Numbers Sharing the Spirit: The Case of Eldad and Medad

Parashat Beha’alotekha (Numbers 8:1-12:16)

The ancient institution of prophecy addressed an obvious bug in the religious operating system: the problem of unethical religious people. There always have been those who conduct their lives according to the letter of the law, following all G-d’s rites and rituals, and yet they somehow manage to completely miss the spirit in which the law is given. They behave technically within the law, yet still abominably. One can think of countless examples, from ancient times until today.

Prophecy attempted to counterbalance this problem. Time and again, the prophets—especially those who flourished from the 8th through the 6th centuries BCE, the eras of towering spiritual figures such as Amos, Hosea, Micah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah—called out religious hypocrisy among the people of Israel.

And yet—what a messy institution prophecy must have been! Another enduring religious conundrum is: what do we do about people who claim personally to have heard the voice of God? How can objective observers ever know if the so-called prophet is authentic? The history of Judaism, as well as other faith traditions, has its share of fake prophets and false messiahs.

No wonder the Rabbis of the Talmud considered prophecy more trouble than it was worth. They declared that the era of prophecy came to an end in the days of the Second Temple, with the final prophets of the Bible: “When Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi died, the prophetic spirit departed from Israel” (Talmud, Sotah 48b).

This age-old dilemma – what to do about people who claim to hear the voice of God – emerges in Parashat Be-ha’alotekha.

In Numbers 11, the constant kvetching of the Israelites in the wilderness starts to wear down Moses’s patience. He unloads his frustrations onto God: “I cannot carry all this people by myself, for it is too much for me!” (Numbers 11:14).

God responds, instructing Moses to gather the elders and tribal heads at the Tent of Meeting: “I will come down and speak with you there, and I will draw upon the spirit that is on you and put it upon them; they shall share the burden of the people with you, and you shall not bear it alone” (11:17).

It seems like a neat solution to Moses’s problem: although he remains the most elite prophet in history, some of his prophetic spirit will be shared with other leaders. Moses himself is in no way diminished: Rashi compares Moses to a shamash candle on a Menorah, “from which other candles are lit, but whose own light is not reduced.” Willingness to share responsibilities is a crucial leadership skill—and a recurring challenge for Moses (see Exodus 18).

But there’s an interesting twist to the story. While the 70 elders at the Tent of Meeting experience the prophetic spirit on a limited basis, relieving some of Moses’s burden, that spirit overflows over onto two others: “Two men, one named Eldad and the other Medad, had remained in the camp; yet the spirit rested upon them… and they spoke in ecstasy in the camp” (11:26).

We don’t know much about who Eldad and Medad were, nor do we learn anything about the content of their prophecy. The Torah informs us about how Israel’s leaders respond to their unrestrained behavior.

Joshua, for one, is appalled. He cries out to Moses, “My lord Moses, restrain them!” It’s not clear what Joshua intends, although Rashi, following the midrash, suggests that they should be put in jail!

Why do you think Joshua was so threatened by Eldad and Medad?

Perhaps Joshua feared for Moses’s reputation—after all, it’s natural that students should be protective of their teachers, or children of their parents. Perhaps Joshua’s own fragile ego was threatened—since he was destined to be Moses’s inheritor, it would be a challenge to his authority if other prophets were running around the camp. And perhaps Joshua simply saw the messiness of having prophets spouting off in the community.

But Moses was not threatened in any of those ways. To Joshua he retorts, “Are you wrought up on my account? Would that all of YHVH’s people were prophets and that YHVH would put the divine spirit upon them!” (11:29).

Moses felt no threat to his own authority: his combination of self-assuredness and modesty is remarkable. The 15th century commentator Rabbi Yitzhak Arama writes: “Although this was something almost every other person would be jealous of, Moses did not display any jealousy.”

What potential do you think Moses saw in Eldad and Medad?

Perhaps there is some hyperbole in Moses’s words. Did he really want a congregation of nothing but prophets? Nevertheless, we can feel Moses’s desire for a community of individuals infused with spiritual excitement, awe, and wonder. Isn’t that a goal for any religious community?

The Rabbis of the Talmud quite sensibly tucked prophecy away as a phenomenon for an earlier stage of religious evolution. But the Torah challenges us to ask: In its place, what tools do we have to keep spiritual excitement alive in ourselves and in our communities?

Rabbi Neal Gold teaches about Jewish texts, Israel, and the intersections between Jewish spiritual life and the contemporary world. He is adjunct faculty at Hebrew College and teaches widely in the college’s Community Learning programs. He is the Founder of A Tree with Roots, an online community for adult Jewish learning, and the spiritual leader of Am HaYam—Cape Cod Havurah. He is the author of many academic and popular writings about Judaism and Israel and is the editor of Radiance: The Collected Prose and Poetry of Danny Siegel (JPS, 2020).

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