Parshas Beha'aloscha
| Sivan 5780 |
Based on the Torah of our Rosh HaYeshiva HaRav Yochanan Zweig
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This week's Insights is dedicated in loving memory of
Sora Bas Avraham, Selma Daniel. "May her Neshama have an Aliya!"
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Two men remained in the camp, the name of one was Eldad and the name of the other was Medad, and the Holy Spirit rested upon them...and they prophesied in the camp (11:26).
After a series of difficult incidents in which Bnei Yisroel acted improperly and were subsequently punished by Hashem, Moshe pleads with Hashem that he was unable to bear the burden of the entire nation by himself (see 11:14). In fact, upon seeing the punishment that Bnei Yisroel were about to receive, he begs Hashem to kill him first (see 11:15 and Rash ad loc).
Hashem responds that Moshe is to gather seventy men from the elders of Bnei Yisroel who will receive a measure of his increased prophecy and they will share the burden along with him (see 11:18 and Rashi ad loc).
Moshe recognizes that seventy does not divide evenly by 12 and is concerned that there will be some jealousy among the tribes who receive less representation among these seventy elders. Therefore, Moshe devises a lottery to pick who the chosen elders will be (see Rashi 11:26). Eldad and Medad were actually among those who were chosen to join the seventy elders, but they remained in the camp, eschewing this appointment for they felt unworthy of it.
Moshe's son Gershom ran to inform his father that Eldad and Medad were in the camp prophesying. There is some discussion in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 17a) as to what exactly the prophecy was that they were relating (see accompanying Did You Know column). In any event, Moshe's longtime student-attendant Yehoshua Bin Nun was outraged and demanded, "My master Moshe, destroy them!" (see 11:28). Rashi ad loc explains that Yehoshua was not asking that they be killed (they hadn't seemed to commit any offense worthy of capital punishment), rather Yehoshua wanted them to be given responsibility to tend to the needs of the community, which would cause them to be obliterated. In other words, the responsibilities of leadership would cause them to self-destruct.
Yet when Bnei Yisroel sinned with the Golden Calf, "Hashem spoke to Moshe, 'Go, descend, for your nation has become corrupted"' (Shemos 32:7) and Rashi (ad loc) explains that Hashem told Moshe, "descend from your greatness, for I have only made you great on their account."
Does leadership cause one to self-destruct or is it a source of greatness?
The answer, of course, is that there are two types of leaders. There are those leaders who seek positions of leadership primarily as a way of helping others; for whom no sacrifice is too great because their quest for leadership is borne out of a love for the people and community. Given the opportunity to do more they shine and achieve greatness. Not that the course of their leadership will be easy and without frustration. In fact, leadership can be very painful (as mentioned above, Moshe asks Hashem to kill him before He punishes Bnei Yisroel - presumably so that Moshe won't have to endure the pain of watching Bnei Yisroel suffer). Nevertheless, at the end of the day, these leaders are fulfilled by being able to help others.
By contrast, there are others who seek positions of leadership primarily as a means to fulfilling their own ambitions. Yes they agree to serve the people, but their personal agenda is always in the foreground. This kind of leader will be destroyed when accepting the yoke of communal responsibility because being a servant of the people is exactly that - servitude not lordship (see Talmud Horayos 10a).
To fully understand Yehoshua's concern about Eldad and Medad and why he reacts so violently, we must consider the current events at the time. According to Ibn Ezra (and others), the whole sad chapter of Korach and his uprising took place in the weeks before this incident. Rashi also states that the reason Korach was so infuriated was that he felt personally cheated by the appointment of his cousin (instead of him) to head the tribe of Levi - an event that happened in the prior month. Although Rashi seems to hold that the parts of the rebellion took place after the story of the spies, he also states that Korach's rebellion began in Chatzeiros (right after the story of the quail).
Yehoshua must have known about Korach's dissatisfaction and rabble rousing. Yehoshua, perhaps, thought that Eldad and Medad were also trying to undermine Moshe Rabbeinu (one of the opinions in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 17a) holds that they were prophesying the death of Moshe). Yehoshua understood that the only way to deal with these types of personalities is to give them exactly what they desire. That would ensure their destruction and put an end to their challenge of Moshe.
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Moshe heard the people weeping by their families, each one at the entrance of his tent... (11:10)
This week's parsha lists various complaints that Bnei Yisroel leveled at Hashem/Moshe. One of the issues that they complained bitterly about was the miraculous מן (manna). Remarkably, one of the pesukim (11:10) that seemingly describes the depths of their unhappiness with the מן is actually interpreted by Chazal in an entirely different direction.
The Gemara (Shabbos 130a) states: "Any mitzvah that Bnei Yisroel accepted in a quarrelsome manner, such as the prohibition against incestuous relationships, as the Torah (ibid) states, 'Moshe heard the people weeping by their families' (they were weeping because they had been prohibited to marry their family members) is likewise still fulfilled while quarreling; for there is no kesuvah (marriage contract) that doesn't cause the parties to quarrel."
This seems to be a little odd. After all, a wedding is a time of great happiness. Why should a kesuvah cause quarreling more than any other financial arrangement? Furthermore, what does this have to do with the fact that they were bitter about the prohibition against incestuous relationships?
We must begin by examining the root cause for having forbidden relationships in the first place. Ramban in Parshas Achrei Mos posits that it would only be natural for people to choose their closest relatives as mates. For example, many of the complications of trying to merge two disparate families, or disparate cultures, or dealing with inheritance issues would dissipate if a man were to marry his sister. Why are we forbidden to marry our closest relatives?
In Bereishis (2:18) Hashem said, "it is not good for man to be alone, I will make a compatible helper for him." Rashi there explains that if man were self-sufficient he would be comparing himself to God. Just as God is one above, man is one below. In other words, man would consider himself more or less equal to God on the plane below. This would cause man to become totally egocentric and self-centered.
Therefore, Hashem created a partner for man, someone he would have to merge with to balance him out and become a helpmate and an opposing opinion. This "merger" requires a true partner, one who is a totally separate entity and would not be swallowed up by the merger. Our closest relatives are ones that we are overly familiar with, if we go into our sister's home we feel perfectly comfortable opening the fridge and helping ourselves to whatever we want. That is, we would always take what we want because it is just an extension of ourselves. The same is true, of course, with parents, children, aunts and uncles, etc.
On the face of it, completing the kesuvah at a wedding is a very odd custom; imagine if at every non-Jewish wedding there would be a public reading of a financial arrangement (such as a prenup) between the bride and groom. All of the guests would feel uncomfortable and it would be inappropriate. Why is the kesuvah such a central part of the Jewish wedding?
The ultimate expression that we are merging with an outside party is the kesuvah. It is a reminder that the husband cannot just be a taker, like one living in a parents' home. The kesuvah is a testament to the fact that the husband has real responsibilities as a giver. It's a reminder that the husband is merging with someone who isn't just an extension of himself; he now has to negotiate his life within someone else's space. Every kesuvah is a reminder of this concept, and can easily become a source of conflict. In this way, the kesuvah becomes the de facto definition of a Jewish marriage.
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Did You Know...
In this week's parsha, we find the brief episode of Eldad and Medad. As discussed in Not for Prophet, Hashem instructed Moshe to assemble seventy elders by the Ohel Moed to share a portion of his increased prophecy as well as the burden; thus bestowing upon them the gift of nevuah (see Rashi 11:17).
As Moshe couldn't evenly divide that number between 12 tribes, he decided that the best option was to appoint six worthy individuals from each shevet, and have a lottery to see which two shevatim would only have five representatives. Moshe took seventy pieces of paper and wrote "zaken" on them and two additional ones he left blank. The two who received blank papers would be told that they hadn't been chosen. Eldad and Medad decided not to attend the lottery, because they assumed they wouldn't be worthy of this great honor, and would receive the two losing lottery papers (Rashi 11:25).
In fact, they were supposed to receive this honor. One of the interpretations (Sanhedrin 17a) of these events is that Hashem recognized that they humbled themselves and therefore decided to bestow upon them a greater level of prophecy than any of the others. All of the others had nevuah for a short time then stopped, while Eldad and Medad did not stop having nevuah. Additionally, the Me'em Lo'ez (Beha'aloscha 13) states that although the other zekainim were only able to prophesize about the next day, Eldad and Medad were able to see into the far future.
There are also several different interpretations in the Gemara (Sanhedrin 17a) regarding what exactly they prophesized about. One explanation was that they foresaw that in approximately 38 years, Moshe would die and Yehoshua would take them into Eretz Yisrael. Another explanation says that they saw the immediate future: They foretold the incident of the quail, which was about to unfold. The last opinions says they prophesized the events of Gog Umagog: When Gog, the king of Magog, will attack Israel. This will be the Great War before the Messianic Era.
Interestingly, The Targum Yonason Ben Uziel identifies Eldad and Medad as being half brothers of Moshe. During the time that Amram was divorced from Yocheved due to not wanting to have more children who would just be slaughtered by Pharaoh, Yocheved had two sons with another man.
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