Rabbi Minkowicz Weekly Torah Lesson Parsha Matot Massei 5776

it's time for Rabbi minkowitz weekly Torah lesson a place where life's most difficult questions are answered here with his spiritual perspective and insight Rabbi minkowitz welcome to this week's Torah lesson this week's Torah portion is pous Matos and Masai the question of the week is how do you keep hashem's memory alive so in this week's Torah portion Matas which happens to be a double Torah portion plus it's shabas kazak because we finished reading the last section on the fourth of the five books of Moses parasi we learn about an interesting story that takes place with the Jewish people and that is as follows the Jewish people are getting ready to cross over the Jordan to go from the Jordan over to the land of Israel and there were two tribes shav at God and shave Ru that didn't want to go over they said you know we have a lot of sheep we want to stay here on this side of the Jordan it's much better for our pasture they come to Mo M gets upset at them Moses talks to God about it a whole conflict breaks out after the whole back and forth and you can read it at length if you're looking for some excitement and drama you you always have everything in the Torah portion you can read about all all the details of it but after the whole excitement MOS says great I'm granting you permission for shavid God and shav Ru to stay in the land of Jordan pering there were stipulations they were going to come and they were going to fight for the Jewish people they were going to go front in line so not to think that God forbid that doing it to get out of not fighting for the Jewish people and then they were going to be able to receive um the uh the inheritance of the other side of the Jordan where they could um pass a cheap was sheep and was better for them what's phen what's interesting is that as M comes back and he says great I'm giving to you as a gift all of a sudden out of the blue MOS says guess what yes this is for you shavid God shaved Ru and half of the tribe of manasha and all the commentaries ask a simple question how did manasha get into this they never requested it they weren't part of the whole negotiation and out of the blue mosu says guess what guess who's going to be there not only those two dbes that requested it but also half of the tribe of manasha what happened why all of a sudden half of the tribe of manasha so the RB explains a very very powerful insight and that's as follows here the whole Jewish people were going over to Israel now in Israel obviously everyone's there all the excitement of the community everyone's together you have the temples there and all the all the tribes are there and here you have have two tribes on the other side of the Jordan now what can happen is when you go away when you leave the fold so to speak even though they're connected but you can forget about the enthusiasm of God and of Judaism and the religion and all the excitement that Judaism has to bring so mosan is concerned hey we might lose these people so he wanted to implant within them the ability that they won't forget about God and they'll stay connected to God so he picks specifically half the tribe of manasha why does he pick half the tribe Masha because if you recall um Masha is who and the Torah actually when it mentions that he's giving them half of the tribe manha it says manasha the son of Joseph which doesn't mention that by Ru and God why is that because if you recall when Joseph had his two children manim he said the reason why I'm naming my children and he says Mas I'm naming him K because God gave me the gift that I was able to forget all my troubles that's was able to succeed in Egypt and aim was so I was able to move forward and prosper in the land of Egypt so you see from here the RB says that Masha comes of forgetting in other words you have the power to forget all the negativity but you also have a power to make sure not to forget all the beautiful and positive things about life so the re explains that's specifically why MOS out of the blue told him guess what half of the tribe of manasha was going to stay with you in the on the other side of the Jordan why because manasha has the power that whatever you're going through wherever you are you'll never forget who you are and where you're from so to answer the question how do we always keep God in our memory alive to think of the the gift that we have as being part of the Jewish people of the idea of manasha the ability to not forget things that um are important to us and to forget the things which obviously are hurting from our growth and our relationship with God this week's Torah lesson is in memory of Bor B and schlomo B Ys May their souls be elevated for the Torah that we're studying in their memory thanks so much for joining us for our weekly Torah lesson for more information on Kad please see our [Music] website