Behaalotcha 5771 - English

Rabbi Mario Gurevich
Beth Israel Synagogue, Aruba


Would that all the Lord’s People were Prophets

And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said: “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”   And Joshua the son of Nun, the minister of Moses from his youth up, answered and said:  “My lord Moses, shut them in.”  And Moses said unto him: “Art thou jealous for my sake?  Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put His spirit upon them!”  (Num. 11:27-29)

Out of his many virtues, the Torah emphasizes Moses’ modesty (or humility, according to some). One of those mentions appears in this week’s parashah:  “Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men that were upon the face of the earth” (Num 12:3).

It is interesting to see the reactions of people and that of Moses as well, concerning the cryptic episode of Edad and Meldad. Eldad, according to Rashi, would have been Guershon, Moses’ son. Joshua was his right hand, and would be his successor at the end.

Both had seen and lived, from their privileged position, the countless rebellions and continuous complaining of the people before each adversity.  Both felt that a new rebellion was brewing, and felt forced to cut it straightaway.

Moses, however, not only does not accept the suggestion but instead replies:  “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets”.  This not only reconfirms our initial observation about Moses’ modesty or humility but his stature of leader as well, willing to accept that he is not the single depositary of an absolute truth, and tolerant of discrepancy and even legitimate opposition, distinguishing this from sedition and revolt.

Some years ago, mi previous Congregation – with no Rabbi at the time – decided to start a temporary path of self-management, with the members of the community replacing some of the daily activities of the Rabbi.   One of them was the weekly preparation of the Parashah commentary.  Volunteers were people with a broad view of universal culture, but to almost all of them, the biblical text was, at best, unexplored territory.

This happened in the year 3 or 4 bG (before Google), so that there were no easy search sources.  The result was a collection of fresh and unforeseen outlooks of the weekly texts, with deep reflections, debatable ideas, and meaningful morals.

I used to check the commentaries before they were distributed to the public, and I never had the need to object or cut out anything; at the most, some suggestion of a technical nature, such as sentence building or some detail of grammar.

The experiment was successful – why wouldn’t it be? – and personally, it left me the following teaching:

Our sages have always maintained that the Torah has seventy different faces.  Perhaps one of these is that of the unaware layperson who meets the text for the first time, and who has the naivety and honesty required to express his or her own reactions and emotions in relation to a specific message.   One that would possibly be different to the one that a Rabbi would find, we who have lived all our lives amidst those texts, but undoubtedly not less valid.

How nice it would be if we repeated that experience in our congregations (even if just occasionally); instead of always  being passive and willing to listen and accept what comes from the bimah, to contribute and turn interactive the process of interpretation and understanding of those texts, our holy texts.

Thus, Moses’ words are again valid:  Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets!

Shabbat Shalom.