Matot~Masei Numbers 30:2 - 36:13 Making Torah Personal ~Mussar~

(1) So Moses spoke to the Israelites just as יהוה had commanded Moses. (2) Moses spoke to the heads of the Israelite tribes, saying: This is what יהוה has commanded:

(3) If a householder makes a vow to יהוה or takes an oath imposing an obligation on himself, he shall not break his pledge; he must carry out all that has crossed his lips.(4) If a woman makes a vow to יהוה or assumes an obligation while still in her father’s household by reason of her youth, (5) and her father learns of her vow or her self-imposed obligation and offers no objection, all her vows shall stand and every self-imposed obligation shall stand.

'וידבר משה אל ראשי המטות....זה הדבר אשר צוה ה, G’d had commanded the basic legislation at Mount Sinai when He had said (Leviticus 19,12) ולא תשבעו בשמי לשקר וחללת וגו' “do not render a false oath in My name and thereby desecrate it.” The plain meaning of that verse had not been that you must not deliberately swear falsely, but that having sworn you must honour your oath in all its details. A woman who is married and therefore subject to restrictions imposed upon her by the authority of her husband, is not considered as having desecrated G’d’s name when violating her vows or oath on that account, provided her husband had declared her vow void.

(1) יהוה spoke to Moses, saying, (2) Avenge the Children of Israel on the Midianites; then you shall be gathered to your kin. (3) Moses spoke to the people saying, Let men be picked out from among you for a [militia] campaign, and let them fall upon Midian to wreak יהוה’s vengeance on Midian.

AVENGE THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL OF THE MIDIANITES; AFTERWARD SHALT THOU BE GATHERED UNTO THY PEOPLE. It was decreed upon our teacher Moses not to cross over the Jordan, but on the other [eastern] side of the Jordan he fulfilled all the commandments [that were necessary] for Israel. Thus he conquered the two great Amorite kings, and divided their land up as an inheritance [amongst the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of the tribe of Menasheh], and it was he who was worthy of executing vengeance upon the enemies of the Eternal, leaving Joshua only the commandment of [conquering and dividing] the Land. Furthermore [this commandment was given to Moses because] the Holy One, blessed be He, gave him honor so that the righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance, this being the meaning of afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people. And Moses showed honor to Phinehas because he had begun the meritorious task [of punishing the Midianites, by killing Cozbi] and it was up to him to finish it, and therefore he appointed him the anointed priest for this war. It was not fitting that Eleazar should go [as the anointed priest of the war], because he was the High Priest [after the death of Aaron].

(4) You shall dispatch on the campaign a thousand from every one of the tribes of Israel.” (5) So a thousand from each tribe were furnished from the divisions of Israel, twelve thousand picked for the campaign. (6) Moses dispatched them on the campaign, a thousand from each tribe, with Phinehas son of Eleazar serving as a priest on the campaign, equipped with the sacred utensils and the trumpets for sounding the blasts.

(1) The Reubenites and the Gadites owned cattle in very great numbers. Noting that the lands of Jazer and Gilead were a region suitable for cattle, (2) the Gadite and Reubenite [leaders] came to Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the chieftains of the community, and said, (3) “Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon— (4) the land that יהוה has conquered for the community of Israel—is cattle country, and your servants have cattle. (5) It would be a favor to us,” they continued, “if this land were given to your servants as a holding; do not move us across the Jordan.”

(14) And now you, a breed of sinful men have replaced your fathers, to add still further to יהוה’s wrath against Israel. (15) If you turn away from [God], who then abandons them once more in the wilderness, you will bring calamity upon all this people.” (16) Then they stepped up to him and said, “We will build here sheepfolds for our flocks and towns for our children. (17) And we will hasten as shock-troops in the van of the Israelites until we have established them in their home, while our children stay in the fortified towns because of the inhabitants of the land. (18) We will not return to our homes until the Israelites—every one of them—are in possession of their portion. (19) But we will not have a share with them in the territory beyond the Jordan, for we have received our share on the east side of the Jordan.”

(20) Moses said to them, “If you do this, if you go to battle as shock-troops, at the instance of יהוה, (21) and every shock-fighter among you crosses the Jordan, at the instance of יהוה, until [God] has personally dispossessed the enemies, (22) and the land has been subdued, at the instance of יהוה, and then you return—you shall be clear before יהוה and before Israel; and this land shall be your holding under יהוה. (23) But if you do not do so, you will have sinned against יהוה; and know that your sin will overtake you. (24) Build towns for your children and sheepfolds for your flocks, but do what you have promised.” (25) The Gadites and the Reubenites answered Moses, “Your servants will do as my lord commands. (26) Our children, our wives, our flocks, and all our other livestock will stay behind*behind Lit. “there.” in the towns of Gilead; (27) while your servants, all those recruited for war, cross over, at the instance of יהוה, to engage in battle—as my lord orders.”

(1) These were the marches of the Israelites who started out from the land of Egypt, troop by troop, in the charge of Moses and Aaron. (2) Moses recorded the starting points of their various marches as directed by יהוה. Their marches, by starting points, were as follows:

אלה מסעי THESE ARE THE JOURNEYS (STAGES) [OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL] — Why are these stations recorded here? In order to make known the loving acts of the Omnipresent: that although He had decreed against them to make them move about and wander in the wilderness, you should not think that they wandered and moved about without cessation from one station to another station all the forty years, and that they had no rest, for you see that there are here only forty-two stages. Deduct from them fourteen, all of which were their stopping places in the first year after they left Egypt, before the decree was made, viz., from the time when they journeyed from Rameses until when they came to Rithmah whence the spies were sent out — as it is said. (Numbers 12:16): “And afterwards the people journeyed from Hazeroth, [and encamped in the wilderness of Paran], whereupon the Lord said unto Moses, (Numbers 13:2) "Send thee men [who may search out the land]”; and here (v. 18) it states, “and they journeyed from Hazeroth and they encamped in Rithmah”, so you learn that it (Rithmah) is in the wilderness of Paran. — Further deduct from them the eight stages which were after Aaron’s death viz., those from Mount Hor to the plains of Moab in the fourtieth year (v. 38). It follows that during the whole of the thirty eight years they made only twenty journeys. This is excerpted from the work of R. Moses the Preacher. — R. Tanchuma gave another explanation of it (of the question why these stages are here recorded). A parable! It may be compared to the case of a king whose son was ill and whom he took to a distant place to cure him. When they returned home the father began to enumerate all the stages, saying to him, “Here we slept, here we caught cold, here you had the head-ache, etc.” ~Midrash Tanchuma 4:10:3.