At the same point in history, both prophecy and the impulse for idolatry ceased, changing the face of Judaism and its struggles. Can these two things – one of the greatest godliness, the other of the greatest wickedness – somehow be related?
Yes, says Reb Tzadok, prophecy and idolatry have the same root: God’s immanence and visibility. In the era that God made Himself known through prophetic image, there was a concomitant passion to concretize Him, to represent the divine with physical form and direct our worship to that. Prophecy ended and now God is hidden, to be approached through intellect alone.
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