Two Minute Torah Podcast

Matot 5768 by Rabbi Elyse Winick

Shalom! Welcome to KOACH’s Two Minute Torah, a project of the College Outreach Department of The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. This is Rabbi Elyse Winick, Associate Director of KOACH.

This week’s Two Minute Torah is dedicated to the memories of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, y’hi zikhronam barukh, may their memory be a blessing.

When we read parashat Matot, we may well still be reeling from the news in Pinhas that Moshe will not be entering the land of Israel and that the torch has been passed to Joshua. Matot is business as usual, a strange sequel to that very dramatic moment. In a single verse, though, we’re reminded of what is about to happen. Bamidbar 31:2 gives battle instructions to Moshe: Avenge the Israelite people on the Midianites, then you shall be gathered to your kin.

I don’t know how Moshe reacted, but I found myself stopped in my tracks by these words. God has already told Moshe of his fate, that after all his hard work and dedication, he will never be able to enter the Promised Land. And now, almost as a throwaway, God says, “Fight one more enemy for Me and then your number is up.”

Some commentators tell us that Moshe must oversee the battle with Midian. Remember that Moshe’s father-in-law, Yitro, was a priest of Midian. The Israelites might think the conflict marked the dissolution of personal alliances, rather than serving as a piece of God’s larger plan for the conquering of their enemies.

Be that as it may, I try to get into Moshe’s head at that moment. Was he so resigned to his fate that it didn’t matter? Was he furious with God, but knew that he had no choice? Was his level of commitment to the task at hand so great, that this throwaway line struck him as no more than a note on scheduling?

Or perhaps something completely different. Maybe knowing his fate and knowing what was to come enabled him to perform his final tasks with great creativity, grace and freedom. Maybe in this moment he fully actualized his potential, looking over his shoulder to neither the right nor the left.

If only. If only we could enter into the challenges before us with that kind of certitude. It’s true that people who live with a diagnosis of terminal illness often respond to their lives in just that way, filled with joy and appreciation and offering the unencumbered best they have. How sad that it takes having the end in sight to free us up to truly find ourselves.

By the time we get to Parashat Haazinu, when Moshe finally does say goodbye, and V’zot HaBrakhah, where he offers his final blessing, Moshe has found his voice. He speaks passionately and poetically, enjoining B’nai Yisrael to fulfill the mandate God has laid before them and thus find their own voice as well. May we be so fortunate.