Shabbat Shalom GRJC

Weekly Emails to the Congregation

Parshat Matot - Masei 2007

Shabbat Shalom to the GRJC family,

This evening, we light candles at 8:10 PM.  Friday evening services begin at 8 PM and Saturday morning services will begin at 9 AM.  During our Saturday service, we will complete the reading of Sefer 
Bemidbar/The Book of Numbers and we’ll say “Chazak, Chazak, Venitchazek!”(Strength, Strength, and may we be strengthened!)

On Saturday morning we will also announce the new month of Av that will begin on July 16.

This week we finish reading Bemidbar/Numbers with Matot-Masei.  In chapter 32, we read about two tribes, Reuben and Gad, who decide they would like to settle on the eastern side of the Jordan rather than on the western side with the rest of the Israelites.  This decision shocks Moses who then tells them they must first agree to help conquer the Land of Canaan before they can return to settle there.  These tribes agree to the terms, and we also will read in next week’s Torah reading that half of the tribe of Manashe will also settle on the eastern side.

There is a parallel to this situation earlier in the Torah.  In Genesis chapter 12, Abram’s nephew Lot joins him as he moves into the Land of Canaan.  It happens that Abram and Lot both have vast flocks 
to graze and so quarreling breaks out between herdsmen that work for them.  Abram suggests that they split up and each can find a place to allow their flocks to graze.  Lot chooses to settle near Sodom, in 
what he thinks to be the well-watered plains of the Jordan river.  He settles on the eastern banks of the Jordan.

We see here that going east has negative connotations in the Torah.   In terms of Lot, Lot barely escapes with his life from the city of Sodom and from his line comes Moav who will be an enemy of the 
Israelites.  In our reading this week, there is a very careful covenant made between Moses and the two tribes who want to settle to the east.  There is a sense of seriousness and potential disaster if 
the two tribes do not keep to the agreement—Moses thinks they might abandon the rest of the tribes and not fight to conquer the Land.  The Torah also suggests that Adam and Eve were banished east of the Garden of Eden in Genesis chapter 3.

And so we see that in the Torah, there is something about moving eastward that is understood to be negative.  I think the reason behind this is that east is the direction away from the Holy Land—the 
opposite direction that Abram traveled in his journey that took him from a far-away land to the Holy Land.  We will also see that moving South, toward Egypt, has a negative connotation as opposed to moving north, which, for the ancient Israelite slaves and for slaves escaping to freedom in this country, had a positive connotation of freedom and opportunity.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
1. Save the Date:  Tisha Be’Av, Evening Service and Eycha Reading – Monday, July 23rd at 8 PM – Join us for a service and program by candlelight with the somber melodies of the 9th Day of Av—the day for remembering the tragedies the Jewish people have faced over the centuries.

2. Monday, July 16th – Rally for the Kidnapped Israeli Soldiers at the UN, 12 noon

3. Tuesday, July 17th 8 PM – JCC on the Palisades – I’ll be teaching a Class on Psalm 23.  Free and open to all.

4. Sunday July 15th – Deadline for summer bulletin submissions.


Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Tow
 

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