Parshas Matos
“If her father nullified her vows on the day he heard them, all the prohibitions she took upon herself shall not stand and G-d will forgive her” (Bamidbar 30:6 and Rashi there). If the woman’s vows were nullified by her father, then there is no longer any danger that she will break them. Why then does she need forgiveness?
“One who declares a vow, it is as if he built a forbidden altar outside of the Temple; and one who fulfills the vow, it is as if he offered a sacrifice on it” (Nedarim 22a). Judaism, which celebrates the joy of life, through the fulfillment of G-d’s commandments, frowns on voluntary restrictions. That which G-d has permitted to us, we should not prohibit to ourselves. Just as G-d has no desire for sacrifices that are not offered up in His Holy Temple, He has no desire for self-sacrifices that are not required by His Holy Torah. That is the meaning of the introductory words to our parsha – “Ze ha’davar.” Moshe points to the Sefer Torah and says, “These are the words that G-d has commanded,” only these words that are written in the Torah, not words of self-denial that one adds of one’s own initiative. That is why the person who takes a vow needs forgiveness, even if it was immediately annulled and never fulfilled.
G-d instructs Moshe that before he dies he must wage war against the people of Midian for having enticed the leaders of Israel to behave immorally with the Midianite women. This event led to the plague that killed 24,000 Jews (Bamidbar 25:9). Moshe understood the message. Once the war with Midian would be over, his life would be over, too. Yet he did not delay going to war. He fulfilled G-d’s commandment with alacrity. Indeed, we see that whenever Moshe was commanded by G-d to do something, his immediate response was “how high do You want me to jump?” When G-d said to Moshe, “Come up to me to the mountain and I will give you the tablets of the law” (Shemos 24:12), we are told that Moshe jumped twelve steps to fulfill that commandment. No doubt he did the same when he was asked by G-d to climb up the mountain of Nevo to his final resting place (Devarim 32:49).
In the same vein, although G-d instructed Moshe to tell the people that they should take their own revenge and wage war against the Midianites for having lost so many people in the plague (Bamidbar 31:2), Moshe changed the message. He told them to wage war against Midian so that G-d could take His own revenge (31:3). Moshe realized that if it was the peoples’ revenge they were seeking, the Jews would have rather postponed the war to keep Moshe alive. But if it was G-d’s revenge they were seeking, they would have to wage war right away.
“Umikneh rav hayah le’bnei Reuven,” the descendants of Reuven and Gad had lots of cattle (32:1). In those days, wealth was counted by the number of heads of cattle one owned (Chullin 84b). The word “rav” portrays an insatiable appetite for more (Bereishis 33:9 and 11). The bnei Reuven and bnei Gad were prepared to live on the east bank of the Jordan away from the rest of the Jews who lived on the west bank, divorced from Jewish culture, because this was good for their business, irrespective of the negative influence the foreign culture might have on their children. And they said as much. “We will build pens for our cattle and cities for our children,” putting their wealth first and the welfare of their children last (32:16). In acceding to their request to settle on the east bank, Moshe reminded them that the spiritual welfare of their children takes precedence. “Build cities for your children and pens for your cattle” (32:24), he said, inverting their priorities and putting the children first.
The spoils of the war were divided equally between the soldiers who went to battle and the rest of the nation who stayed at home (31:27). Of the half given to the rest of the nation, one fiftieth was given to the Levi’im, who looked after G-d’s Tabernacle (31:30). The Levi’im were the ones who stayed behind in the Temple and contributed to the war effort by praying and learning Torah to ensure that G-d would protect the soldiers. We are told there was a partnership between King David and his general Yoav. Yoav took charge of the military affairs, which enabled King David to devote himself to intensive Torah study. Yoav was victorious in war because of the merit of King David’s Torah study (Shmuel II, 8:15, Sanhedrin 49a). So it was with the war against Midian. The Levi’im who remained behind and supported the soldiers by praying and learning deserved to be compensated with those who went to battle. As it has been said, it is the combination of the tillim (missiles) and Tehillim that wins the war.
