What happens when we question authority? Jewish tradition is, of course, varied in its response. There is the Deuteronomistic view that if we do as we’re told, all will be well, but if we don’t… curses! There is the infamous rabbinical tale of the Oven of Achnai (Baba Metzia 59a-b) where the rabbis come to an impasse over a certain law, and when a “heavenly voice,” calls out with a decree, the rabbis veto God, saying, “lo bashamayim hi,” “it is not in the heavens to decide!”
Our parsha this week provides a middle road, or at least offers insights into a rabbinic view of shared power. In Chapter 11 of the Book of Numbers a beleaguered Moses pleads with God to let him share the burden of not only leadership, but prophecy. Up until this point, Moses has been the primary emissary between God and the Israelites, and he is burnt out. God grants the spirit of prophecy to seventy elders of the community, who Moses has hand-picked. In Torah Queeries: Weekly Commentaries on the Hebrew Bible, Steve Gutow writes, “Prophecy is the most intimate relationship between God and humanity because God and the prophet become so close that they actually become, for a time, a single voice and spirit.” The Torah has undeniably been used to create and uphold hierarchical structures of patriarchy for centuries; much to the detriment of all. Assertions such as this one in our parsha, as well as in other places, (e.g. Exodus 19 “You shall be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation”) offer us a different view. The question I raise here points us to bigger questions about power and how it is structured in our world, and in the Jewish community, but this week’s parsha sticks out as a reminder that it is not as simple as those in power may make it seem.