Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 24 Tammuz, 5784
Parsha Mattot – Massei: (Numbers 30:2 – 36:13)
Third Portion: Numbers 32:1 – 32:19
Good morning! We are winding down the month of Tammuz and we are headed towards the new moon of Av. We are walking in the darkness and mourning right now. Lamenting the loss of parts of who we are that helped us survive. And we are looking for blooms of new growth!
As I was certified on Sunday as a Reiki Master Practitioner, the sunflowers I have been growing began to bloom. On Monday morning, the sunflower looked like this:
This morning? My larger sunflower is in FULL bloom which is amazing!
The energy from the Reiki attunement has been coming in STRONG! As we walk in the darkness, there are spaces of light all around us to see! With this in mind, lets dig in!
32:1The descendants of Reuben and Gad had an abundance of livestock very numerous and they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, and behold, the place was a place for livestock.
2The descendants of Gad and the descendants of Reuben came, and they spoke to Moses and to Eleazar the kohen and to the princes of the community, saying,
3″Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, and Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon,
4the land that the Lord struck down before the congregation of Israel is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.”
5They said, “If it pleases you, let this land be given to your servants as a heritage; do not take us across the Jordan.”
So we are just about to enter the promised land. War was won with no casualties. And here two of the 12 tribes came to Moses and asked NOT to enter the promised land. They were satisfied with the wilderness.
Why? Why would they be satisfied? They were just happy with their livestock. They didn’t need more. Let’s see how Moses reacts:
6[Thereupon,] Moses said to the descendants of Gad and the descendants of Reuben, “Shall your brethren go to war while you stay here?
Whoa. Moses was a little upset. He thought they were being cowards. Moses is a little emotionally triggered here it would seem:
7Why do you discourage the children of Israel from crossing over to the land which the Lord has given them?
8This is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh barnea to explore the Land.
9They went up to the Valley of Eshkol and saw the land, and they discouraged the children of Israel from crossing into the land which the Lord has given them.
10The anger of the Lord flared on that day, and He swore, saying,
11’None of the men from the age of twenty years and over who came out of Egypt will see the land that I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, for they did not follow Me wholeheartedly,
12except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizite and Joshua the son of Nun, for they followed the Lord wholeheartedly.’
13The anger of the Lord flared against Israel, and He made them wander in the desert for forty years until the entire generation who had done evil in the eyes of the Lord had died out.
14And behold, you have now risen in place of your fathers as a society of sinful people, to add to the wrathful anger of the Lord against Israel.
15If you turn away from following Him, He will leave you in the desert again, and you will destroy this entire people.”
To me? This sounds like – at the end of Moses’ life, Moses was still emotionally triggered by the incident with the spies. He was questioning the motives of the two tribes who didn’t want to enter in.
How did the tribes react? Did they get angry with Moses in his apparent defensiveness?
16They approached him and said, “We will build sheepfolds for our livestock here and cities for our children.
17We will then arm ourselves quickly [and go] before the children of Israel until we have brought them to their place. Our children will reside in the fortified cities on account of the inhabitants of the land.
18We shall not return to our homes until each of the children of Israel has taken possession of his inheritance.
19For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has come to us on the east bank of the Jordan.”
Without skipping a beat – they reassured Moses. Not only will we fight? We will go FIRST. We will LEAD the way. They weren’t being cowards. They just knew what they wanted. They trusted.
This is beautiful, isn’t it? The tribes of Gad and Reuben – they were willing to sacrifice for their brothers. They had a mission and a vision and stuck to it.
My takeaway? How can we both serve our desires and love our brethren? Gad and Reuben were the hero in their story without becoming the villain in their brothers’ stories. They found a way to do both.
How can we find a way to protect what we want, and support those around us? This is the way to see in the darkness!
These are my thoughts – what are yours?
Here are my thoughts from the last two years:
Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 22 Tamuz, 5783
Today we continue with our double portion, but interestingly – today’s portion is just a single reading out of the Torah. It is the sixth reading from Mattot.
What is interesting here is the passage ends on a cliffhanger. The tribes of Reuben and Gad do NOT want to enter the promised land. They wanted to settle in the wilderness.
Moses saw this as cowardice. But that’s not what it was, because the tribes of Reuben and Gad were willing to fight until Israel was safe within the promised land. They just preferred the wilderness.
How often do we judge others on the journey? How often do we judge OURSELVES on this journey?
Maybe we are aware of where things are headed in our life; but we would rather stay. We want to be where we are – we look around and feel good about the land. But we are worried others will judge us for wanting to stay and not move forward.
As someone who does work helping people grow spiritually; I can tell you I struggle with this both internally and externally.
A good friend challenged me yesterday – they took a risk to tell me that sometimes they want to have a conversation with me where I am just listening and not pushing back. Just empathizing. “Sometimes I need my butt kicked….but sometimes I just need a friend.”
I received these words – and they relate here. We don’t always have to do the work to go towards spiritual freedom and liberation – the Torah talks about being satisfied with where we are. AND. At the same time – being wiling to fight for others when the time comes.
This is the branch of Mattot I think we are meant to get today. What are your thoughts?
Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 1 Av, 5782
It’s a new month! Full of possibilities and energy that has yet to be realized. Although this is a tough period we are entering, the three-week journey in darkness will come to a close as we reach the full moon; and then we will return back to the light!
Here’s a quick primer on the month of Av before we begin our Torah journey today:
Let’s dig into our portions today so we get caught up for Shabbat!
Today we start with the fifth reading. We just finished recounting all of the journeys the Israelites navigated from slavery and Passover to getting ready to enter the promised land.
God meets with Moses on the plains of Moab near Jericho. He tells Moses to talk to the Children of Israel; “When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, the waters of the Jordan will split for you. But this is on condition that you drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy their temples, the molten idols, and demolish their high places.”.
God continues telling Moses how to divide the land: by lottery. Larger inheritances go to larger families.
He then tells Moses what the consequences will be if they do not drive out the people from the land. He tells Moses they will harass the Israelites in the land they settle, and God will do to the Israelites what he intended to do to the people they were supposed to drive out.
God then gives Moses clear borders for the promised land. They are free, but there are still boundaries.
I’m really reflecting on this concept. Because In one sense freedom feels like there should be NO boundaries. But even in the promised land, there were boundaries.
That’s something I’m really chewing on.
Moses then relays this information to the Israelites to prepare them to enter the land.
We then get into the sixth portion; and God calls men out by name for Moses to know who will inherit the lands. He goes through each tribe and which elder should get the land.
That is tough, right? Imagine being a leader of a tribe and NOT having God call your name with Moses? How disappointed would you be?
Finally, we close out the portion today with the Levites. They didn’t receive an inheritance. Instead, God tells Moses to command Israel to give the Levites cities to live in from their inheritance. In addition, they were to give the Levites open spaces around the cities to enhance their beauty.
God lays out the portions of these cites and open spaces.
Then we see something interesting. God has Moses command the people to designate six “cities of refuge.” These were places the Torah says “a murderer could flee.”
That is interesting – and it’s something we will explore in tomorrow’s portion.
But that God designed a way for even murderers to have refuge is interesting.
According to Kabbalah, every sin is a kind of “murder.” It’s a metaphorical spilling of blood. Looking forward to exploring this concept tomorrow!
Until then, May your day today be filled with new possibilities! May we not forget the lessons of the month of Tamuz; and May we see in the darkness over the next nine days.
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