Matos-Masei - 4th Portion

Join me as we learn Chumash for Wednesday Parshas Matos and Massei, the two Torah readings of Matos and Massei combined. We are now at chapter 32, verse 20. Yesterday we began as the the tribes of Reuben and Gad approached Moshe and asked them if asked Moshe if they can stay on the other side of the Jordan and Moshe responded that how is it that you want to do the same thing like your forefathers did, stay in the land of the desert? But they said they will commit to going into the land of Israel together with the Jewish people on the front lines while their family stays in fortified cities until they return and they will not return until all the communities and the Jewish people are settled in the land of Israel. Today we continue with Moshe making that requirement making that a condition. This Torah reading as well takes us into the following Torah reading in the final Torah reading of the book of Numbers, the travels of the Jewish people as enumerated in the Torah reading of Massei. Chapter 32, verse 20. Moshe's response. Vayomer aleihem Moshe, and Moshe said to them, im ta'asuna hadavar hazeh, if you're going to do the following, im teholzu lifnei Hashem, if you will arm yourselves in battle to go before God, lamilchama, in war. Verse 21. Verse 21, venich va'avru lachem kol halutzim, es hayarden, and all of your armed men will cross the Jordan lifnei Hashem, before God, ad herisho es oyevav mipanav, until he gets driven out his enemies before him. Verse 22. Venichbesha ha'aretz lifnei Hashem, and the land will be conquered before God, The after chuva and only afterwards you will return for you send the key and I shall be Israel and you'll be clean and you'll be freed meaning that this will show uh you'll be clean of your obligation and you'll be freed of your obligation from before God and before the Jewish people. The whole lot of this is the same and then this land can be for you as an inheritance as a heritage I shall before God and you don't and for you as well. Verse 23 however if you will not do so as you promised you know you have sinned against God and you have you will know that there will be a punishment for the sin that which will find you. Verse 24. Build for yourselves cities for your wives and children and and and barns for your sheepfolds for your sheep. And and keep to the words that you say and keep to what you have promised. Rashi will say I am save a zoom a lot of him column. The word say I am we are cuz over here there's an extra olive in the word so he says it's coming from the word say I am meaning plural of sheep. The fact that there's an olive afterwards it's coming from the word say I am a lot of him column meaning many sheep. Generally why is there an olive there shouldn't be an olive that separates between the noon and the and the reason why there's an olive here in this word in the word say I am after the noon is cuz instead of the hay for say I am meaning like for your for your sheep. We say this I learned this from Rashi. Over here meaning that there are two uh root two words that two root words that follow the same say I am and say I am and both of them mean the same thing. You get to me pick him to see And follow the words that you say to God you accepted upon yourself to cross the Jordan until the land of Israel is conquered and split. They requested they have to conquer it and only afterwards they can return. However, they accepted upon themselves and extended it until every single Jew will be settled in the land of Israel. They They accepted upon themselves to stay in the land of Israel an extra seven years for the seven years that it would take for the land to be divided and that's exactly what they did when it came time for doing it. The people of God and Reuben said to Moses saying your servants will do exactly as your master commands. Why does it say in singular the term not in plural? They all answered as one. Verse 26. Our children, our wives, and our cattle, and all our all our livestock you shall will stay there in the cities of Gilead. Servants will go as all armed men before God like our master has spoken. Verse 28. Moses and Moses then commanded and Joshua the son of Nun. Joshua the son of Nun and the leaders of the Jewish people concerning them. About them, about their condition. He appointed Joshua in the same way we find that God will wage war so to over here meaning that he appointed that be responsible to take care of this. Verse 29. By the hand Said to them that if the people of God and Reuben eat them, they will go across with you the Jordan each one that's armed for war before God when the sat then you can give that the land of Gilead for a heritage. And if they will not go together they will not cross the Jordan together with you as armed men to make it and then they will have to receive their possession amongst the rest of the people in the land of Canaan. Interesting to note that over here when the Talmud ever talks about a condition it talks about a condition like the condition of the people of God and Reuben who has a twofold condition meaning if you do A and if you don't what the consequences are as well. Verse 30 verse 30 if they do not go together with you then they will take a land part of the land of Canaan as their heritage. Verse 31. And the people of God and Reuben answered saying God whatever God has spoken to his servants came NASA so we will do and follow. Verse 32. We will go and before everybody as armed men before God and it's Canaan to the land of Canaan. However, our estate of inheritance will be on the other side of the Jordan on this side of the Jordan. Rashi that we take upon ourselves and we take this property and in our in our domain will be this inheritance will be for us on this side of the Jordan. Verse 33. gave to the people of God of the name Reuben and to the people of Reuben and to half of the tribe of and Joseph the son of Joseph the kingdom of the king Sihon the king of Amori and the kingdom of Og the king of Bashan the land and all its cities around it in the in within the borders of the cities of the surrounding the surroundings territories around it. Verse 34. And the people of God built the cities of Dibon, Ataroth, and Aroer. Verse 35. as well as the cities of Ataroth, Shophan, Jaazer, and Jogbehah 36 And the descendant as well as Beth-nimrah, Beth-haran making them into the fortified cities for the livestock pens for their animals. Rashi This safe passage must have been this end of the verse where it tells us about that they made the pens goes on the beginning of the verse. And that the people of God, why did they build these cities and make these pens was for their animals and for their families. Verse 37. And the people of Reuben and the people of Reuben built the cities built the cities of Heshbon and Beth-peor Verse 38. as well as they have also built Nebo, Baal-meon and the names of the other ones they have changed where they changed them as Sibmah and they changed them because as we'll see they were originally named after idols and Sibmah because they changed all the names of the cities that they built to emphasize that they've now come into new possession by giving it a new name shows that it's yours as Rashi explains. Rashi tells us here that they were called by the name of the very about the name of the desire. These were all names of idolatry. How you made them by the name of the desire of the children of Ham and the Amorites generally would call the names of their cities by the names of their idolatry. We see this today as well. There's other places as Barbara as John's and all the different places that you have They named the cities of Niru and the people of Ruben changed their names to other names. That's what Musabi's name that's what the word Musabi's name means that they changed the names of the lots of wine Musabi's name after they named it something else. Verse Sifma What this is also this is what is he telling us about Sifma? I'm going to so too when he's telling us about the first verse that they built the city of Sifma which is just the same city as Sifma just that it did not have a changed name. Verse 30 nine And the descendants of Machir the son of Manasseh went to the northern part of Gilead and they conquered it and they drove out the Amorites that were there that were in it. Rashi The word means that they drove them out from there even though usually the word means to inheritance but the word can also come from the word in other words to drive out from the word in Aramaic which means to drive someone out. Verse 40 I eat in my second and Manasseh motion gave the Gilead part property to Machir the son of Manasseh, and he settled there. And he went and he conquered the villages that were there. And he called them the villages of Yoel. 41. Chavat Yair Kafar Naim means the small little villages that were around there and they meaning that they did not have walls around them so therefore it's called the village. He didn't have any sons so therefore the way he felt to perpetuate his legacy Chrome B'Shmai and he called the cities by his name to continue his legacy that people should remember him as he didn't have any children. For Novah 42. For Novah Novah went and conquered the cities of Novah and its city and its surrounding villages. And he called it Novah and he called it Novah B'Shmai Novah after his name. Rashi. Lo in Map Yair. This Lo does not have a hey where you would go huh like for er Over here the word Lo. Why doesn't he have the word Lo? Why does not have a dot in the hey? According to some of the commentaries of the Darshon is that we see that it did not last in my with his name because later on it was taken from them and therefore it's without the dot meaning he did not get to keep it eventually. Rashi asks on this interpretation how can you have that the same word very similar to it should mean the same thing like to build and not to have with the same exact word Lo and with a hey with a dot in the hey without a dot in the hey. And therefore how would you know which one to explain it and how to translate what that word would mean? And he brings the example of Boaz, which is literally "to build by us to build for her a home." And that you can't explain that it's missing the hey, so therefore it says it shouldn't have it. This now takes us into the second Torah reading of Massei, which begins and tells us about the travels of the Jewish people, a synopsis of the exodus of the Jewish people from the time they left Egypt and up until where they are now. Ayleh Massei Bnei Yisrael, chapter 33, verse 1. Ayleh Massei Bnei Yisrael, these are the travels of the Jewish people asher yatze'u miMitzrayim, that left the land of Egypt according to their under according to their tribal troops l'yad Moshe v'Aharon, by the leadership of Moshe and Aharon. Rashi, Ayleh Massei. L'mah nishtanu hamasa'ot ha'eileh, why does God have to enumerate all the different travels that the Jewish people went through? L'hodi'a chasadav she'alach im Yisrael, to tell us the kindness of God af al pi she'nikhnesu la'aretz, that even though God decreed upon the Jewish people that they would wander l'taltelem al y'dei hamima u'varad, they would wander in the desert for 40 years. Lo tzei'mar she'einam mitaltelim mas'a mas'a kol arba'im shanah, you should not say that they went and they were wandered for the entirety of the 40 years v'lo hayah lahem menuchah, and therefore they did not have any peace she'harei, because if you do the calculation ein kan arba'im, ein kan ela arba'im u'shtei masa'ot, they only traveled 42 stops. She'heim arba'ah asar, the 14 of them she'kulam b'shanah rishonah kedem mitzrayim, 14 of those 42 stops were even before the terrible decree was put upon them. She'min min ha'shanah rishonah ad Ramseis, ad Har Sinai, ad Rissah, u'miRissah ad Har Sha'ul, from from Ramseis, which means from when they left Egypt, until they came to Rissah, from Rissah where the spies were sent from. She'ne'emar, as it says "v'achar ha'am nas'u miKhatzeirot", and afterwards they left Khatzeirot, which was then v'kaneh miKhatzeirot el Rissah, over here it says they left and they came to Rismond. So we know that Rismond is the same place in the foreign desert. So then from those 28 year 28 travels that means you have now 42 minus 14 you're left with 28. Eight of those stops were after Aaron died. Aaron was buried into the plains of Moab. We're all in the 40th year. So you have now 14 before the 40 before the decree eight after the decree. That means if you take the all entire 38 years that God said that they would be wandering they only wandered for actually 20 different stops. This is how he explains. He explained Russia another explanation. He gives the parable to a king that is someone sick. He took journey to heal him. Once they were returning on the journey his father started counting all the stops they went through. He said come here we slept or here we stayed. Over here we got cold it was a very difficult journey because and all the different places so too when God takes the Jewish people and he enumerates all the different details that happened to them and say thank God now we're on the way to healing to the land of Israel but remember all the different episodes that we had to go through to get to this journey. He wrote their starting points according to their journeys according to the word of God and this is their journeys and with their starting points. Verse three "Yisrael Ramses, the first thing they did was travel from Ramses. That was on the first month of Yam on the 15th day of the first month the day after the bringing the Pascal sacrifice the Jewish people went out triumphantly in front of the eyes of all the Egyptians." Four, "At the time the Egyptians were busy burying their dead." "Who were their dead? All the firstborn of and in their gods God has done destroyed their deity their deities." "Through the they were busy mourning." And over here the Torah continues to go through the details of all the places they went to. "The Jewish people then left Ramses they rested in Succoth traveled from Succoth rested in Etham which is at the edge of the desert." "They traveled from Etham and then they were settled at the place right by Pihahiroth which is by which faces and they camped before Migdol." Verse eight, "traveled from they traveled through the sea into the desert traveled for three days in the desert of Etham and they camped in Marah." "They then traveled from Marah and in Elim there were 12 wells of water and 70 dates 70 palm trees." "They camped there they traveled from Elim and they camped by the Sea of Reeds." "They traveled from the Sea of Reeds and they camped at the Midbar Sin Sin desert Vayisu, Midbar Sin, they traveled from the Sin desert Vayakhanu b'Dofkah and they camped in Dofkah. Vayisu m'Dofkah, they traveled from Dofkah Vayakhanu b'Alush they camped in Alush. Vayisu m'Alush, they would travel from Alush Vayakhanu b'Refidim and they camped in Refidim. Vayikhalu sham mayim lishot sham while they were in Refidim, there was no water for the people to drink there. Vayisu m'Refidim, they traveled from Refidim Vayakhanu b'Midbar Sinai and they camped at Sinai desert. Vayisu m'Midbar Sinai, they camped they traveled from the Sinai desert Vayakhnu Vayakhanu b'Kivrot HaTa'avah and they camped at the Kivrot HaTa'avah. That was the Kivrot HaTa'avah. Uh the Vayisu m' 17, Vayisu m'Kivrot HaTa'avah, they traveled from Kivrot HaTa'avah Vayakhanu b'Khatzerot and they camped in Khatzerot. Vayisu m'Khatzerot, they traveled from Khatzerot Vayakhanu b'Rithmah and they camped in Rithmah. The word Rithmah, the real reason why it's called Rithmah is al shem lashon harah shel ham'raglim because of the name of the the because the m'raglim spoke evil talk against the land of Israel. Therefore, we the word the Rithmah shenemar May yitnu l'kha mayusav l'shon r'miyah comes from the word what will you say words of deceit. Eikh tishbi'i gibor sh'nei r'miyah gakhalei retamim. So, too, you have another word another time that it says in Tehillim as well the words of what purpose do you have of saying evil and the words gakhalei retamim are coals that are burning on the inside because since they are destroyed on the on the outside. They begin being burnt on the outside so therefore they're very hot and incensed on the inside. We continue with the travels. The verse 19, Vayisu m'Rithmah, they traveled from Rithmah Vayakhanu b'Rimmon Peretz and they camped in Rimmon Peretz. Vayisu m'Rimmon Peretz, and they traveled from Rimmon Peretz Vayakhanu b'Livnah and they camped in Livnah. Vayisu m'Livnah, they traveled from Livnah Vayakhanu b'Rissah and they camped in Rissah. Vayisu m'Rissah, they would travel from Rissah Vayakhanu b'Kehelathah and they camped in Kehelathah. Vayisu m'Kehelathah, they traveled from Kehelathah Vayakhanu b'Har Shafer and they camped in Har Shafer. Vayisu m'Har Shafer, they Vayisu m'Kharadah, they traveled from Kharadah. Vayisu m'Kharadah, they traveled from Kharadah. They camped in Makheloth. Vayisu m'Makheloth, they camped they traveled from Makheloth. And they camped in Sachoth. Vayisu m'Tachath, they traveled from Tachath. And they camped in Tarach. Vayisu m'Tarach, they traveled from Tarach. They traveled and camped in Mithkah. They traveled from Mithkah. Vayakhnu b'Khashmonah and they camped in Khashmonah. They traveled from Khashmonah. And they camped in Mitseroth. Vayisu m'Mitseroth, they left Mitseroth. And they camped in B'nei Yaakan. They traveled from B'nei Yaakan. They camped in Kheroth Gidgad. Vayisu m'Kheroth Gidgad, they traveled from Kheroth Gidgad. They camped in Yotvathah. They traveled from Yotvathah. They camped in Avronah. They traveled from Avronah. Vayakhnu m'Etzion Gaver, they camped in Etzion Gaver. Vayisu m'Etzion Gaver, they traveled from Etzion Gaver. And they camped in Midbar Tzin, the Tzin desert, which is Kadesh, called Kadesh as well. Vayisu m'Kadesh, they traveled from Kadesh. They camped by Hor HaHar. At the edge of the land of Edom. At the edge of the land of Edom. Vayaal Aharon HaKohen. And Aaron the Kohen, the high priest, went up Hor HaHar, to the mountain of Hor HaHar, al pi Hashem, by the command of God. Vayamoth Sham, and he died there. This was the 40th year l'tzeit Mitzrayim, Mitzrayim to when the Jewish people left Egypt. B'Chodesh HaKhamishi, on the fifth month, b'Echad l'Chodesh, on the first day of the month. Al pi Hashem, what does it mean by the verse of by the mouth of God? So, Rashi explains M'lamed shemeith b'neshikah, this teaches us that he died a kissing death. That God told him to close his eyes, no pain and no suffering, and his soul left his body. Verse 39, Aaron was Shana, Aaron was years old when he passed on Mount of Hor. Verse 40. And the Canaanite the king of Arad heard. And this who was dwelling in the south of Canaan bears Canaan the land of Canaan the way beneath Israel that the Jewish people are at Hor and therefore he comes out to attack them. Why does he tell us about why does he juxtapose the concept of the Canaanite hearing? What did they hear? And therefore he tells us they heard that he saw that he has more they heard about the passing of Aaron. Because when Aaron passed the clouds of glory that were protecting the Jewish people have then moved since moved away. So therefore he knew that he had a chance therefore he believed oh now he has this chance to be able to attack the Jewish people and therefore the Torah writes about it again. Verse 41. They journeyed from Hor they traveled from Hor. They traveled from Zalmonah they traveled from Zalmonah. They traveled from Punon they traveled from Punon. They traveled from Oboth they traveled from Oboth. They traveled from Iye Abarim they traveled from Iye Abarim which is at the of the boundary of Moab. Rashi Iye Abarim means a place of destroyed homes and a pile of stones. Like I have said. Like we see in Micah where it talks about the Samaria fell in the hands of Sennacherib was completely destroyed. Some was in Jerusalem that they made Jerusalem into rubble. Verse 46. Verse 45 they traveled from Iye they traveled from Iye they traveled from Iye they traveled from Dibon-gad they traveled from Dibon-gad they traveled from Dibon-gad they traveled from Almon-diblathaim They traveled from Almon-diblathaim they traveled from Almon-diblathaim they traveled from they traveled from Iye Abarim which is by Iye Abarim they traveled from Iye void him we have they camped in the plains of Moab which is by the Jordan by the Jordan which is by the opposite Jericho. Verse 49. They then camped by the Jordan base I use your mice. Then in camp and extended from base I use your mice until at of a lot sheet him until of all the plains of sheet him by our base my of the plains of Moab. Rashi the base I use your mice kind of met her over here it's telling us a sheer mark in Israel the size and the magnitude of the Jewish people's camps. Schneiderman was 12 meals on my rubber band I lost my rubber band I saw the place of where the Torah describes that the Jewish people were in camp I measured it and I see it was 12 meal of a lot sheet him mission shall sheet him with the plains of sheet him of all the way it was called of all. This concludes the fourth Torah reading partial matters and mercy combined.