Shoftim - The Watchman on the Wall

The watchman stands guard upon the wall.

Peering into the dark.

Alert.

He is not like some of the guard. They serve their shift and pray for the sand to run out in the hourglass.

He knows for what he watches.

He is a guardian of the night.

For his wife. For his children. For the city.

He never lets his weapon rest beside him as he scans the cold dark horizon.

He does not rest.

נָבִ֨יא מִקִּרְבְּךָ֤ מֵאַחֶ֙יךָ֙ כָּמֹ֔נִי יָקִ֥ים לְךָ֖ יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ אֵלָ֖יו תִּשְׁמָעֽוּן׃

“A Prophet, From your midst, from your brothers, like Myself, I will raise up for you, Hashem, your God, that is whom you shall heed.” (Devarim 18:15)

Where are the prophets today?

Where did they all go?

We were promised prophets. Guides for our people.

So you say we lost them.

That after the destruction of the first Beis HaMikdash, when Klal Yisroel grew unfit, prophecy was withdrawn.

We are now in the time of darkness. It has been for a while.

But the pasuk says it will always be here.

So what happened? Did the Torah promise something we no longer see?

No. Prophecy is still around.

Chazal teach us that it shifted.

Taken from the prophets, given to the sages.

The channel still exists, but for most of us, it remains hidden.

So how do you find it?

How do you touch prophecy in the darkened age?

A few pesukim earlier we learned,

תָּמִ֣ים תִּֽהְיֶ֔ה עִ֖ם יְהֹוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶֽיךָ׃

You must be wholehearted with your God

(Devarim 18:13).

Rashi on the pasuk taught us that this means “walk before him whole-heartedly, put thy hope in Him, and do not attempt to investigate the future, but whatever it may be that comes upon thee, accept it whole-heartedly, and then thou shalt be with Him and become His portion.” (Sifrei Devarim 173:3)

True prophecy is His gift, but tamimus, a kind of disciplined wholeness, trains us to see what others miss.

Discipline allows us to become the watchman once more.

The Gibor discipline of conquering your inclinations, your given nature.

The disciplined man reads tomorrow in today’s scar tissue.

He sees trajectories. He hears the cracks in the city stones.

A night guard who smells the smoke before the fire.

The Gibor, the Prophet

The Gibor can “foresee” because he pays attention where others are blind.

In the darkened age, prophecy is vigilance sharpened by discipline.

Don’t tell me you don’t have prophecy.

Every one of you has this ability.

You already know what happens when you lash out at your wife.

You already know what neglect does to your son.

You already know where apathy leads your community.

You know.

But you do it anyway because you are not disciplined.

It’s ok. You didn’t know what power lay inside you.

Now you do.

The walls are now broken, but the father must still keep watch over his home.

He needs to know where a child is drifting before he knows it himself.

The Gemara in Bava Basra taught us that a Chacham Adif M’navi.

A sage’s disciplined sight can guard a city like a prophet’s fire once did.

Today Prophecy sleeps; there is no wall, yet the people still need the Watchman.

A man still has to rise in the night and warn when danger approaches.

You may only be able to stand on the rubble of what once was a wall.

But stand you will.

Every man who sharpens his eyes against sleep becomes a watchman.

Every father who refuses to be surprised by tomorrow is already a prophet.

The Torah promised you’d be there when your people need it most.

So train. Become disciplined. Become the Gibor.

Sharpen your perception with journaling, silence, Torah, Tefilah, reps in the gym, and critical thinking.

Whatever tools you need.

Be ready.