Torah Commentary - Mas'ei

In the days before GPS devices, you could prepare for a trip by going to the AAA office and requesting a "TripTik." A TripTik was a series of maps bound together and hi-lited to show your route from your house to your destination. The Torah Portion, Mas'ei, the final Portion in the Book of Numbers (Sefer B'Midbar), resembles a TripTik as it recounts the 40 year journey of the children of Israel from Egypt to Canaan. An AAA trip for sure - this Awesome Ancestral Adventure!

Mas'ei recalls each encampment on the journey and notes certain happenings which, no doubt, bring the travel experience vividly to the minds of the Israelites.
The Torah Text refers to the plagues in Egypt, the passage through the sea near Pi-Hahiroth, the oasis at Elim, the lack of water at Rephidim, and Aaron's death at Mount Hor (Numbers 33:8-38). This brings the children of Israel to the plains of Moab and the Jordan River - poised to cross over into Canaan.

God warns that the king of Arad "...heard of the coming of the children of Israel." (Numbers 33:40)* God, through Moses, orders the children of Israel that they must take possession of Canaan by force. "...you shall dispossess all the residents of the land in front of you, and destroy all their carved figures, and you shall destroy all their molten images and demolish all their high places. And you shall take possession of the land and live in it, because I've given the land to you to possess it." (Numbers 33: 52-53)*
This may seem harsh, but God is planning for the future survival of God's People. These commandments for conquest and destruction realistically counter the danger of the Israelites' assimilating into the pagan culture of the Canaanites. (Remember in the Torah Portion, Balak, God brought a plague upon the Israelites and executed those who had been seduced into idol worship by the Moabite women.)

From conquest, Mas'ei turns to land distribution and clarifications of legal matters according to God's word as the children of Israel prepare to enter Canaan. God summons the leaders of the Tribes and instructs them in the allocation of land in Canaan. Each Tribe is to contribute land for the Levites, the priestly class. This land is to include six "cities of refuge." (Numbers 35:6) A person who has accidently or unintentionally caused the death of another can escape to a city of refuge and be safe there from being killed in turn in an act of blood vengeance.
Further, two witnesses are required to testify in order for a person to be condemned as a murderer. Murder, outside of military battle, is considered so heinous a crime that even the land is said to be polluted by the shedding of blood. (Numbers 35:33)

There is yet another matter to be resolved. In the Torah Portion Phinehas, in the case of Zelophehad's daughters, God rules that women may inherit land when there are no sons to inherit. In Mas'ei, the leaders of the Tribe of Manasseh are worried that a woman who has inherited land may marry a man from another Tribe. Her land will then pass to her husband's Tribe and will be lost to the Tribe of her father. God rules that a woman who has inherited land must marry a man of her own Tribe, so that her land remains with her father's Tribe.

With God's ruling, Mas'ei and the Book of Numbers come to an end - not a particularly dramatic ending, but a surprisingly apt one in light of the current events in Washington. In his Friday evening D'var Torah on Mas'ei, my Rabbi pointed out that this additional ruling regarding a woman's right to inherit, exemplifies God's willingness, on occasion, to modify God's commandments in order to resolve a situation arising from human attempts to fulfill those commandments. Following God's example, we need to be reasonable and flexible in solving problems and arriving at crucial decisions in our own lives. I believe this is a lesson which would well serve to enlighten the U.S. Congress in its current interminable, rancorous debate over the debt ceiling!

Mas'ei reminds us that on our personal journeys, we need to pause from time to time to appreciate and to understand where we've been and, with God's guidance, to prepare for what lies ahead.

CHAZAK CHAZAK V'NITCHAZEIK!

*From Commentary on the Torah by Richard Elliott Friedman