Predictions
 
Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim
 
 
Reader: Could you tell me what is the Jewish opinion and belief of Nostradamus and his writings?
 
 
Mesora: If you ask, what is Judaism's view on man's ability to predict the future, the response is as follows: Man's mind is limited, primarily to the functions of comprehension, memory, comparison, analysis, induction, deduction, reason, intuition and imagination. Man cannot function outside of his limitations. Just as man cannot fly, as flight is outside our range of physical ability, so too is knowledge of the future outside the range of our mental ability. Without God informing us of the future, it is impossible for us to know it.
 
The reasons why predictions are impossible are three;
1) Foreknowledge: Our minds can only work with knowledge, and knowledge is always about something which already exists. The future does not exist, so we cannot know it with our minds' design.
2) Cause and Effect: We reason based on cause and effect relationships, and our minds cannot grasp the vast number of factors contributing to future events.
3) The Freewill Factor: The future of Earth is most certainly centered around man, who functions outside of cause and effect, as we each have freewill. This precludes our cause and effect reasoning from arriving at any accuracy of prediction.
 
 
Reader2: I read your answer to the question about Nostradamus (I have copied it below). I was surprised to read the answer. The 1st paragraph was correct but left out the possibility that man can predict the future, although that future is changeable. We say that Adam HaRishon told Hashem that he would not have children and he learned this from the Mazalot. We have cases in the gemara where men predict the future. The whole idea of MAZAL applies to individuals (eyn mazal l'yisrael is only applicable as a nation). We know of Rabbi Akiva's fear about his daughter's possible death on her wedding night... The list goes on. We now shy away from learning from the Mazalot but they were a way of telling the future even though they were not 100 percent effective.
 
Mesora: 3 Points:
1) You take midrashim literally, this is an error.
2) You also contradict yourself when you say, "even though they were not 100 percent effective..." Prediction, by definition, means 100% accuracy. Anyone can be partially correct. This is precisely why the Torah demands 100% accuracy for determining one a prophet of God. The Torah realizes that people can be partially correct, and that foreknowledge is humanly impossible. The Torah thereby teaches that the only valid proof that one has future knowledge, is that it is divine in origin.
3) You have also not shown any flaw in my reasoning.



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