The Source of Hope
Jul 21, 2012 By Mychal Springer | Commentary | Masei | Mattot | Tishah Be'av
In a dramatic reversal of the ordinary mourning process, 鈥巜hich begins in its starkest intensity and lifts over time as the mourners are comforted, 鈥巘hese are weeks of increasing mourning that move, inevitably, to the destruction of 鈥嶨od’s house and the banishment of the People into exile. The prophetic readings drive 鈥巋ome that we have brought this horrible tragedy on ourselves.
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鈥淭hey Said鈥�/鈥淭hey Said鈥�
Jul 2, 2013 By Walter Herzberg | Commentary | Masei | Mattot
In this week鈥檚 parashah, we are told that the children of Reuben and Gad 鈥渉ad a very great multitude of cattle鈥� (verse 1) and the land of Gilead on the eastern side of the Jordan was an excellent 鈥減lace for cattle.鈥� They, therefore, hoped that Moses would permit them to stay on the eastern side of the Jordan and not cross over to Canaan/Israel proper when the time would arrive to enter the Land.
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Mattot-Masei
Jan 1, 1980
3 If a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath imposing an obligation on himself, he shall not break his pledge; he must carry out all that has crossed his lips.
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Covenant and Cattle
Jul 17, 2015 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Masei | Mattot
As the Children of Israel prepare to enter the Promised Land, their backs to the wilderness after 40 years of wandering, the Torah, too, seems to change direction鈥攁nd even tone. It trades instructions for the priests and narratives of Israelite disobedience for details of land distribution, inheritance and other laws that will regulate life inside the Land. It is as if the Torah wants to underline the transition about to occur鈥攆rom wilderness to settlement, disorder to order鈥攂y changing the visual image before the reader鈥檚 eyes.
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