Shabbat Parashat Beha'alotecha - 5786

Shabbat Parashat Beha'alotecha - 5786

Rabbi Hal Miller

  God said to Moshe, gather for Me seventy men from the elders of Israel, whom you know

  to be the elders of the people and its officers, take them to the Tent of Meeting and have

  them stand there with you. [Bamidbar 11:16]

Why is God telling Moshe to collect up a court of elders? Why seventy? This was not the first time Moshe had collected elders for a similar role, nor was it the last time. What happened to the earlier elders he had gathered?

Rav Hirsch understands that these are in fact the same elders that Moshe had previously called upon, that they had been working in various overseer roles, and that in our verse God is confirming to Moshe that he may still draw upon them. The implication of "gather for Me" is that as of now these elders will be serving God rather than just assisting Moshe. But most other commentators see this as a gathering of new elders.

Bamidbar Rabbah [15:20-21] notes that there were elders appointed in Egypt, citing Shemot [3:16] and asks what happened to them. It answers that when the people feared over Moshe not having descended from Mount Sinai at the time they expected him, those original elders told the people that their calculation was wrong, so the people sinned by killing these elders. At the point of our verse, God has forgiven the people of that sin and has authorized Moshe to appoint a new set of seventy. Rashi cites Bamidbar Rabbah [15:24] and gives a different reason, although analogous. He points to Bamidbar [11:3], the fire that God brought in Taberah when the people began complaining about lack of meat, etc., and says that the elders from Egypt died in that fire. Rashi adds that the reason for appointing new elders now is that God is responding to Moshe's complaint in Bamidbar [11:14], "I alone cannot carry this entire nation".

Or HaChayim states that the elders from Egypt were killed along with Chur, son of Miriam. Malbim implies that there is a timing issue involved in the development of the nation. He explains that the new elders had a different mission than did the earlier ones, in fact of lower spiritual stature. The new elders were to take care of the more mundane aspects of leadership, in particular to ensure the people had food to eat. Since the manna will shortly be ceasing, the nation would have to do work it had not needed to do since Egypt, and it was not for Moshe to deal with this, nor did it require elders of the exceedingly high spiritual level as those from Egypt.

Rav Soloveitchik also implies that there is a change coming. Until now Moshe had been the monarch, but soon the people would cross the Jordan without him, so preparations have begun to replace him. The Rav says that these new elders have two functions, one as the court of last resort and final arbiter of law, and the second as the representative body of the entire people, which is the executive authority. Bamidbar Rabbah [15:23] notes that the Torah says "seventy ish" rather than seventy anashim, which would have perhaps been better grammatically. The reason is that the singular usage directs that each and every elder must be an outstanding individual.

Why seventy? There are those who cite the story of Eldad and Medad and say that it should have been six from each tribe, thus seventy-two, and that the number was merely rounded off for simplicity in speech. But Ramban gives other reasons, which are more likely correct. It is well discussed that there are, in addition to Israel, seventy nations and seventy languages in the world, and that each has a constellation and a minister above. There are seventy bulls brought on the holiday of Sukkot. There were seventy people who went down to Egypt with Yaakov when Yosef sent for him. In each of Ramban's cases, the seventy represents some level of total inclusion, meaning all the world. Moshe's being head over the seventy elders demonstrates his position, and alludes to Israel as the unique nation on earth.