As part of its discussion of the size and shape of the rabbinic courts, today’s daf explores a biblical antecedent of the largest court, the Great Sanhedrin. Having been commanded by God to select 70 men to serve as elders of Israel (see Numbers 11:15), Moses finds himself in a bind. He would like to have equal representation from each of the tribes, but the math is not working in his favor. As a beraita on today’s daf explains:
Moses said: How shall I do it? If I select six from each and every tribe, there will be two extra. But if I select five from each and every tribe, there will be lacking ten. And if I select six from this tribe and five from that tribe, I will bring about envy between the tribes.
If Moses chooses six men from each of the 12 tribes, that’s a total of 72 elders, two more than God commanded. If he chooses five from each tribe, he will have just 60 — ten short. And if he takes six from ten of the tribes and five from the remaining two, the two with lesser representation will be jealous. So what did Moses do? The beraita says that he nominated six men from each tribe, for a total of 72, and he had them draw lots. Seventy slips that read “elder” and two blanks are placed in a box and each of his nominees draws a slip.
To everyone whose hand drew up “elder,” Moses said: Heaven has already sanctified you. To everyone whose hand drew up a blank, Moses said: The Omnipresent does not desire you; what can I do for you?
While today we might say that the candidates who were not selected were fresh out of luck, Moses suggests that it is a matter of divine will. This gets him off the hook for the tribes who ended up with fewer elders.
The Talmud is far less interested in the tribes who are underrepresented than it is in identifying the nominees who were not appointed to be elders. To do so, it looks to Numbers 11:26:
“And there remained two men in the camp; the name of one was Eldad and the name of the other Medad.” Where did they remain? Some say they remained in the box.
While Moses and the elders exit the Israelite camp, the Torah tells us that Eldad and Medad remained behind. What does it mean that they remained behind? It means they were the ones who drew the blank slips, forcing them to remain behind when their peers left the camp with Moses. But Rabbi Shimon shares a different explanation.
At the time that God said to Moses, gather for me 70 elders, Eldad and Medad said: We are not fitting for that level of greatness. In response, God said: Since you have made yourselves humble, I will add greatness to your greatness.
And what is the greatness that God added to them? That all of the prophets prophesied then stopped, but they prophesied and did not stop.
According to Rabbi Shimon, it was not the luck of the draw or God’s will that left Eldad and Medad off the list of elders. Rather, it was their own choice. Not feeling worthy of being chosen, they stayed back — i.e., “remained in the camp.” For this, they are elevated by God and rewarded with something given to no other prophet — a lifelong connection to God.
In this midrashic tradition, Moses was concerned about the fallout from those who did not make the list of elders. As it turns out, it may be that he had no reason to be concerned. While neither Eldad and Medad served as elders, they are remembered as the greatest of prophets — surely a point of pride for their tribes.
Read all of Sanhedrin 17 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on January 3, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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