Matot

📜 The Story

Parshat Matot opens with the laws of vows and oaths. Moses teaches the children of Israel that when a person makes a vow or an oath, they must keep their word and not change it. The famous verse says: he shall not break his word, according to all that comes out of his mouth he shall do. What we say with our mouth matters, and our word is very important.

Then Hashem commands Moses to go to war against Midian, because the people of Midian had tried to lead the children of Israel into idol worship. Moses sends out twelve thousand soldiers, one thousand from each tribe, and Pinchas the kohen goes with them carrying the holy vessels. The children of Israel win the battle, and among those defeated is the wicked Bilam, who had wanted to curse Israel.

The army returns with a great amount of spoils, animals, silver and gold. Moses and Elazar the kohen teach the people how to purify the vessels and the spoils according to the laws of purity, and how to divide everything fairly among the soldiers, the rest of the people, the kohanim and the Levites.

At the end of the parsha, the tribes of Reuven and Gad, along with half the tribe of Menashe, come to Moses. They own huge herds of sheep and cattle, and they see that the land east of the Jordan River is very good for grazing. They ask to receive their portion there instead of crossing into the land of Israel.

Moses is upset at first, worried that they want to avoid fighting alongside the rest of the nation. But they promise him that they will first build cities for their families and pens for their flocks, and then fight at the head of the Israelite army until the whole land is conquered, only returning home after that. Moses agrees to their plan and gives them the land.