Matos: haven

Masei: haven

Adolescence:  They leave Egypt.  They don't know where they are going.  They go to strange places - they walk across the  bed of the split Red Sea.  They don't know where they are going. Where to find water, where to find food. Where to find water,  Homeless, in the wilderness. 

The first job: They come to the proto- promised land, Midian, Sichon, Og. The formula for the partition of the land among the tribes ( lottery plus demographics) is defined.  The boundaries are set out according to the foreign, local names . The land is still a dream, but the apportionment formula  is vaguely understood. 

First apartment: An urban element is prescribed:  The Levite cities and suburbs ( Levittown?).  And theses cities will serve another function as well: they will be the cities of refuge. Non- violent places, where the law rules over passion, 

Where is the safe haven now?

 The missiles rain down;

 the precision  bombs plow through human shields. 

Their rockets pierce the soul-haven of kindness 

Matoth: Vows

Matoth: Vows

The title of the parsha  is tribes. Moshe speaks to the( male) heads of the tribes and he adjures them to not delay to  keep their vows.  Fulfillment delayed is always incomplete, imperfect. At the end of the parsha we have the Talmudic  paradigm of the  vow, the oath taken by Reuben  and Gad  to fight alongside the other tribes of Israel for the complete conquest of the land.  This is a vow whose fulfillment is delayed.  The conquest of the land is never completed. 

Our state of Israel, the third commonwealth, is battling with  a loosely governed set of tribes in Gaza,  Some are fundamentalists, others are nationalists;  their fighters are opposed to a Jewish State.  This Gaza place, ancient land of the Pelishtim,  has always been a place of ambiguous provenance from the days of Avimelach, to Samson, ,David, Ben Gurion. A troubled land of a troubled people who make trouble. 

How many vows are those soldiers making as they enter into battle that threatens their lives and their psyches? May their captains' report  be as that of the captains of the Midian campaign: not a single soldier lost. 

Pinchas: succession

Pinchas: succession

Much  of Pinchas deals with legacy. Transmission from generation to generation. Pinchas, by virtue of his zealous (extremist)  act is granted a heritable title, Priesthood.  A census of families is performed to assign portions of (yet to be acquired) Promised Land.  The status of women in inheritance law is established by querying Gd.  Joshua is designated  the first successor of Moshe. 

Each of these  cases deal with the issue of what happens after death. Possessions pass to offspring.  Certainly this is a motivation to maximize possessions, even when the amasser is unable to use them.  It keeps the old involved in society, it keeps the wealthy rich.  Thorstein Veblen  would be appalled. 

The designation of a successor to the leadership of the nation is not handled this way.  I think that its placement in the parsha serve to contrast it with the inheritance of possessions. Leadership is established by  merit.  Joshua had established his position , serving Moshe when he ascended Sinai, not following the other spies, when they were hopeless about the conquest of the land.   

But there is no  clarity about succession.  No clear instrutions are given about how next leader will be chosen.  When Moshe calls upon Gd of the spirits, Rashi undersands this to signify the wide variations of human motivations and ideas.  The leader unifies and directs these toward the common purpose.  The people should be husbanded, not feral.  But the herded flock is ultimately brought to the slaughter  But it is for a purpose.  It is the diffence between the lamb  that is brought to the altar and the goat that is allowed to die . 

Balak: Anger

 This  daf Yomi   (Taahith 20A)  references the parsha. :

... Better is the curse which Ahijah the Shilonite pronounced on Israel than the blessings
with which Balaam the wicked blessed them. Ahijah the Shilonite cursed them by comparing them
with the ‘reed’; he said to Israel, For the Lord will smite Israel as a reed is shaken in water. [Israel
are as the reed], as the reed grows by the water and its stock grows new shoots19 and its roots are
many, and even though all the winds of the universe come and blow at it they cannot move it from
its place for it sways with the winds and as soon as they have dropped the reed resumes its upright
position. But Balaam the wicked blessed them by comparing them with the ‘cedar’, as it is said, As
cedars beside the waters;20 the cedar does not grow by the waterside and its stock does not grow new shoots and its roots are not many, and even though all the winds of the universe blow at it they
cannot move it from its place;21 if however the south wind blows at it, it uproots it and turns it
upside down. Moreover, [because of its yielding nature] the reed merited that of it should be made a
pen for the writing of the Law, the Prophets and Hagiographa.

Parshath BAlak is permeated with anger.  Gd is angry with Bilam, Bilam is angry with his donkey,  Balak is angry with Bilam. Eventually, Gd is angry with Israel.

 Anger is the stiffest of emotions.Anger is a focus that blinds . It allows for actions that are otherwise inconceivable ( occasionally with a positive result).

Anger comes from misunderstanding, from globalization, from envy, from anger.

These are angry days. The teenage deaths in Israel stir in our community. May they not be a south wind  to our cedar.