Parshas Beha'aloscha, 5763 The Whole Picture

                   By Rabbi Joshua ( purposely known as The Hoffer) Hoffman


   In this week's parsha, after the people complain to Moshe about the man, comparing it unfavorably to the diet they consumed in Egypt, Moshe asks God to relieve him of his duty to lead them through the wilderness, saying, "Why have you done evil to Your servant ; why Have I not found favor in Your eyes, that You place the burden of this entire people upon me? Did I conceive this entire people or did I give birth to it, that You should say to me, ' Carry them in your trunk, as a nurse carries a suckling, to the land that You swore to its forefathers?' …. I cannot carry this entire nation, for it is too heavy for me" (Bamidbar 11:11-12, 14). God, in response, tells Moshe to gather seventy men from the elders of Yisroel, upon whom He will endow from the spirit that was already upon Moshe, and who would subsequently share in Moshe's burden. Why was there a need for the specific amount of seventy people to help relieve Moshe of his duties, and how did the supply of these people answer Moshe's complaint?

 Rav Avrohom Yitzchok HaKohein Kook, in a volume entitled Midbar Shur, that he wrote before he moved to Eretz Yisroel, explains the function of the seventy elders based on a comment of the Ramban. The seventy elders, according to Ramban, represent the seventy different types of opinions commonly found among mankind, which correspond to the seventy nations of the world. There are, accordingly, seventy basic families among the Jewish people, corresponding to the seventy personality types among the nations. Rav Kook expands on this idea, saying that each of the nations represents a certain purpose that needs to be fulfilled in this world. The Jewish people, as whole, also has a purpose, as expressed by God when He took them out of Egypt - to serve as His 'first-born. Each individual Jew, however, also has his own purpose to fulfill in this world, and in this respect the nation serves as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, as they were charged at Mt. Sinai. Each individual he must make sure that his individual goal harmonizes with the general purpose of the Jewish nation. A certain degree of national unity is necessary for this, and the leader of the nation needed to serve this role, of maintaining that unity. When Moshe expressed his inability to do this, God told him to appoint the seventy elders to aid him. 


 Why did Moshe feel that he was unable to ensure the element of unity that was necessary for the nation to remain true to its national purpose? Although Rav Kook does not say this, it would seem that the emphasis that the people placed on the material dimension of the man was what troubled him. In his plea to God, he said that he could not serve as their nurse. Apparently Moshe, on his high spiritual plane, was unable to channel the physical aspects of the unique qualities of each element in the nation in a way that was in consonance with the national goal. He was therefore told to gather the seventy elders, each of whom represented one of the individual character types in the nation, in order to help him ensure that the individual elements in the nation would work together in a way that strengthened the national goal as well.  

    Based on Rav Kook's understanding of the role of the seventy elders and our explanation of how they aided Moshe in the task that he felt he was unequal to, we can understand a midrash in the beginning of the parsha. The Midrash Rabbah relates that Moshe was unable to understand how to make the menorah from one mass of gold, even after God demonstrated to him several times how to do so. Instead He chose Betzalel to do this job. Some explain that Moshe did not understand how to unite the seven kinds of worldly wisdom, represented by the seven branches of the menorah, through the light of the Torah, represented by the central branch. However, it is a bit difficult to understand how Moshe, who was the teacher of the entire nation, could have been lacking this crucial element of understanding. Perhaps we can explain that the seven branches of the menorah represent the seventy different personality types and consequent tasks represented by the different elements in the nation. All of these individual elements and goals had to mesh with the national goal of being God's representative in the world. Moshe was unable to understand how he would be able to gear these seemingly mundane activities in a way that would coalesce with the larger national goal, and therefore Betzalel, who grew up among the people, was chosen for this task. Aharon, who the rabbis characterize as a man of peace who promoted mutual cooperation among the different elements in the nation, was then chosen to maintain the menorah. It was the kohanim who regularly blessed the nation with the blessing of 'shalom,' or peace, as we read in last week's parsha. Rav Kook, in his commentary to the siddur, writes that peace consists of bringing together disparate elements, and enabling them to work together. Perhaps for this reason, kohanim constituted, over the generations, a major element in the Sanhedrin, which continued the task of the seventy elders appointed by Moshe.