When to Speak Up & When to Remain Silent: ​​​​​​​Eldad & Medad

(24) Moses went out and reported the words of God to the people. He gathered seventy elders and stationed them around the Tent.

(25) Then, after coming down in a cloud and speaking to him, יי drew upon the spirit that was on him and put it upon the seventy participating elders. And when the spirit rested upon them, they spoke in ecstasy, but did not continue.

(26) Two of the participants, one named Eldad and the other Medad, had remained in camp; yet the spirit rested upon them—they were among those recorded, but they had not gone out to the Tent—and they spoke in ecstasy in the camp.

(27) An assistant ran out and told Moses, saying, “Eldad and Medad are acting the prophet in the camp!”

(28) And Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ attendant from his youth, spoke up and said, “My lord Moses, restrain them!”

(29) But Moses said to him, “Are you wrought up on my account? Would that all God’s people were prophets, that God put the divine spirit upon them!”

(30) Moses then reentered the camp together with the elders of Israel.

וישארו שני אנשים BUT THERE REMAINED TWO MEN [IN THE CAMP] — i. e. two of them that had been selected. They remained, in the camp because they said, “We are not worthy of this distinction” (Sanhedrin 17a).

שם האחד אלדד ושם השני מידד, “one of these two men was called Eldad, and the other was called Medad.” The seventy elders were never mentioned by name whereas these two men were named. The reason is that the prophetic spirit bestowed on the seventy elders ceased after a time, as it came from Moses, as God had said, "I will give them from the spirit that is upon you." However, these ones' prophetic power comes from the Holy Blessed One, as it is written: ותנח עליהם הרוח, “and the spirit rested upon them.”

The Sages taught: The verse states: “And there remained two men in the camp; the name of one was Eldad and the name of the other Medad, and the spirit rested upon them, and they were among those who were written but who did not go out to the tent, and they prophesied in the camp” (Numbers 11:26). Where did they remain? Some say they remained at the ballot box.

The baraita explains: At the time that the Holy Blessed One said to Moses: “Gather for Me seventy men of the Elders of Israel” (Numbers 11:16), Moses said: How shall I do it? If I select six from each and every tribe, there will be seventy-two, which will be two extra. But if I select five from each and every tribe, there will be a total of sixty, lacking ten. And if I select six from this tribe and five from that tribe, I will bring about envy between the tribes.

What did he do? He selected six from every tribe and he brought seventy-two ballots [pitakin]. On seventy of them he wrote: "Elder", and he left two blank. He mixed them and placed them in the box. He said to the candidates: Come and draw your slips. Everyone whose hand drew up a slip that said: "Elder", he said to him: Heaven has already sanctified you. And everyone whose hand drew up a blank slip, he said to him: The Omnipresent does not desire you; what can I do for you?

Rabbi Shimon says: Eldad and Medad remained in the camp. At the time that the Holy Blessed One said to Moses: Gather for me seventy Elders, Eldad and Medad said: We are not fitting for that honor. The Holy Blessed One said: Since you have made yourselves humble, I will add greatness to your greatness. And what is the greatness that God added to them? It was that all of the other prophets prophesied for a time and then stopped, but they prophesied and did not stop.