Summary:
The commandment to appoint judges and law enforcement is given.
The commandment on how to deal with idolaters is given.
The commandment to appoint a king is given.
The commandment on how to deal with a rebellious legal authority is given.
G-d tells us we will have prophets. Although only a handful of prophets are actually mentioned in Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible), our tradition tells us it was a common phenomenon before the destruction of the First Temple.
The rules of engagement are enumerated.
The commandment of what to do with a stranger who died on the road is given.
My analysis:
Prophecy is such an alien concept to us. In the rabbinic world they make the joke (I expect no one to laugh)”What is it called when you talk to G-d? Prayer. What is it called when G-d talks to you? Schizophrenia.” Clearly then, to say that there were many people walking around at one point claiming G-d was talking in their ears and telling them the secrets of the world. I can understand why religion might not be taken seriously with that perception.
To understand what prophecy was about, one needs to understand what prophecy is. We have a number of words in Hebrew that are used in reference to prophecy. All of them are words related to seeing. Prophecy was clarity of perception of the world not just in terms of the physical space, but it was an ability to see into the spiritual world. Science subscribes to the concept of four dimensions (the three that compose space and time) and Judaism acknowledges a fifth (soul). Someone with a real clarity can conceptualize that fourth dimension and in a sense they can see from the beginning of time to the end. Of course, we say G-d needs to help you with this process since it is beyond this world, but that is the process very simplified.
Among the different qualities a prophet had to have, one was that they needed an open, settled mind. Someone with a narrow viewpoint or allows the world to mess with their head won’t be able to achieve this level of perception. The rabbis tell us that level of serenity hasn’t existed since the First Temple.
That doesn’t mean we can’t have a piece of it, and that piece won’t help us get by in life. If you take the time to settle your own head before making a decision, you’re going to make better decisions. If you take the time to smell the flowers, meditate, or study up on heavy-duty philosophical things, like Torah, it’s going to affect your decisions. The most important part of that process however is the ability to be receptive to new ideas and innovations. It means sometimes doing away or challenging preconceived notions. That doesn’t mean don’t think or question. Quite the opposite is true. Only with an open, settled mind can you achieve some level of this thing we call prophecy, and some say that it is even possible for the right person to achieve even that state in the present time.
