Torah Gems - July 25th Parashat Mattot

Torah Gems - July 25th

This week's Torah Gems were prepared by

Danny Margolis

Parashat Mattot

At first blush, Parashat Mattot has a "quaint" discussion about the importance of vows. To modern ears, this may seem out of date, for we live in a world where only written words have lasting meaning. If you want to make sure that promises are kept, get it in writing and keep a copy for your records.

Words, however, are very important in Judaism. Each day we begin the P'suke D'zimra, saying "Barukh She'amar v'Hayah HaOlam." (Blessed is the One who spoke and the world came into being.) The world was created through the power of words. They have power, creative power, and we must be very careful how we use them. Human words have the capacity to destroy the world as well.

Therefore, Parashat Mattot dedicates a whole chapter to the language of vows. Vows are more than promises; they are, as S. R. Hirsch noted, "Self imposed legislation." With our vows, we elevate our words to the realm of law; our speech becomes legally binding upon us. [More on this below.]

Rabbi Randall J. Konigsburg, Oz Ve

-Shalom

The Legal Sublimation of Anger and The Power of Words

Moshe Meir, Oz Ve-Shalom

"If the descendants of Gad and Reuven cross the Jordan with you before the Lord, and the Land is conquered before you, you shall give them the land of Gilead as a heritage.But if they do not cross over with you armed [for battle], they shall receive a possession among you in the land of Canaan."32:28

-30

The stipulation is clearly stated in a double format; it reflects all of the anger and distrust that Moshe felt towards the tribes who had betrayed his dream.The Sages used these conditional statements as a paradigm for the formulation of conditional statements in law:

From where do we learn about all conditional statements?From the stipulations of the Children of Gad and the Children of Reuven. (Gittin 75a)

For any stipulation to be halakhically valid, it must fulfill 3 criteria learned from the stipulations of the children of Gad and Reuven.First - it must be a double conditional ["If you do X, then X will happen; if you don't do X then Y will not happen"], and the principle that "the positive conditional implies the negative conditional" must not be applied.Second - the conditional term must precede the resulting act ["if" precedes "you shall give"]. Third - the positive conditional precedes the negative one ["If the descendants of Gad and Reuven cross" precedes, "But if they do not cross"].

Transforming his anger into a principle of Jewish law helps Moshe to retain his leadership, just as he reminds God to suppress His anger to preserve His larger covenantal commitment to the people. Anger born of disappointment and feelings of betrayal can, unchecked by law, give rise to aggressive and violent deeds. A culture's power finds expression in the restraint of human inclinations, even when they are justified, in binding legal frameworks. An eternal institution of law allows Moshe to accept the children of Gad and Reuven despite his feelings of alienation from them.

The Present Shapes the Memory of the Past

Menachem Klein, Oz Ve

-Shalom

The content of our parashah contrasts with the season in which we read it. While parashat Mattot tells of the Israelites' great victories over the 5 kings of Midyan, the distribution of the territories captured from the 2 Kings, Sihon and Og, it is read bein ha'metzarim, the days that mark the destruction of both Temples, the loss of national autonomy, the conquest of the Land by alien empires, and our exile.The days bein ha'metzarim control our minds, hiding the victories from our eyes.The fasts and customs of mourning of this season help us remember catastrophes and forget parts of the parashah that are relevant in our day.

This contrast shows us that memory is not objective; rather, it is dependent upon our situation, and it is an act of selection. We choose what to remember and, simultaneously, what to forget.Remembering and forgetting are not only an individual act; it also shapes peoples and communities which create and rely on collective and national memories.The Jewish People is such a community of memory.Our calendar, great sections of the siddur, rituals personal and public, as well as many of the mitzvot are geared towards the construction of memory.The construction of Jewish memory continues throughout the course of everyday life even while factors wholly foreign to the object of memory actually control reality.For example: We remember divine providence and the presence of God in a world that proceeds by its own laws, and we remember the Exodus from Egypt thousands of years after it actually occurred.

The construction of memory is accomplished via formative and activating agents (tzitzit on our garments, tefilin on our heads, the Pesah Seder, dwelling in the sukkah, the prohibitions that shape Sabbath observance, reading the Shma and Megilat Esther) and by the construction of heroes and villains, e.g., Harvona vs. Haman.

The way we remember an event does not accurately reconstruct the past.Rather, it is an activity of selection, of reshaping an event that was.Since memory is recalled through and must contend with the present, the event, as it lives on in memory, bears a different character than it had in reality.The present shapes, challenges and influences the past.

In our parashah, Moshe lifts recollections out of the tangled past, bringing up memories of the national trauma of 40 years earlier.He reminds them that the spies had seen the Land of Israel and decided to convince the people not to enter it.Only Kalev ben Yefuneh and Yehoshua bin Nun remained outside of the conspiracy.According to this version, the people remained passive and the two great heroes of the story were the two spies who refused to join the conspiracy.Moshe says that the children of Gad and Reuven are repeating the sin of the spies.nature of the Land of Israel is not the central issue here, but rather the ability to disagree with the majority; individual courage and self-denial for the sake of the collective goal.

The end of parashat Devarim (in 2 weeks) also teaches us how powerfully the present shapes memory and constructs it.There, Moshe, ignoring the debate he had held with Gad and Reuven, now presents their settlement of the Jordan's East Bank as having been determined by God and himself.He leaves his bitter disagreement with them, as well as the spies' evil precedent, entirely out of the story.The argument with Gad and Reuven had been settled and accurate recollection of the past became pointless.

During the period of bein ha'metzarim in general and on the 9^th of Av in particular, we are enjoined to recall the past. These days invite simplistic historical analogies and the wholesale identification of present with past events.The Torah's various versions of the story of the spies teach us that even the remembrance of this essential element of Tisha B'Av involves a process informed by the present, and significance is lent to it by the present.To remember an event not only requires a contemplation of history. It also requires that we be aware of the changing present and allow it to shape our view of the past, lending it varied meanings.

Dr. Menachem Klein, a member of Oz Ve

-Shalom, teaches in the department of political science of Bar Ilan University.

SHABBAT SHALOM