Parasha Masei

par le Rav Raphaël Benizri

Parasha Masei (מסעי) — Bamidbar 33:1 – 36:13. Read on Shabbat, July 31, 2027 (together with Matot).

Summary of Parasha Masei

The parasha opens with the list of the stages of the journey of the Children of Israel from the time they left Egypt, under the leadership of Moshe and Aharon, written down by Moshe at G-d’s command. Each encampment is named, from Rameses to the plains of Moav, opposite Jericho. Along the way, the Torah recalls the death of Aharon at Hor HaHar, on the first day of the fifth month of the fortieth year, at the age of one hundred and twenty-three. G-d commands that the inhabitants of the land be driven out and their idols destroyed, warning that those who remain would become like thorns for Israel. The Torah then sets the borders of the land of Canaan and designates, for each tribe, the leader who will take part in dividing it. Forty-eight cities, with their surrounding open land, are allotted to the Levites. Among them, six cities of refuge, three on each side of the Jordan, will shelter anyone who has killed a person unintentionally. The Torah distinguishes between deliberate homicide, punishable by death on the testimony of two witnesses, and unintentional homicide: the unintentional killer remains in the city of refuge until the death of the High Priest. Blood that is shed defiles the land. The book of Bamidbar concludes with the heads of the tribe of Menashe coming back about the daughters of Tzelofchad: so that the inheritance does not pass to another tribe, they marry men from their father’s tribe.