Two Minute Torah Podcast

Mattot 5771 by Rabbi Elyse Winick

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

As we journey with B'nei Yisrael, the Children of Israel, in this week's parashah, Mattot, we are also entering into one of the most solemn times of the Jewish year, the three weeks which fall between 17 Tammuz, marking the breach of the walls of Jerusalem in 586 BCE and 9 Av, marking the destruction of the First Temple in that same year and the destruction of the Second Temple on 9 Av in 70 CE.  It is a season where we hang in the balance between a people shattered and a people made whole by both a common lament and a common purpose.

Back in Torah time, two of our tribes hesitate in the preparations to enter the land of Israel, asking Moses to allow them to settle on the eastern side of the Jordan River, a place where they can pasture their sheep and raise their children.

Moses worries that by setting themselves apart geographically, the tribes of Reuven and Gad will abandon their brothers and sisters for the sake of personal comfort and economic stability.  He calls them out for failing to share in the common future of their people.  They listen patiently to his rebuke and then, "Vayigshu eylav vayom'ru," "They approached him and said," "gidrot tzon nivneh l'mikneinu po, v'arim l'tapeinu.  Va-anahnu nahlitz hushim lifnei b'nei Yisrael," "we will build sheepfolds for our flocks here, and cities for our children.  And we will fight vigorously alongside the rest of the Children of Israel."

It's striking that the Torah introduces this impassioned statement with the words "Vayigshu eylav," "They approached him." If they were already in conversation with Moses, in his presence to make their request, what can it mean to say that they approached him? 

By their words and by their actions they are making clear that they will not sacrifice the closeness of being one people even if they are separated by land and water.  They match the sentiment of their response, perhaps even unwittingly, by drawing nearer to Moshe as they make their point.  Their commitment is unwaveringly clear.

In Orot HaKodesh, Lights of Holiness, Rav Abraham Isaac Kook tells of a Shir Meruba, a Fourfold Song.  He speaks of four types of people, one who sings the song of his own life and finds deep personal fulfillment; one who goes beyond the self to sing the song of his people; one whose melody reaches yet further, to encompass all of humanity and the fourth whose song is the song of all creation.  And then, Rav Kook tells us, there is a fifth type:  "The song of the self, the song of the people, the song of man, the song of the world all merge in him at all times, in every hour."

As we join B'nei Yisrael on the next steps in their journey, and as we remember with sorrow and with sadness the tragedies which have befallen our people, let us become the fifth type to which Rav Kook refers, singing a song of wholeness and completion, sharing the fate of those who share our faith and those who share our values, drawing near with our voices and our lives to a better, less fragmented world.

Shabbat Shalom.