Matos-Massei:Chiasmus of closure

 

 This week's double parsha is the end of the narrative.  Yes, there is a fifth book, Devraim - and it will be read over the next two months - but it is a coda, a recap of events that end now. As a literary device, the end often reflects the beginning. 

 

The parsha starts 

אִישׁ֩ כִּֽי־יִדֹּ֨ר נֶ֜דֶר לַֽ  י  אֽוֹ־הִשָּׁ֤בַע שְׁבֻעָה֙ לֶאְסֹ֤ר אִסָּר֙ עַל־נַפְשׁ֔וֹ לֹ֥א יַחֵ֖ל דְּבָר֑וֹ כְּכׇל־הַיֹּצֵ֥א מִפִּ֖יו יַעֲשֶֽׂה׃

 

If a man vow a vow to the Lord, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.

 

Keeping a pledge has great significance. 

 

When Adam was created, he was instructed not to eat of one tree in the garden. Although his acceptance of this command as a pledge is not stated, it is implied. Adam's violation led to a profanation of his life, a יַחֵ֖ל, (yachail); life became ordinary. 

 

The next section of the parsha deals with the vows of women and the ability of men to annul them. This is a hard section for a modern person. As I mention it, I can feel some of the anger of my wife and daughters and non-male friends. The echo of Eve feeding Adam the forbidden fruit is no comfort - just another misogynous story. The legalistic interpretation that it applies primarily to people we would now consider minors (girls under 12 1/2 years old) and issues that are best negotiated between marital partners generally does not mollify the anger  generated by the stated prejudice against women. I am comfortable that prejudice is a principle that confronts Torah law; the battle is disquieting.

 

 

 

When Adam and Eve are banished from the garden, their longing for return does not need statement. Likewise the Isrealites who have been expelled from everywhere, even their Egyptian slavery, want to settle after their forty year wander. The entry into the land of milk and honey is a return to Eden.

 

But the fruit that brings death to the world has been consumed. The tree of opinions will have its impact. People will be killed by scheme. Others will die by accident. Avengers will make judgements. Justice must be protected. The killer must have a refuge, like Cain after the manslaughter of Abel she must go into exile. The death of the high priest heralds the release from protective custody, as the death of Aaron and the ascent of Elazar presaged the entry into the Promised Land. Don’t forget that the Levites slaughtered their brothers after the incident of the golden calf. They, like Cain, become urban dwellers, exiled from the land.

 

The war against Midian is very troubling:

 

 

נְקֹ֗ם נִקְמַת֙ בְּנֵ֣י , מֵאֵ֖ת הַמִּדְיָנִ֑ים אַחַ֖ר תֵּאָסֵ֥ף אֶל־עַמֶּֽיךָ׃

 

“Avenge the Israelite people on the Midianites; then you shall be gathered to your kin.”

 

Og and Sichon and brought armies and they were defeated. Their unpromised lands were annexed into the settlement. Midian was a different category. They harbored Billam, the secret weapon of the enemy. Their people tried to seduce the Israelites into a union that offended the Gd that was the foundation of their national identity. Some Midianites were extraordinarily good. Jethro had rescued Moses and Moses had married his daughter. It was while shepherding for Jethro that Moses discovered the burning bush, launching the revolution that liberated Israel.  Moses was warring against his in laws.  And Pinchas, descended from a Midianite mother was the master of war.

 

Beyond the fratricide was the insistence on killing noncombatant women and male children. The insistence on annihilation is like Samuel’s criticism of king Saul for sparing king Agag and the sheep of Amalek. I am sure that this belligerence bothered the generations of commentators living in exiles that victimized Jews.  They saw the provocation in these passages.How does this reflect on the war in Ukraine?

 

War against concepts is common. World war II was a battle with Nazism and Fascism. The cold war enemy was communism. I do not understand Midianism, I do not know its details, but it had become the enemy.

 

I am the heir of a very complex vow made at Sinai. It has elements that I do not understand. I struggle with them. “You will find everything in the struggle.”