Brotherly Love - Rabbi Steven Burg

during the uh three weeks we're going to be reading the parsha of matos the party of matos is a fascinating parsha it's really coming after the entire book of amidbar which is filled with all kinds of rebellions and strife and arguing and fighting and really we go through korak and we go through the miragulum we go through the rebellion uh over at slov in balozka there's all kinds of different rebellions and we finally make it to the end here and there's a fascinating conversation between moshe robeno and the jews especially specifically the two and a half tribes moshe says we're going to israel in the two and a half tribes come to him and say moshe we think that's great but we'd really like to stay on this side of the jordan river we're not gonna make it uh into israel we just like to stay here and he goes crazy he totally loses it on them and he says this is exactly what your fathers did right 40 years before and what's their answer no no no that that was our father but god forbid moshe god forbid that we wouldn't be going out to fight with our brothers that's impossible we're gonna leave our wives our children here our cattle we'll leave it all here and we're going to be the first to battle and moshe is relieved to hear that and it's such a a powerful ending to the safer by midbar and it's really the jewish story we have messed up so many times i mean i love the jews you love the jews but we've made so many mistakes we've fought with each other so many times in jewish history and we continue sometimes even fight today but really what this shows is in the end we can learn from our mistakes we can come together we can really care about each other and take care of each other that's what the parsha of matas is here to say that's what moshe's message and the two-and-a-half tribes was there so as we go through the three weeks or into the nine days and we sit on tisha we understand that we've made some mistakes but what tissue off is about is about thinking about how to correct those mistakes sending a few emails i had a custom every tissue of i tried to send out five emails to people that i may have had an argument with just ask them for forgiveness i understand young kipper that's really what it's for but the truth is it's also what tisch above is for because if we can come together that we can love each other all the brothers and sisters the jewish people then well right behind me out this window we're gonna have a base to make this really really soon