Dear Catholic Exchange:
Do the Jewish people still have prophets to this day? If so, who are they, and what are they saying? Are they still talking about the hoped-for Messiah?
Mr. Rogers
Dear Mr. Rogers,
Peace in Christ!
First of all, there is not an authoritative ecclesiastical body that can provide the normative beliefs for all Jewish people. Secondly, like Christianity, there are many groups of “Jewish people” with differing beliefs. The beliefs and understanding of revelation among “Reform” Jews is often quite different from that of “Orthodox” Jews.
The following are excerpts from the statement of beliefs of the ” Movement for Reform Judaism“:
“The Torah, the five Books of Moses, is the formative document of Judaism. It depicts, in the revelation at Sinai, the formative experience of the Jewish people. We do not, however, regard the Torah as a document literally handed down from God by Moses but rather as our ancestors' record of their encounter with God, a document itself revealing a process of inner development. It contains both unique, universal insights addressed to all humanity and the foundation stones of the particularly Jewish task. It includes both timeless and time bound teachings.
“Living Judaism is strongly characterised by the dialogue between tradition and modernity. We recognise the strength and the wisdom of our tradition but we also recognise that Torah, Jewish teaching has always been dynamic, responding to new insights and new understandings. It has never been set in stone. Not all that is from the past is appropriate in the present and not all of the contemporary world, its ideas and values, is bad, let alone devoid of God. In that sense, we believe that all religion is provisional and that continuing revelation is an awesome reality (emphasis added).
On the other hand, the following reflects a more “orthodox” view of Torah and revelation:
“The Eighth Foundation is that the Torah is from Heaven. This means that we must believe that this entire Torah, which was given to us from Moshe Our Teacher, may he rest in peace, is entirely from the mouth of the Almighty. In other words, that it all was conveyed to him from God, blessed Be He, in the manner which is called, for lack of a better term, “dibur” “speech”. [Since God does not actually “speak” in a literal sense. – Lazer] It is not known how it was conveyed to him, except to Moshe [Moses], may he rest in peace, to whom it was given, and he was like a scribe writing from dictation, and he wrote all the incidents, the stories, and the commandments. Therefore [Moshe] is called “mechokek” “scribe” (BaMidbar [Numbers] 21:18)” (from the Thirteen Foundations of Jewish Belief according to Rabbi Maimonides).
Based on the above, it appears that at least some “Jewish people” believe there are “prophets” today, with varying levels of authority. One should not, however, necessarily attempt to characterize “Jewish people” as one group with respect to beliefs. Depending on the context of your question, you may want to contact a local Rabbi to obtain a particular perspective.
United in the Faith,
Peter Balbirnie
Information Specialist
Catholics United for the Faith
827 North Fourth Street
Steubenville, OH 43952
800-MY-FAITH (800-693-2484)
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