Matos-Massei: unity through division

Matos-Massei: unity through division

The parshiot are: Tribes and Travels.  One purpose of the travels was to unite the tribes.  The shared experiences of the journeys, the glories and the moments of shame, become an evolving legend that ties this people together...to this day.  It is  a technique that organizations, even now, try to emulate.

We have come so far together.  We are united by the successes , and perhaps more, by the errors. The tragedies are strong glue.  The Holocaust is probably my strongest bond to  Judaism. 

The Torah directs the evolution of the Jewish people The unity of the nation is a paramount value.  This raises the problem of advanced evolution: diversity favors the individual, cooperation  favors the larger grouping ( nation, species). At the end of Bamidbar, Moshe tries to reconcile these forces. 

A border land is conquered. It is grazing land,  Two tribes identify themselves as cattle and sheep herders.  They would optimize the use of this unexpected bounty. Moshe adds to the two of them, Reuben and Gad, half the tribe of Menashe. The land is assigned to them.  They get the lone star territory on the promise of their loyalty in the military campaign to follow.  Those most adapted to that land, those who can optimize its productive capacity, acquire it.

The land is divided by lot and by population. Many economic theories are at work:equal opportunity distribution, ideas of inheritance, utility, limitation - are all in play.  Through all of the considerations and interests, the system must work, the nation must produce and prosper, and stay together.

We have evolved a sense o justice that makes the displacement of an aboriginal people loathsome and unacceptable.Now there is a declared Jewish Homeland, originally partitioned along population lines, but now extending into additional territories for a variety of considerations: military, religious, economic, political.  This is our current land based quandary.  We pray for a resolution that will generate a saga of beauty.