The Daily Ma’amar of our Rebbe Rav Eliezer Berland Shlit”a, Thursday 12 Sivan 5783, courtesy of the “Hashem Hu HaElokim” leaflet:
While the seventy elders merited to prophesize next to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, the place of the dwelling of the Divine presence, and then the spirit of the Divine presence rested on them, and they received from the Divine presence itself which dwelled in the Tent of Meeting, Eldad and Medad did not need to come close to the Tent of Meeting and to enter next to the Tent of Meeting, rather inside the camp — amongst the simple people, while being amongst them. And there they prophesized and there they received the spirit of prophecy.
And what was the prophecy? “Moshe dies and Yehoshua brings in [to the land].”
And they passed through all the alleyways of the camp, and announced “Moshe dies,” because “prophesizing — mitnab’im” is the initial letters of “Moshe Tanuach Nafshecha B’gan Elokim, Yehoshua Makhnis — Moshe, may your soul rest in the Garden of God, Yehoshua is bringing in.” And thus they went throughout the whole camp and announced: Know, that the moment that you enter the land of Israel, at that moment, Moshe will die.
Immediately, all the Jewish people together with the spies decided that without Moshe they are not entering the land. And when Moshe ascended to Mount Sinai, then all the Jewish people already decided that if, chas v’shalom, Moshe does not descend — because no person who ascended to Heaven came down again, as it is written (Mishlei 30:4): “Who ascended to Heaven and descended” — because outside of Eliyahu HaNavi, it never happened that a person ascended to Heaven and descended, and so thought Nadav and Avihu who said, “When will these two elders die and we will lead the generation,” because they did not believe after they saw their father go with Moshe, and according to their understanding, also Aharon ascended to Heaven with Moshe — it could not be that afterwards they would come back down, for “who ascended to Heaven and descended” and “Who gathered the wind in His palms” and “Who established all the ends of the earth.”
And therefore, the Gemara in Sotah [35a] says that the spies returned with their evil counsel, and like their coming, so was their going, that also when they went, they did not think to spy out the land in order to enter, rather to spy out the land in order not to enter. And this, that Yehoshua adhered to his own mindset and sought to take the wondrous fruit and to show them to everyone, and the spies, whose counsel was for evil, suspected Yeshoshua, that his whole intention was to rule after Moshe.
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