Be’ha’alotecha 2026: Are We the Prophets Now?

“Would that all of God’s people were prophets! 

That God put the Holy Spirit upon them.”

Numbers 11:29

Complaints run rampant during the Israelites’ years of wandering in the wilderness. In this week’s parsha, two Israelites, Eldad and Medad, experience the Holy Spirit resting upon them and engage in the realm of the prophetic.

Alarmed by these two supposed-outsiders, Joshua complains and calls upon Moses to restrain them. But Moses replies: “Are you jealous on my behalf? Would that all of God’s people were prophets! That God put the Holy Spirit upon them.” (Numbers 11:29)

Moshe’s response to Joshua’s complaint is to articulate his wish that all of God’s people were prophets. Indeed, Ibn Ezra, an 11th century Spanish commentator, explains that the Hebrew phrase “Mi yitten, (would that), is an expression of desire here. It is like saying, who will grant me this request and desire?”

Not only are Eldad and Medad not punished, despite Joshua’s complaint, their very names mean “God has loved” (BDB, p. 44) and “love” (BDB, p. 568, 391). Notice the shoresh, the root of both names:  ידד, yud-dalet-dalet, perhaps familiar from the Shabbat song Yedid Nefesh, Beloved of the Soul. 

In the Hebrew Bible, the Prophets’ lifework was at the intersection of the Sacred and the Just. It fell to the prophets to be spokespeople for God and to call out society’s systemic abuses.

In 1962, Abraham Joshua Heschel famously wrote in his seminal book, The Prophet, “The things that horrified the prophets are even now daily occurrences all over the world.” If that was true in the early 1960’s, how much more so is it true today. Heschel emphasizes: “to the prophets, it [injustice] is a deathblow to existence; to us, an episode; to them, a catastrophe, a threat to the world.”

What are we to make of the sacred justice role of the prophet, of Moshe’s desire in this week’s parsha that all God’s people would be prophets, and the embodiment of this wish by two people whose very names mean “love”?

I believe we are meant to take these words to heart and to understand how we, ourselves, each and every one of us, experiences the Holy Spirit and can lovingly channel the prophetic. 

We are not alone on this journey; Maimonides shows us the way. A contemporary of Ibn Ezra, he dedicates all of Chapter 7 of Foundations of the Torah (Mishneh Torah) to the ins and outs of practicing the prophetic. While the era of Biblical Prophecy came to an end with the closing of the Biblical canon, prophecy itself carries forward. The Rambam advises that the “b’nei nevi’im,” disciples of prophecy, must sit in a concentrated spiritual practice and immerse their hearts in happiness, since prophecy rests upon those who are immersed in simcha, joy. In other words, prophecy is a spiritual practice and it is accessible to all. 

My invitation to everyone is to emulate Eldad and Medad by embodying love and immersing ourselves in spiritual practices that allow the Holy Spirit to rest upon us. Thus, we open to the ways that each of us are called to channel our own prophetic voices, which are ever so-needed in these times. This spring, I taught an introductory three-part series, Prophecy School, in partnership with The Shalom Center. We are envisioning an expanded Prophecy School, an historic revival of an ancient yet timely practice. I hope to see you there.