Editing Jewish principles of faith (section)

===Prophecy===
Jews believe that God at times chooses to issue [[prophecy]] to humans, communicated by a [[prophet]] serving as an intermediary. Many such occurrences are described in the [[Nevi'im]] (books of the Prophets). However, since the destruction of the [[First Temple]], prophecy has ceased.

[[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]] and [[Conservative Judaism|Conservative]] Jews hold that the prophecy of Moses was superior in nature to the prophecy of all other prophets in history. This belief was expressed by [[Maimonides]], who wrote that "Moses was superior to all prophets, ... Moses attained the highest possible level of human achievement. He perceived God to a degree surpassing every human that ever existed... God spoke to all other prophets through an intermediary. Moses alone did not need this; this is what the [[Torah]] means when God says: 'Mouth to mouth, I speak to him'." The great Jewish philosopher [[Philo]] understands this type of prophecy to be an extraordinarily high level of philosophical understanding, which had been reached by Moses and which enabled him to write the [[Torah]] through his own rational deduction of natural law. Maimonides describes a similar concept of prophecy since a voice that did not originate from a body cannot exist, and Moses's understanding was based on his lofty philosophical understandings.<ref>''Commentary to the Mishna'', preface to chapter "Chelek", Tractate Sanhedrin; [[Mishneh Torah]], Laws of the foundations of the Torah, ch. 7</ref>

For [[Reform Judaism|Reform Jews]], the prophecy of Moses was not the highest degree of prophecy. Instead, it was the first in a long chain of progressive revelations in which humanity gradually began to understand the [[will of God]] better and better. As such, they maintain that the laws of Moses are no longer binding, and today's generation must assess what God wants of them. This principle is also rejected by most [[Reconstructionist Judaism|Reconstructionist Jews]], but for a different reason; most posit that [[God]] is not a being with a [[Will (philosophy)|will]]; thus, they maintain that no will can be revealed.<ref>{{Cite book|title=American Judaism: A History|url=https://archive.org/details/americanjudaismh00sarn_519|url-access=limited|last=Sarna|first=Johnathan D.|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2004|location=New Haven & London|pages=[https://archive.org/details/americanjudaismh00sarn_519/page/n268 246]}}</ref>