I speak, therefore I am!
The Gemara Baba Metzia (58b) tells us that when Rav Dimi arrived to Babylon from Eretz Yisrael, Abaye asked him: "About what are they careful in the West - what Mitzvah do they especially adhere to?
The response was "they take extra special care not to embarrass others in public".
Why was it that they were specifically cautious in Eretz Yisrael regarding this and surely this prohibition also applies to Chutz La’aretz?
Our Sages teach us of a critical story that occurred close to the destruction of the Temple.
The nation had fallen to a low spiritual state characterized by baseless hatred. The story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza was the pivotal event that ignited Emperor Nero's rage and caused the destruction of the Holy Temple:
A Jew who had a friend named Kamtza and an enemy named Bar Kamtza made a feast. He told his servant to invite Kamtza, but by mistake the servant invited Bar Kamtza. Bar Kamtza took this as a gesture of forgiveness and put on his finest clothes and attended the feast. But when the host noticed Bar Kamtza, he demanded that
The Netziv delivers a wonderful halachic explanation of pasuk 53 of perek 33. The pasuk reads ‘you will/shall inherit the Land and dwell in it, for I (HaShem) have given the Land to you to inherit it.’ It all seems a bit repetitive? And why does HaShem stress the fact that He has given the Land to us - what does that have to do with our taking possession of the Land? The Netziv explains that Bnei Yisrael needed to perform an act of acquisition to Eretz Yisrael to effect its change in ownership. Given that no money and no contract was going to pass between Klal Yisrael and the nations which currently occupied the Land, the only viable act of acquisition of land remaining was a chazaka, whereby part of the land is improved or changed in some way by the new owners - thus symbolising a certain element of control that goes with ownership. Anyway, the problem is that when acquiring more than one field, a chazaka must be performed to each individual field to acquire the entire land mass. So how were Klal Yisrael supposed to acquire Eretz Yisrael - it would take some time to perform a chazaka on each field? Here, says the Netziv, lies the key to understanding our pasuk. For only in the case of a sale must one perform a chazaka to each individual field - but if the land is being given as a present then one act of chazaka on one field is sufficient to acquire the entire land mass. This is why HaShem told us that He is giving us the Land - for since the Land is a present then we will be able to acquire (‘inherit’) it with ease. Thus, the words of the pasuk ‘I have given the Land to you to inherit it’ refer to the facilitation of our making an act of acquisition on the Land to own it.
Referring to some of the consequences of sinning in Eretz Yisrael, the final pasuk of perek 35 reads ‘do not make the Land in which you dwell impure…’ This is but one illustration of the special connection Klal Yisrael have to the Land of Israel - a unique relationship whereby what we do affects the Land itself. In this context it refers to our sinning causing the Land to degenerate into becoming impure, but there are other examples too. On a physical level, only when Klal Yisrael occupy Eretz Yisrael does the Land bloom. Across history the Land has become relatively infertile when occupied by other nations, but when we gradually came back to the Land from the 1900s onwards then our Land started to bloom again - crops were grown and the Land showed its fertileness. Similarly, on a spiritual note, our being in the Land seems to infuse the Land with an added dimension of kedusha which effects certain mitzvos which apply there. Thus, the mitzvos of Yovel and Shmittah (mide’oraisa) are dependent upon the majority of Jews living in Eretz Yisrael. In summary, note the special bond between Klal Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael.
As its name implies, Massei repeats the various journeys that Bnei Yisrael traversed in the desert. Why are these journeys repeated? Rashi (33:1) writes that this serves to highlight and revise HaShem’s chesed to us in that we were made to travel constantly - we camped at some places for long times rather than staying only briefly in each place before setting off again. The Sforno adds that this enumeration of the journeys extols the merit of Klal Yisrael too; for it shows their willingness to have ‘followed’ HaShem out into the desert upon His command - completely relying on Him for their needs.
"And Moshe wrote their going forth to their journeys... and these are their journeys to their going forth." Why does the pasuk start by saying "Motza'ayhem LiMasayhem" and then at the end of the pasuk in the reverse "Masayhem L'Motza'ayhem"?
Kli Yakar explains, Klal Yisroel traveled 42 journeys during their 40 yrs in the Midbar. Most of them where traveling forward in the direction from Mitzrayim towards Eretz Yisroel. However there were times that Klal Yisroel sinned and set out to head back in the opposite direction, towards Mitzrayim. The term "Motza'ayhem" in the pasuk is referring to leaving their place of origin - Mitzrayim. And the term "LiMasayhem" is referring to the place of their destination - Eretz Yisroel.
The pasuk starts by saying , these were their journeys - "Motza'ayhem LiMasayhem" - which most of them were going in the direction from their place of origin - Mitzrayim ("Motza'ayhem), to "LiMasayhem" their destinantion - Eretz Yisroel. This was all "Al Pi Hashem"
By the time we get to parshas Mattos it is clear that Bnei Yisrael are on the verge of entering Eretz Yisrael. Most of the sedra deals with preparations and laws of the Land; HaShem delineates the borders of the Land, there is a summary of the journeys we have undertaken from Egypt until now, we are told to set aside cities of refuge (for someone who kills unintentionally) and cities for the leviim, and the sedra ends with certain rules about inheriting the land and who will do the job of apportioning it amongst Bnei Yisrael. The only part of the sedra that does not have an open reference to Eretz Yisrael is the first section - vows. [It is indeed a question what this topic is doing in a sedra full of preparations to enter the Land…perhaps we will leave that for next year, iy’H]
Our topic this week concerns the cities of refuge. In short, if one unintentionally kills someone else, they run off to one of the six cities of refuge where they are given halachic protection from the go’el hadam - someone who is permitted to avenge the killing by killing the ‘murderer’ as long as the ‘murderer’ is outside the city of refuge. Actually, the forty two cities of the leviim also served as cities of refuge - with two differences from the six cities of refuge set aside specifically for this task. Firstly, to be ‘saved/protected’ within the
It's aways good to have a bit of hidden depth of a pasuk revealed that you did not know existed; it makes you realise the infinite wisdom and depth of the Torah of HaShem. The Kotzker Rebbe provides a great example in our sedra of Massei. He quotes the pasul which intorduces the listing of the journeys of Bnei Yisrael in the desert; 'these are the journeys of Bnei Yisrael' (33;1). He says that these are not only the journeys from the desert to the verge of Eretz Yisrael, but they also include the journeys that Bnei Yisrael are to make in their various galuyos in the future. These are the hidden meanings that we do not know the full extent of. Perhaps one example (I heard this from Rav Amram Landau) is the journey to a place called Chashmonah (33;29). Does the word Chashmonah ring a bell? It reminds us of Chashmona'im and thus of the chanuka story -and to put the icing on the cake, guess what number journey this journey to Chashmonah was? Yes, that's correct, it was the 25th journey that 'they camped/rested (vayachanu) in Chashmonah'; Chanuka comes from the words 'chanu caf heh' - they rested on the 25th (Ran Mesechta Shabbes 9b in Rif).
