the you can look at just the uh the underline Nai so this is uh the uh the Kina from hak where he writes that one of the things that were that we've lost and one of the things that we're that we feel bereft of is n V and you murmur meaning Hashem the way that it's described by the uh in this Kina that Hashem is murmuring Hashem is speaking and saying PO is there none here Hashem is searching for a na'vi Hashem from hashem's side Hashem wants to communicate with a na'vi and then there's no na'vi that's present and this is what Z what he writes in his comment on this he says God asks is there nobody with whom I can communicate God communicates with the na'vi the prophet and so as long as there is no prophecy as long as there is prophecy God is Not lonely but where there is no prophecy there's a loneliness that God experiences so to speak that God is not able to communicate so that's part of what it means the loss of the BET mikdash okay so prophecy has been lost that's what it says in the in migas that's what the Kina says as well the question is is it accessible again according to ruk it is and especially as we are returning to the land of Israel we've lost it we've lost the art of Prophecy maybe also and we'll see in a moment the surroundings of the Exile the spiritual surroundings has not allowed us to attain those Heights of spirituality and closeness with God but now that we are returning to the land of Israel the possibility for prophecy is there again interesting by the way the rambam does not say that the rambam does not say that you need arrell and we just read it a moment ago it's open to everyone it's open at all times Ru cook says the following now we see a teaching from ruk ruk in the uh in the mishos that talk about the bringing of the B it says the following and here this is the the third Source on page two it says those that were close those that Liv nearby that lived in arel near you would bring your first fruits to the BET mikdash what would they bring according to the the mishna describes that they bring figs and they bring their grapes however those that were distant those that were coming from a far place and outside grow grow grow are dry figs and simuk are what raisins that's right they would bring raisins so why is it that those that were close would bring the figs and grapes those that were far so it sounds like that's just practically well if you're going to travel for a number of days or a number of weeks to get to the land of Israel so so it's and it's that's right and it's hot as well good point so that's um so it's you you you need the dried you need the dried fruit in order to bring it to uh to bring it to the bet mikdash so this is what ruk writes the interpretation that He suggests he says just as the figs and the grapes that they're fresh and they're moist it's not difficult for them to bring it they're close by and they tastier in compared to gr the dried figs and raisins that being that they're preserved they don't have the fullness the richness of taste that represents coming from a distant place to the to the Mount of God and here's the key look at the top of the we'll read two lines at the top of the next parag paragraph there are two kinds of spiritual lives for the Jewish people and there is a distinction between these two paths and what is that so according to Rook what do the grapes and figs represent the lushness and the moistness and the freshness of those fruits that represents the naua n prophecy that's found in ER Isel the distant what that represents is that which is outside the land of Israel and that is represented by the dried figs and the raisins that's the Torah right in a sense they're they're they're not as moist right they don't have the freshness outside the land of Israel that you don't have access in the same way to nbua and maybe not access at all depending on who you ask in the way that one accesses niua here in the land of Israel and here the gamar says the following look at the following gamar the gamar says referring toel when he was outside the land of Israel this is from it's the says it says that the word of hasem came toel the son of buzi the Coen in the land of the shaldan of kazim he was outside the land of Israel and he received prophecy so the gamar says how is that possible what does it mean again the P says that he was so says the gar and look at the the explanation it means that the word had already been to yzel previously when he was in a Israel and continued to visit him with Prophecy in the land of Kim however the divine presence does not initially come to rest upon a person outside of er Israel so the gamar says how was jesel able to receive prophecy outside of the land of Israel because he was once in because he prophesied in the land of Israel and once he received the prophecy there he was able to take that level of spirituality with him outside the land of Israel but generally the gamar suggests that you cannot receive prophecy outside the land of Israel that's the that's what the gamar mo Katan what the gamar mo Katan says yes please yeah ah that once he would be outside the land of Israel that he would no longer he yeah interesting I I don't remember I'm not familiar with that explanation but but yeah beautiful beautiful yes please yes all yes yes yes that's correct yeah that's correct yeah many many speak about that that prior to giving erel to the Jewish people once you had that kadus kadat with kadus Kess Isel then it attains that that particular level but yeah is a yeah you make a very very good point um absolutely that's that's that's our that's our take-home lesson today that's what R cook no no that's what R cook is teaching us and we we'll see we'll we'll see we'll see more about that in a moment but that's that's exactly what R cook says R cook says well first of all the ramam says it the rambam says that prophecy is accessible to everyone that's the rambam's position and Ru cook adds it's everyone but you really need to be in a in order to receive that prophecy look at what Ru cook writes let's go to the top of Page Three and this is from the very beginning of aot one of the first teachings in his classic work orot the four teachings the four teaching and he writes the following it is impossible for a Jew and I have the translation below it's impossible for a Jew to be faithful to his thoughts and Visions outside the land of Israel you do not have Clarity of thought you do not have Clarity of vision outside the land of Israel in the same way in the same way that one is faithful to one's thoughts to one's Visions in the land of Israel we have a clearer sense of understanding of vision of perception of wisdom in the land of Israel that does not exist outside the land of Israel and the height of that right the the the the reaching the very top notch of understanding and perception is nvua is prophecy now here I want to share with you the following the following teaching and this if I didn't see the name Rabbi salvic with this teaching I would think this is a Riv cuk teaching but this comes from Rabbi salvic and look at what Rabbi salvic writes and this is from the the work the Lord is righteous in all his ways page 308 through 310 this is the writing of Rabbi salvic prophecy is a natural phenomenon or condition in a Israel prophecies descend in a Israel the way reign and do descend in a Israel when you breathe you breathe not only oxygen and air but also something spiritually important something with spiritual potency and vigor the air in AR Israel the plain physical air the atmosphere is different the condition or quality of atmosphere or of the air in erel is saturated with Prophecy with Rua kodesh with divine inspiration the rain is different the de is different the soil is different the stones are different physically different the light in AR Isel is different it is brighter in AR Isel there is not only the light that flows from the Sun from natural sources but a Divine Light intermingled with the natural light by the way does this sound like Rabbi salvic or R cook well it's R Sal it it could be ruk as well but it's RAB Sal the air is clear and thinner it is charged with rues nature is by far more magnificent more beautiful and Zion than outside of Zion when the Torah says a land that flows with milk and honey it means that there is something unique in the nature of the land in the soil the doe the climate the wind the air says RAB salvic just open your window and take a look rud refers to Isel Asim Al means that it pours out as rain pours in a Dell even if you don't want to receive it or even if there's no one to receive it prophecy is like a downpour of rain says there's a lot of Prophecy that's in the air right now we need to be like the rambam says we need to be people of tremendous we need not to be caught up at all in the heav hman we have to be focused on Hashem and we our mote have to be spectacular magnificent and with that we can begin to pick up messages communication from Hashem now I want to to share what and just to one and I'll take your your comments in a moment one of the the PK that he quotes which is really interesting what's the PK that he quotes R so it's a PK that we're all familiar with it's a p that appears many times in the Torah how many times I looked it up before the class how many times any guess how many times do appear in the Torah what' you say 30 50 no not that many no it can't be that many 15 times that's a lot 15 times in the Torah 15 times 15 times the Torah keeps coming back to and by the way the very first time that Moshe talking about the SN and God says I want you to bring the Jewish people to the land of Israel God says I want you to bring them to Arash now let me ask you something why is that so important to keep repeating it's a land flowing with milk and honey bring the Jewish people to land flowing with milk and honey the Jewish people should come to a land flowing with milk and honey now it's very very nice to say that it has milk and honey that it's there's good food here there are good restaurants here and you should come to Israel because a lot of you know lot there's a lot of good you know good items to eat here delicious food but they keep coming back again and again to erid there's milk and honey there's milk and honey there's good cheese there's good dairy products and there's good honey in the land of Israel why does Hashem keep coming back to that again and again so I think the answer to that is what RAB salich hins to in this piece and that is what does it say it does not say in the PK it's a land of milk and honey it says it's a land that flows with milk and honey now that word flow is a very important word what is the word n what's the what's the root of the word niua are you familiar with the word NOA or there's one of the waters in Israel is called niveot have you seen that you ever buy that the niveot water what does NOA what does niot mean it means flow like the word zat it flows it's a land that flows there's flow in the land of Israel there's flow in the land of isra there's a flow of sweetness of and of richness there's a rich flow in the land of Israel there's a sweet flow in the land of Israel there was a best-selling book a few years ago millions of copies were sold on the New York Times bestselling list you can look it up I looked it up the other day and looked at a little summary of the book the title of the book is flow flow now what is flow about so the book is all about when you do certain things where you have an expanded Consciousness let's say you're working on something and time just begins to flow I mean a simple example of that is when you're with a good friend and you're having lunch and you're talking and you kind of lose track of time you're just in a flow right there's nothing else that is distracting you you're just with that person and all of a sudden you see that it's you know two hours later I was working on an article yesterday and something that I was was like working hard at concentrating and and I was I was sort of like in that flow like I was not distracted by anything and then I looked at my watch and I saw that it was two hours later that I was working on that so this book is all about flow and he actually writes about how to create more flow in your life you should have more moments of flow that's the if you're interested you can go you can I don't you know what the author is almost he's a um I think he it it's it's almost an impossible name to pronounce you can look at a put and flow bestselling book you'll see it and it's sold millions of copies now Flo is what happens in the land of Israel Z it's a place of flow and what does that mean and the highest again the the highest measure of that flow is when we receive that flow from Heaven that there's a n means the word NIU means a flow NOA something that's flowing from heaven that we're picking up that flow that flow is not something that's easily picked up or maybe According to some is impossible outside the land of Israel as Rook says only in the land of Israel are you your ideas and your thoughts and your insights and your vision right that's that's precise in the land of Israel that you cannot attain that outside the land of Israel that's what it means to be in the Holy atmosphere and to be in the place where God resides where the resides in the land of Israel so this is and the highest level that one can attain is not only R Kesh but the highest level which is neua okay now where can we find this within our yes famously rabi yeah yeah correct correct reud Lei also argues and this is one of the yeah this is one of the important yes also that word of Flo that's correct um rabud Le is also also argues that only the land only in the land of Israel is it uh Is it feasible is it accessible the highest level of Prophecy so where can we where can we experience this in our lives is it possible to experience this in our lives ruuk believes that we can um and he said one of the examples that he offers is in and during and especially during the night so just to share one line from Mook this is from anay it's a piece that speaks about the three that are established by ab and yov and he talks about what aam brought to the table in terms of the the of the morning and the afternoon and then ruk speaks about the evening the night and here let me just read one line This is the bottom of page three Source number four this is the commentary the famous and beautiful commentary the of R there's something another great benefit when it comes to what are we trying what are we trying to accomplish in it's a very very high level that one can attain in people of of of elevated Holiness elem that come and come close to God that in prayer that one can attain a level of n or he says or something close to N so whenever I read Riv cook I'm I always wonder people have asked me also is he just describing something or he is he describing himself is he describing his own experience and I always feel when I'm reading R cook that he is describing his own he's not just talking about it hypothetically he's not just talking about what is Fe he's talking about what he himself and if he's talking about niua and experienc niua so I wonder if Riv cook experiences prophecy now here let's turn to our the last page to page four and again the big question is does Riv cook attain prophecy so he had a great student revid Cohen who was the Nazir and by the by the way the Nazir wrote that one of the reasons why he became a Nazir when he came to Israel when he came toim that he that he followed the practices of a Nazir of growing his hair long of not drinking wine of not being the tamate not being inure we in the presence of of a dead body or a cemetery so why did he do that he WR he writes that one of the reasons why he did this is because he was trying to reach a level of nbua he himself was trying to reach to attain this level of nibua of of receiving communication from God in the very introduction to one of the most important Works called OTA kodesh and this is was edited by Ravid Cohen um the Nazir he writes in the introduction the following I just have the I have the have it translated for you at the top of the page and this is the beginning of aota kodesh now r whenever he would write for the most part there were times he wrote sat down and wrote sarim he wrote books he wrote chuot but a lot of his writings and orot Kesh and orot and orot Chua were things that he just wrote when he when he had an epiphany when he had that thought he would wake up in the middle of the night and a thought would come to him and he would write it down in the middle of the day he would write it down waking up early in the morning the thought came to him he would write it down and from all these writings and these notebooks and we have the shonat him eight notebooks that he was writing all the time all of these the meditations that he would have the thoughts that he would have so this is what the Nazir writes in the introduction he would jot down his thoughts as they came to mind this is an azir speaking of R cook rather than present them in systematic form writing disconnectedly he was just writing again without connecting ideas just things that came to mind inspired by his daily Visions now the question is what does that mean and some interpret that that he's referring to the Nazir believes that he had visions that he had naua that he had prophecy when I read R hook I I I I always wonder am I am I hearing a prophet what he's what he's describing is there is there prophecy there what's interesting so the early 1900s he's here in Israel and he's describing what he sees he sees the Jewish people coming back to the land of Israel now that's not happening yet there's just you know 60 70,000 Jews and he sees this is a time where we're getting closer to a Messianic time writes R cook and the Jewish people are coming back they're coming back I see that now is he just writing that as a very wise insightful Rabbi or is it possible that there is Neva that there's prophecy that he's receiving a message from God that this is what is unfolding what's about to unfold I was at a wedding last night and my wife's cousin so she's involved in in real estate it's a good business to be in here in Israel now real estate so it's a new development or new houses that are going up in bees in Rabbi rosner's community so they're putting up eight 80 new homes so she's involved in that project she has sold all 80 homes to families in tenek and Bergenfield if you know that if you know that Community they're gone already all 80 cook wrote this in 1900 that that he said in tenek they're going to be bu no he never wrote in tenek but he he said this is what's going to happen that the Jews are going to start coming back to the land of Israel and in droves they're going to come back to the land of Israel so I wonder and by the way the question's been asked many times was he a na'vi and the answer is that only Rook knows if he was a na'vi or not he never writes that he's a na'vi he never ever says that he's a na only ruk knows it now he writes the following two other quotes from ruk and we're coming to a close he writes the following these are this is translation both from I just mentioned a moment ago Theon these are the notebooks of R cook eight notebooks things that he wrote down that he jotted down so look at the first in this Source number two in truth the lack of Ru Kesh in Israel is not only a lack of perfection but a blemish and a sickness and in the land of Israel it is a painful sickness that must be healed for I am Hashem your healer other words this isn't something that's just an aspiration that we don't have this there's something very wrong there's something very off-kilter in the Jewish people and in Jews that were not experiencing Rua Kesh and it's something that needs to be fixed and something that he believes will be healed when we come back to the land of Israel and then one other just one other quote the spring of prophecy we are to I'm sorry to the spring of Prophecy we are summoned to the spring in other words it's spring time for prophecy right the the possibility is there parch with thirst we are right it's been a long time this's been a long 2,000 years without without prophecy but the Springs but the spring of gardens the source of Living Water is before us it's here we come back to the land of Israel and we can now open the door as re salic said a moment ago just open your window and you'll experience you'll be able to to sense the prophecy that's accessible here two other points that I want to make short points yes things he SE fault he sees faults but yeah well what's interesting that he's calling this not only we think of Prophecy as a very very you know just the the highest level of spirituality R cook says you're missing something that's so basic that there's that there's something as I said something off-kilter something not right when we don't have rues we don't have prophecy within our people so let me ask you two um two ways in which we can get a sense of what prophecy is has anybody here by the way anybody by show of hands anybody received prophecy recently or so the gamar says the following the gamar nun I don't have that I'll show you the Second Source says that when you dream that's 160th of Prophecy every dream that you have is one say now what does that mean okay different ways of interpreting that but by the way one way of interpreting that is that's just a sense of what prophecy could be like there words when you're seeing something experiencing something that is beyond you and something that is so real for that moment right that when you to experience that is a is a taste says the gamar is a taste of what prophecy is like interesting just to think about prophecy again it's such a like an esoteric idea but we have a little bit of a taste of that when we dream at night when we wake up and we think about that dream and that we were so you know we we were so much part of that dream and it was so real to us so that's one idea the second one I'll just read the one line and you have uh no you don't have it here this is from the gamar also the same D it says Aman you want to know another way that you can experienced prophecy and you may have experienced this prophecy the gamar says if you wake up in the morning and there's a PK on your lips and there's a PK that you say or PK that's in your mind God is giving you a little bit of Prophecy has anybody ever woken up to a to a verse in the Torah okay so what yeah okay good yeah mod very nice um okay I want to end with the uh I want to end with the following so the uh there's a famous there's a famous uh there's a famous gamar famous medish and it says the following it says that the and I'm sure you're familiar with this it says that at the at the splitting of the sea at yamu it says that even the sh the sh what the shka what the what a woman who didn't really know very much right a maid servant that she saw a prophecy that even yzel Ben buzi even the great yzel did not receive that kind of Prophecy just an average person a person without a lot of a lot of background with a lot without that great wisdom without the Great Mido necessarily that that person received the highest the higher level of Prophecy Ru cook writes when it comes to prophecy and he says as we're moving closer and closer to a Messianic time he says sometimes prophecy is not going to come from the great rabbis it's going to come from just average people from from the typical person who's going to somehow access or receive a kind of Prophecy from Hashem so I wanted to just share the following just to end the class we spoke last week about aam Burger so she was one of the young hostages that was released about a week and a half ago and she had her first message I don't know if you saw that her first it wasn't an interview but she put out a video just to give a message to am Isel and we know from again she's not necessarily I I don't know exactly her religious background in her commitment but we do know that while she was a hostage that she asked for a sedor and somehow one of the terrorist brought her a sitter and she davened and she tried to keep chabas she fasted on yum Kipper and we spoke about last time and she came home she said B that I went on the way with amuna and I come back with with amuna with faith in Hashem but this is what she this is what she broadcasted just a couple of days ago to the Jewish n nation and I have the uh just in translation from arucha and just to just to highlight two things that she said one is she he says the following and I quote when we were there they Hamas saw our division and it made them happy they said that when we are together it is our strength she said that I took note when I was there of the terrorists of Hamas that they were aware when there was infighting within the Jewish people and they knew when we're together the strength of am Israel that's what she said so I ask you despite all the differences is let's maintain unity and maintain our strength as a people so that's a message I say that's a prophetic message coming from a young woman saying this is what we need to do and then one other message that she shared she said I ask you to do one good thing that you take upon yourself whether it's a good deed for the envirment or and she said or a Mitzvah she said a small Mitzvah everyone should take on one more Mitzvah and it says it really brings everyone's return home closer than than it has been until now every good deed of yours and what you have done brings our return home closer and here we are we want everyone here soon so that's her message so when I think about prophecy and R cook says sometimes prophecy may not come from the great prophets it may come as we're coming closer to Gula may come just from the Shi just a woman who saw something who had an epiphany who received a message a Divine message and this is the message that she's uh that she's sharing with am Israel so one thing we know for certain that ruuk believe that Jews can Le and we are to strive for a a closeness with Hashem right this was rook in his own Lifetime and what he saw the Jewish people what's so unique about the Jewish people and especially now coming back to the land of isra and who knows says R cook that maybe we can reach even the highest levels that it's accessible to us as well to try to obtain to try to attain the highest level of spirituality and closest with hasem which is n all right yes if anybody has any uh any there was a hand or two up earlier please yes Rosanne whether it's AOW or non I if I as a Jew nice to a non he's to say you know look at these je people they so good and I'm very careful if I go to certain neighborhoods to dress not to be in's much aware everything on a daily basis and how important it is to be good very good beautiful La of cook says that our Insight that our thoughts that our Visions are are more accurate more precise than land of Israel where you're describing yes please uhhuh a lot of distraction yes very good it's very it's beautiful beautiful beautiful that's where we started we started with mosenu that he wanted to find a place where you could just think where you could just meditate and that's where he received the prophecy so that's absolutely that's part of it as well did you want to say right the basic definition of prophecy is is to be able the the possibility and the reality of receiving communication from God to receive a communication from Hashem which is really like an astounding idea to hear the voice of God to receive a communication from God yeah so bril right that that could be that's more that's in the rues category where that's an inspir that's a a god inspired a divinely inspired that's that's R KES it's a or it could just be a thought right just a very wise thought not necessar raes yes did you yeah not right very good very nice right right right very good so that's like what RAB salich said there's all of this like out there in the air there's all the Rua KES and prophecy now it requires Great people very spiritual people and um and people as you said that are not there's so much distraction today that's one of the things that Nazir would just go out to the mountains he would just walk outside into the fields and yeah yeah well that's that's exactly right MH that's what he was doing yes please yeah K so the Nazir wrote a fat book about 500 pages about niua and how to receive niua I haven't read it but if anybody's interested in becoming a prophet so that's the no that's and he spent his lifetime was very much dedicated to this idea of how to bring back n and practically how to how to how to achieve it yes and he write he writes in his journals that he believes that he has attain levels of Prophecy that he's received prophecy he he does write that R cook doesn't write it but the Nazir says that he he he's he's received what he believes is is bits of nibua yes okay okay that that's needed also we need to whatever it is that Hashem needs to communicate to be able to receive that yes yeah right right yes yes correct correct they were Amal messages right they were for for the rest of History so you're right there are different kinds of Prophecy yes I think I think both I think no your point is well taken I think both are true we could use a prophet or two today to help us to help guide us with what we need to do in the coming yeah oh we have Trump okay all right well let let's stop here we'll take questions but I wish everyone a wonderful day we should all be Z to very high levels of spirituality