Bamidbar 11:4-6, 11-12, 14,16-17, 24-29
The riffraff in their midst felt a gluttonous craving; and then the Israelites wept and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish that we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. Now our gullets are shriveled. There is nothing at all! Nothing but this manna to look to!”
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“Why have You dealt ill with Your servant, and why have I not enjoyed Your favor, that You have laid the burden of all this people upon me? Did I conceive all this people, did I bear them, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries an infant,’ to the land that you have promised on oath to their fathers?
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“I cannot carry all this people by myself, for it is too much for me.”
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Then the LORD said to Moses, “Gather for Me seventy of Israel’s elders of whom you have experience as elders and officers of the people, and bring them to the Tent of Meeting and let them take their place there with you. … they shall share the burden of the people with you, and you shall not share it alone.
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[Moses] gathered seventy of the people’s elders and stationed them around the Tent. Then the LORD came down in a cloud and spoke to him; He drew upon the spirit that was on him and put it upon the seventy elders. And when the spirit rested upon them, they spoke in ecstasy, but did not continue.
Two men, 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.
A youth ran out and told Moses, saying, “Eldad and Medad are acting the prophet in the camp!”
And Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ attendant from his youth, spoke up and said, “My lord Moses, restrain them!”
But Moses said to him, “Are you wrought up on my account? Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD put His spirit upon them!”
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
…Moses’ essential complaint relates to the question of ownership of the Torah. Who are the elect? Is the Torah only for special individuals, or is it a Torah for everyone, even for ordinary people, even for people who sinned because of ignorance or obtuseness? Who are the chosen? Only unique individuals, the elite, those who exemplify the legacy of Moses? Or do the chosen include others as well, like Korah and other rebellious, transgressive individuals among us?
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The resolution of this question is not simple and unequivocal, since there are different aspects to it, but ultimately we are all disciples of Moses, and the answer that he gives is unequivocal: “Would that all of God’s people were prophets, that God would put his spirit upon them.” … According to this principle, all God wants is that whoever is capable of receiving should receive, whoever is capable of absorbing should absorb, and whoever is capable of doing should do.
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it is our responsibility to recognize that Moses’ words and actions here convey a profound teaching. … He says that he does not want to abandon the small people, leaving them small forever. Moses knows that such people exist; he himself suffers from their smallness, lowness, and inferiority — but that is a separate matter. Despite the suffering, he wants all of them to receive the Torah …