In this week’s Parshah, Parshat Shoftim, we find the following commandment [Devarim, 18’ 14’-15’]:
כִּ֣י ׀ הַגּוֹיִ֣ם הָאֵ֗לֶּה אֲשֶׁ֤ר אַתָּה֙ יוֹרֵ֣שׁ אוֹתָ֔ם אֶל־מְעֹנְנִ֥ים וְאֶל־קֹסְמִ֖ים יִשְׁמָ֑עוּ וְאַתָּ֕ה לֹ֣א כֵ֔ן נָ֥תַן לְךָ֖ יְ-הֹוָ֥ה אֱ-לֹהֶֽיךָ׃
Although these nations whom you are inheriting heed augurers and sorcerers, but as to you-Hashem, your God, has not given you their status.
נָבִ֨יא מִקִּרְבְּךָ֤ מֵאַחֶ֙יךָ֙ כָּמֹ֔נִי יָקִ֥ים לְךָ֖ יְ-הֹוָ֣ה אֱ-לֹהֶ֑יךָ אֵלָ֖יו תִּשְׁמָעֽוּן׃
A prophet from your midst, of your brethren, like me, will Hashem, your God, establish for you; heed him…"
The Torah is stating here that Hashem will offer the Jews their own valid method of identifying future consequences, through the divine favor Hashem will bestow upon prophets. Interestingly, when we are first introduced to the man who would become the first king of the Jews, Shaul HaMelech, the Navi records that he was engaged in a quest to find some missing donkeys [Shmuel A Chap. 9]; at a loss about where to look, the Pesukim state that Shaul and his attendant decided to ask a Navi about where to seek their missing animals. Apparently, during the age of prophecy, the prophets were used even for seemingly mundane matters.
A critical difficulty, however, with the above Pesukim, is what does the Torah mean when Moshe communicates that the prophet must be “Like me." The Sefer Lemisbar Keroi notes that the Torah cannot mean that the prophet will have the ability to communicate with Hashem as clearly as Moshe did, for the Torah states [Devarim 34’ 10’]:
“And there has not ever arisen a prophet within Yisroel like Moshe, whom Hashem knew face-to-face…"
Thus, the Torah must mean that the prophet will be like Moshe in some other respect. Lemisbar Keroi offers, that since we find in Midrashic literature that Moshe is known as “Av HeNeviim\ the father of all Prophets", it would appear that any future communications with Hashem through the medium of prophecy would be, in fact, spiritually catalyzed by Moshe.
However, Rokeach explains differently. He notes that hundreds of years after Moshe, towards the tail end of the first Beit HaMikdash, there would be a prophet that would arise for Am Yisrael, and prophesize for 40 years for his brethren; in this respect, he was similar to Moshe, thus fulfilling the intent of the Possuk. This seer was named Yirmiyahu, and he would lead Am Yisrael through the dark times of the destruction of the first temple.
Less well known, however, is the Gemara’s opinion [Megillah 14], that Yirmiyahu replicated Moshe’s greatness in another capacity.
Around 130 years prior to the first temple’s destruction, the kingdom of the ten tribes of Israel had already been exiled by an Assyrian king, Sancheriv [see Melachim B, Chap. 17]. In Yirmiyahu’s time, however, he was able to bring some of them back [see Rashi, Sanhedrin 110], thus ensuring representation of the 12 tribes amongst the Jews for eternity.
Ultimately, therefore, Yirmiyahu’s accomplishments mirrored those of Moshe; therefore the Torah alludes to his leadership by stating here “...
A prophet from your midst, of your brethren, like me, will Hashem, your God, establish for you; heed him…"