Rabbi Dr. Michael J. Shire

Rabbi Dr. Michael J. Shire had put together a daring, beautiful and inspiring book. It is daring because it extended the concept of prophets and prophecies from the traditional biblical period throughout history, to our days. The first of the three main parts of his books introduces eight prophets from the Tanakh, but also three post-canon sages: Hillel, Yohanan ben Zakai and Akiva. The second section covers 9 individuals in the period between the 11th and the 19th century. The third part lists 10 people whose active period was in the 20th century. On page 11 Shire justifies his choice to name prophets those who traditionally are not considered such,
"Each of the men and women in this book has been described as a prophet by biographers or by the historians of their own time. Some may perceive this as a controversial appellation but I believe it has been used for these individuals because of the special category of holiness and direct actions that they demonstrated."

The book is also daring to include women amongst prophets. According to the Talmud (Tractate Megillah) seven prophetesses preached to Israel… Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Huldah, Esther. Shire includes only Miriam from these seven and two more women for each of the other two parts of his book. I, with my egalitarian views, was happy to see these inclusions; particularly that I was not aware of the activities of these wise women.

The book is beautifully designed, printed on high quality paper that is a joy to look at. Almost every page includes an illustration taken from the manuscripts and early prints of the Hebrew Section of the British Library, selected by the collection's curator, Ilana Tahan. At the end of the book there is a detailed list of the illustrations and their sources. I think that these images are so rich and remarkable that could stand on their own as the basis for an art book.

But all of these were only about the structure and the design of the book. The essential content is about the life and words of the prophets from various ages of human/ Jewish history. Fore each of the 30 prophets we are given their names, a single phrase conveying their significance (e.g. Barukh Spinoza as the "defender of truth"), the period they lived in, a short quote from/of them, a few biographical pages with description of their thinking and activities as well. Furthermore there are 3-4 extensive quotes from their works, or in the rare cases, when they themselves did not leave much written material behind then about them. These were remarkably inspiring people. Having read the whole book in one sitting from beginning to end I am inspired by them. Such a wide range of circumstances they lived in, but how uniformly passionate reactions they produced. They were all passionate I their quest for justice and morality. I recommend this book to anybody who needs a motivation in any area.

Here is the full list of prophets covered in this book:
- IN THE BEGINNING: Moses, Miriam, Samuel, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah, Hillel, Yohanan ben Zakkai, Akiva
- FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION: Solomon ibn Gabirol, Bachya ibn Pakuda, Moses Maimonides, Isaac Abravanel, Dona Gracia Mendes, Manasseh ben Israel, Barukh Spinoza, Baal Shem Tov, Hannah Werbermacher
- EVEN IN OUR OWN TIME: Theodor Herzl, Henrietta Szold, Rav Kook, Leo Baeck, Lily Montagu, Stephen S. Wise, Martin Buber, Janusz Korczak, David Ben-Gurion, Abraham Joshua Heschel

Please allow me a personal note. In the early 1990's I attended the Leo Baeck College in London for one year. Rabbi Shire was teaching there at the time, but I did not have a chance to take any of his classes. I only listened to a few of his shiurim. My recollection is that I was impressed not just by the depth of his knowledge, but also his friendliness to the audience. He had a direct and warm presence. Some time since I was studying there he deservedly became the College's vice principle.… (more)