{"id":47003,"date":"2019-01-06T21:17:32","date_gmt":"2019-01-06T19:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=47003"},"modified":"2022-08-01T16:33:29","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T13:33:29","slug":"elders-then-and-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/elders-then-and-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Elders \u2013 Then and Now"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":50634,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[419,402,363],"acf":{"old_id":"47003","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33877,"related_cahpter":"128","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Leaders who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the people, are the true successors to our ancient Elders","content":"

As our chapter opens, the Israelites are becoming more and more cantankerous. An increasingly exhausted Moses is becoming more and more frustrated and overburdened with leading the ungrateful Israelite people on their extended sojourn in the Desert of Sinai. So, God instructs Moses \u201cAssemble to Me seventy men from the Elders of Israel\u2026they shall share the burden of the people with you, and you shall not bear it alone\u201d (Numbers 11:16-17). <\/span><\/p>\n

The Midrash (Numbers Rabbah 15:20) raises an issue of biblical chronology: Were there no Elders in the past? Was it not already said in Egypt: \u201cGo and assemble the Elders of Israel\u2026\u201d (Exodus 3:16)? This apparent difficulty is resolved by the following expansion of the Biblical narrative: \u00a0A new Pharaoh arose over Egypt, \u201cwho knew not Joseph\u201d (Exodus 1:8), and dealt deceitfully with Israel (Exodus 1:10). He said to them: Please do me a favor. And then, to show them what he was so \u201cpolitely\u201d requesting, he himself began making bricks. The Israelites, eager to please, willingly followed suit. But, the same night, Pharaoh set Egyptian taskmasters who ruled over Israelite Overseers. And when the now enslaved Israelites failed to produce the required amount of bricks, without the previously supplied straw (Exodus 5:6-13), the Egyptian taskmasters would beat the Israelite overseers. As it says: \u201cAnd the overseers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, saying: Why have you not fulfilled your appointed task in making bricks, both yesterday and today as before!?\u201d (Exodus 5:14). But, rather than letting their fellow Israelites be beaten by the Egyptian taskmasters, the Israelite overseers submitted themselves to being beaten, saying: Better we be beaten than that the rest of our people suffer punishment. <\/span><\/p>\n

S<\/span>o, when the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded Moses: \u201cAssemble to Me seventy men from the Elders of Israel\u201d (Numbers 11:16), Moses replied: My Master! I do not know who is worthy and who is not! God added: They are those \u201c\u2026whom you know to be the Elders of the people and its overseers\u201d (Numbers 11:16). Those same Elders and overseers who let themselves be beaten in place of the rest of the Israelites in Egypt, they shall now come and take up the great honor of establishing the assembly of seventy Elders, as God says to Moses: \u201c\u2026they shall share the burden of the people with you\u201d (Exodus 11:17). <\/span><\/p>\n

This comes to teach that God regarded the seventy Elders as equal to Moses. Our Midrash ends by drawing a general conclusion — that those who willingly accept suffering for the sake of Israel merit honor, greatness and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. \u00a0Indeed, to this day, those of our leaders who serve selflessly, and are willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the people, only they are the true successors to our ancient Elders.<\/span><\/p>\n

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