By Henry Morgen, August 3, 2024
Shabbat shalom. According to my records, my last d’rash for the Library Minyan was for B’har-B’hukkotai which concludes the book of Vayikra. This morning we’re bringing the book of Bamidbar to a close with Mattot-Mas’ei. I didn’t pick this for the end-of-the-book coincidence. In fact, I was hoping to speak to an earlier parshah, but it was already taken. This is a good problem to have, as there are so many people in our minyan that are willing to take a shot at interpreting our tradition with a lens that focuses it on today’s world.
This morning I’m going to offer an overview of how I’d interpret a few of the passages in this week’s parshah. To set the perspective, though, I want to share a partial list of four things I’ve come to understand the Torah and our tradition are really telling us. First, G!d created humankind as a totally different being compared to the rest of creation. We are created “in the image of G!d.” Nothing else is anything like this. Second, we have a very important mandate: reproduce and care for this planet. None of the other creations is required to serve as caretakers for our planet. Third, after the first creation story, the entire remaining content of the TaNaCh is G!d reacting to humankind. Fourth, and this one is derived from layers of verses that evolve throughout the TaNaCh: be compassionate, just, and ethical in all that we do. With this set of ground rules let’s look at several of the mitzvot we’re being charged with this week.
The parshah opens with a long discussion about vows. Vows were taken very seriously, as not keeping them was tantamount to taking G!d’s name in vain. Verse three is a one-liner that says essentially: if you make a vow, you’re going to be held to it. The next 14 p’sukim are about whether a vow must be kept under certain circumstances. In particular they describe how a woman’s vow can be annulled by her father or husband depending on her marital status. Remember, in the time that this text was written and for centuries after that, women in our society didn’t have full rights and responsibilities compared to men. As a result, this opportunity to annul the vow is actually of benefit to the woman in most cases. There was no escape clause for a man.
I’m going to jump over Chapter 31 regarding the battle with the Midianites. That’s worthy of an entirely separate d’rash. I’m jumping to Chapter 32 where the tribes of Gad & Reuben negotiate taking a share of land on the east side of the Jordan River rather than the portion that G!d authorized for the Israelites. Moshe seems to be making this deal without consulting G!d. In the end it is agreed that the Gadites & Reubenites will be at the vanguard of the troops in taking over the land of Canaan after they have established settlements for their women, children and cattle. Then Moses notifies Eleazar ha-Cohen & Joshua ben Nun that the tribes of Gad, Reuben and half-tribe of Manasseh may return to the land east of the Jordan and settle there after the land of Canaan has been purged. Thus, Matot comes to an end.
While the earlier discussion around vows was progressive for its day, I found this chapter disturbing. It isn’t clear that G!d ever intended for our people to occupy the land east of the Jordan. There is no mention of how Moshe took ownership of this negotiation on his own, which I find especially puzzling given how often he consults with G!d on so many less significant issues. Perhaps, having just vanquished the Midianites, and making atonement for how it was done, allowing some of the tribes to occupy that land was thought to be a good buffer to the other kingdoms “in the neighborhood”. Regardless, it seems out of bounds, literally, from what G!d intended for us. And my thinking will be reinforced as we get into part two of our double parshah.
So, on to Mas’ei. Chapter 33 starts with a stage-by-stage recounting of all the travels from Egypt to their present location on the east side of the Jordan River and concludes with a strong warning to utterly destroy all the Pagen images and cult places without exception. As we will see, throughout the TaNaCh, this is an ongoing problem that is never fully dealt with. The torah is very blunt about the human condition and the challenges we have in striving to become a holy people.
Chapter 34 returns us to the narrative we’d left before the previous chapter. Specifically, it describes the boundary for the Israelite tribes. And here the boundary excludes the land for the two and a half tribes we learned about a couple chapters ago. In fact, Moshe explicitly points this out in verses 14 & 15![1] And when the tribal heads are identified to work out the inter-tribal land allotment, Reuben and Gad are omitted from the list. Oddly, Manasseh gets to participate, though. There are two reasons why this may be the case. First, they also have a portion inside the authorized land of Israel. Second it may be because of a family lineage matter that is addressed later. A point I’d like to make about how chapter 34 comes to an end is that there is inter- and intra-tribal negotiation for land that will hammer out the details collectively between and within the tribes. Previously there was no mention of how the land would be divided up. This is in effect the beginning of representational government for the Israelite nation.
In Chapter 35 we are introduced to two important points. First, the tribe of Levy is distributed throughout the land and doesn’t have the same ownership rights, so they are to be granted 42 cities and continuous grazing land within each of the tribal regions. This grazing land is defined as reaching 2000 cubits (or about a kilometer) beyond the cities that they are assigned to dwell in. Second, and in addition, there are to be six cities of refuge for those who unintentionally killed someone to serve as a safe space. The rules at the time anticipated that the family of the slain person would avenge the death of the murderer. Again, to prevent this from perpetuating back and forth for generations, if there was an inadvertent tragedy that resulted in death, the slayer could dwell the balance of his/her live in one of these cities or even be released from it without fear of being pursued if the high priest who was living at the time should pass away first. Furthermore, one who takes another human life may only be put to death upon the formal testimony of two witnesses.
The book of Bamidbar and our parsha concludes in Chapter 36 with the family lineage matter I mentioned earlier. At this point, I’d also like to acknowledge that R’ Shapiro and R’ Hoffman brought my attention to the daughters of Zelophehad back in last week’s torah reading of parshat Pinchas. Their full story is described there and again here. This is very odd for the torah, so naturally we need to see what’s different enough about the two accounts to make it important enough to appear twice. First recall that they are members of the tribe of Manasseh. They plead their case to Moshe that their father’s land rights should not be taken away, as he left no sons to pass ownership to the next generation. While Moshe was willing to bargain with land outside the authorized borders, he is reluctant to make a ruling regarding land rights within the borders for these sisters. G!d instructs him that each may receive her proportional amount of their father’s land with the understanding that it would be passed on to their husbands, who must be from within their tribe, and to their male progeny. The torah’s version of land rights within the land of Israel are to remain constant after the initial negotiation is completed for all generations to come. As an aside, early Rabbis realized this was not a workable solution and developed ways around it. What is unique to the story in this context is that these women had a seat at the table as they hashed out the land ownership rights on behalf of their father. Again, a progressive position for the time that they lived.
Now I’d like to return to my opening view of what our tradition teaches us about our responsibilities as human beings in this world we live in. Fortunately, as Jews we hold that we have been given an oral tradition to help guide our understanding of the written words. We know that once words are written down, they become stagnant. To be effective they must speak to the generation that is reading them; however, G!d created a universe that is constantly evolving. The oral tradition was intended to remain malleable. Out of fear that this tradition would be lost, early Rabbis decided to document as much of it as possible about 1800 years ago. That had the negative effect of freezing it in the vernacular of the day. By comparing the variations within it and the contrasts that it presents to the earlier written laws, we can start to see some patterns of expansion, contraction and reinterpretation to better fit their time. Since then, thousands of scholars have reinterpreted and translated these texts adding commentary and rulings based on the world they lived in that could not even be imagined by the earlier editors. This has helped to keep our tradition alive, but it has also splintered us around the edges.
Here’s my perspective on how to reintegrate the focus and bring the core value of our tradition into our mind’s eye: We pray to a Parent and Monarch on our most holy days. We are expected to act in the image of this Being. What kind of parent or monarch would you want to emulate? Compassionate, caring, loving, guiding, just, merciful, patient, firm (as in not rigid and moderately flexible). These are a few attributes that come to mind. In our portion today for example I would want people to know that if I swear to do something, my word is my bond. If I have agreed to do something, I will do my best to fulfil my part of the bargain ethically. When I am asked to give my opinion, I will strive to weigh the available information the best that I can to arrive at a well-reasoned answer. When I consider my actions, I need to think about any consequences that may adversely impact this planet we’re supposed to be taking care of. And as the universe continues to expand, and our understanding of it does as well, I expect my grasp of the right thing to do will evolve as we collectively gain more knowledge.
Remember that we say the Torah is a tree of life to those that hold fast to it. Living things grow and evolve. G!d has granted us access to this tree even though we were banished from Eden. Let us not let go, rather let us learn to live with it firmly in our grasp!
Hazak, hazak, v’nithazek, and shabbat shalom.
[1] The southern border is a little south of the Dead Sea. The northern border runs near where Israel’s current border is. The eastern boarder has a bulge around the Kineret but wraps back in along the southern bank near the Jordan river and leaves out much of the land “assigned” to the Reubeniites and the Gadites. It appears that by the time of King David, these tribes had disappeared.