Parashat Masei

Torah Portions

Masei (“Travels”), the final Torah portion in the Book of Numbers, opens with a list of places that the Israelites traveled in the desert. God commands the Israelites to destroy idolatry in the Land of Israel, outlines Israel’s boundaries, and details the laws of cities of refuge for accidental killers.

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Wilderness Itinerary

TANAKH

The book of Numbers chronicles the people of Israel’s wanderings in the wilderness before entering the promised land. Parashat Masei, the last Torah portion of the book of Numbers, begins with a listing of locations Israel has stopped on their journeys.

These were the marches of the Israelites who started out from the land of Egypt, troop by troop, in the charge of Moses and Aaron. Moses recorded the starting points of their various marches as directed by יהוה. Their marches, by starting points, were as follows:

Numbers 33:1-2

Sanctuary Cities

TANAKH

As they prepare to cross the Jordan River, God continues to give Moses instructions for the people of Israel about the society they are to have in the promised land. Among these directives is the commandment to establish cities where accidental killers can find refuge and await judgement.

you shall provide yourselves with places to serve you as cities of refuge to which [a man] who has killed someone —who has slain a person unintentionally—may flee. The cities shall serve you as a refuge from the avenger, so that the killer may not die unless he has stood trial before the assembly.

Numbers 35:11-12

The Cousins of the Sisters

TANAKH

In Parashat Pinchas, the five sisters Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah successfully petition for a holding in the land. In Parashat Masei, members of the sisters’ tribe raise a concern that by inheriting land and potentially marrying into other tribes, the women will compromise the integrity of their tribe’s territory.

So Moses, at יהוה’s bidding, instructed the Israelites, saying: “The plea of the Josephite tribe is just. This is what יהוה has commanded concerning the daughters of Zelophehad: They may become the wives of anyone they wish, provided they become wives within a clan of their father’s tribe. No inheritance of the Israelites may pass over from one tribe to another, but the Israelite [heirs]—each of them—must remain bound to the ancestral portion of their tribe.

Numbers 36:5-7

Listing Journeys

COMMENTARY

What is the purpose of the long list of locations that opens Parashat Masei? Rashi, the renowned 11th-century northern French rabbi and commentator, offers different explanations for the significance of this section of the Torah.

אלה מסעי THESE ARE THE JOURNEYS (STAGES) [OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL] — Why are these stations recorded here? In order to make known the loving acts of the Omnipresent: that although He had decreed against them to make them move about and wander in the wilderness, you should not think that they wandered and moved about without cessation from one station to another station all the forty years, and that they had no rest, for you see that there are here only forty-two stages. Deduct from them fourteen, all of which were their stopping places in the first year after they left Egypt…

Rashi on Numbers 33:1:1

Troubles Foreshadowed (and Lessons from Animals)

MIDRASH

In Parashat Masei, God warns the people of Israel of the necessity of purging the promised land of idolatry. Bamidbar Rabbah, a medieval midrash on the book of Numbers, connects those verses to later stories in the book of Kings about the problems brought about by the continuation of idolatry.

“For you are coming” – “you shall dispossess all the inhabitants of the land from before you” (Numbers 33:52). This is what the verse said: “Who teaches us through the animals of the earth and makes us wiser from the birds of the heavens” (Job 35:11). “Who teaches us through the animals of the earth” – the Holy One blessed be He said to them: ‘Learn from Elijah’s bull, as when Elijah said to the Baal worshippers: “Choose one bull for yourselves, and prepare it first, as you are many, [and call in the name of your god, but do not place fire…

Bamidbar Rabbah 23:9

Claim and Counterclaim

COMMENTARY

The story of the members of the tribe of Menashe relates directly to the story of the daughters of Tzelofchad from Parashat Pinchas. Everett Fox, a contemporary Tanakh scholar, discusses how these two stories function together.

Fishbane (1988) terms this chapter a “responsum,” that is, an authoritative answer to a legal question, and notes how the original intent of the law in Chap. 27—to allow women to inherit property in certain circumstances—has been “subverted” by the ruling here. That is, male relatives ultimately inherit the land, as though there were no daughters! Thus the process of “inner-biblical interpretation,” whereby already in the Bible itself passages are subject to later scrutiny and recasting, makes its appearance; it will be exemplified by much of the material in the next book, Deuteronomy.

The Five Books of Moses, by Everett Fox, Numbers, Part III; The Preparations for Conquest, A Case of Inheritance; Daughters of Tzelofhad II 3

Humble Princes

CHASIDUT

In Parashat Masei, God lists the leaders of the tribes for the purpose of dividing up the land. Rabbi Mordechai Yosef Leiner, the founder of the Izhbitza-Radzyn Chassidic dynasty, notes an irregularity in the way some of the chieftains are listed and interprets it as a hint about their characters.

When listing the princes of the twelve tribes, why was the title “prince” absent with Yehuda, Shimon, and Binyamin (see Bamidbar, 34:19–21)? In these tribes there was such a great love for one another, and these princes had such a fondness for their tribes that they could not let themselves be called by the title “prince,” as they could not stand being elevated above the members of their tribe. Therefore it is said in the Gemara (Sotah, 42a), “not Yehuda on Shimon, and not Shimon on Binyamin [for in the war between Peqach ben Rmaliyahu king of Israel and Achaz king of Yehuda they…

Mei HaShiloach, Volume I, Numbers, Masei 3

Measuring Fields

MISHNAH

A pair of verses that describe the layout of Levite cities seem to contradict one another. In the Mishnah, the foundational legal code compiled in the early third century, two rabbis offer different possible explanations.

Furthermore, on that same day Rabbi Akiva interpreted the verses with regard to the Levite cities as follows: One verse states: “And you shall measure outside the city for the east side two thousand cubits…this shall be for them the open land outside the cities” (Numbers 35:5), and another verse states: “And the open land around the cities, which you shall give to the Levites, shall be from the wall of the city and outward one thousand cubits round about” (Numbers 35:4)…

Mishnah Sotah 5:3

The Right to Due Process

HALAKHAH

As described in Numbers 35:12, sanctuary cities serve to protect accidental killers from revenge killings while they await a trial. Sefer HaChinukh, the 13th-century enumeration and explanation of each biblical commandment, explains a legal principle derived from this verse.

To not kill someone liable before he is brought to justice: That we were prevented not to kill the sinner when we see him doing a sinful act for which he is liable the death penalty, before we bring him to court. Rather, we are obligated to bring him before the court and we bring witnesses in front of [the judges] and they sentence him to what he is liable, as it is stated (Numbers 35:12), “and the killer shall not die before his standing, etc.” And the language of the Mekhilta (Sifrei Zuta on Numbers 35:12) is “Perhaps they should kill him from when he killed or was adulterous?…

Sefer HaChinukh 409:1

Map with the inscription: "These are the journeys of the Children of Israel in the desert: until they crossed the Jordan." Plate B. A. Günther sc. Pestini. From: Oyszpitz, Yaakov, Ba'ur HaLuchot, Vienna, Georg Holzinger, 2nd edition, 1818, Plate C, 42 A 993.