Spinoza on the Parsha

You know that scene in Behalotekha* where two men begin prophesying in the camp, and Joshua implores Moshe to incarcerate them?

(*Behalotekha: winner of the "Most Annoying Parsha Name to Transliterate" award? Just a thought.)

Moshe responds:

הַמְקַנֵּא אַתָּה לִי; וּמִי יִתֵּן כָּל-עַם יְהוָה, נְבִיאִים--כִּי-יִתֵּן יְהוָה אֶת-רוּחוֹ, עֲלֵיהֶם.

Are you so zealous for my sake?! If only all God's people were prophets! If only God placed his spirit on all of them! (see Num 11:27-29)

Joshua sees additional prophets as a threat to Moshe's authority. Moshe, however, welcomes that possibility.

I always read this as reflecting on Moshe's love for God's people. Appointed to lead, he nonetheless realizes that having but one authority/conduit to God is not ideal: if only all Jews could share in my authority and my direct experience of God's word. These verses reflect Moses' righteousness, humility, and enlightened view of leadership. These prophets, we learn, shouldn't be punished but celebrated.

Spinoza, in a footnote to his Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (n. 36), offers a radically different approach:

Moshe found his right of ruling so wearying that he preferred dying to ruling alone, as is evident from what he said fourteen verses before, "I'm not able this whole nation by myself, it is too heavy for me. If this is how you want to treat me, God, then please, just kill me instead, so I don't have to see my own misery" (11:14-15). He replies to Joshua as follows . . . "would that the right of consulting God would return to the people, so that the rule would be with them!"

Spinoza clarifies that the prophets did deserve punishment, but that Moshe simply didn't care to punish them. This scene is a symbol of Moshe's frustration, misery, and rebellion against his own authority.