Masei 5774:    Coming Full Circle

By Rabbi Joshua (circularly known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

Parshas Masei marks the end of the book of Bamidbar, and, in effect, the end of the Torah as given directly by God to Moshe.  The book of Devarim is known as Mishneh Torah, or repetition of the Torah. The Ramban, based on the Talmud in Megillah (31a), says that the entire book of Devarim was originally said by Moshe, and then, dictated by God to Moshe and incorporated in the rest of the Torah. Rabbi Avraham Korman, in his HaParsha LeDoroseiha, notes a connection between the beginning of the Torah with Parshas Bereishis, and the end of the Torah, as directly given by God, with Parshas Masei.  In Parshas Bereishis, Kayin is exiled from the Garden of Eden for having killed his bother Hevel inadvertently, and, in parshas Masei, we are given the laws of the cities of refuge, where an inadvertent murderer is given protection from his victim’s blood avenger.  The Torah thus begins and ends with a concern for the sanctity of human life following the homiletic principle of connecting the end to the beginning.

We may add that there is an additional connection between Bereishis and Masei, which focuses on the Torah as the guide for the Jewish people, rather than on the universal aspect of the Torah, as noted by Rabbi Korman. The Torah begins by telling us that God created the world “Bereishis”, which the midrash explains to mean “for the sale of reishis,” referring to Yisroel, which is called God’s “reishis” or first crop.  Rashi cites the question of Rabbi Yitzchok, who asked why the Torah begins with an account of creation and a number of narratives about early manhood and the patriarchs. After all, the purpose of the Torah is to present the mitzvos to the Jewish people, and, so, it should have started with the first mitzvah given to the Jewish people, the mitzvah of proclaiming the new moon.  He answers, that the Torah wished to give a basis for the claim of the Jewish people to Eretz Yisroel, which was created by God, Who can give it to whoever he wants. We need to understand how this answer solves the problem raised by Rabbi Yitzchok, as the explanation is not immediately clear.

Rav Kook, in the beginning of his work Oros, says that Eretz Yisroel is intrinsically connected to the nature of the Jewish people. The Ramban, based on a Sifre, says that Eretz Yisroel is the optimum place to observe the mitzvos. Thus, it is important to demonstrate in the very beginning of the Torah, whose purpose is to present the mitzvos to the Jewish people, that the land belongs to them. The Torah, as given directly by God, ends with parshas Masei, which ends with the directive to the daughters of Tzelaphchad to marry within their tribes, so that their portion of the land not be transferred from one tribe to another.  As Rabbi Hillel Lieberman, Hy"d, points out in his Ahavas HaAretz, this directive assumes that Eretz Yisroel will be appropriated to the tribes, thus affirming the eternal nature of the connection of the people to the land. The Torah thus begins and ends with an affirmation of the connection between the Jewish people and Eretz Yisroel, indicating that the end is rooted in the beginning.