Imagination: The Mind's Tool

What exactly is the prophet's inner eye?  I would suggest that it is a kind of sixth sense.  However, Rihal suggests another possibility which brings us closer to the Rambam's approach.  The prophet's inner eye is actually his imagination, which the mind uses.  The imagination is held in high regard with this approach.  The co-operation between the mind and the imagination makes prophecy unique.  However, we must clarify the nature of this partnership.

 

     The tremendous power of the imagination is expressed in dreams.  The imagination presents us in dreams with a vision which has characteristics of prophecy.  We see things that do not exist in reality, yet we cannot deny their actuality.  We were really there.  In dreams, the imagination is autonomous.  It is involved only with reconstructing materials which it finds ready-made in our daily lives.  However, if we could connect between the imagination and a different source, it could show us worlds that the senses cannot perceive, and to some extent it could reach a more fertile state than the mind.  In any case, the imagination could serve the intellect, improving its capabilities and scope.  Indeed, in prophecy the imagination can capture the vision which comes from without, from above.  It creates sensory images of a different reality.  The mind stands beside it and tries to decipher what the imagination sees.  This is the Rambam's understanding.

 

     Imagine that I have to pass on a message to Reuven.  I could give him a verbal message, which would be very limited.  However, I could also present a much more complex message, by drawing him a picture.  And if I am an artist, perhaps the message will be so replete that all I wanted to convey to him would be included.  A picture has many more dimensions than language does.  On the other hand, when Reuven receives the letter, he will generally understand its main message immediately, while the picture needs to be interpreted.  This does not mean that the entire letter will be understood immediately, or that various levels of verbal understanding are not possible; but the essence of the message in the picture needs to be deciphered and explained.  This is true not only of a Picasso, but also of a Rembrandt, which seems on the surface to be much more readily comprehensible.  The message in the picture is not given to us explicitly.  The information must be extracted from it.  The greatest artist, greater even than Rembrandt or Picasso, is the imagination - the great artist that resides within each and every one of us.  And if the mind, which is the philosopher, and the imagination, which is the artist, can work together, they can perceive realities that would otherwise have remained hidden.  A hidden message reaches man from above.  The artist can paint it.  The mind can understand it.  If this co-operation exists, prophecy is possible - given, of course, that there is no blockage in the pipeline from above.

 

     This necessary cooperation can teach us why prophecy is perceived in images and sensory visions, similar to the dream experience.  The philosopher alone is helpless at times, while the artist alone is liable to lead man into idolatry.  The mind is necessary to save us from the dangers of the imagination.  However, language has its dangers  as well.  We transform images into words; but language remains full of the creations of the imagination, which has left its imprints there.  That is where the importance of deciphering comes to the fare.

 

     The prophet perceives God in physical or human images: "and one sees in You age and youth, and the hair of Your head [we see] graying and black."  Sometimes, as an old man teaching Torah to the Jewish people, "aged on the Day of Judgement" and sometimes as a "youth on the day of battle."  This is what the artist can do.  But the prophet continually underscores the fact that what he sees is only a vision.  Thus, for example, in Ezekiel's vision of the Chariot, the prophet repeatedly emphasizes that what he sees is an "image" and a "vision."  We must understand that the vision is a picture which needs to be interpreted.  And even if our attempts are not successful, we must accept that the vision hints at a hidden reality.

 

     [This reality creates a need to examine the essence of the biblical image.  Thus, for example, one of the images we use for God is light.  Perhaps this image expresses the divine immanence, in other words, the fact that God is with us in every place.  On the other hand, the approach to the heavens which is discussed by Rihal, may be interpreted differently.  The heavens describe divine transcendence, the fact that God is beyond all of reality.]

 

The Picture Within A Picture

 

I would like now to illustrate another important principle in the theory of prophecy, by using a technique employed by many artists.  A simple example can be found in the classic picture of the laying of the cornerstone of the Hebrew University, an event which all the great leaders of the period attended.  In one of the corners of the picture, which was painted on the Mount Scopus campus, we see a person painting.  This is the artist himself, who put himself into his own picture.  Although logically this is a paradox, we see that the small picture is a copy of the big picture.  Similarly, the Rambam teaches us that the prophetic picture contains a representation of the actual process of prophecy.  In it, too, there appears a picture within a picture.  In most prophecies, the prophet meets with darkness, and within it, light, and usually an angel.  This angel in the vision is, according to the Rambam, an expression of the process in which we receive prophecy.  The angel who speaks to the prophet is a messenger of God.  He represents the mechanism which exists in our inner world; he is like a painter painting the picture which reaches him from above.

 

     According to the Rambam, we combine the input of the personal senses in our everyday lives and thus create an image of reality.  This image exists inside us, where there is a kind of movie screen upon which reality projects itself.  However, sometimes, we project onto this screen things  which are not real, such as when we dream.  In prophecy, a similar process takes place.  In order to explain it, we will try to continue the parable of the movie screen.  The first requirement which will allow us to watch a movie in a movie theater, is that we put out the lights, that it be dark.  Only then do we lose our connection to daily reality, and create the possibility of viewing another reality.  Such is the case with the prophet as well.  The first requirement is that it be dark; in other words, the prophet must be cut off from the outside world.  He loses his regular consciousness, or he is already in a state lacking consciousness, like sleep.  Then the outer world stops affecting the prophet.  When the outer world is turned off, so to speak, a different, deeper world can appear to the prophet.  The prophet sees a reality which is inside his inner world, but this reality reveals secrets to him that he would not otherwise reach.

 

     Rihal teaches us that when we look with our eyes, we see reality, but not all of reality.  In fact, perhaps we see a distorted reality.  The world appears before us as it does because we use our senses.  If we could find a different mechanism, we would see the world differently.  If we had a third eye, we would see a different, much truer reality.  This third eye exists but it is not turned outward, it is turned inward.  This is the "inner eye" [4:3, 161].  Our psychological world is no less rich and important than the factual outer world.  This "inner eye" shows the prophet the true reality hidden from the senses.  The mind can try to understand the true reality, but this is an indirect way of perceiving these realities.  The owner of an "inner eye" can see them directly, and palpably.

 

     How does the prophet see with his inner eye?  We can give two answers to this question, which do not contradict one another.

 

1.  The "inner eye" shows us the reality as it is.  This is comparable to a person who is sent for an X-ray.  The X-rays penetrate and show us a different reality which we cannot see with our regular senses.  The prophet sees the reality which is before us but he sees it with such a penetrating perception, that it looks totally different.

 

     However the X-ray example is not exact.  Rihal prefers the example of the short-sighted person, who is not wearing his glasses and sees a distorted reality.  This is our perception of the world - "without glasses."  In contrast, the prophet sees a different reality with his "healthy" vision.

 

2.  We spoke about X-rays, however, there are other ways one can receive information about man's inner self.  For instance, today experts use machines built on the principles of magnetic resonance.  What both these possibilities have in common is that it is not enough to see.  We must understand and interpret.

     God displays a message for the prophet.  The message is not physical, yet it is real.  The message describes facts, but it describes them in such a way that they need to be interpreted.  This principle, which Rihal hints at, was developed by the Rambam.  According to his approach, the vision of the prophet is formed by the paintbrush of the imagination, and the picture that is received needs interpretation.  In order to understand the prophecy, we need the power of interpretation, the ability to explain.  Now we can return to the parallel between prophecy and dreams.  Dreams are one-sixtieth of prophecy.  In dreams we see a "private" reality which we use to learn about our inner reality, our fears and hopes.  In the prophetic dream and vision we also learn much, not about our own inner reality, but about the entire world.

 

(This lecture was translated by Gila Weinberg.)