Sanhedrin 17a (יז.) — the Talmud in English

with you.”

And we must infer as follows: The seventy men will be

with you. And you with them.

You, too, Moses, will join them. And for what purpose would Moses join them, if not so that altogether the Sanhedrin would consist of seventy-one?

And Rabbi Yehuda,

how does he interpret the verse? It says here “with you,” implying that there are seventy men besides Moses, and Moses joins them in the count, making seventy-one?

The Gemara explains: The intention of the verse with the word “with you” is not that the seventy men would join Moses to form the Sanhedrin. Rather,

“with you”

is stated

with regard to the Divine Presence.

That is, it says there: “Gather for Me seventy men from the Elders of Israel, and take them to the Tent of Meeting, and they shall stand there with you.” Rabbi Yehuda interprets the verse as follows: There, they shall stand with you; that is, they shall stand there with you, outside the Tent, and they shall not enter the Tent, because the Divine Presence rests within it. Moses, too, did not enter the Tent of Meeting, as it is stated [Exodus 40]: “And Moses was unable to enter the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud rested upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.”

Alternatively: They shall stand with you so that the Divine Presence will rest upon them through you, as it is stated [there]: “And I shall draw from the spirit that is upon you and place it upon them.”

The Gemara explains:

And the Rabbis!?

What will the Rabbis answer Rabbi Yehuda’s interpretation?

Indeed, “with you” is interpreted as referring to the Divine Presence, and there is no proof from this verse. Rather, this must be derived from another verse.

The verse states,

there:

“And they shall bear with you the burden of the people.”

And we interpret: They are

with you—

and you with them.

And you are with them.

And Rabbi Yehuda,

what does he answer the Rabbis’ interpretation?

He interprets it:

with you—

similar to you,

men of distinguished lineage and free of physical defects like you.

And the Rabbis,

from where do they derive that the members of the Sanhedrin must be of distinguished lineage and free of physical defects?

As it is stated in the passage concerning Yitro, regarding the appointment of a lesser Sanhedrin, when Yitro said to Moses:

“And lighten the burden from upon you, and they shall bear it with you,”

from there

it is derived,

this law of “with you—similar to you.” And although this verse was stated with regard to a lesser Sanhedrin,

it is derived,

the law of the

Great Sanhedrin from the lesser Sanhedrin.

After the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded Moses to gather seventy Elders, it is stated: “And Moses gathered seventy men from the Elders of the people, and he stationed them around the Tent. And the Lord descended in the cloud and spoke to him, and He drew from the spirit that was upon him and placed it upon the seventy men, the Elders. And when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied but did not continue. And two men remained in the camp; the name of one was Eldad and the name of the other was Medad. And the spirit rested upon them; they were among those recorded, but they did not go out to the Tent, and they prophesied in the camp.”

The Gemara now cites a beraita that interprets the verse: “And two men remained in the camp.” From what did they “remain”?

The Sages taught:

It is written:

“And two men remained in the camp.”

Some

of our Sages

say: They remained in the urn,

that is, in the lottery,

they were left over.

When the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: “Gather for Me seventy men from the Elders of Israel,” Moses said: What shall I do?

If

I select six

Elders

from each and every tribe,

there will be seventy-two altogether, and

there will be two

Elders

in excess.

And if

I select five from each and every tribe,

there will be sixty, and

there will be ten missing.

And if

I select six from this tribe and five from that tribe, I will create jealousy among the tribes.

What did he do? He selected six names, six names,

of Elders from each and every tribe,

and he brought seventy-two

slips.

On seventy

of the slips

he wrote “Elder,” and

on

two

slips he

left blank,

writing nothing on them.

He mixed them,

that is, he mixed all the slips,

and placed them in the urn.

He said to them: Come and take your slips!

Everyone whose hand received

a slip on which

“Elder” was written,

Moses said

to him: Heaven has already sanctified you

to be among the seventy Elders! But

the one whose hand received

a

blank

slip, Moses said to him: If

the Omnipresent does not desire you, what can I do for you!?

Eldad and Medad were afraid that a blank slip might fall to their lot, and therefore they did not come to take a slip. This is why it says: “And they remained in the camp”—they did not come to the Tent of Meeting to take their slips through the lottery. In truth, however, “Elder” was written on their slips, while the two blank slips fell to the lot of two other Elders, since they had come there. Concerning this it says: “And they were among those recorded”—that is, slips bearing the word “Elder” had been prepared for them in the urn.

Therefore they interpreted the verse: “They remained in the urn,” meaning that their slips remained in the urn. It does not mean that Eldad and Medad themselves remained outside the seventy Elders.

Moses conducted a similar lottery when redeeming the Levites.

At first, the firstborn were consecrated to the Lord, from the time the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded [Exodus 13]: “Consecrate to Me every firstborn.” When they sinned with the calf, the firstborn were exchanged for the Levites, who had not worshipped the calf—and this is called “the redemption of the Levites.” That is, each Levite redeemed one firstborn.

However, when they counted the Levites, who numbered twenty-two thousand, and the firstborn, there was a surplus of firstborn over Levites. The Holy One, blessed be He, commanded that the firstborn who exceeded the number of Levites—two hundred and seventy-three—redeem themselves by paying five shekels for each firstborn.

Similarly,

a similar lottery

you may say

was conducted by Moses our teacher.

For it says in the Torah:

“And you shall take five shekels, five shekels, for each head.”

Moses said: What shall I do for Israel?

If I say to him

the firstborn:

Give me your redemption money,

five shekels,

and go

and be redeemed,

he will say to me: A Levite has already redeemed me,

and I will not pay five shekels!

What did he do? He brought twenty-two thousand slips and wrote “son of a Levite” on them, and on two hundred and seventy-three he wrote “five shekels.” He mixed them and placed them in the urn.

He said to them

the firstborn,

Moses said: Take your slips!

Whoever received

a slip on which

“son of a Levite” was written, Moses said to him:

Moses

has already redeemed you through a Levite! Whoever received “five shekels,” Moses said to him:

Moses

said: Give

your redemption money,

five shekels,

and go

redeemed.

The beraita continues and returns to interpret the verse: “And two men remained in the camp.”

Rabbi Shimon says:

They remained in the camp.

That is,

when the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: “Gather for Me seventy men

from the Elders of Israel, and take them to the Tent of Meeting,”

Eldad and Medad said,

out of their great humility:

We are not worthy of that greatness,

and they remained in the camp.

The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Since you have diminished yourselves—

I will add greatness to your greatness.

And what greatness did He add to them?

All the prophets,

all seventy Elders, concerning whom it is stated: “And when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied,”

prophesied and ceased.

They stopped prophesying, as will be explained below,

but

these

men,

Eldad and Medad,

prophesied and did not cease.

The beraita continues:

And what,

which

prophecy did

Eldad and Medad prophesy?

They said: Moses is dead—

Joshua is bringing Israel into the Land.

Abba Hanin says in the name of Rabbi Eliezer:

What prophecy did they prophesy?

They were prophesying about the matter of the quail;

they

were prophesying

about it, as the passage of the quail is also stated there, and they said:

“Quail, come upon me! Quail, come upon me!”

Rav Naḥman says: They were prophesying about the matter of

the war of

Gog and Magog.

As

it is stated

[Ezekiel 38]:

“So said the Lord God: Are you he of whom I spoke in ancient days, through My servants, the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for years, to bring you against them?”

And we interpret:

Do not read ‘for years,’ but ‘two.’ And who are they?

And who are the

two prophets who prophesied

in ancient days

at one time, with one prophecy? You must say: Eldad and Medad.

The Gemara now explains: From where do we learn that the seventy Elders stopped prophesying?

The Master said,

we learned in the beraita:

All the prophets prophesied and ceased, but they prophesied and did not cease.

The Gemara asks:

From where do we know

that the seventy Elders

ceased

prophesying?

If you say

that we should learn this

from what is written: “And they prophesied, but did not continue,”

understanding the verse to mean “and they will not continue,” this is difficult:

Rather,

if you interpret it in this manner,

from now,

since it is stated in the Torah [Deuteronomy 5], following the Ten Commandments: “These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain from amidst the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness,”

“a great voice, and it did not continue,”

would

so too

the meaning of the verse be

“I will not continue,”

that the Holy One, blessed be He, did not continue speaking to Moses? But this is not true!

Rather,

the meaning of the verse

is that it did not cease,

that the voice did not stop speaking to Moses.

If so, the question returns: From where do we learn that the meaning of “but did not continue,” stated concerning Eldad and Medad, is that they stopped prophesying?

The Gemara answers:

Rather, here,

with regard to the seventy Elders,

it is written: “And they prophesied,”

whereas

there,

with regard to Eldad and Medad,

it is written: “They were prophesying,”

and its meaning is:

They were still prophesying

and

continuing.

The Gemara now explains the continuation of the verses there, in order to prove what their prophecy was.

It says there: “And the young man ran and told Moses, and said: Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp! And Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ attendant, one of his chosen men, answered and said: My lord Moses, imprison them! And Moses said to him: Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets!”

Granted, according to the one who says

that they were prophesying

“Moses

is dead,” this is why it is written

that Joshua said properly:

“My lord Moses, imprison them!”

Place them in prison, because with this prophecy they are affronting your honor.

But according to the one who says that they were prophesying about those two matters,

that is, about the quail or about Gog and Magog,

what

why did Joshua say

“My lord Moses, imprison them!”?

What was there in their words that required Moses to imprison them?

The Gemara answers:

Because

it is not proper conduct.

It is not proper conduct to prophesy while Moses is alive,

as this would be like a student issuing a halakhic ruling in the presence of his teacher.

The Gemara raises an objection:

Granted, according to the one who says that they were prophesying about those two matters,

about the quail and about Gog and Magog, it is properly explained

that this is why it is written

that Moses answered Joshua:

“Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets!”

But

according to the one who says

that they were prophesying

“Moses is dead,”

why did Moses answer Joshua in this manner? Was

Moses actually pleased

that they were prophesying about his death?

The Gemara answers:

They did not complete it before him.

They did not finish telling Moses what their prophecy was. Rather, they merely said to him: Eldad and Medad are prophesying.

The Gemara offers another interpretation of “My lord Moses, imprison them.”

What is the meaning of “imprison them”?—

Joshua said to him,

Joshua said to Moses:

Assign them communal responsibilities, and they will be consumed by themselves!

We learned in our Mishna:

And from where is it derived that three more are added

From the implication of what is stated: “You shall not follow the majority to do evil,” I would understand that I should follow them for good. If so, why is it stated: “After the majority to incline”? The inclination for good is not like the inclination for evil: The inclination for good is according to a majority of one; the inclination for evil is according to a majority of two. And a court may not be even, so they add one more to them; therefore, there are twenty-three.

The Gemara raises a difficulty concerning what we learned in our Mishna: “The inclination for evil is according to a majority of two.”

Ultimately,

even though we added three to the twenty,

for evil, according to a majority of two—

you cannot find it.

It is impossible! For

if eleven acquit and twelve convict, still,

the inclination for evil is according to

one. If ten acquit and thirteen

convict,

then

it is three;

the inclination is according to three. If so, the difficulty remains: When is there an “inclination according to two”?

The Gemara answers:

Rabbi Abbahu said:

The Mishna is speaking

of adding

judges. As we learned in the chapter “They Examine”: If eleven acquit and eleven convict, and one says, “I do not know,” there is no decision either for acquittal or conviction, so two judges are added in order to reach a decision. There are now twenty-four judges, since the judge who said “I do not know” is not included in the count. If thirteen convict and eleven acquit, he is convicted by an inclination according to a majority of two.

And

this method is

according to everyone,

including the Rabbis, who maintain that an even-numbered court is not established. The Rabbis maintain that an even-numbered court is not established only at the beginning of their deliberation, but they agree that if one judge says, “I do not know,” two are added, even though from that point the court is even-numbered.

Alternatively:

And in the Great Sanhedrin,

when capital cases are being judged, such as the case of a High Priest,

and

this method is

in accordance

with the opinion of

Rabbi Yehuda,

who maintains that there are seventy judges, and that an even-numbered court is established even initially. Therefore, if thirty-six convict and thirty-four acquit, he is convicted by an inclination according to a majority of two.

Rabbi Abbahu states another law:

And Rabbi Abbahu said: When adding

judges, if judges must be added—for example, when one says, “I do not know”—

an even-numbered court is established initially,

and there will now be twenty-four judges.

The Gemara raises a difficulty:

It is obvious.

What does this teach us? It is an explicit Mishna, as we explained.

The Gemara answers: If Rabbi Abbahu had not taught us this,

you might have said:

we might have said that

this

judge

who says, “I do not know,” is considered as though he is present

and counts,

that is, he is included in the count,

and if he states a matter,

if he reaches a decision and resolves his doubts—whether for acquittal or conviction—

we would heed him,

including him in the count, and consequently the court would not be even—

he teaches us

Rabbi Abbahu teaches us

that this judge who says, “I do not know,” is considered as though he is absent;

he is not included in the count, and the court remains even-numbered,

and if he states his reasoning, we do not heed him,

since he is not included in the count.

The Gemara now brings another law concerning the laws of the Sanhedrin.

Rav Kahana said: If all the members of the Sanhedrin found him liable,

and there is not even a single judge who sees a basis for acquitting him,

they acquit him.

He is therefore exempt from the death penalty.

What is the reason?

Since they had learned,

as we learned from expositions of the verses [31a], that judges deliberating capital cases are required to

postpone the judgment

until the following day,

in order to find a basis for acquitting him,

as perhaps they will be able to find a basis for his acquittal.

And

if

these

judges, who all found him liable,

will no longer see a basis for acquitting him,

they will no longer find a basis for his acquittal.

Another law concerning the laws of the Sanhedrin.

Rabbi Yohanan said: They may appoint to the Sanhedrin

only men of imposing stature,

so that the people will stand in awe of them,

men of wisdom and men of distinguished appearance

and dignity, so that the people will stand in awe of them,

and men of advanced age,

and men skilled in sorcery

who know sorcery, so that if they judge sorcerers who rely on their magic to escape the hands of the court, the judges will be able to execute them, and also so that they will be able to expose the sorcerers who incite and entice others through their magic, such as the Egyptians [Christians [unclear: the source’s parenthetical is incomplete]],

and men who know the seventy languages,

so that

the Sanhedrin will not hear

the testimony of people speaking foreign languages

through an interpreter,

because in that case their testimony would have the status of “testimony heard from the mouth of a witness,” which is invalid testimony.

Another law concerning the laws of the Sanhedrin.

Rav Yehuda said that Rav said: They may appoint to the Sanhedrin only someone who

is so wise that he

knows how to render a creeping creature pure

from its impurity, and to bring proof

from the Torah.

And Rav himself apparently derived a kal va-chomer to render the creeping creature pure.

Rav said: I will reason

a kal va-chomer,

and render it pure

the creeping creature.