The Hebrew Prophets: A Jewish Perspective

This book explores the concept of prophecy in Judaism as defined by two great figures of Jewish history. Moses Maimonides and Abraham Joshua Heschel are two influential scholars who have impacted the many streams of Judaism. A simplistic dichotomy could be made between their two perspectives labeling Maimonides as a rational philosopher and Heschel as a mystical one. Both the study of Jewish prophecy and the approaches of both of the scholars are complex topics, but not impossible to decipher. The nature of revelation is also part of this discussion. To some scholars Maimonides' and Heschel's perspectives of God seem to be in conflict, one being Aristotelian while the other being a more traditional one in line with the Bible and the Talmud.With these factors in mind and based on the available data my book will support the following contention: Maimonides' and Heschel's different philosophical approaches about the biblical prophets are within the bounds of classical Judaism.