(link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Matot-Mas'ey Send forth a vanguard of men from you for the army; For them to be against midian To exact the lord's vengence from midian (Numbers 31:3)   "Men" – Righteous Men, and similarly (Exodus 16) "Choose for us men" and also (Deut. 1) "Wise and renowned men".  (Rashi ibid ibid.)   Send forth a vanguard of men from you for the army. Rashi commented '" '. It must be understood why He commanded to choose tsaddikim, also see Ramban. It...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Matot-Mas'ey For the many you shall make their estate large  and for the few you shall make their estate small (bemidbar 33:54) From the many you shall give much And from the few you shall give less (Bemidbar 35:8)   …And I have already explained in Parashat Pinchas that lots would determine in which district and which vicinity each tribe should receive, and after that it was up to the distributors to assign to each tribe a...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Matot-Mas'ey Moses sent them the thousand from each tribe to the army, them along with Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest to the army, with the sacred utensils and the trumpets for sounding in his possession. (Bamidbar 31:6)   If you go to war in your land against an adversary that oppresses you, you shall blow a teruah with the trumpets and be remembered before the Lord your God, and thus be saved from your enemies....

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Matot-Mas'ey Moses said to them, "… So build yourselves cities for your children and enclosures for your sheep, and what has proceeded from your mouth you shall do." (Bamidbar 32:20, 24)   So build yourselves cities for your children… and what has proceeded from your mouth you shall do. It seems to me that the words of someone who passionately seeks wealth, loving it more than his own self, should not be trusted. The urge for wealth...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Matot-Mas'ey FOR HE SHALL REMAIN IN HIS CITY OF REFUGE UNTIL THE HIGH PRIEST DIES, AND ONLY AFTER THE HIGH PRIEST HAS DIED, MAY THE MURDERER RETURN TO THE LAND WHICH IS HIS POSSESSION. (Bamidbar 35:28)   until the High Priest… dies For he causes the Divine Presence to rest upon Israel and thus prolongs their lives, whereas the murderer causes the Divine Presence to withdraw from Israel and thus shortens their lives. He is...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Matot-Mas'ey SO MOSES, AT THE LORD'S BIDDING, INSTRUCTED THE ISRAELITES, SAYING: "THE PLEA OF THE JOSEPHITE TRIBE IS JUST. THIS IS WHAT THE LORD HAS COMMANDED CONCERNING THE DAUGHTERS OF ZELAFHAD: THEY MAY MARRY ANYONE THEY WISH, PROVIDED THAT THEY MARRY INTO A CLAN OF THEIR FATHER'S TRIBE." (Bamidbar 36:5-6)     Anyone they wish – This means to say: they shall chose those who seem good and upright to them from among [the men...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parashat Matot-Mas'ey THE FAMILY HEADS IN THE CLAN OF THE DESCENDANTS OF GILEAD THE SON OF MACHIR SON OF MANASSEH, ONE OF THE JOSEPHITE CLANS, CAME FORWARD AND APPEALED TO MOSES AND THE CHIEFTAINS, FAMILY HEADS OF THE ISRAELITES. THEY SAID, "THE LORD COMMANDED MY LORD TO ASSIGN THE LAND TO THE ISRAELITES AS SHARES BY LOT, AND MY LORD WAS FURTHER COMMANDED BY THE LORD TO ASSIGN THE SHARE OF OUR KINSMAN TZELOFHAD TO HIS...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parashat Matot-Mas'ey 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...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Parashat Matot Mas'ey THE LORD WAS INCENSED AT ISRAEL, AND FOR FORTY YEARS HE MADE THEM WANDER IN THE WILDERNESS, UNTIL THE WHOLE GENERATION THAT HAD PROVOKED THE LORD'S DISPLEASURE WAS GONE.                                                             (B'midbar 32:13)   THE SPIRITUAL FATE OF THE GENERATION OF THE WILDERNESS – THE ENTRY TO THE LAND OF ISRAEL AND THE ENTRY INTO THE LAND OF LIFE. Our Sages taught: The Generation of the Wilderness has no portion in the world to come, as is written "And in this desert they shall perish...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Parshat Matot-Mas'ei   “These are the marching stages of the Children of Israel  that they went on from the land of Egypt, by their forces, through the hand of Moshe and Aharon.”                                                           (Bemidbar 33:1)   “These are the marching stages” – Why are these marches recorded? To illustrate the goodness of the Omniscient; even though He decreed their wandering in the desert, say not that they wandered ceaselessly, forty years,  without rest.  (Rashi, ibid.)   The Wandering Stages of Children of Israel –  Privilege, Blemished...