Like any good road trip or
family vacation, there’s always a lot of excitement in the beginning. And then…comes the
never-ending refrain of “Are we there yet?”
For the Children of Israel in
the desert, that moment takes place in Parshat Beha’alotekha.
After nearly a year encamped
at Sinai receiving the Torah, building the Mishkan, learning how to line up and
march, the Jews are finally ready. Moshe
tells Yitro, “Nos’im anachnu – We are leaving!”
And then…
The Israelites start to
complain about the journey. Then they
complain about the manna and demand meat. We can almost hear them come through the words
of the Torah, “Are we there yet?!?”
Moshe loses patience. He
goes as far as to say, “Just kill me. I can’t take it anymore.” God decides to help Moshe out and tells him
to assemble 70 z’keinim, elders, to assist him in leading the people.
It is as part of this
process that we meet Eldad and Medad. We’re
not exactly sure who they are or even exactly what happens. They’re the only two individuals named among
those assembled to take on any role, and these two upstarts make a big
impression by sharing their prophecy.
וירץ
הנער ויגד למשה ויאמר אלדד ומידד מתנבאים במחנה.
A
young person runs to inform Moshe that Eldad and Medad are prophesizing in the
camp that Moshe will die and that Yehoshua will lead the people into Israel.
ויען
יהושע בן נון משרת משה מבחריו ויאמר אדני משה כלאם.
Joshua is angry at what he
perceives as their insolence in daring to say such a thing. He urges Moshe to
silence them.
Moshe is more relaxed about
the report of these youngsters talking about a future which does not include
him.
ויאמר
לו משה המקנא אתה לי ומי יתן כל עם יהוה נביאים כי יתן ה’ את רוחו עליהם.
He says to Joshua, “Are you
really so worked up over Eldad and Medad and a future without me?I wish every
member of the nation would be prophets infused with the spirit of God.”
What’s going on here?
Moshe was so ready to lead
Bnei Yisrael forward into the land. Their
complaining was a crushing blow to his confidence in the future of the Jewish
people. It was if he said, “I got them
to this point, and they’ve learned nothing at all! They stand at the pinnacle of greatness as
God’s chosen people about to enter the Promised Land, and they’re asking for
meat?!?”
God responded to Moshe by
encouraging him to have faith in the future. There would be new voices who could speak the
language that the people would understand and follow. God says, “Assemble a committee of fresh
faces. You’ll see.”
That’s what Moshe does. And two of these voices, Eldad and Medad, talk
about a future without Moshe. It may look
a little bit different. It may sound
different, but Eldad and Medad spoke about the future.
Yehoshua is horrified! “What?!? No Moshe?!? Things may look different? Why change
anything???”
Moshe, though, understands
the message that God had just taught him.
“Calm down, Yehoshua. There is a next generation of leadership. I wish I could have appreciated sooner what
God meant. They may use a different
language – different devices, these things called imogis – and maybe they dress
a little less formally, but I have seen the future, and it is now.”
It can be very hard to look
too far ahead these days. We have been
stuck inside and removed from our regular routines for three months. These last weeks have unleashed tremendous
pain and rage across the country and beyond.
A lot already is different and will be different for a long time,
without a clear sense of what the world around us will, ultimately, look like.
We need to be ready and
willing to catch a glimpse of the future. Synagogue services will be different. School will be different. Social gatherings will be different. Many things will, hopefully, change for the better.
We need a lot of change. At the same time, we must not fear those changes.
We believe in progress. What comes next will, please God, be even
better than what we’ve experienced so far.
Let’s try to glimpse the
future to inspire and encourage us now.
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