Rootless--but coming home: Mattot-Masei 5785

The reading of the book of Bamidbar concludes this week with the parshiyot of Mattot and Masei. Jews are inveterate travelers. The long exile that we have suffered has of necessity forced us to travel a great deal. There is almost no place in the world that we have not visited, settled and eventually moved from to a different location. Thus the record of all of the travels and way stations that the Jews experienced in their years in the Sinai desert is a small prophecy as to the future historical experiences of Jews over millennia of wandering.

Our enemies around the world have always accused Jews of being “rootless.”  But that is untrue. We have always been rooted in the Land of Israel, consciously or subconsciously, throughout our history as a people. It is in the Exile that we feel less grounded, never certain of the shifting ground beneath our weary feet. But, being a restless people, we are filled with curiosity over locations that we have not seen and wonders that we have yet to experience. 

The history of the Exile is that Jews arrive at a new destination, settle, help develop that country or part of the world, begin to feel at home and seek to assimilate into the majority culture. Suddenly this all collapses. A mighty and unforeseen wind uproots them  and they move on to new shores. There are hardly any Jews to speak of in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, and so forth. This was the Jewish heartland for centuries. But now we have moved on again to other shores. 

The travels described in this week’s parsha had one ultimate goal, one destination in mind: to enter the Land of Israel and settle there. The Israel deniers in our midst, religious and secular, leftists and rightists, the scholars and the ignorant all share a common delusion—that the home of Jews, especially now, is not the Land of Israel. 

We are taught that the Jews stayed at the oasis of Kadesh in the desert for 38 of their 40-year sojourn in the Sinai desert. They became accustomed to life there and felt comfortable. The Land of Israel was a distant dream, an eventual goal perhaps but not an immediate imperative. But the Lord pushed them out of the desert to fight wars that they probably would have wished to avoid and to settle a land, harsh in character but with the potential of being one of milk and honey. 

The Torah records every way-station and desert oasis in order to remind us that these places exist only in our past. Our present and our future lie in the Land of Israel alone. This lesson is as valid today in our Jewish world as it was for our ancestors so long ago at Kadesh. 

Shabbat shalom, Rabbi Berel Wein

For Rabbi Wein's devar Torah on Mattot-Masei last year ("The Reuven-Gad Syndrome"), click here.

The Reuven-Gad syndrome: Mattot-Masei 5784

This week’s public Torah reading brings to an end the fourth book of the Torah, Bamidbar. No longer do we have the slave generation that left Egypt in haste and, when faced with problems and difficulties, constantly longed to return there. In their place we find a new generation, standing poised and ready to enter the Land of Israel and fulfill God’s covenant with Avraham. However, once again, narrow personal interests becloud the general picture and weaken the necessary national resolve. 

Now it is not the so-called fleshpots of Egypt that beckon. Rather, temptation comes from the rich pasture lands east of the Jordan River  that entice the cattle-raising tribes of Reuven and Gad to plead with Moshe that they remain there and not be compelled to cross the river and enter the promised Land of Israel. 

Moshe’s initial reaction to their request is one of shock and bitter disappointment. He reminds them that their parents’ generation was destroyed in the desert for disparaging the Land of Israel and for refusing to make any effort to possess its. He warns them that they have apparently learned little from the experiences of their forebears, embracing the prospect of making the same errors of judgment. Moshe is greatly frustrated by their attitude. Why can’t they see past their cattle, their personal gain, an imagined short-term benefit and the consequences of their refusal to acknowledge the grandeur of the Lord’s long-term vision for them and their land? It is this spiritual blindness, this unwillingness to appreciate the uniqueness of Israel, its people and its land that Moshe bemoans. 

Reuven and Gad get their way, but their gain is only temporary and it comes at a price. Separated from their brethren west of the Jordan, the breakaway tribes will struggle to defend themselves and will be the first tribes to be exiled. They produce no major leaders or heroes for the Jewish people and their dreams of prosperity and material success are only fleetingly realized. 

Criticized bitterly and for all time by the prophetess Devorah for standing aside in an hour of national Jewish peril, the tribes of Reuven and Gad become the prototype for Jewish indifference to the causes of Jewish survival and success. In the modern world they unfortunately have many heirs and disciples. Mordecai warned Esther not to stand apart and be passive in the face of Haman and his decrees. He warned her that, when the Jews would somehow escape from their troubles, she and her family would be doomed to extinction if she allowed her narrow self-interest to rule over her national duty for the preservation of Israel. 

Today too, narrow self-interests govern many Jews—even leaders who seemingly should know better—in their attitudes, policies and behavior regarding the existential problems that face the Jewish people and the Jewish state. The Talmud teaches us that Jerusalem always needs advocates for its cause. That certainly is the case today. Jewish apathy and alienation are our enemies. The current allure of political correctness in policy and mindset is not just misleading but dangerous. Standing at the cusp of great adventures and opportunities, we must take care to avoid suffering the Reuven-Gad syndrome. 

Shabbat shalom, Rabbi Berel Wein