Parashat Matot-Masei 5782

by Rabbi Margie Cella

This week’s double parashah brings us to the end of the book of Numbers, as the nation of Israel prepares to finally take possession of the promised land. 

The tribes of Reuven and Gad (and Manassah) request that they be given land on the other side of the Jordan because it appears to be a good place for their large numbers of cattle to graze. Moses grants this request, but only after they promise that they will go to battle armed, along with all the other tribes if the land is threatened. 

Next, we read a recounting of all the places at which the nation stopped during their thirty-eight-year journey through the wilderness; Moses outlines what the borders of the land should be when they take possession of it. He warns them not to follow the idolatrous practices of the Canaanites. They are told to provide cities to the Levites, who will not receive a land apportionment, as well as six cities of refuge, where anyone who committed a murder unintentionally could go to escape the revenge of their victim’s family members. One who committed a murder intentionally must be convicted on the testimony of (at least) two witnesses, and then put to death. 

This is the second of the three haftarot of admonitions that are read in between the 17th of Tammuz and Tisha B’Av. It was given by Jeremiah in the years leading up to the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. He begins by accusing both the previous and present generations of abandoning God to worship Canaanite gods instead. Recounting all the wonders that God has done for them since leaving Egypt (which were also mentioned in the parashah), Jeremiah is incredulous at their apostasy, and chastises them for their faithlessness. They have forsaken a “fountain of living waters” for “broken cisterns”–gods that are powerless (verse 13). Twice Jeremiah asks how (אֵיךְ) the nation can behave as they are; this foreshadows the reading of Eichah (אְיכָה) on Tisha B’Av, when Jeremiah foretold the destruction of Jerusalem. 

In order that the haftarah can end on a positive note, an extra verse is added on (3:4): And yet, he ends on a positive note, God anticipates that the people will turn back once again to God, Who will accept them as a loving parent.

During this time of semi-mourning, may we, too, each examine ourselves and put away those things which distract us from our relationship with God.