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Last week, I came across ספר סודי רזיא (Sodey Raziah) by רוקח. While perusing, I found a fascinating outline of the experience of prophecy (i.e., what a prophet sees, hears, etc.).

However, it's extremely difficult to understand not merely because of the deep and complex subject matter but also because of the way it's written, and I was wondering if anyone knows of a book in English or Hebrew that contains similar material.

Any suggestions?

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    Derech Hashem by Ramchal has sections on prophecy.
    – N.T.
    Sep 4, 2021 at 0:51
  • Rambam's Mishna Torah Yesodei Hatorah Chapter 7: chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/904991/jewish/…
    – user17319
    Sep 5, 2021 at 14:44
  • Abarbanel to Kings I ch. 3 might answer your question. It's been a while since I learned it.
    – N.T.
    Sep 14, 2021 at 1:43

4 Answers 4

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Two excellent books in English are Meditation and the Bible and Meditation and Kabbalah both by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan z”l.

They will give you the basic keys to unlocking the book by the Rokeach that you are looking at.

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Find Ramchal at Wikitext and Rambam at Sefaria.

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Rambam in his Moreh Nevuchim - Part 2, particularly in Chapter 35 and Chapter 36 speaks about the inner workings of Prophecy. Chapter 35 specifically looks at the nevuah of Moshe compared to the other Neviim. Meanwhile Chapter 36 analyses how prophecy actually works.

I found on Hebrewbooks a sefer entitled Maalos HaNevuah authored by someone called Chacham Shimon Scheyer which provides an 19-page explanatory kuntres on chapter 35.

Happy reading!

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Abraham Joshua Heschel's seminal work "The Prophets" is a discourse on what the prophets of Tanach were, what they experienced, the mechanism of their message, purpose and so forth. The book has several chapters focused specifically on the 'experience of prophecy', and also compares and contrasts the Jewish conception of prophecy vis a vis other religions and cultures.

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