Mattot-Mase’ei (Numbers 33-36)
LA JOLLA, California — I have chosen three passages from this double parsha, for comparison with ancient non-Israelite practices, from what I could find in internet sources, concerning votive offerings, cruelty, and military campaigns.
I. Numbers 30: 2-12 Moses: “If a man makes a vow…or takes an oath, he must carry out all that has crossed his lips…If…a woman makes a vow…(not unnulled by father or husband)…it…shall stand…”
Such a situation was the Israelite counterpart of votive persons i.e. those who made vows and/or made votive offerings, commonly found in ancient Near Eastern religions. Some offerings were intended as wishes for a favor.
A votive offering was the deposit of one or more objects, without the intention of recovery or re-use, into a sacred place for religious purposes.
This practice began early in antiquity, date unknown. In India, the votive could be an elaborate domed structure dedicated to the Buddha. In Europe, votive deposits are known from as early as the Neolithic period (10,000-3500 BCE), and could include armor and weapons, fertility and cult symbols, coins, various treasures, and animals large and small. Votive offerings were buried or submerged into bodies of water or peat bogs. In certain cases entire ships were sacrificed into a bog. The hoard typically was smashed to assure it could not be restored for use. Today, such items have been discovered in rivers, lakes, and wetlands, etc.
In Meso-America votive deposits have been recovered at the Olmec ruins in Southern Mexico (c. 1600 BCE) and the Maya Sacred site at Chichen Itza (c. 850-1500 CE).
Votive offerings have been found in ancient Sparta, from the 5th Century BCE. Some are inscribed, indicating the presence of literacy by then.
A variation of votive practice is the curse-tablet, a small sheet of tin or lead on which a message wishing misfortune upon someone was inscribed. Such a relic seeking restoration of stolen property suggests the invocation of divine power to arrest the thief. [1]
In the Torah, a votive offering (nadar) is mentioned in Leviticus 22:23.
The Nazarites typified a more extreme votive practice, which included prohibitions of contact with a corpse and consumption of grape products and unclean food.
Vows such as indicated in the above passage were made without commitment to a full Nazarite status. [2]
II. Numbers 31:1-17 “The Lord spoke…Avenge…on the Midianites…so …dispatched a thousand from each tribe…and slew every male…(and) every male among the children, and every woman who has known a man carnally…”
I found plenty of vengefulness and cruelty in the myths of pagan gods. To start with, gods were often born out of violent sex. Aphrodite, Zeus, Athena, Hades, Ares, and the rest of Olympian deities were birthed from the castrated genitals of Uranus, which fell in Thalassa’s open womb. Uranus’ castrated phallus impregnated her and out popped Aphrodite, etc.
The gods proceeded to express brutality. Rebellion and war run riot through the rise and fall of the gods. There is, for example, the chaining of Prometheus to eternal torment, and Hades’ rape of Persephone, etc. [3]
III. Numbers 33:1-50 “These were the marches of the Israelites who started out from the land of Egypt…(tedious lengthy detail follows)…and (finally) encamped at the steppes of Moab, at the Jordan near Jericho…”
Such summaries of movement and military encounters is also found in ancient Egyptian and Macedonian records.
The first detailed such record, accepted by historians as a true history, is that of Pharaoh Thutmose III (1475-1425 BCE) in a major campaign to put down Canaanite revolts. His scribe kept a daily journal on parchment. Later in his 42nd regnal year, Thutmose III had his partisans inscribe the military exploits into the walls of a temple at Karnak. They describe in lavish detail 14 campaigns led by Thutmose III in the Levant. The records show booty gained, tribute received from the conquered regions, and offerings to the gods. Further, they depict international diplomacy, via gifts from Babylon, the Hittite Empire, and others. [4]
Later, the military career of Alexander the Great (356-324 BCE) was also recorded in detail. He started in Greece, as an 18-year old soldier (338 BCE) under his father Philip II, and took over in 336 BCE after Philip’s assassination. His career of practically non-stop conquest went through Asia Minor (today’s Turkey), onto Persia, then onto the Mediterranean coast (Phoenician, Syria, and Egypt), and finally into India. Along the way, he founded numerous cities, with variations on the name Alexandria.
His untimely death at 32, was preceded by fever, abdominal pain, and a progressive, symmetrical, ascending paralysis. This latter has recently been attributed by a scholar and practicing clinician to be a form of Guillain-Barre Syndrome, following an infection with Campylobacter pylori. [5]
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[1] https://www2.gracenotes.info/topics/nazarites.html
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Votive_offering
[3] https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2019/03/lust-sex-war-on-depravity-pagan-gods-paul-krause.html
[4] Wikipiedia, Annals of Thutmose III, last edited 19 May 2020
[5] https://www.history.com/news/alexander-the-great-death-cause-discover
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Irv Jacobs is a retired medical doctor who delights in Torah analysis. He often delivers a drosh at Congregation Beth El in La Jolla, and at his chavurah.