FOR THE WESTERN BOUNDARY

YOU SHALL HAVE THE COAST

OF THE GREAT SEA;

THAT SHALL SERVE AS YOUR

WESTERN BOUNDARY.

(Bemidbar

34:6)

Expansion

of Boundaries: Chalutziut or Concern for Possessions

Among the Sons of Gad and the Sons of Reuven were many

wealthy people, and they possessed much livestock and they loved their

possessions, and therefore they settled outside the land, and they separated

themselves from their brothers for the sake of the property. Therefore they

were first of the tribes to go into exile, as is written (I Chronicles 5) "And they exiled them, the

Reubenites, and the Danites, and half the tribe of Menashe."

(Rabeinu Behayey on

Bemidbar 32:2)

This is to say, in adding area to Eretz Yisrael there was no

aspect of chalutziut, but their concern… was for their wealth. 'Therefore

they were exiled first'… The series of dispersions began with the exiling of

the tribes of Reuven and half of Menashe which had settled on the eastern side

of the Jordan, and since these tribes had split from their brothers because of

their property, they were the first to go into exile.

 (Y.

Leibowitz: Seven Years Of Discussion On The Weekly Parasah, p. 746)

CANCELLATION

OF VOWS

AND

LEADERSHIP WHICH IS UP IN THE AIR

Yair Eldan

Parashat Matot opens with the attempt to

rehabilitate the spine of Israel's leadership: "Moshe said to the

commanded". The giving of power to the leadership of the tribal heads

was the imperative of the hour before Moshe's approaching death. ("Avenge

kin"). It is interesting to compare this attempt with the

attempt to build leadership when sending the heads of the tribes to scout the

land. God's command to send the leaders of Israel to scout out the land (Parashat Shelach-Lecha) comes after Israel's showing signs of

disintegration (the Graves of Gluttony, the prophesying by Eldad and Medad, the

sin of Aharon and Miriam). The leaders of the tribes were due to build their

leadership status by scouting the land, and they were chosen by Moshe – not by

God – in order to strengthen their leadership which was not imposed from above.

It is easy to imagine that the scouting mission's leadership failure – which

dragged out the wilderness wanderings for another 40 years – was still echoing

in the Israelites' ears four decades later. Now, on the verge of entering the

land, just before Moshe's death, the heads of the tribes become the authorities

in matter of vows and oaths. The connection between this subject and its being

addressed to the heads of the tribes in particular is commented upon by the

Ba'al Haturim: "This is to teach you that the heads of the tribes are

empowered to enforce the bringing of vowed items and of pledges". Ramban

writes: "And this is also an allusion to our teachers' exposition to the

effect that the heads of the tribes have greater authority [lit. "monument

and name"] in dealing with vows than do the rest of the nation, for a

single expert can release a vow." The command regarding vows and oaths was

chosen as the commandment for standing the national leadership on its feet.

This choice is diametrically opposite to the parasha of the spies, in which the

national leadership was to have been butressed by a clear act of leadership

demanding courage, physical prowess, analytical skill, and ability to withstand

pressure for long periods. In this case, however, the leadership is built in a

completely different fashion. Generally, a person vows to impose upon himself

prohibitions beyond the established commands of the Torah when he is in an

extreme physical or psychological state. Great joy or sorrow, pain or suffering

lead one to vow. The vow helps stabilize his world picture, by taking upon himself

more prohibitions, or by conferring holiness upon some object. Granting the

tribal chiefs authority in matters of the vow, positions them in the center of

a meaningful crossroads in the life of a Jew. In order to validate, obligate,

or release the vow, the heads of the nation must listen carfully to the

intimate world of one who turns to them in times of crisis; in their hands are

deposited intimate details of the vower's life. This authority grants them

great power. The Mishna in Tractate Haggigah rules: The [laws of] release of

vows float in the air – they have no basis [in Scripture]." In other

words, the laws relating to releasing of vows have no explicit basis in the

Torah. The relevant Talmudic text (Haggigah 10a) quotes a berayta which expressly disputes this assumption,

quoting four Tanaim who contend that "they do have a basis." The

Tanaim bring different Torah verses from which they derive (far-fetched) proofs

that vows may be released. At the end of the discussion, we read the words of

the Amora, Shmuel:

If I were there, together with the sages

of the berayta, I would have said to them, My proof is better than yours, as is

written: 'He shall not break his pledge' – he

cannot break his pledge, but others can break it for him.

The placing of the commandments relating

to vows and pledges in a context of rehabilitation of leadership authority

clarifies somewhat the intuition that there is indeed a basis for the authority

to release vows. The heads of the tribes received in their hands the passing on

of the laws of vows and oaths to the people, thus becoming those to whom all

questions of vows and oaths are directed; they are also those who have the

power to affirm and to invalidate vows. Further on, the Talmud determines that:

"All the other proofs can be refuted, but Shmuel's is irrefutable. Of

pumpkins'".

Perusal of incidents following the

chapter on vows and oaths indicates that this attempt to reconstruct the

leadership of Israel also failed. After the military leaders and their soldiers

failed to fulfill God's command regarding the killing of the Midianites, the

heads of the tribes do not stand as leaders, but as adjuncts to Moshe as he

admonishes the men of the army. Their deteriorating standing is also expressed

in the story of the children of the tribes of Gad and Reuven remaining on the

eastern side of the Jordan. The appeal to Moshe is made by "the sons of

Gad" and "the sons of Reuven", and not by the

heads of these tribes. The surprising joining of half (?) the tribe of Menasheh

amplifies the leadership problem in Israel. Finally, exacerbating the problem

yet more, Parashat Matot ends with a completely personal conquest initiative by

the sons of Machir, son of Menashe. This acute leadership crisis leaves no

alternative; in contrast to the parasha of the scouts, in which Moshe

determined the roster of those going to scout the land, here the authority is

determined from above – The Holy One, Blessed Be He, decides "the names

of the persons who will settle the land."

The concluding incident in the Book of

Bemidbar is the appeal by the heads of the families of the tribe of Menashe to

Moshe and the heads of Israel. They are concerned lest the daughters of

Zelophad marry men of another tribe, resulting in the transfer of their

inheritance to that tribe. The solution given to the problem is the obligation

of the daughters of Zelaphad to marry within the tribe of Menashe, so that the

interitance remains within the tribe – "each one to the inheritance of

his father's tribe is to cleave, among the Children of Israel."

This resolution indicates resignation to the fact that the current

leadership of Israel is unable to bring the sons of the tribe together and to

bring unity to the tribes of Israel in general. In such a situation, the

crystallization of a tribal identity is dependent upon an inheritance or an

acquisition. The leadership mode of hatarat nedarim – releasing of vows

– the leader's entry into the world view of his subjects – is laid aside for

lack of leaders capable of employing it.

Yair Eldan participates

in the "Amitey Shalem" program in Merkaz Shalem

The Holiness of Eretz Yisrael Is

Dependent Upon Its Inhabitants' Aspiration to Holiness

The Haftara of Massey is Chapter 2 of Yirmiyahu – Yirmiyahu,

the prophet of the destruction… Among the many subjects in Parashat Massey is

the major and severe admonition against the shedding of blood. This warning,

appearing after the passage stating that spilled blood corrupts the land, reads:

"You are not to make tamei the land in which you are settling, in whose

midst I dwell, for I am God, Dweller in the midst of Israel." God

does not dwell in the land, He dwells in the midst of the Children of

Israel. This is what gives the land its significance when the Children of

Israel dwell upon it. God dwells in the midst of the Children of Israel only

upon the condition that they have Him dwell in their midst. His dwelling in

their midst is not automatic…

About 700 years after Moshe, appears the prophet Yirmiyahu.

He brings no warning of what to do and what not to do, but speaks of what is

and of what has been done. He says: "You have come and made My land

tamei, and you turned my inheritance into an abomination." Moshe

said: "You shall not make the land tamei". Yirmiyahu,

700 years later, says, "You have come and made My land tamei"

That very same land, called the land of God, ("My land")

and the inheritance of God, has no inherent virtue, and man's behavior

can make the land of God tamei, and God's inheritance an abomination.

 (From Remarks About the Weekly

Portion by Prof. Y. Leibowitz, p. 108-109)

"The Vengeance of Children of Israel

– the Vengeance of God?"

"Seek vengeance, the vengeance of

the Children of Israel…"

We have already noted in

our commentary on Bereishit 4:15 the relationship of "nakam"

(revenge) to "koom' (stand)… vengeance restablishes

justice which was trampled by iniquitous feet, or it lifts up the personality

that was degraded to dust. The avenger identifies with that which he desires to

raise up. From this we can understand the preposition "mem"

– Avenge the Israelite people from the Midianites" The

goal is not to subdue the enemy and to give them their just deserts; had

the Torah wished to say that, it would have used the grammatical form for

"take vengeance against – (using the preposition "bet")."

But the goal is to return and raise up Israel from the Midianites, to

liberate her spiritually and morally and to free her from the fear of their

craftiness.

 (Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch on

Bemidbar 31:2)

An Enlightened Country Does Not Punish

Without Trial

"The cities shall serve you as a

trial before the assembly"

(Bemidbar 35:12)

A murderer who killed intentionally, is not to be put to

death, neither by the witnesses nor by those who saw him, before he comes

before the court and he is sentenced to death, as is written: "The

manslayer may not die unless he has stood trial before the assembly",

and this is the law for all who are deserving of death by a bet din, persons

who transgressed and did the deed; they are not to be killed before their

sentence is decreed following due process.

 (Maimonides,

Laws of the Murderer and Protection of Life, 1:5)

Whoever kills someone can flee there. This will prevent the

possibility of one being killed before standing trial. Only the court may

decide if one is deserving of the death penalty or whether he is to go into

exile or is free of all punishment. The Mishneh (Tractate Makkot 9b), based upon Bemidbar 24:25 reads:

At the beginning, both the unintentional

murderer and the intentional murderer hurry to the cities of refuge; Beth Din

sends agents to bring them from there. Whoever is sentenced to death by the court

is executed, whoever is not guilty of the murder charge is set free, and

whoever is deserving of exile is returned to his place [the city of refuge], as

is written, :And the assembly shall return him to his city of refuge.

The Talmud (Makkot 12a) learns

a general rule from our passage – Even if it is known with absolute certainty

that one is deserving of death – for example, if the murder transpired in the

sight of the entire court – the murderer may not be executed without due legal

process:

From where [do we learn] that a sanhedrin

which witnessed a person killing a person is not to be executed before he

stands before a different court? The Torah teaches: 'Before he stands before

the assembly for judgement' – in a different court.

According to what is said here, that same legal procedure

must be carried out before other judges; those that were not present at the

act. Those present can only serve as witnesses; they may not serve as judges,

for the sages said (Rosh

Hashanah 26a) in capital

cases, a witness may not be a judge: whoever was present at the act as witness

cannot be a judge in that case, for the duty of the court is to acquit the

accused if at all possible. But since he saw him kill a person, he will not be

able to find [extenuating circumstances] on his behalf. The act leaves its

impression on all who observed, and they will not be able judge him objectively

and find cause for acquittal.

 (Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch on

Bemidbar 35:12)

Editorial Board: Pinchas Leiser (Editor), Miriam

Fine (Coordinator), Itzhak Frankenthal and Dr. Menachem Klein

Translation: Kadish Goldberg

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