Hello Rabbi! What does it mean .. when the scriptures says that Elijah heard (God’s) still small voice; or while Samuel was a lad … he heard the Lord calling him 3x’s? Was the voice audible or intuition? What does it sound like? A Whisper or “as one speaking in a conversation?” Shalom.
Answer:
It seems that this voice (for instance in the case of Samuel) was a perceived voice, which to the inexperienced prophet (Samuel was a ‘lad’) can be mistaken for a real voice.
The Ramchal (Rabbi Moshe Haim Luzzato) in his Derech Hashem (The Way of God 3:4) expounds on this matter at greater length.
Shalom and best wishes.
Although I do not have this book … my last comment is … did Jonah, Elijah, the lad Samuel … heard the audible voice of God … as an audible speech of sound (as you and I hear today in conversations) .. or was it something they all perceived in their mind/spirit/heart … as in the voice of a thought in the brain/head/mind? I’ve read Rambam’s entire section on prophecy in Guide for the Perplexed … and I still can’t find the answer???
The voice was of course not audible in the sense that others could hear it, but the prophet himself perceived an audible voice.
Leave a comment