The ProphetsThe Prophets, religious sages and charismatic figures, perceived as having the divine gift of revelation, preached during the period of monarchy until a century after the destruction of Jerusalem (586 BC). Both as advisors to kings on matters of religion, ethics, and politics, and as their critics, under the primacy of the relationship between the individual and God, the prophets were guided by the need for justice and published powerful commentaries on the morality of the national Jewish community. life. Their revelatory experiences were recorded in books of inspired prose and poetry, many of which were incorporated into the Bible. The enduring and universal appeal of the prophets comes from their appeal to a fundamental consideration of human values, such as those of Isaiah (1:17) -- "Be good, devote yourselves to justice; help the wronged, defend the rights of the orphan ; defend the widow's cause" - continue to nourish humanity's quest for social justice. The main task of a prophet was to stir up the people and government to repentance and observance. The traditional view is that prophecy was removed from the world after the destruction of the First Temple. The prophets mentioned next were alive at the time of the destruction. Several explanations are offered as to why prophets no longer exist:1. The Jews' failure to heed the prophets' calls to repentance demonstrated that they were not worthy. When most of the Jews remained in exile after Ezra's return, they proved that they were not yet worthy of that level of holiness. The second temple did not have the level of kedushah [holiness] of the first temple even from the beginning.2. This was actually a sign of God's mercy. If the Jews had had a prophet and continued to disobey (as was likely based on the behavior of later centuries) even after the punishment of exile, they would have deserved complete destruction. Now they might say that if a prophet had come they would have obeyed and thus mitigated the punishment (although some consider the current exile (i.e. diaspora) quite harsh).3. After the destruction of the first Temple the sages prayed for the removal of the "evil inclination" of idolatry.