Aspeklaria (2012)

Yevamoth 49b at the end, says:

"All the prophets looked into a dim aspeklaria,  but Moses looked through a clear aspeklaria."

What is an "aspeklaria"? It comes from the Latin "specularia".

The ancients didn't have windows. Gibbon says that even the great Augustus did not have a window in his room nor a shirt on his back.

The ancients didn't have these kind of comforts. To let some light into their homes, leaving outside the cold and the wind, they used specularia. The precursors of transparent windows, that where translucent, they let the light through, but weren't transparent. Specularia where made of the translucent stone called "mica".

The Sages are reaffirming the Jewish dogma that there is no prophecy greater than Moses' nor prophet greater than him (Deuteronomy 34:10 "And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face..."), and that no prophet, not even Moses, has seen Him clearly.

To this Passage of the Talmud Rashi asks: What did Moses see that the others didn't see? Rashi answers: Moses saw that there is nothing to see (back to basics: God is invisible or, maybe more radically, that there is no God).

No doubt, Moses is the prophet number one and no other prophet of Israel is playing on his league. But the Torah teaches us that there are heathen prophets, and one particularly hostile heathen prophet named Balaam, whose prophecy is almost as strong as Moses'. Balaam is prophet number two, stronger than any prophet of Israel with the exception of Moses.

Deuteronomy tells us that Balaam went on his donkey to course Israel. An angel came into their way but only the donkey saw it and stopped. Balaam, having not seen the angel, punishes the donkey for not moving and the donkey by a miracle has the gift of speech and complains about Balaam's bad treatment.

At the end of the story God himself takes control of Balaam's speech and forces him to prophesise blessings.

All other prophets criticised Israel for not following the Law.

Jesus did not criticise Israel but criticised the Law, for instance: divorce in Mathew 19:3, food taboos in Mathew 15:11, stoning of the adulterous woman in John 8:7. This is why the Sanhedrin 43b judged Jesus as a false prophet, because he criticised the Law as defined in Deuteronomy 13.

Balaam, though heathen and hostile, was a true prophet, and if God didn’t prevent him from cursing Israel, not even God could have prevented its disastrous effect upon Israel (Numbers Rabbah 20, Berachot 7a). Likewise, nobody can cancel the strength of Balaam's blessings.

So what may this teach? It may teach that despite that the gentiles' initial intention was to curse Israel, Israel thrives thanks to the blessings of the gentiles.