Matos-Masei - 5th Portion

Join me as we learned for Kish Thursday Pares Matis and Mas the last two Torah readings of the book of numbers. Yesterday we can learned about the travels that the Jewish people did as the Torah enumerates the different spots and places that the Jewish people encamped and traveled from. Today the Torah tells us about the occupying of the land of Israel as well as the boundaries for the land of Israel. Chapter 30 verse 50. And God spoke to Moshe and the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho, saying, "Speak to the Jewish people say to them, because you are crossing when you cross the Jordan to the land of Cananan." Verse 51. Rashi them. Haven't they already been told about this that they have to get rid of the idolatries when they come into the land of Israel? Why does the Torah mention it again over here? This is what Moshe tells them when you're going to be passing the Jordan dry land. This is the condition that you will be able to cross the Jordan on dry land that you will eradicate any type of idolatry when you get there. But if you do not take upon yourself that condition, the water is going to come and going to wash you away. So do we find that Joshua tells it to them actually when they're crossing the Jordan. Verse 52, you must make sure to drive out all the inhabitants before you of the land before you. And you must destroy all their marble floored temples and destroy all their their figured idols or molten idols is and demolish all their sacrificial platforms means and you will drive them out. Masum the words masum which is referring to these um which is referring to the temples that they had the marble floor temples. So Rashi explains why it's called the masum. The tarum says bis the place of their uh prayers their place where they would pray. In fact I think in Arabic they call a mosque mascad which is considered a place of prayer is because they covered the floor with marble. They would bow down on the floor with their hands and feet stretched out. Like we find in the book of Leviticus, you should not make marble floors that you're going to bow down on it. That's why today in Jewish law as well, even on yum kiper, when we're allowed to kneel and bow, we have to make sure that if it's a marble floor, one has to put a rug underneath according to Jewish law. Because the only time that a person's allowed to bow and kneel on a on a stone floor, sorry, on a stone floor and a marble floor is in the holy temple. Outside holy temple, one is not allowed to bow and kneel on a marble floor. which means their molded images, their uh thing draw molded images that they make for their idolatry. Verse 53 and you will indeed clear out the land and you will then be able to successfully settle in it because it is to you that I gave the land to take possession of it. you'll then inherit and you'll be able to settle it from the people who were living there beforehand. Meaning chasing out those people so you'll be able to be there because only after you drive them out will you be able to stay there because if you don't drive them out then you're not going to be able to be there. 54 You will then be privileged to have the land and give the land as an inheritance to your families. How is it going to work? How you going to give it to your families? When there's a larger family is a larger tribe, they can have a larger lot. And to the one that is a smaller tribe will get a smaller inheritance. And whoever the lot falls on that individual, that is the person who's going to get that inheritance. The way you're going to inherit is according to the tribes of your father. This is a short verse and it has to say as if the place that a person's going to get that's where the lottery is going to say and what and that's going to determine where the person's going to live. As this is previously mentioned they're going to be able to get their lands according to the population of the people coming out of Egypt. That's one explanation. Another explanation according to the tribes in the 12 separate tribes or separate allocations where the land of Israel is going to be split into. So too, each tribe is going to get that allocation. Verse 55. And if you do not completely drive out the people of the land before you, then what's going to happen? The ones that you're going to leave uh that you're going to leave over the ones that are going to be remaining, they're going to be they're going to become spikes in your eyes and like thorns in your side and they're going to make you problems. They will harass you that you are settling in. You're going to have these people left over remaining there and they're going to be bad for you. spikes that spoke out your eyes like the says spikes and for thorns the they're going to like thorns on your side as the explanations of the word like a gate that's full of thorns that's going to be surrounding you they're going to put you like in a siege that they're not going to allow one to go in or out like being harassing you. Verse 34:1. Now the Torah tells us and this is Moshe is going to describe and say what the boundaries are for the Jewish people in the land of Israel what to consider the boundaries of the land. God spoke to Moshe saying command the Jewish people. You will tell them when you come to the land of Cananan this is the border. This is this is the landl which will fall to you as a lot as an as an inheritance as an inheritance. The land of Cananan according to its borders which will be for you. What does this mean? This is the land that will for you in the lot being. Why is Moshe telling them about the boundaries of the land of Israel according to its details? is because there are so many different mitzvah that are observed particularly in the land of Israel. It's when they're not observed outside the land of Israel. Therefore, you have to write clearly if therefore you have to write the boundaries of its property around it properly to tell you from these borders inside. That's where you have to observe the special commandments going to fall to you because the entire land of Israel was split up according to the 12 tribes based on the lottery which falls meaning split up. Therefore he uses also the word go that will fall in your lot like we find hipil in the in the migilla it says them hmon dropped the lot is called dropping it and therefore uses the word and the medish explains this is because God dropped the seven nations from the world and as if he tied them and he showed them to Moshe look they don't have any strength anymore they no longer have power and you will be able to overcome overcome them easily. And here now Moshe begins to describe God describes the borders for Moshe. Your land's southernmost side will be from the desert by the alongside Edom. So the southern border will now begin the edge of the sea of salt. The salted sea, the Dead Sea as we know it today to the east and that means on the southeast shore of the Dead Sea. Rashi verse three. This is the southern side going from east to west. What does it mean by from the tin desert meaning from the desert that's by the side of Adam alongside Adam and he explains as follows starting from the corner of the south east corner of the nine tribes which the other two and a half tribes are on the other side of the Jordan how does it work there are three lands that are on the South of Arat on the south of Israel Zoo one next to the other and they all are bordering and they all surround the border of the southern end you have a part of Egypt entire the entire Moabit area the land of Egypt which is the closest to the land of Israel that's in the corner of the southwest like it says in this Torah reading later on In verse five, the actual canal border of Egypt would go according to the whole border, the whole side of Egypt is the Nile River. And that Nile River went across the border of Egypt. That border is what's the separating is the buffer zone between the land of Egypt and the land of Israel. Next to that is already the land of which is going east because that's on the southern southwest. So now you're going east and then after that goes side by side is the moabitete area which is also in the south but south going all towards east. Now Rashi continues to explain how we can understand this based on the travels of the Jewish people. When the Jewish people went out of Egypt, if God wanted that they should get into the land of Israel very quickly, they would have went across the Nile River and then towards north they would come in on the south of Israel which today would probably be like the Gaza area. But God did not do that in the end. And that's what it says that God didn't want to take them through the land of the because that was the closest because they were sitting on the south on the west I'm sorry of the land of Cananan like it says by the in the book of the ones that are sitting on the side of the river God did not lead them God took them in a circle and he took them through the south of the desert. This is what calls it the desert of the nations. Why is it called the desert of the nations? Because as you go through the desert, you're passing many different nations. Edom, mo, as we saw through the verses. He took them along the southern border but going from west towards east until they came to the south of the land of Edim. They asked the king of Edom to go through the land of Edom and go through its width. This way they'll be able to get into the land of Israel. didn't let so therefore they go land that they continue going south around the south of Edo until they came to the south of the land of Mo says to the king of Mo they sent and he did not allow so they continued traveling along and they went around circling the people of Mo until the end and so when they followed so they went along the southern border continuing south from west to east when they got past Edom and Moab. They then turned north until they went the whole eastern border to its width of when they finished going the whole eastern border which is the whole eastern side of the land of Mo they found the nations of that they were on the east of the land of Cananan and that's where the Jordan River is on the east separating the place between them and the land of Israel. This is why it says about the Jewish people in the book of Judges that they went in the desert and they circled the land of Edom, the land of Moab to the east where the sun comes on the side towards the land of Moab. They conquered then the land of the land of Oak which was to the north of the Moabites. And then they came towards the Jordan where the Jordan today is where the Jewish people were standing at this point is on the edge of the northwest part of the land of Mo. Rashi now concludes what do we hear see from all this that the land of Cananan which was on the other side of the Jordan the other side of Jordan is to the west its corner was north was southeast next to the land of Edom and that's why over here it says that your corner is going to go from the desert sin desert on the side of Edom alongside Edom because that's where the station you're seeing you're going across Edom and each one is next to each other as We just explained verse four of the border will then turn southward meaning that you're coming from the south going south towards south of my and then that's going to pass towards the hu of mine and its southernmost extension will be to the south of the and it will extend because it extends all the way to and from there you then pass towards anytime that the Torah uses a terminology and it bends or it turns or goes out Meaning it wasn't a straight path. They had to go around. If it's going the border would go out and turns towards north of the north of the world which will then be on a on a slant towards west. So the b the boundaries go to the south of so it means that place is on the inside of the border that belongs to the Jewish people. meaning they're going in a straight line going to the at the end tells you two meaning its borders will be at the south of the border widens and takes you to the northern side of the world. Then it's going to turn towards the west comes from there to from there to the and therefore it turns as we mentioned before being that it says that it came out. That means it took an angle when it came to it started getting wider. Once it passes the area of kadesha, the boundary starts becoming a wider and then you see that it becomes the actual strip becomes a lot wider from the actual border going north that was from until the area of from after that it narrowed again and it goes until going south until it comes to the Nile River at the from there goes west to the Mediterranean which that is the southern I'm sorry that is the west coast of the whole entire uh the land of Israel which is the side of the Mediterranean comes out that the Nile River is on the border of the north of the west southwest border of the land of Israel verse five then the border will turn northwest from towards the canal of Egypt towards the stream of Egypt and it will end to the into the Mediterranean Sea meaning going west because there's no more boundary that extends south on the on the west side anywhere further because that takes you to the sea. It actually the word yama here can have a dual translation. The word yama can mean the sea, the big sea which is on the west co which is on the west coast of the land of Israel which is the Mediterranean as well as the word yama literally also means west. Verse six, your western border will be the great sea which is the Mediterranean. And this border will also be your western border. Rashi verse six meaning. What is the western border? That the great the Mediterranean Sea is your western border. This border over here. He tells us the islands that are in the Mediterranean are also part of the boundaries are also belong to you. If you see Rashi uses the terminology easels, which is spelled today I is as you spell is island with a silent s but I guess in French it was called easels for that reason. Verse seven. This will be your northern border which is from the Mediterranean Sea. You'll draw a slant line from there you get your northern border. which that's on the angle of the northwest, the head of it protrudes and goes into the sea and there's the there's the um and from the width of the actual Mediterranean which goes on into it and out of it because of the angle of how it works to it slants and it it protrudes which goes from west to north to the meaning slanted that it slants and it protrudes that it gets to that angle. Verse eight of from the mountar draw a slant towards the entrance of kamas. and and then the end of the leg of the northern border will extend to verse eight. You're going to follow the northern border towards Eidas. You're going to reach Levas which today is called Anttoya which that is a city the closest city in Syria that's on the border of the land of Israel that Antiochus the king of Greece has the very famous story of Kaneka built from the Syrian Empire Greek Syrian Greek Empire the end of the border and Rashi explains anytime you find the word either that the border ends there completely does not continue or it's telling you that from there it's going to widen and it's going to broaden to a different area more than the original uh width of where it's coming from because comparatively to the first measurement of how its width and depth it was it makes it even wider because at that point you end that measurement. So therefore states the results are that it becomes wider. Verse n then from there an additional leg goes and extends towards and it will end at that will be for you the northern border. This was the end of the northern border. comes out is on the northeast border from there he tells you that if should you want to extend to the eastern border verse 10 you will then draw a slanting line on the eastern border from visav the word vavis usually means to desire but over here means you will slant because when you desire you you Um you have you lean towards it like we mentioned before in verse 7 the word leans which is the eastern border which is called verse 11. Then the border will descend southward from going east of and there the eastern shore will descend coming down onto Lake Caner which means it's a name of a place that the border will go on easternard. part side alongside this place. This place was on the inside of the border of the land of Israel and it was on and was part of the land of Israel. As long as the border goes from north to south, it keeps on going down following that same path from north to south as all the way until the Dead Sea which is on the south. KF the word means side that means it's going to go alongside because the the caner lake was already on the on the western border on the border on the east meaning that's going through that same line along the border this border on the east that goes from the and from there follows along until the Jordan River and the actual Jordan starts from higher up from the caner stretches and goes from north to south on an angle because at first it's facing its angle towards east and then as it continues as it comes closer to as it comes closer to the border of the land of Israel it starts as it starts going angling west it starts getting closer to the land of Israel which is alongside the lake of the caner and it keeps pulling towards the east side of the land of Israel facing the it goes to the Dead Sea as we mentioned there ends the border at the end of the Dead Sea because as mentioned earlier that's where begins the corner of the southeast corner and now you have an entire foursided spectrum of what the land of Israel is encompassed by verse 12. The border will descend further southward along the Jordan and it will end by the Dead Sea. If this is going to be your borders around the land of Israel, verse 13, Moshe commanded the Jewish people saying this is the land which you are to aortion to the inheritance in the in the lot which God through the lot that God commanded. Allah says to give to the nine and a half tribes. Why only nine and a half tribes? Verse 14 calls the tribe of Ruven according to their father's home and the tribe of God according to their father's home and half of the tribe of already took their inheritance on the other side of the Jordan as he continues in verse 15 these two and a half tribes took their inheritance on the other side of the Jordan across of Jericho misra on the east side of the Jordan meaning towards the eastern side of the world which is on the east as the from there the sun goes up always the eastern side is called the face and the west is called the back. Therefore, if you look at the um if you look at the compass for that matter, you'll always have the south to your right and the north is going to be to your left because you're facing east. East is going to be your face. Facing east, south is going to be your right. North is going to be to your left. And then the west is going to be to the back. This concludes the Torah reading for Thursday. harshest matism mati combined.