Matot Masei 5784 Plagues of Vengeance | A Pacifist Commentary

Right at the start of this Parsha, we learn that "avenging the children of Israel on the Midianites" is to be Moses' final assignment from God. What can we understand from this?

The lens of this moment - more than ten months since October 7 and more than 10 months into Israel's "war on Hamas" - requires of me, and perhaps of you, that in 5784, we engage with Parshiot Matot-Masei with a particular sensitivity to the ideas, in our texts and traditions, that privilege vengeance and dispossession.

These themes are dominant in Matot-Masei (along with themes of standards of justice, and the establishment of cities of refuge).

At this moment in history, I suggest that we cannot turn away from what Matot-Masei is saying about vengeance and dispossession. In this commentary, I will explore the theme of vengeance.

Let us take off our rose-colored glasses and continue.

"God's vengeance on Midian"; let us remind ourselves what this is about. For this, we must circle back to the Parshiot Balak and Pinchas [please see my commentary from this year on Parshat Pinchas: Pinchas 5784 Brit Shalom Now More Than Ever

https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/580453?lang=bi

"The matter of Baal Peor". This is worthy of deep exploration; in the setting of my commentary this week, the exploration will be somewhat brief.

In the origin story of the Jewish people, "the matter of Baal Peor" is an important element. Here, it is said to be the basis for the vengeance on all the Midianites.

The verses directly above, from the end of Parshat Balak, show us what this "matter" is. Israelite men engaged in sex with Midianite women; possibly cultic sex, or perhaps...simply plain old sex - no cultic elements required... or perhaps both.

And:

We see here that "the matter of Baal Peor" wasn't only about sex; as this verse from Psalm 106 shows, it was also about participating in non-Jewish / local practices, which wouldn't include sacrifices to the dead. Thus we can read from this that "the matter of Baal Peor" was also about participation in local [Midianite] religious / spiritual practice which diverged from those that were evolving for the Jewish people.

It was the Israelite men who had sex with the Midianite women: what about their responsibility?

Was the sex consensual? Had the Midianite women "seduced" the men? Where is the agency in this picture?

If while in Midian, some Israelite men "regressed" to non-monotheistic practices: who's "to blame"?

Indeed, first "all of the men" who'd been involved were killed: in Parshat Pinchas we read that Moses ordered the fratricidal killing of all Israelite men who'd had sex with Midianite women ("the matter of Baal Peor"); self-directed vengeance.

This is a frenzied scene of collective violence. Please make no mistake: the "plague" that is "checked" by Pinchas' solitary acts of violence - the killing of "the Israelite man and the [Midianite] woman" - is the "plague" of widespread up-close-and-personal killing of Israelites by Israelites.

It is a "plague" of violence that was instigated, "required" by God and Moses.

Can one act of violence ever truly end other acts of violence? Even the briefest of explorations of our Parsha suggests that the answer is: No, it cannot.

Pinchas' zealotry for which he is granted an eternal "covenant of peace" - Brit Shalom - and 24,000 Israelite men are killed to demonstrate.... what, actually? What is the lesson to be learned from this?

Where is the peace, the wholeness? Because now, returning to our Parshiot this week, we will see that much more violence and killing is to be required:

The "operating instructions" tell the Israelites to seek vengeance on the Midianites.

What was the original transgression? Hasn't enough atonement be done? 24,000 Israelite men obliterated?

I suggest that just as the swallowing of Korach "and his band" does not truly obliterate the impulse to question or challenge leadership (as is abundantly evidently throughout the remainder of Tanakh and of Jewish history), so too the murder of 24,000 seems not to adequately address the primal concern of obliterating the other.

Are we seeing here that the origin story of the Jewish people requires an extreme extirpation of any tendencies to not adhere?

And can such tendencies ever truly be extirpated? Annihilated? Can we view the murder of 24,000 of the Israelites' own number as a crimes against their own people?

It is as if the Israelites' coming to terms within themselves with these acts framed as transgressive is no longer a concern. Their responsibility in the pivotal actions in this drama are projected outward, here onto the Midianites, in what can be seen as a well-known psychological phenomenon: projecting unwanted / difficult inner contents out onto "the other".

To my ear, in 5784, Moses' angry words - "You have allowed every female to live!" carry a tone of collective punishment. He seems to be saying that all Midianite women bear responsibility for the alleged actions of some Midianite women (if it's even the case that the Midianite women who'd had sex with Israelite men were culpable in the first place).

So it seems that the origin story of the Jewish people, and our "operating instructions", include the idea that collective punishment is warranted and required. "All of them" should have been extirpated. Not allowed to live.

Collective punishment... a war crime.

As I study these Parshiot this year, it feels uncanny that this very week, the government of the State of Israel "successfully" assassinated Ismail Haniyeh, who has been the President of Hamas and had been serving as the chief peace negotiator representing Hamas in cease fire negotiations.

Many wondered: what does this portend for any hope of diplomacy, if the chief negotiator of "the other side" has been assassinated?

How could the current government of Israel possibly expect Hamas to return to that negotiating table after this?

As a physician and a spiritual leader, I am naming this a symptom of the frenzied delirium of vengeance, and I offer you this poem that I wrote on Shabbat Matot-Masei as a prayer for peace:

better than twenty twenty (unfortunately the peace negotiator)

the dictionary says

the word “assassin”

comes from the Arabic

hashish

(it’s a long story)

then, medieval Latin:

assassinus;

somehow this word

has an attribute of:

worthless person;

a person a thing

that could be killed

or thrown

away

assassin

hashish

something about

the stuporous or

euphoric state

in which it’s fine

to coldly kill

another

frenzied delirium

of vengeance

infinite justifications.

the peace negotiator:

unfortunately

he was

assassinated

the bomb hidden

months before;

stowed away

in that guest house;

resting place

for him

and final resting place

perhaps

for hopes of peace

“it seems to me

we’re in the narrow place

right now”

she said

it’s not

that i’m

depressed

although one

of my dear friends

keeps saying

this is so

no it’s not

that i’m

depressed

but rather:

my vision’s really good

my vision’s better

than twenty twenty

(and after all - it’s twenty-twenty-four, people!

and it’s fifty-seven-eighty-four;

momentous tragic year)

no it’s not

that i’m depressed

but rather

that i see

clear-eyed

and when i see

and when i hear

such news

words such as:

assassination

this word

when I taste

how this word

it means

(from way back)

something about

your life is worthless

something about

stuporous euphoria

delirious frenzy of

vengeance

when i hear

this news

when i taste

these words

i taste

how we numb ourselves

i see the

deadness of soul

(although you think it’s

euphoria)

a bad drug trip

that’s lasted for millenia

a multi millennial bad trip

ever since

or maybe since before

moses was so angry

that not all the women

had been killed

it’s not

that i’m depressed

i’m grieving about

unfortunate tragic facts

such as

assassins

airstrikes

assaults

such as

hostages

prisoners

captives

october 7

september 11

maybe tomorrow

or maybe today

or a thousand years ago

the frenzied delirium

of vengeance

so: it’s not

that i'm depressed;

but rather that

like hannah

(my hebrew namesake)

i’m praying for

i’m looking for

praying for

a true brit shalom

covenant of peace

while there’s still time

while we still can

it’s something about

no more assassins

no more stuporous frenzy

i’m quietly praying

that we could

open our eyes

and truly see each other

it’s something about

i’m quietly praying

something about

i’m quietly praying

praying

praying

for a clear eyed

sober

courageous

and lasting

peace

poem by Anita Josefa (חנה יוספה) Barzman, M.D.

3 August 2024 | 28 Tammuz 5784