Matos-Masei: threads

Matos-Masei: threads

Art forms celebrate the senses.  Music clearly excites hearing, painting appeals to vision. Literature entertains memory. The thrill of the mystery is the recall of the early detail. This device also helps us remember what is told . An important mission of the Torah is to remember

Bamidbar, the fourth of the five books, which we complete this week, is really the end of the saga  of the Torah.  Devorim, the fifth book that we start next week, is a summary and coda. The last two issues are: the cities of refuge and the marriage of the heiress Daughters of Zelophchod.  

The city of refuge was a protective venue, set aside so that the manslaughterer could be tried and, if found to be culpable of an offence that is less than a murder, protected from the otherwise justified blood-avenger. The refuge city did not protect the innocent.  The innocent  do not need exile to protect them; the details need only be explained and they can return to regular life.  It is the questionable killer, the situation that did not need to happen, were the perpetrator more careful, That heedless person  is removed from society ...until the High Priest dies.  He is guilty, but the offense does not warrant capital punishment. It is reminiscent of the guilt for which we beg for expiation from Gd, especially on the High Holidays. We were not so evil, we were careless; and when we did evil, it was not premeditated. 

When Cain, enraged by the favor that Gd showed  Abel, killed his brother, it was not a capital offense. He is sent into exile. He is the model for the case in our parsha. When Cain is banished, one of the first things he does is build a city. The  city is the locus of exile  -with its hierarchy of landlord and tenant,economic "opportunity" for indenture and thinly supported desperation. The city is a place to hide. 

The story of Moses contains a homicide followed by a redemptive exile.  Moses' anger at witnessing the abuse of Hebrews ( whom all  True Egyptians consider subhuman) at the hands of a taskmaster drives him to kill the tormentor and, when his crime is revealed,  go into exile.  This exile leads to the burning bush and hence to many great and positive consequences.  It is the paradigm of the redemptive exile, that banishment that leads to good  ( and Gd).  It also contains the model of ending the  confinement  at the death of a significant character ( the Pharaoh, the High Priest).  Liberation has something in common with inheritance

The last narrative is the resolution of the problem of heiresses. Tribal assignment is patrilineal.  Thus a woman's inheritance will pass to her husband's tribe, creating a patchwork territory, a condition that seems undesirable. 

The first  parsha this week is Matos (tribes). It describes the  change in governance that will follow the death of Moshe.  The nation will be divided into 12 landed tribes ( states).  It seems that these tribes have a degree of autonomy and diverge in their political and economic interests. Losing territory to another tribe results in diminution of power.  Hence the (male) leaders of Menashe protest that they will be diminished by the loss of Zelophchod's vast estate.  As a result, the heiresses are restricted to marry "whomever they want"... as long as it is within the tribe.  They agree and peace is restored. When Adam is created he casts about for a fitting helper,   עֵ֖זֶר כְּנֶגְדּֽוֹ .  It is only when  the woman is made from his own flesh, when the shared DNA is sufficiently strong, that he feels that he has found what he needs.  

The 15th of AV  (August 5 this year) is celebrated as a day of joy.  On that day we celebrate the expiration of the edict that forced the heiress to marry within her tribe, allowing women to marry into any tribe of Israel. The victory of the daughters of Zelophchod is complete. 

May the exile of our people be an expiation like the banishment of Moses.  May we see justice and peace and justice again.