The Prophecies

How can we know whether the Creator truly keeps His commitments? Through prophecies: if what was announced comes true with impossible precision, this is, according to the course, the proof that the One who rules history has spoken.

He prophesied what would happen to the people of Israel; today we can check whether it came true. Every commitment verified strengthens the belief that what the Creator says is true.

Criterion 1: precision. Clear and detailed, impossible to interpret in many ways. Counter-example: “Tomorrow a good event will happen.”

Criterion 2: against nature. It must go against natural laws or human logic. Counter-example: “Tomorrow at 6:55, the sun will rise.”

Criterion 3: verifiable. In our lifetime or within a reasonable time. Counter-example: “In the year 2235 a three-headed child will be born.”

According to the Rav, fulfilling a true prophecy requires dominating human history and nature. Some prophecies require dominating part of nature, others part of humanity, and the boldest require all of nature and all of humanity, since they go against logic.

According to the Rav, a survey of all the books in the world yields vague and blurry prophecies, open to every interpretation; Nostradamus and others made predictions that each generation believes it sees fulfilled in its own events. No one dared make a precise, clear prophecy, except in two places: Christianity (a few clear prophecies) and Judaism (thousands).

Why such a risk? If even one prophecy did not come true, the entire credibility of the Torah would collapse. According to the course, that is exactly the point: to prove that the One who dictated these prophecies truly rules history.

Prophecies about the nations: non-Jewish peoples, their empires, their cities. Major example: the total destruction of Babylon, the capital of the world (chapter 5).

Prophecies about Israel: thousands of prophecies about the history of the Jewish people: the destruction of the Temple, exile, dispersion, miraculous survival, return (chapter 6). They are found mainly in Bechukotai (up to the First Temple) and Ki Tavo (from the Second Temple until our time).

To be valid, a prophecy must have been written before the events; otherwise it is history. Jewish tradition affirms that the Torah was given 3300 years ago; according to the course, even the harshest critics accept that the Bible existed at least 2300 years ago, since it was translated into Greek (the Septuagint).

So everything that happened in the last 2300 years and is written in the Torah is prophecy, even according to the critics. The Rav: “There are so many prophecies that I do not need to demonstrate today that the Bible was given 3300 years ago. Although it can be demonstrated.”