The Torah gives a detailed list of all the stops on the way from Egypt to Canaan. Some of the names have been mentioned elsewhere in the Torah. Others have not. But there is no comprehensive record of how long they stayed at each location. It is a matter much argued about, how long they stayed and where and all…
Sefer BaMidbar
Vengeance
The Goel Hadam, the person who avenges the blood, meaning the death of a close relative, even if it is accidental, is an ancient tradition that goes back much earlier than the Torah. In parts of our world is carried out to this day and tolerated by people who still live in the dark ages. It is one of those…
Blood Letting
The last chapters of the book of Bamidbar culminate in the final preparations to invade Canaan. They deal with demarcating the territory the Israelites will claim and allocating the land between the tribes. But the reading begins with blood and ends with blood. It starts with the destruction of the Midianites and makes very uncomfortable reading. It ends with the…
Detached From Community
This week the Torah lists all the places the Children of Israel camped at during their 40-year trek from Egypt to Israel. The lands conquered and not yet, are then allocated to the tribes as the narrative of the Torah concludes before the final push over the river Jordan into the Land of Israel. Remember the last book of the…
Tribal Land
This week the Torah starts with a command to the Heads of the Tribes. This is unusual because normally it would either be a command to the Israelites in general or to Moses specifically. And it relates to fathers and husbands having the right to cancel vows either as a husband or a father on the grounds that one cannot…
Midian
Moses is told that before he dies, the last thing he must do is to destroy Midian because they nearly succeeded in corrupting almost the whole of the Israelite leadership below Moses and Aaron. Notice the Torah mentions Midian and not Moab but in fact they were partners from the start. The Midrash suggests that they merged. So, off the…