Torah of Recovery: Mattot-Masei 5784/2024

Torah of Recovery's Mission: To interrogate Torah deeply so as to create space, connection and safety for people with addictive patterns and behaviors that have led them to a crisis of the spirit to tell and shape their stories for the purpose of healing, growth, and a return to their whole selves.

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Rabbi Shefa Gold, Torah Journeys, p. 165

Let us remember that the Torah is not a story about someone else and it is not about some other time. It is a map of an inner landscape. It is a revelation, shining the light of awareness on all the myriad facets of human experience. AND IT IS HAPPENING IN THIS PRESENT MOMENT.

Rashi on Numbers 30:3

(1) נדר A VOW — ...It...says, “[If he takes an oath] to forbid something to himself”, i.e., to forbid for himself something which is permissible to him — and not to make permissible that which is forbidden to him (Sifrei Bamidbar 153:4)

Rashbam on Numbers 30:3

(1) (1) IMPOSING AN OBLIGATION ON HIMSELF ... HE SHALL NOT BREAK HIS PLEDGE. This refers to the votive offering. In other words, he must not delay his votive offering ...(2) HE MUST CARRY OUT ALL THAT HAS CROSSED HIS LIPS. This refers back to "taking an oath" (hishava sh'vu'ah) [i.e., not to "makes a vow" (yidor neder)] -- he must do according to what he specified in taking an oath, according to the time he specified, whether short or long. And a proof of the matter,of what these two things mean, is what Moshe said in Deuteronomy (23:22), "When you make a vow to the LORD your God, do not put off fulfilling it, ... You must fulfill what has crossed your lips and perform ...." Takes an oath, etc.

Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, The Everyday Torah, p. 274

The Torah posits....[a world] in which a person's word creates an unshakable commitment, so great is the correlation between promise and deed. This parashah speaks of the vows made by an adult man, a daughter, a wife, and a widow. In each case, the Torah provides guidelines for how a vow may be made and when it can be nullified without the incursion of guilt for its violation. The word abracadabra comes from the Aramaic (the ancient language of the Talmud) and means "he does as he speaks." What is now an expression of genies on sitcoms was once a morality that pervaded Israelite society. The world of the Torah and the Talmud is one in which words matter, in which what we say creates an enforceable obligation.

RA & USCJ, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 941

The Bible stresses the power and the solemnity of words, from the opening verses of the Torah, in which God creates a world with words, to the commandment to distance oneself from falsehood, to the repeated emphasis against insulting the convert or the physically handicapped. This emphasis continued in postbiblical Judaism. A word is not merely a sound; it is real, it has substance, with the power to hurt or to heal, to elevate or to denigrate. The seriousness with which the Torah takes vows and promises is the basis of the words with which the service begins on the eve of Yom Kippur. With those words (known as Kol Nidrei, 'All Vows') we declare that any promises to God that we make and are unable to keep in the New Year are hereby publicly retracted and should not be held against us.

Rabbi Mark Borovitz, Finding Recovery and Yourself in Torah, p. 289

We are reminded of the lesson that just as God spoke and the world came into being, our words have the power to create and destroy. When we make a vow, we are committing ourselves to an action. We are then counted on to fulfill this vow because if we don’t, we suffer from our sin. The suffering is not some external punishment; rather, the suffering is the sin itself. The suffering is that we give power and credence to the negative voice that tells us we are not good enough. When we fulfill our vows, this negative self-talk is quieted.

Ibn Ezra on Numbers 30:3, 3

We need tradition, for Scripture speaks of a man and a women but does not tell us at what age a person is considered a man or at what age a female is considered a women.

RA & USCJ, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 942

These rules, reflecting an age when women were subordinated to a father or a husband, have been superseded by developments in the modern world. Already by the time of the Talmud, the Sages limited the applicability of this law by restricting its time (the year between ages 11 and 12) and circumstances. The sense here of the married woman as subservient in the early period of our tradition, however, seems unavoidable.

Rashi on Numbers 30:4

(2) בנעורה IN HER YOUTH — when she is a נערה i.e., in the first state of womanhood, but not when she is a קטנה, a minor, and not when she is a בוגרת (in full womanhood); for so far as a minor is concerned, her vow is in general no vow (it is null and void ab initio), and a בוגרת is not under her father’s control so that he can annul her vows. What is a קטנה, a minor, in respect to vows? We may gather this from what our Rabbis said: a woman of eleven years and one day must have her vows investigated until she reaches the age of twelve years; if she understands in Whose name it is that she has made the vow or in Whose name it is she has dedicated the thing, her vow is a vow, but a woman of twelve years and a day does not require any investigation regarding her vow (Niddah 56b).

RA & USCJ, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 944

It seems poignant that Moses' last great task before his death is so out of character - a war of vengeance....In verse 3...Moses speaks to the people about ''the Lord's vengeance.' This will not be a war primarily for land or personal gain but to redeem God's name from the dishonor that the Midianites attached to it at Baal-peor. Presumably this is why Phinehas the priest is listed as leading the effort rather than Joshua.

Bamidbar Rabbah 22:2

(2) (Numb. 31:2) “Exact vengeance [for the Children of Israel on the Midianites; afterward you shall be gathered unto your people]”: R. Judah said, “If Moses had wanted to live for several [more] years, he could have remained alive; as the Holy One, blessed be He, had made his death dependent upon the vengeance against Midian. It is simply to show you the praise of Moses, as he said, ‘For the sake of my remaining alive, I shall delay the Children of Israel's vengeance on Midian?’

Dr. Richard Elliott Friedman, Commentary on the Torah, p. 2398-2399

31:17. kill every woman … If Moses’ anger over the fact that they have not killed the women and children is difficult to accept, how much more amazing is the fact that the women in question are Midianite—like Moses’ wife! The command to attack the Midianites comes from God, and the text does not state what Moses’ personal reaction is. He must order a war against his wife’s people, with whom he once lived, whose priest was his father-in-law and adviser. He married a Midianite woman, but now he has all the other married Midianite women killed. The lack of any comment about Moses’ thoughts and feelings here is the most powerful silence since the story of the near-sacrifice of Isaac, in which we were told nothing of Abraham’s heart. The Torah’s way is to leave these things unspoken, and thus to leave us to ponder them.

Rabbi David Kasher, ParshaNut, p. 320-321

But what is this business about descending from Jethro as well? Why do we need that information? Well, what do we know about Jethro? He was Moses’ father-in-law. He was not Jewish, though he appeared very supportive of the Israelite struggle. And as for fattening calves, indeed, rabbinic legend has it that Jethro was an idolater for many years, before he ever met Moses. Oh, and one other thing: Jethro was a Priest of Midian. In fact, that is the very first thing we ever hear about him: Now the Priest of Midian had seven daughters… (Exod. 2:16) So if Pinchas is the descendant of both Jethro and Joseph, then he is the heir to both Midian and Israel, the son of slave-traders and slaves, priests of the Lord and priests of Ba’al. The war that is going on outside, then, is raging also inside of him – in his blood, and in his psyche. That is why, when Zimri brought the Midianite woman around, and exposed their forbidden union before the people, Pinchas could not contain himself. He suddenly had to kill them, because they represented the commingling of forces that were tearing him apart inside. His ancestor had been ripped from his land and sold into slavery by the Midianites – who were also his ancestors. In a sense, one part of him had perpetrated a great injustice on another part of him. He had debased himself, unwillingly, before he had ever been born. And so, now that Israel is going to war on the Midianites, Pinchas must lead the charge. He must avenge his grandfather Joseph. Only by fighting back against the Midianites can he atone for the sins of the Midianite within him. If he can destroy them all, he thinks, then perhaps he can purge himself of the blood of the enemy. It’s time, he says, to kill the Midianite in me.

Rabbi Shefa Gold, Torah Journeys, p. 164, 165

The blessing of Mattot is well-hidden beneath a dark and terrible vengeance. 'The last thing you will do before you die,' God whispers to Moses, 'is to manifest the battle that has been raging within you.'..All holy wars that we fight, all our enmity and fierce devotion to the cause of destroying one another, can be traced back to the true battle raging wihin us. That inner battle rages on beneath our awareness, yet its power, projected out on the 'other,' fuels the injustices of the world...We are jarred into the realization that the external battle is only a dim reflection of the inner battle that has been raging all along. Once exposed, the shadow can be healed. Only when we acknowledge the warring tribes within us, can we begin to make peace, first in ourselves and then in the world.

Bamidbar Rabbah 22:2

Moses said, “Master of the world, if we had been uncircumcised or practitioners of star worship or had denied [the binding force of] the commandments, they would not have persecuted us. But [they have done so precisely] because of the Torah and commandments which You have given. The vengeance, therefore, is Yours,” (as in Numb. 31:3), “to render the vengeance of the Lord against Midian.”

Don Isaac Abarbanel, cited in Michael Carasik, The Commentators' Torah: Numbers, p. 223

Abarbanel's Questions:...Why is Moses told that 'then you shall be gathered to your kin'? He certainly would not be avenging anyone after being gathered to his kin!

Rashi on Numbers 31:6

But why did Phineas go and Eleazar did not go? The Holy One, blessed be He, said, “He who made a beginning with this meritorious work, in that he slew Kozbi the daughter of Zur (who was a Midianitess), let him complete it”. — Another explanation why Phineas and not Eleazar went is that he went to take vengeance for Joseph, his mother’s ancestor, as it is said, (Genesis 37:36) “And the Midianites sold him [unto Egypt]”.

Don Isaac Abarbanel, cited in Carasik, The Commentators' Torah: Numbers, p. 225

10 They destroyed by fire all the towns in which they were settled The text does not tell us how long this war took, but since it occurred after the deaths of the generation of the wilderness but before the death of Moses, it must have taken less than a year.

Rabbi Chaim Mayer Tureff, EdD, Recovery in the Torah, p. 88

In Parashas Matos, it states, ''Moshe became angry with the officers of the army...'...This was at least the third time that the Torah notes Moshe's anger and that there was some sort of consequence. Anger can suffocate us. For those in recovery, anger can be an obstacle, just like it was with Moshe, except with even greater consequences....we can suffer a hangover from negative emotions, including anger. These stay with us and impact the recovery process...If Moshe, the greatest prophet in all of Israel, known as one of the greatest prophets the world has ever seen, suffered due to his anger, how much mores so should we work to eliminate anger from our lives.

RA & USCJ, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 946

Because the rules of warfare permit behavior that is otherwise forbidden, those soldiers who had killed must remain outside the camp for a week, not only because of corpse contamination but as a transition to the world of normal living.

Rashi on Numbers 31:21

(1) ויאמר אלעזר הכהן וגו׳ AND ELEAZAR THE PRIEST SAID etc. — Because Moses fell into anger (Numbers 31:14) he fell into error: there escaped him the laws concerning the removal of uncleanness absorbed by vessels which have contained the food of heathens. This, too, do you find was the case on the eighth day of the installing of the priests, as it is said, (Leviticus 10:16) “And Moses was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar”, — he fell into anger, he fell into error (cf. 10:16 that he made an error regarding the שעיר החטאת which Aaron refused to eat). Similarly, also, when he said, (Numbers 20:10, Numbers 20:11) “Hear, now, ye rebels”, … “he smote the rock”; it was through his anger that he made the mistake (Sifrei Bamidbar 157:9; cf. Pesachim 66b).

Ramban on Numbers 31:54

(1) AND THEY BROUGHT IT INTO THE TENT OF MEETING, FOR A MEMORIAL FOR THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL BEFORE THE ETERNAL. It would appear from this verse that they made them [the ornaments they had captured] into vessels to be used for the Service [in the Sanctuary], and handed them over to the public for a memorial for all the children of Israel with which to perform the Service of G-d throughout their generations. For had these vessels [merely] gone to the treasury of the House of G-d [rather than actually being used for the Divine Service], the verse should rather have said, “a memorial ‘for them’ before the Eternal,” but [the phrase] the children of Israel [a memorial for ‘the children of Israel’] includes all the people, and [it means] that the memorial consists of something permanent.

Bamidbar Rabbah 22:9

...the Children of Reuven and the Children of Gad, who made the essential, secondary, and the secondary, essential. Why? Because they loved their possessions more than the [human] souls. As they said to Moshe (Numbers 32:16), "'We will build here sheepfolds for our flocks, and towns for our children.'" Moshe said to them, "This is nothing; rather make the essential, essential. First 'build towns for your children,' and afterwards 'sheepfolds for your flocks' (Numbers 32:24)."

Rabbi Mark Borovitz, Finding Recovery and Yourself in Torah, p. 292

They see the land as good for cattle, and not knowing what is on the other side, they ask permission to settle there. Moses is angry. He accuses them of doing what their ancestors did when they listened to the ten spies and did not want to go into the Land of Israel. These two tribes, after hearing Moses’s words, say, “Okay, you are right; we will go and fight for the land, but let us build here pens for our flocks and towns for our children.” The lesson that we learn here is that we can redeem the errors of our past and of our ancestors before us.

George Robinson, The Essential Torah, p. 488-489

What sets this incident apart from the terribly wrenching events surrounding the deaths of Nadav and Avihu, the betrayal by the spies, the rebellion of Korakh and his followers, and Moshe’s disastrous outburst at Merivah is that both sides continue to talk to each other, with the result that clarity and an agreement are finally reached. The process is laborious by Torah standards, as the pause in the middle of the original petition suggests, but the end result is the preservation of the unity of the Hebrews, with the two and a half tribes guaranteeing their presence at the head of battle.

Dr. Richard Elliott Friedman, Commentary on the Torah, p. 2425-2426

32:28. Moses commanded Eleazar and Joshua … Moses is now directing his successors to handle a matter that will not arise until after Moses himself is dead. This is the first indication that Moses has accepted the reality of his condemnation to die and never set foot in the promised land. So, even though this fact is never mentioned explicitly in this episode, it stands as a powerful background to what is going on in the foreground. And, at the same time, it is a lesson about the preparation of a successor—and the humble acceptance that one’s own time of leadership must end and that someone else will take one’s place. It is a natural inclination to hope that one’s successor will not be as good as oneself. But a wise leader understands that it is in his or her own interest to have a good successor. Thus one’s accomplishments live on and grow.

RA & USCJ, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 954

Rashi, citing Moses ha-Darshan, calculates that, if we omit the first and the last years, when the Israelites were constantly on the move, there were only 20 stations during 38 years. It is wrong to think of Israel as constantly on the march. The list of place-names reminds us that during most of the 40 years in the wilderness, the Israelites were living normally at one oasis or another for years at a time.

Rambam on Numbers 33:1

But the Creator blessed be He, knew that these wonders will be subject to the process which occurs to [all] historical events — that those who hear them will not believe them; and they will think [about these events] that the sojourn of the Israelites in the wilderness was [in a place] near the cultivated settlement, where people can live there, such as the deserts in which the Arabs live today, or [that they stayed in] places where there was plowing and harvesting, or where there were grasses and plants suitable for human consumption, and that there were wells of water in those places. Therefore in order to remove from people’s hearts all such thoughts, and to firmly establish [the truth of] all these miracles, [He recorded] as a [permanent] memorial the [stages of their] journeyings [in the wilderness], so that the future generations would see them and acknowledge the great wonders [entailed] in keeping people alive in such places for forty years.” All these are his words [i.e., the words of Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon].

Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Bamidbar, p. 393-394

The Torah shows us both sides of the same coin. We have been shown an Israel composed of rebels and grumblers, having degenerated from the lofty spiritual plane of their religious experience at mount Sinai, having become slaves to their selfish passions, ungrateful and quarrelsome, hankering after the fleshpots, the onions and garlic of Egypt. Now the Torah changes its note and shows us the other side of the picture, Israel loyal to their trust, following their God through the wilderness in a land that was not sown (Jer. 2). They followed Him in spite of all the odds, through the wilderness of Sinai, the wilderness of Ethan, the wilderness of Paran and the wilderness of Zin as well as through the wilderness of exile amongst the nations down the ages.

Rabbi Shefa Gold, Torah Journeys, p. 170

The word Massei really refers to the 'setting forths' we do. As each stage of a journey comes to an end, we pull up our stakes and move on, initiating a new adventure. At each stage of the journey I become aware of my own transformation. I'm never the same adventurer who set forth last time...We recount the itinerary of our wanderings in order to receive the lessons and blessings of each stage of our journey. As we become aware of the significance of each stage, we can receive its benefit. It is our awareness and appreciation that transform our story into a blessing...We learn from Massei that every stage is essential to the journey. There are no short-cuts; no way to skip over the challenges. Even what seem like mistakes or dead-ends or wrong turns along the way can provide us with the necessary raw ingredients for wisdom.

George Robinson, The Essential Torah, p. 491

The Israelites have come a long way since slavery, but humanity has come even farther since leaving Gan Eden, and at the center of this parashah is a vivid reminder of hard-won progress in human behavior.

Rabbi Shai Held, The Heart of Torah, vol. 2, location 3818, Kindle edition

[The] point is about being present in whatever moment we find ourselves in, and knowing that it, too, can be elevated to the realm of divine service. Numbers 33 lists forty-two places, some of them seemingly eminently forgettable, to teach a subtle but critical lesson: We can know God, and serve God, at every stop along our way.

Rashi on Numbers 35:25

(1) עד מות הכהן הגדול [HE SHALL ABIDE IN IT] UNTIL THE DEATH OF THE HIGH PRIEST — because he serves to cause the Shechinah to dwell in Israel and thereby prolong their days, whilst the murderer serves to make the Shechinah depart from Israel and thereby shortens the days of the living. He is therefore not worthy that he should stand before a High Priest (that he should be anywhere near a High Priest) (Sifrei Bamidbar 160:9). Another explanation why he had to remain there until the High Priest’s death: Because the High Priest should have prayed that this misfortune might never happen in Israel in his days (cf. Makkot 11a).

RA & USCJ, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 964

28. until the death of the high priest Just as the high priest brings atonement for all Israel through the rituals of Yom Kippur, his death brings atonement for the inadvertent manslayer. Some commentators understand this law homiletically: Because the high priest was beloved by all and considered by all Israelites as a virtual member of their family, his death causes them to mourn, eclipsing the mourning for their previous loss and purging them of the wish for revenge in the earlier death. The sages picture the high priest's mother knitting articles of clothing for the exiles in the city of refuge, so that they would think kindly of her and not pray for her son's death to release them from exile.

Rabbi Chaim Meyer Tureff, Ed.D., Recovery in the Torah, p. 90

Whereas an unintentional killer must change his physical location, the person in recovery must change his mental and spiritual location. He most go somewhere else because his 'location' is not working. It is a place where heartache, pain, and torment exist. Shame fills his mental and emotional state. Whereas this new place might be strange and difficult, it is a place of recovery....If the unintentional killer goes back to his city of origin, there is a real chance he will die; so too it is with the recovering addict. The patience, contemplation and work are needed before he can take that journey back to where he was before he was addicted.

RA & USCJ, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 967

11. sons of their uncles Although the daughters could have married anyone from their tribe, they selected husbands from their clan, a fact that also coincides with the law of succession.

RA & USCJ, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 967

This final note in the book of Numbers refers to all the laws given to Israel once they encamped at the steppes of Moab (22:1).

Rabbi Mark Borovitz, Finding Recovery and Yourself in Torah, p.294

This parashah also ends the narrative of the story of our ancestors’ journey from Egypt to the borders of the Promised Land. One of the interesting and telling lessons of our Torah is that it ends without us entering the land. It is, in my opinion, teaching us that the road map for living, which includes all of life’s joys and sorrows, trials and tribulations, doesn’t depend on reaching our “ultimate” goal. What is important, our Torah is teaching us, is how we live on the way to the goal. The end can never justify the means in our tradition.