Inherent Values: Lessons Learned Along the Way

Inherent Values: Lessons Learned Along the Way
D’var Torah for Mattot/Mass’ei: Numbers 30:2--36:13
By Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman

With this week’s double portion, we close the book of Numbers. One would assume that the concluding chapters would contain some of the most valuable lessons, and that is indeed the case. The teachings of these chapters center on the theme of personal and collective responsibilities.

Chapter 30 begins with a woman’s responsibilities with regard to vows. Realizing that in the ancient world (and, sadly, still so today) women’s rights were severely curtailed, the Torah recognizes a woman’s right to make and uphold personal vows. Significant males (a father or husband) may still have the right to overcome--or disavow--these oaths, but the woman’s independent will is recognized. Unless she is forced to break her vow, she must uphold it; yet she is forgiven if she is forbidden to complete the vow. This logic is behind the halakha (Jewish law) that states that if a person is forced to break a commandment or vow, he or she is not to be held accountable for the sin. Men as well as women are thus recognized as equally accountable for the vows they make to God. Both have the same intrinsic value before God, even if society unfairly places limitations on women’s rights.

Communal responsibility is addressed in chapter 32. As the Israelites complete their approach to the Land of Israel, two and a half tribes (Reuben, Gad and half of the tribe of Manasseh) ask Moses for permission to remain on the eastern shores of the Jordan River. The land there is good for their vast flocks and herds. In verse 16, they lay out their plans: “We will build sheepfolds here for our cattle, and cities for our little ones.”

Moses reminds the tribesmen of their priorities and responsibilities. First and foremost must be the need to stand by the rest of the Israelites in their collective effort to settle in the Promised Land. Why should the families of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh settle in comfort while their brethren carry on the struggle of the whole people? And while he’s at it, Moses reminds the tribesmen of the correct order of their stated priorities. In their request, they mentioned first the cattle, then their children. The reverse, however, is the correct order. After the battle for the Land of Israel is complete, Moses tells them, then and only then may they go back to their holdings on the eastern shores of the Jordan and build cities for their young and sheepfolds for their cattle. The first responsibility is towards the whole people; then come the children; and finally the material possessions. That’s the correct order which they must adhere to. The tribesmen agree to the deal, and Moses is mollified.

For thousands of years Jewish communities existed all over the known world. Trade routes took us as far as China, Yemen, Spain and Germany. The promise of an easier, more comfortable life held special attraction--no matter the occasional anti-Semitic riots or higher taxation that we had to endure. Yet Moses’s lesson in parashat Mattot (“Tribes”), namely to support those Jews living in the Land of Israel, was always taken seriously. Emissaries from Israel traveled to every Jewish community around the globe to raise funds for the impoverished communities living in the Holy Land. To this day, the existence of Israel is largely dependent on the unity of the whole Jewish people. Our responsibilities have always been to our families and our local communities; yet no less so is our obligation to support and be there for our brethren in the Land of Israel. This truth was obvious to Moses 3200 years ago; it’s still true today.

Parashat Mass’ei (“Travels”) begins with a recounting of the 42 stops the Israelites had made along their route from Egypt to Israel. This itinerary is something like a travelogue, a reminder of where we’ve been along the way. Each stop had its lesson: Here Miriam was stricken; here the Israelites rebelled; here they were given the manna, and here Aaron died. But above all, overarching all these lessons is the big teaching that comes in chapter 35: The creation of Levitical Cities. Along their travels, the Israelites witnessed (and sometimes gave in and participated in) the immoral practices of other nations. One of the most horrible of these was the custom of blood vengeance, still practiced to this day in the Middle East. Lex talionis is justice in its simplest and most primitive form: A murderer’s life was forfeit, no questions asked. What the Levitical Cities created was a place of refuge and a chance to appeal. Not every suspect is a murderer; not every killing is bloody murder. Justice is complex and must be accompanied by due process. Justice is one of the greatest teachings of the Torah, and it is restated in all its complexity at this point in the book of Numbers in order to keep it front and center in our consciousness.

The final chapter of Numbers returns us to the Daughter of Zelofehad. Their case was stated last week: It was the case that determined the rights of women to inherit property. Again as at the beginning of Mattot, the chapter pleads the case of some of the weakest members of society--women. This chapter forms another bookend, figuratively and literally, reminding us of the inherent value of each and every human being. Patriarchal societies make it too easy to neglect and forget this essential value. But it was women who were responsible for keeping Moses alive to begin with. Now it was women who reminded Moses of their significance to the collective life and heritage of the entire Jewish people.

“Kol Yisrael ‘areivin zeh ba-zeh”--all Israel are responsible one for another, teach the ancient rabbis. It is all too easy, in the life-long struggle for existence, to forget that others around us have equal rights and equal privileges. It is all too easy to think only of ourselves and our needs. This week’s double portion, Mattot/Mass’ei, reminds us that as Jews we have greater responsibilities and higher goals. Our tasks do not end with supplying our own needs, or even those of our children and businesses. There is the wider community around us, and ultimately the Jewish people. In serving God, if we serve only our own needs, we fall short. We are, after all, one people. We may be separated by space and time, but there is something greater than all that which unites us all. In this great puzzle, every piece counts. The moment we forget this, we might as well give up and disappear. But as long as we remember the hard-earned lessons we learned along our history, as long as we keep in mind the huge truth that each of us has the same value in God’s eyes, that each of us counts and matters in this huge universe, then our existence warrants continuity.

Those are the lessons of the Book of Numbers, the fourth book in the Torah.

© 2010 by Boaz D. Heilman