The Holy One, Blessed is He, said to Isaiah, “My children are troublesome and rebellious. If you undertake to be hit and degraded by My children, you will go on My mission; otherwise you will not.” Isaiah replied, “I accept the condition and I am not worthy of going on a mission to your children.” Then the Holy One said, “All the prophets received the spirit of prophecies from another prophet, but you will receive your prophecies from the mouth of the Lord. All the prophets prophesied simple prophecies, but you will prophesy double comforts: Be comforted, be comforted” (Isaiah 40:1) (Vayikra Rabbah 10:2).

Isaiah prophesied many more prophecies than all the other prophets; moreover, he prophesied about all the nations of the world (Pesikta Rabbati 33:25).

The call of God brought forth from his chosen prophets a typical response: Who are we to serve the Almighty in truth? The characteristic of humility - in Abraham, in Moses, and now in Isaiah - was a prerequisite for service. When one considers the rigors of their prophetic careers, and Divinity’s imperative to stand up against injustice, corruption, and sinfulness, he might wonder if “humility” were truly the most important attribute possessed by a potential leader of the people.

It certainly wouldn’t work that way today. “Ambitious,” “aggressive,” “fearless,” are modernity’s watchwords of success - which causes one to pause. Why, in the ancient world, was humility considered an essential part of leadership? Perhaps because the humble person was more comprehending and more responsive to a force in life much greater than himself. This does not mean he suppressed his personality and his talents, but rather saw himself in proper perspective: that is, he was merely a vessel of God’s desires for His people.

Which takes nothing away from the majestic reach of his career. And there was no prophet more majestic, in language, thought, or historical purpose than the visionary Isaiah, who “saw” everything - the present and future history of Israel, the present and future history of humankind. There is no book (or books, since scholars posit chapters 40-66 as “second Isaiah”) more eloquent, more often quoted, more focused on the particulars of Israel’s role in the world, more concerned with the Lord’s message to all the peoples of the earth. Isaiah, indeed, was a “light to the nations.”

He excoriated Israel for her sinful behavior. This ability to chastise had always been a function of the Gedolei haDor - the “Great Ones of the Generation.” What made Isaiah’s communal censures different was his insistence that there was a causal connection between Israel’s sins and her eventual defeat and exile at the hands of her adversaries. Whether this philosophical outlook is supportable is less relevant to the reader of Isaiah than the idea that this prophet, poet, and homiletician extraordinaire placed ethical behavior above every other form of existence. Failure to relieve the oppressed, the widowed, the blind, the underprivileged, resulted in punishment. That punishment amounted to no less than the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and exile into gentile lands.