…And he said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” Yehoshua ben Nun…spoke up and said, “My lord Moshe – imprison/stop/destroy[2] them!”[3]
Moshe responded with his characteristic humility: “No problem. Wish we had even more prophets.” This is understandable, coming from Moshe. But what got Yehoshua so stressed about the situation that he asked Moshe for radical intervention?
Ibn Ezra[4] observes that we do not find prophets continuing their work into old age – with the exception of Moshe and Aharon. Their stature was such that they did not gradually slow down, like all other neviim did.
Moshe, of course, refused to see himself as exceptional. So when the people clamored for meat, he thought himself to be too old to respond to their challenge. Better, he thought, that Hashem should provide a cadre of younger leaders who could handle the situation.
Hashem categorically refused. Rather than have Moshe pass the baton to new leadership, He instead took from the spirit that very much still resided in Moshe, and poured some of it over to his new assistants. Hashem made it very clear that Moshe’s spirit was in full force, and the reservoir from which the newcomers drank.
The same idea is behind the sin of Nadav and Avihu. Chazal[5] say that the two of them used to follow behind Moshe and Aharon, saying, “When will these old folks die, and the two of us will lead the generation?” These words are completely inconsistent with their stature as great tzadikim. How could they say such a thing? We can understand them in the same vein, however. The Rambam wrote in his ethical will to his son Avraham, that the “death” of neviim should be understood as beginning with their spending more time on their personal needs, which decreases their devekus to the Shechinah. Nadav and Avihu, seeing the advanced age of Moshe and Aharon, believed that theprophetic abilities of those elders would soon cease, necessitating their replacement by themselves, of the younger generation.
Returning to our pasuk, the Gemara[6] renders Yehoshua’s anguished request as, “Place the burden of community needs upon them, and they will be destroyed on their own.” This also jars the ear. It is not a particularly generous fate to be wished upon a group of G-d’s prophets.
The answer may be that none of them were true prophets! What Moshe had requested – and Hashem granted – was that the burden of the nation be shared with a group of assistants. To make them acceptable to the nation required establishing their credentials. (After all, the Bnei Yisrael had been used to nothing but the best, in Moshe and Aharon!). Hashem did this by emanating some of Moshe’s own ruach to the group of seventy long enough for them to begin prophesying – even though they were not actual prophets.
This is what Yehoshua meant: The only reason you wanted them is to help with the burden of the community. Their quasi-prophetic abilities are necessitated to establish them as competent in the eyes of the people. Well, let’s get on with it! As soon as you involve them in the practical aspects of community service – meaning, rolling up their sleeves and successfully working with a community that accepts their role – the need for their near-prophecy will end. Their short-lived performance as neviim will grind to a halt! Problem solved!
And so it was. “They prophesied, but did not do so again.”[7]
- Adapted from Divrei Shaul, by Rav Yosef Shaul Nathanson, the Sho’el U-Meshiv ↑
- All three translations are found in early sources ↑
- Bamidbar 11:27-28 ↑
- Shemos 7:7 ↑
- Sanhedrin 52a ↑
- Sanhedrin 17a ↑
- Bamidbar 11:25 ↑