Why the Beaten Officers of Egypt Became Israel's Seventy Elders

"Gather Me seventy people from the elders of Israel" (Numbers 11:16). But did they not have elders in the past? Was it not already said in Egypt, "Go and gather the elders of Israel" (Exodus 3:16)? For what reason, then, did the Holy One, blessed be He, say "Gather Me," and so forth? To teach you that when Pharaoh said, "Come, let us deal shrewdly" (Exodus 1:10), Pharaoh gathered all Israel. He said to them: "Please, I ask of you, do work with me today as a favor." This is what is written, "And the Egyptians made the children of Israel labor with rigor (be-farekh)" (Exodus 1:13) — at first with a soft mouth (be-feh rakh). Pharaoh took a basket and a trowel, and everyone who [saw Pharaoh] taking a basket and a trowel and working with bricks did likewise. Immediately Israel went with zeal and plied their craft with him all day according to their strength, since they were men of strength and mighty ones. Once it grew dark, he set taskmasters over them. He said to them: "Count the bricks." Immediately they arose and counted them. He said to them: "This many you shall set up for me each and every day." He appointed the taskmasters of Egypt over the officers of Israel, and the officers were appointed over the rest of the people. And when he said to them, "You shall no longer give straw to the people" (Exodus 5:7), the taskmasters would come and count the bricks; they were found lacking, and the taskmasters would beat the officers, as it is said, "And the officers of the children of Israel, whom [the taskmasters of Pharaoh] had set over them, were beaten," and so forth (Exodus 5:14) — for the officers were beaten on account of the rest of the people, and they would not hand them over into the hand of the taskmasters. They would say: "It is better for us to be flogged, and let the rest of the people not stumble." Therefore, when the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses, "Gather Me," and so forth, Moses said: "Master of the Universe, I do not know who is fit and who is not fit." He said to him: "Whom you know to be the elders of the people and its officers" (Numbers 11:16) — those officers who handed themselves over to be flogged on their behalf in Egypt over the quota of bricks, they shall come and take this greatness. Therefore He said, "Whom you know to be [the elders of the people and its officers]." From here you learn that whoever hands himself over for the sake of Israel merits honor and greatness. Therefore it is written, "Whom you know [to be the elders of the people and its officers — who are they? Those of whom it is written], 'And the officers of the children of Israel were beaten.'"