Mattot - Massei,Tribes - Journeys
Numbers 30:2 to 36:13
Haftarah: Jeremiah 2:4 to 4:2
Psalm 25
Apostolic Writings/Newer Testament/B’rit HaChadashah: Luke 10:25 to 37
In this Parsha there are a number of things which may seem irrelevant to us, as we don’t live in an agricultural community in the Middle East, and so those specifics change the ways in which we do things and deal with people and situations. However there are still lessons for us.
One clear lesson is that if we follow the instructions of The Almighty, then He will keep and guide us.
Isn’t Hebrew fun!! The word mattot does indeed mean “tribes” or even “oaths”; however with the pointing in different ways, it can mean “twigs”. The Torah has two names for the tribes of Israel: shevatim and mattot. A shevet is a "branch" or "switch"; matteh means "stick" and "staff." Both names express the idea that the tribes of Israel are limbs of the "tree of life," offshoots of the supreme source of all life and being. But each represents a different state in the Jew's relationship to his or her roots. The shevet speaks a state of manifest connection to one's source: the branch is still fastened to the tree, or at least still has its life-juices coursing through its veins.
The shevet is the Jew (or, of course in a wider sense, a person grafted in to the Olive Tree) in a state of visible connection to G-d, sustained by an open divine involvement in his/her life. The matteh is a shevet who has been uprooted from its tree. The matteh is the Jew in galut (exile; the term used for what in Greek is called, “Diaspora”), a "child banished from his father's table" to wander the cold and alien roads of exile. Deprived of its supernal moorings, the matteh is compelled to develop its own resistance to the storms of life; to look to its own frail heart for the strength to hold its own, far from the ancestral home.
In verse 8 of chapter 32 Moshe Rabbenu (Moses our teacher) recalls the fact that he sent spies from Kadesh Barnea. It should have taken them less than 2 weeks to get into the Land, but because of disobedience it took nearly 40 years. Due to disobedience they then lost possession of the Land a couple of times, and only started to return during the final years of the 19th Century. Even then, it was a return, as many commentators say, in unbelief. This of course is what the Prophet Ezekiel said in chapters 36ff of his eponymous book.
The boundaries of the Land here are not the same as the boundaries given in other places in the Torah or the Prophets. This is one area where some Christian Zionist groups are mistaken. The Almighty does indeed promise the Land to the Jewish people, but the boundaries of that Land are not clear from the Bible text. The Land could include Gaza, as that piece of territory was given to the tribe of Judah; it may not include some areas now in Medinat Yisrael – the State of Israel.
Your south border shall be the outmost coast of the Dead Sea eastward... to Ma'aleh-Akrabbim... to Kadesh-Barnea, and shall go on to Hazar-Addar, and pass on to Atzmon; the border shall turn about from Atzmon to the wadi of Egypt, and its limits shall be at the Sea.
And as for the western border, you shall have the Great Sea for a border; this shall be your west border.
And this shall be your north border: from the Great Sea you shall mark out your frontier at Hor HaHar... to the entrance of Hamat... to Zedad... to Zifron, and its limits shall be at Hatzar Einan...
And you shall point out your east border from Hatzar Eienan to Shefam... to Rivlah... and shall reach the eastward projection of the Sea of Kinneret... down to the Jordan, and its limits shall be at the Dead Sea.
This shall be your land with its borders round about.
The major component regarding the possession and enjoyment of the Land is that the Jewish people must have clean hearts and clean hands. This has not always been the case for the State of Israel.
From our Haftarah we see that “loving our neighbours” has some strict limits. One clear limitation is that while we are treat our neighbours with respect and accord them proper dignity, we are not to follow their deities.
Our reading from the Apostolic Writings tells us that even those who may not be counted as “friends” are sometimes not enemies either.
The key, as always is:
If you return, O Israel, says the Lord, to Me, you shall return, and if you remove your detestable things from My Presence, you shall not wander.
This coming Saturday if you can get to Llandudno, please do. Roy Thurley is one of the speakers. On Sunday 18th, I am preaching at St Matthias in Leeds on “Yeshua in the Chagim”. If you cannot make it to CMJ Conference in a couple of weeks, please pray for us. We have taken the first tentative steps with a “Jewish / Israel Interest” Cluster at Ivy Manchester. This will be a joint CMJ / Ivy / LMF venture. If you are in the general area, please e-mail me for more details.
Shabbat Shalom – Gut Shabbos!