The Secret of “Eldad and Meidad Are Prophesying in the Camp” • The Daily Article

What do the initials “מ.ת.נ.ב.א.י.ם” stand for? What was the mistake of Eldad and Meidad? And what would have happened if the spies had agreed to enter the Land despite Moshe’s passing, so to speak? You will find the answers to these questions in the daily article before you, written by the holy Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a—full and overflowing with wondrous new insights your ear has never heard.

Here is the full article for reading and download:

The Secret of “Eldad and Meidad Are Prophesying in the Camp”

These seventy elders merited to prophesy by the entrance of the Ohel Moed, the place where the Shechinah rests. There, the spirit of the Shechinah came to rest upon them, and they received inspiration from the very Shechinah that dwelled in the Ohel Moed. But Eldad and Meidad did not need to draw near to the Ohel Moed or gather by the Ohel Moed. Rather, it was within the camp—among the simple people themselves, while they were in their midst—that they prophesied, and there they received the spirit of prophecy.

And what was the prophecy?—“Moshe will die and Yehoshua will bring [them] in.” They went through all the alleyways of the camp and proclaimed, “Moshe will die,” because “מִתְנַבְּאִים” is an acronym for: “Moshe, may your soul rest in the Garden of G-d; Yehoshua will bring [them] in.” And so they went throughout the entire camp and announced: Know this—at the very moment you enter Eretz Yisrael, at that very moment Moshe will die.

Immediately, all of Am Yisrael together with the spies decided that without Moshe they would not enter the Land. And already when Moshe went up to Har Sinai, all of Am Yisrael had decided that if, Heaven forbid, Moshe would not come down—because no person who went up to Heaven ever came down again, as it says (Mishlei 30:4): “Who has ascended to Heaven and descended?”—for aside from Eliyahu HaNavi, it did not happen that a person ascended to Heaven and then came back down. And so Nadav and Avihu also thought, when they said, “When will these two elders die so that we can lead the generation?” For they did not believe—after seeing their father walking with Moshe—that according to their understanding Aharon too would ascend to Heaven with Moshe; it could not be that afterward they would come back down below again, because “Who has ascended to Heaven and descended?” and “Who has gathered the wind in His fists?” and “Who has established all the ends of the earth?”

Therefore the Gemara in Sotah [35a] says that the spies returned with evil counsel—just as they came, so they went: even when they set out, they did not intend to scout the Land in order to enter it, but to scout the Land in order not to enter it. This is why Yehoshua stood firmly on his position and demanded to take from the wondrous fruits and show them to everyone. But the spies—whose counsel was for evil—suspected Yehoshua, claiming that his entire intention was to reign after Moshe. [embeddoc url="https://www.shuvubanimint.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/ה-הוא-האלקים-יום-ה-בהעלתך-יב-סיון-תשפג1.pdf" download="all" viewer="google"]