It is a moment unparalleled in the whole Torah. Moshe, until now the Jewish People’s greatest advocate, reaches his breaking point. He complains that he was given the burden of leading the Jewish People; he says his death would be better than living with his current predicament. His tirade, so uncharacteristic of the Moshe we know, reaches a crescendo:

Did I conceive all this People or did I give birth to them? That you say to me that I must carry them in my bosom, as a nursing mother carries the suckling child, to the Land that you have promised to their forefathers? (Bamidbar 11:12).

What happened? This plea comes in the middle of one of Sefer Bamidbar’s longest and most confusing narratives. The Jews begin their journey to the Promised Land. They run into trouble immediately, they begin to complain. God strikes the edge of the camp with fire, which abates upon Moshe’s prayer. This grumbling, incited by bad actors, takes a new and vicious form. They complain about the “מן-Manna bread” that was their sustenance in the desert. They crave meat. With the historical revisionism of a hungry man, they recall “the good days in Egypt,” where the menu was far more varied. Moshe can go no further; the load is too much to bear.

God provides two solutions: one is catered to Moshe and one to the carnal urges of the masses. Moshe is told to gather seventy “זקנים-elders”. God will increase the Divine spirit that rested on Moshe and then share some of it with the seventy elders. With this Divinely inspired spirit they would “carry the burden of the Nation, in order........

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