Seek True Prophecy – But Why Now?

We have written here before about the crucial need (and possibility) of seeking prophecy.

An excerpt:

Jews must seek prophecy anew. This is not mere preference. We need a prophet for the various upcoming stages of Jewish history, such as building the Temple, establishing priestly lineage (“yichus”), waging wars, kingship, identifying the true Messiah, and more.

You might ask: why didn’t previous generations make the same effort? First of all, some did, as one can see in the introduction to Rabbi Chaim Vital’s “Sha’arei Kedusha”. Second, poor past actions by our forebears are never a good excuse for ignoring our obligations as Jews. Lastly, and here is the stress, the present time is far more opportune for this lofty quest, now most jews are located in Israel under Jewishly owned government.

This is because prophecy is mainly a public affair. As Chazal say, after Chet Ha’egel God threatened to remove Moshe’s gift of prophecy, since the gift was never granted for Moshe’s own sake alone:

וידבר ה’ אל משה לך רד, אמר הקב”ה למשה לך מגדולתך כלום נתתי לך גדולה אלא בשביל ישראל

Baruch ben Neriya, too, requested the gift of prophecy but was rejected (Yirmiya chapter 45), because, as God explains, he was about to exile the jews from Israel, anyway.

Our current national situation is quite the opposite, so the time is come.