Questions and Commentary on Shabbat Mas'ei Chayyei Yeshua - A Devotional Commentary on the Besora Reading
In Summary
Looking Ahead
Questions & Commentary on Parashat Mattot
1. In what way does our faith in Yeshua affect
our vision of how the Jewish people should relate to the State of Israel, the Diaspora, and the
non-Jewish world?
Yitzhaq ben Benoni
Parashat Mas‘ei closes the book of Bemidbar (Numbers) and falls this year
between the 17th of Tammuz and Tisha B'Av, a period during which certain Jews
remember the painful experience our Jewish people went through during the two
destructions of the Temple in Jerusalem. The Hebrew noun mas‘ei in its singular form is mas‘a and is translated into English as
"departure" or "march." Our parasha
recounts the daily marches of the Israelites during their forty-year journey as
nomads in the Middle Eastern deserts. The word mas‘a is related to the verb nasa
which in Modern Hebrew is used as the main verb to express traveling, while in
biblical Hebrew literally denotes the action of "pulling out tent pegs," hence
to "break camp" and journey.
The long journey of the
Israelites is emphasized by the repetition of the verb nasa, which is mentioned not less than thirty three times in
Numbers 33: "They set out (nasa) from
Rameses in the first month" (Numbers 33:3); "they set (nasa) out from Sukkot and encamped at Etham" (33:6); and so on.
This detailed itinerary is paralleled by the delineation of the borders of the Land
of Israel, which Israel
was set on occupying back then:
Your southern sector shall extend from the
wilderness of Zin alongside Edom. . . . For the western boundary you shall have
the coast of the Great Sea; that shall serve as your western boundary.
This shall be your northern
boundary: Draw a line from the Great Sea to Mount Hor; from Mount Hor draw a line to Lebo-hamath, and let the boundary
reach Zedad. . . . For your eastern boundary you shall draw a line from
Hazar-enan to Shepham. From Shepham the boundary shall descend to Riblah on the
east side of Ain; from there the boundary shall continue downward and abut on
the eastern slopes of the Sea of Chinnereth. The boundary shall then descend along the Jordan and terminate at the Dead Sea.
Numbers
34:3-12
The Israelites were also commanded upon their arrival into Canaan to
dispossess all the inhabitants of the land and destroy their figured objects,
molten images, and cult places (Numbers 33:52). Some religious Zionists assume
full responsibility for literally expanding the Israeli State in order to
possess all of the land as described in the aforementioned verses. But
certainly the situation described in the Torah is not identical to the ongoing
conflict that is now happening in Israel-Palestine. At least, there are no
non-Jewish inhabitants worshiping figured objects and molten images in remote
cultic places somewhere on the other side of the Jordan
River.
Although Parashat Mas‘ei
testifies to the long historical link that has ever existed between the Jewish
people and the Land of Israel, it also
reminds us of the enriching and defining experience that has molded the
expression of Jewish faith over the last two millennia: masa. Judaism in the past as well as in the present has always
found itself within this tension: the desire to settle down while collectively
journeying in this planet. What will happen to this journey if all of the
Jewish people settle in the tiny strip of land, which is today called Israel? Will
Judaism not lose an important dimension of its character and spirituality by
collectively retreating into a narrowly defined geographical space? Some may
believe that such a reality would signal the eschaton and bring in the arrival of a new age. But in the meantime,
what is our real mission?
2. "Take
possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to
possess" (Numbers 33:53). According to our Rabbis, this verse forms the basis
of the commandment of Yishuv Eretz Yisra'el
(Settling in the Land of Israel). In light of the Torah and Brit Chadasha,
do you think it is a mitzva to live
in Israel? Is it incumbent on every Jew to live there today? Is
there any benefit to living in Eretz
Yisra'el?
Rabbi Jonathan Kaplan
In his comments on Numbers
33:53, the Ramban (R. Moses ben Nachman or Nachmanides, d. ca. 1270) derives a
single, positive commandment of Torah - to settle in the Land of Israel and take possession of it. Interestingly his
predecessor Rambam (R. Moses ben Maimon or Maimonides, d. 1204) did not include
the commandment of Yishuv Eretz Yisra'el
in his list of 613 commandments from the Torah.
The rabbis began
restricting emigration from the Land of Israel and Jerusalem in particular during the Tannaitic period (1st-2nd
centuries CE) thus highlighting the importance of Jewish settlement in the
Land. At the end of tractate Ketubot in the Mishna (the section
dealing with marriage contracts), the following injunction is recorded (13:11),
All may be compelled
to go up to the land of Israel,
but no one may be compelled to leave. All may be compelled to go up to Jerusalem,
but no one may be compelled to leave. This includes men and women alike.
Though rabbis in both
Babylon and the Land of Israel during the 3rd through the 5th centuries CE
acknowledged the authority of this ruling, the sages in Babylon gradually
advocated a vision of their community as a center of Jewish life equal to (or
greater than) in learning, renown, and status with the community in the Land of
Israel. In fact Rav Yehuda, a second generation Babylonian Amora and student of
Rav, states in this section (b. Ketubot 110b),
"All who go up from Babylonia to the land of Israel transgress a positive commandment."
However, the Babylonian sages
continued to envision, as have most Jewish religious leaders, the Land of Israel and Jerusalem as the center of God's messianic promises (see b. Ketubot 111b-112a). In fact the
prayer for the State of Israel written by the Israeli Chief Rabbinate emphasizes
this conviction when it says that the establishment of the State of Israel is reshit tzemichat ge'ullatenu - "the
first flowering of our redemption."
Throughout the Brit
Chadasha, there is also a strong emphasis placed on the mitzva of Yishuv Eretz Yisra'el
and on Jerusalem and the Land of Israel as the center of Jewish religious life and identity.
The early community of messianic believers is headquartered in Jerusalem under the leadership of Ya‘aqov the brother of Yeshua
(see Ma‘asei Sheluchim 15). Shaul,
the great shaliach of the messianic
community in the Land of Israel, considers supporting "the poor in Jerusalem" a central component of his work outside of the Land
(Romans 15:25-26; 1 Corinthians 16:33). As a Messianic Jewish community, we
should follow the examples of Ya‘aqov, Shaul, and even Yeshua himself and
strive to support Yishuv Eretz Yisra'el
whether through financial supports or our own fulfillment of this mitzva. For in expressing our commitment
to this mitzva, not only are we
fulfilling a commandment, but also we are declaring our messianic hope for the
realization of the redemption of the Jewish people and the culmination of Yishuv Eretz Yisra'el.
David Nichol
John 18:28-19:26 - Yeshua and the Inheritance of Israel
As our passage begins, Yeshua has been arrested and
is taken to the headquarters of the Roman governor, Pilate. His accusers are a
group of Judeans who are among Jerusalem's
priestly caste, including the kohen
haggadol (the High Priest) himself and his associates. Also known in the besorot as Sadducees, this sub-group of kohanim were the nominal leaders of the
Jewish people who were often viewed by their countrymen as "in bed with" the
Roman occupiers. Though corrupt and power-hungry, however, the kohen haggadol was the legitimate
spiritual leader of the nation, as there was only one Temple,
and only the kohanim were authorized
to perform the temple service that was the focal point of Israel's
relationship with God. The Roman governor, Pilate, on the other hand, is known
to history as a bloodthirsty ruler who had little compunction about crucifying
Jewish troublemakers.
What follow in the narrative are hours of
indecisiveness and back-and-forth between Pilate, the accusers, and Yeshua. The
accusers want Yeshua killed, and soon, because Pesach is starting that evening.
Pilate seems hesitant, and keeps going back to Yeshua to ask him questions. He
is especially hung up on the idea of Yeshua being a king.
One of the first things the reader should notice
here is that, other than Yeshua, none of the actors in this drama act as
expected. Why are the spiritual leaders of Israel,
on the eve of perhaps the holiest day of the year, so bent on the death of an
innocent man? And why is Pilate so hesitant? After his bloody career, what's
one more execution? Why does he spend most of his day as a go-between, trying
to get Yeshua's accusers to settle for less than his death?
What the participants of this drama, outside of
perhaps Yeshua himself, could not see, but is more clear to us, is the big
picture. If he were just another revolutionary, maybe things would not have
played out this way. But he is the go'el,
the personification and agent of redemption, providing atonement for Israel
in its darkest hour. Our Sages say that the Temple
was destroyed about forty years after this event because of sinat chinam, unwarranted and
immitigable hatred between man and his neighbor. It would be easy to think that
the go'el should appear then, when
the Romans were breaching the walls of Jerusalem.
Surely that was our darkest hour! But that was not our darkest hour, though our
political autonomy, our physical, geographical connection to the God of our
ancestors, was taken from us by the Roman war machine Rather, even darker was
when, as described in our passage, these kohanim,
the leaders of our people and the mediators of the covenant, proclaimed with
one voice, "We have no king but Caesar!" (8:15).
From this story, and from the fact that God allowed
Yeshua to die for the sake of Israel,
even after this repudiation of his kingship, we learn several things. First,
his love for us is in fact eternal and indestructible. This love extends beyond
Israel, to the
whole world. If God has not rejected Israel,
God will certainly accept any nation or person who comes in teshuva (repentance). Second, though we
love our inheritance and remember our holy places, our spiritual connection to
God does not rest on places or imperfect people; rather, it rests on the
shoulders of Yeshua, who mediates the covenant even beyond death.
