Commento su Numeri 11:29

המקנא אתה לי means, “art thou envying where I should envy”.

כי יתן ה' את רוחו עליהם, without any spiritual radiation emanating from me.

המקנא אתה לי? "are you jealous on my behalf?" According to the view that Eldod and Medod belonged to the 70 elders chosen, we must explain the verse as follows: "Is your jealousy based on the fact that these men were unwilling to receive their share of prophetic insights from me rather than from G'd directly? I wish all the Jewish people had been endowed directly by G'd with prophetic insights instead of having to receive it from me as their intermediary." This is shown clearly by Moses using the words מי יתן כי יתן ה׳ את רוחו עליהם. In this manner Moses demonstrated his utter humility and total lack of a desire for personal honour. According to the view that Eldod and Medod were the two men who had drawn blanks during the lottery among the 72 prospective candidates, Moses asked Joshua whether it bothered him that instead of 70 people having been endowed with Holy Spirit he now found that actually 72 people had received prophetic insights. Moses told Joshua that he, personally, wished that G'd would grant every Israelite prophetic insights. The reason Moses said: "may G'd grant His spirit, etc," is that Moses viewed the 70 people who had received prophetic insights with him as the intermediary as being only the beginning. Now that G'd had shown that He had granted prophetic insights directly to two more Israelites, he could only hope that G'd would grant such prophetic insights to everybody. None of such additional prophetic insights would be a denial or diminution of Moses' own stature as a prophet.

ומי יתן כל עם ה' נביאים כי יתן ה' את רוחו עליהם", “Would that the entire people of Hashem were prophets! If Hashem would only place His spirit upon them!” Moses wished that G’d were to inspire the people with prophetic spirit without having recourse to his own spirit from which such Holy Spirit would be diverted “second hand,” so to speak. He expressed the wish that the entire people be so endowed. Judging from the writings on the subject by our sages, it was an old established custom in Israel that no one would make prophetic announcements regarding future events while there was a prophet of greater stature alive. The reason for this custom was that anyone failing to abide by this custom would appear as if he were handing down halachic decisions in the presence of his teachers, something absolutely forbidden, possibly on pain of death at the hands of Heaven. [Compare Berachot 31. Ed.] People endowed with such spirit would form part of the entourage of their spiritual mentor, and they are generally referred to in the Books of the Prophets as בני הנביאים, disciples of the prophets. Moses apparently held that when a Rabbi or prophet does not stand on ceremony and does not feel insulted when someone junior to him makes such pronouncements, then his personal attitude governs the matter and the disciple is not held culpable although other Rabbis or prophets would have taken exception to what they considered a lack of respect towards people known as more learned or endowed with greater prophetic spirit. In the Jerusalem Targum the words כלאם are translated as “deny them holy spirit,” based on Psalms 40,12 לא תכלא רחמיך ממני, “do not withhold Your Mercy from me.” The deeper significance of the incident is that Joshua thought that seeing that both Eldod and Meydod were amongst the people whose names had been submitted as candidates for membership in the council of the 70 elders that their ability to prophesy was of the same category as that of the other 70 elders who had received their “holy spirit” via Moses and not directly from Hashem. Seeing that only 70 people were meant to form this illustrious council, Joshua thought that these men had to be stopped from walking around the camp prophesying, as the other elders could do so only while next to Moses and the Tabernacle. Moses responded that it was wrong to assume that it was in Moses’ interest that the seventy men should be able to prophesy only while next to him and next to the Tabernacle; on the contrary, if he had his way the entire people would be endowed with a far more comprehensive layer of Holy Spirit, and there was no need to assume that Moses was interested in keeping the monopoly of Holy Spirit for himself. He was most certainly not jealous of anyone so endowed by G’d.

One who grasps the bulk. One who grasps the bulk of the burden and makes himself appear as if he is alone in carrying it. Similarly he has taken the matter to heart in order to avenge.

V. 29. המקנא אתה לי, nimmst du dich meines Rechtes an? Hältst du in Eldads und Medads Auftreten mein Recht verletzt, und glaubst mein Recht vertreten zu müssen? (siehe zu Kap. 5, 14).

'ויאמר לו משה וגו'...ומי יתן כל עם ה' נביאים וגו, “and Moses said to him (the (נער, “I wish that all of the Lord’s people were prophets, etc.” Moses meant that possibly what these two men had prophesied was true. The reason that he felt that way was that the prophetic insights granted to the seventy men were part of what had been his portion of Holy Spirit, whereas the two men had received Holy Spirit directly from the source. In the first chapter of tractate Sanhedrin folio 17, the conclusion of the sages after a lengthy discussion of this episode is that if Eldod and Meydod had only predicted that Moses would die, the demand to lock up such a person would make sense, but if they also predicted that Joshua would lead the people into the Holy land, this would have violated the rule that no one is allowed to make new rules in the presence of his Mentor, i.e. to give Moses instructions whom to punish and whom not to punish. If Eldod and Meydod had predicted only that there would be a war involving Gog and Magog, what was wrong with that? Why should they have been locked up? The answer to this rhetorical question given is that such a prediction violates the rules of good manners. They would have given the impression that their prophetic insights extended way beyond those of Moses, their teacher and King. Perhaps, as suggested there in the Talmud, the meaning of the word כלאם, is: “impose upon them to become servants of the community,” and you will find that they will break down and die under that burden without any external assistance.

וכי יתן כל עם ה׳ נביאים, “would that all the Lord’s people were prophets!” Moses did not care if they would prophesy in the camp or only in the sacred precincts around the Tabernacle, as long as they would make his task easier to accomplish.

לי — the word לי meaning the same as בשבילי, “for my sake”. Wherever an expression of the root קנא is used it implies that a person sets his heart on the matter, whether it be to take vengeance or to help; — emportement in O. F. (English = zeal) — he holds the thickest (heaviest) part of the load (i.e. he takes the responsibility for carrying out a matter).

Dieses Auftreten Eldads und Medads im Momente der Berufung der Ältesten zum ersten Sanhedrin und Mosche Äußerungen sind von höchster Bedeutsamkeit für alle Nachfolger dieses jüdischen "Ältestenkollegiums" für alle Zeit. Es ist damit bekundet, dass mit der Einsetzung der höchsten geistigen Behörde in Israel kein Monopol des Geistes gestiftet werden sollte, dass die geistige Begabung von Gott durch keinerlei Amt und Beruf bedingt sei und der letzte im Volke ebenso des Anteils am Gottesgeiste gewürdigt werden könne, wie der erste im höchsten Amte. Mosche Äußerung bleibt aber für alle zur Lehre und Leitung Berufenen in Israel das ewig vorleuchtende Muster, dass sie als höchstes Ideal ihrer Wirksamkeit das Ziel vor Augen haben sollen: sich überflüssig im Volke zu machen, dass das Volk zu einer solchen geistigen Höhe in allen seinen Schichten gelange, dass es der Lehrer und Leiter nicht mehr bedürfe! Und wohl haben die Nachfolger dieser "Ältesten" den Geist ihres Mosche geerbt, haben es als ihre höchste Aufgabe erkannt: להרביץ תורה בישראל, der Erkenntnis des göttlichen Gesetzes die breiteste Basis im Volke zu bereiten, und haben ihr: והעמידו תלמידים הרבה, als erste Maxime für alle geistigen Führer ihres Volkes hinausgegeben. Mit dem "המקנא אתה לי!?" hat unser Mosche der Scheidewand zwischen "Geistlichkeit" und "Laien" im wahren Israel für immer den Boden entzogen. — Sanhedrin 17a werden verschiedene Meinungen über den Inhalt der von Eldad und Medad gesprochenen Prophetie geäußert. Nach der einen habe sie das bevorstehende Wachtelereignis betroffen. Eine andere gibt deren Inhalt also an: משה מת יהושע מכניס ישראל לארץ und endlich eine dritte spricht sich dahin aus: על עסקי גוג ומגוג היו מתנבאין, sie hätten von den letzten Gog- und Magogkämpfen prophezeit, die nach Ezechiel und Secharja die Schlussentwicklung der Geschichte der Zeiten bilden und von denen es Ezechiel 38, 17 heißt: האתה הוא אשר דברתי בימים קדמונים ביד עבדי נביאי ישראל הנבאים בימים ההם שנים להביא אותך עליהם, bist du der, vom dem ich bereits in Tagen der Vorzeit durch meine Diener, die Propheten Israels, gesprochen, welche in jenen Tagen auf Jahre hinaus prophezeiten? In diesen gleichzeitig auf Jahre hinaus prophezeienden Männern wurden Eldad und Medad erblickt. Wir haben an einer anderen Stelle den Gedanken entwickelt, wie in גוג ומגוג das גג-Prinzip, das "Giebelprinzip", das Prinzip der Konzentrierung aller Leitung in der gipfelnden Spitze in seiner äußersten Konsequenz zum Ausdruck gelangt, dem gegenüber daher nach dessen Überwindung die siegreiche Stadt der Menschengestaltung המונה "die Volkstümliche" genannt wird (Ezech. 39, 16). Ist an diesem Gedanken etwas Wahres, so dürfte es nicht wenig bezeichnend sein, wenn der Hinblick auf diesen fernsten Sieg des Volkstümlichen, über dessen Gog- und Magoggegensatz, oder das Näherliegende, die Verkündigung von Mosches Tode und Josuas Führerschaft als Inhalt der Prophetien Eldads und Medads begriffen werden. Es wäre dann der Mund der bescheidensten, aus Bescheidenheit vom zuerkannten einflussreichen Beruf einer Volksleitung zurück, und lieber במחנה, in Mitte des Volkes gebliebenen Männer der Verkündung der idealsten volkstümlichen Zukunft gewürdigt worden, wo nicht im "אהל" sondern im "מחנה", nicht im "גוג מגוג", sondern im "המון" der Schwerpunkt des sozialen Weltheiles liegen wird, oder eines Faktums, das, wie der Tod Mosche und die Vollendung des nationalen Geschickes unter Josua, die Wahrheit veranschaulicht, dass kein Mensch, nicht einmal ein Mosche, sich für unentbehrlich halten oder von seinen Zeitgenossen als unentbehrlich gehalten werden dürfte. Mosche stirbt — und das Geschick der Nation geht doch in Erfüllung. —

כי יתן ה׳ את רוחו עליהם, “as long as G-d directly would bestow His holy spirit upon them!” He wanted them to receive holy spirit from G-d directly, not only as a part of the holy spirit that had been bestowed upon him. He realised that the seventy men had received only part of the Holy spirit that he had been endowed with, and that this Holy spirit would vanish as soon as he would die. He therefore prayed that they would receive permanent Holy spirit.