Prophet, Priest, Elder, Prince, Judge, King, Sage - Jewish Models of Leadership

8) "If any case is too difficult for you to decide, between one kind of homicide or another, between one kind of lawsuit or another, and between one kind of assault or another, being cases of dispute in your courts, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the LORD your God chooses.

9) So you shall come to the Levitical priest or the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall inquire of them and they will declare to you the verdict in the case.

(1) Moshe received the Torah from Sinai and transmitted it to Yehoshua, and Yehoshua to the Elders, and the Elders to the Prophets, and the Prophets transmitted it to the Men of the Great Assembly. They said three things: Be deliberate in judgment, raise up many disciples and make a fence for the Torah.

(4) Yose ben Yoezer, man of Tsreida, and Yose ben Yochanan, man of Jerusalem, received from him. Yose ben Yoezer says, "May your house be a meeting house for Sages, become dirty in the dust of their feet and drink their words thirstily."

Rabbi Avdimi from Haifa says: From the day that the Temple was destroyed prophecy was taken from the prophets and given to the Sages.

Is that to say that a Sage is not fit to be a prophet?

This is what Rabbi Avdimi is saying: Even though prophecy was taken from the prophets, it was not taken from the Sages.

Ameimar said: And a Sage is greater than a prophet, as it is stated: “And a prophet has a heart of wisdom” (Psalms 90:12), Who is compared to whom? You must say that the lesser is compared to the greater.