Two Minute Torah Podcast

Masei 5771 by Gabriela Geselowitz

Shalom, my name is Gabriela Geselowitz, and I am a junior at the Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College in New York. Welcome to KOACH's Two-Minute Torah; a project of the College Department of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

This week's Parsha is Masei.

During the Children of Israel's time in the desert we see a lot of passion and anger. Even God becomes angry, threatening to completely destroy the people on more than one occasion. However, in this Parsha we can see moments where God acts as a balanced judge, granting leniency and setting new precedents on the side of fairness.

In Masei, we learn about Arei Miklat, or cities of refuge. These six cities are towns where someone who has killed another accidentally may reside until the death of the High Priest, when he is free to return home. This may seem harsh considering the death was not intentional, but it gives the accused reprieve from revenge of the victim's family. God is, in fact, giving a way out of traditional societal obligations in order to establish a new precedent of taking mitigating circumstances into account.

This Parsha also details the story of the daughters of Tz'laphchad, who came to Moses asking for their father's inheritance in the absence of a male heir. God commands that the daughters be allowed the inheritance, so long as they marry within their tribe. This too is a small step forward. Although it is to maintain inheritances within each tribe, it is remarkable that women are given this small victory in a patriarchy. It is certainly no breaking down of gender boundaries, but it is an acknowledgment from God that women should be allowed more rights than previously assumed.

Many of God's commandments, while still in line with society and morality of the day, move gradually towards more contemporary conceptions of compassion and justice. The Rambam suggested in his discussion of sacrifices that God commanded them not for his own need, but because the children of Israel would not comprehend a God that did not command animal sacrifice. Perhaps the examples from this Parsha can be similarly viewed. God was taking small steps within the people's frame of reference in order to bring them into a new era with a new concept of justice.

Perhaps we too should try to continually look with a fresh eye and not accept situations as society initially dictates. Change does not have to be in the form of revolution, but in modern thought.

Shabbat Shalom.