Parashot Matot-Massei
By Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D.
SAN DIEGO — When you walk into a synagogue what do you feel? This week’s double reading, Matot and Massei, on the Shabbat that is the first day of the auspicious month of Av, offers us some insight into this question. After all, these readings teach of a new phase in the history of our heritage, the settlement period when we began to find permanent homes for ourselves. Is that what your synagogue is for you?
When I enter a synagogue, I seek to feel an authentic connection, a well-anchored link and emotional stir to my spiritual and religious heritage and ancestry, as well as a sense of harmony, reception, and attachment. A home in which, regardless of how one gets there, unrelated to what kosher symbol one adheres to or rejects, notwithstanding what one wears, joy and sorrow are amiably shared in a genuine, heartfelt way.
Isn’t this what our ancestors were seeking for 40 years while wandering in the wilderness and as they stood at the shores of the River Jordan? As we recite the phrase, Chazak, chazak, v’nitchazeik, “Be strong, be strong, and let us strengthen one another,” our custom when we complete reading a Book of Torah, in this case the book of B’midbar, it’s clear that the Israelites were searching with continued strength for a similar home.
Oh sure, we can discuss the meticulous list of every encampment in the desert, the vows, the Midianite wars, the laws of inheritance, cities of refuge that are described in this week’s readings. But there is something particularly important these parashot speak to in our current times, that is, just what is our place of refuge, our promised land, our journey…and our synagogue?
We read in Parsha Masei of the 42 stops that the Jewish people made on their path from Egypt to Israel. From a few days to weeks, months and more than a year, these stops reflect the 40 years of our wandering.
I was struck by the rulings of the Rambam and the Shulchan Aruch about this comprehensive list of stops along the way in the desert. The Shulchan Aruch rules that number of lines in a Torah parchment should be 42, equal to the number these stops. In contrast, the Rambam rules that each parchment should be no less than 48 lines, since he views that the Torah should include the 42 stops but also the six times they retreated along the way and reexamined the errors they made at those revisited stops. Perhaps that’s a valued lesson on life…we move forward but we need to step back and reevaluate our blunders.
One blunder we often make is how we welcome people into our lives. Do we make room for the well-meaning yet “different,” tribes of Reuben and Gad in our synagogues today? Recall that Reuben and Gad thought differently from Moses, asking for permission to settle on the east bank of the Jordan instead of going along with the rest of the Israelites entering Israel. And what was Moses’ response? “Moses said to the descendants of Gad and Reuben, ‘Shall your brethren go to war while you stay here?’” And later Moses calls them a breed of sinners, “And behold, you have now risen in place of your fathers as a society of sinful people, to add to the wrathful anger of the Lord against Israel.”
But these tribes, as Nachmanides and Abravenel teach, did not want to separate themselves as others pointed fingers and claimed. Indeed, they promised to serve as “shock-troops” in the front of the attack and shared in the risks and dangers that all others in the battle shared. They were accepted into the fabric of the community, and permitted to settle on the east bank, outside of Israel. Moses found a way to be inclusive, convivial, amenable, and receptive. Are we? And do we make assumptions about the intentions of others that are often incorrect and lead us to assume that only our intentions are pure while those of others are reprehensible and wicked, as Moses demonstrated in dealing with Reuben and Gad?
Are the doors of our synagogues genuinely and completely wide open, inclusively, and warmly, truly accepting all on equal footing, even modern day “Reubens and Gads”? After all, who is perfect? Are we missing parts of our community today, indeed are we turning away members of our community, explicitly or implicitly, from our synagogues? The new Pew Research Center report of nearly 5,000 Jewish American adults from November, 2019 to June, 2020 found that “about half of Orthodox Jews in the U.S. say they have ‘not much’ (23%) or ‘nothing at all’ (26%) in common with Reform Jews, and a majority of Reform Jews reciprocate those feelings: 39% say they have ‘not much’ in common with the Orthodox and 21% say they have ‘nothing at all’ in common.”
Are our leaders learning from Matot – Massei and focused on how to connect the disconnected, to become more embracing, more openhearted, and more unifying? Can we add to our spiritual maturity and “add more space between the match and the fuse,” as Alan Morinis, Mussar teacher notes. We can become more like Moses and ultimately have UNconditional acceptance for others, or we can be more like the those who hold negative judgment in their hearts. The choice is entirely ours.
The future of our synagogues is in our hands and in our hearts. The lyrics of Yehuda’s “Kol Yisroel Chaverim” speak to the lesson in this week’s parashat:
“And when the winds of hatred blow
Please ask yourselves my friend
Have you done all that
You could have done today
V’ahavta L’reacha Kamocha
Kol Yisroel Chaverim…we are all one family, Kol Yisroel Chaverim.”
The Slonimer Rebbe, Rabbi Sholom Noach Berezovsky, זצוקללה״ה, (zekher tzadik v’kadosh livrakha,l’chayei ha’olam ha-ba ) with whom I had the privilege and honor of meeting and discussing mussar many years ago in his yeshiva in Israel, in teaching about the “cities of refuge,” describes these as places where those who’ve committed manslaughter can find safety and a place to reflect. Today, our synagogues, temples and shuls are places where we can take refuge from a stress-filled world in our prayer, our faith, our holiness, our friends, our community, and our connection with Hashem. And when we wish each other “Shabbat Shalom,” and “Shavua Tov” we know we are given an opportunity to start again on our journey, on our path to becoming the best we can be.
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Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D., prepares a weekly D’var Torah for Young Israel of San Diego, where he and his family are members. They are also active members of Congregation Adat Yeshurun. He may be contacted via michael.mantell@sdjewishworld.com
Really appreciate this article. Thank you.