From: JoshHoff@aol.com
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 3:03 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort:parshas Masei,5768
The End
By Rabbi Joshua ( penultimately known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
Rabbi Hillel Lieberman, H' YD (may God avenge his blood), writes, in his
posthumously published Torah commentary, Ahavas Ha Aretz, that parshas Masei,
in a sense, constitutes the completion of the Torah. This is so
because the book of Devorim is known in rabbinic literature as Mishneh Torah,
or repetition of the Torah, because it consists mostly of a review, by Moshe,
of the event s that occurred from the redemption from Egypt through the forty
years spent in the wilderness. Although some new mitzvos are recorded,
Ramban says that they were really given earlier, but only mentioned in Devorim
because it was at that point in time when they were about to take effect.
Tosafos in Gittin, 2 a , actually explain the term Mishneh Torah to mean
precisely that, a repetition of the Torah, and, for that reason , there is no
separation in the Torah scroll between the book of Bamidbar and the book of
Devorim, while between the other books of the Torah we do find a separation of
four blank lines in the Torah scroll. Although the Netziv, in his introduction
to the book of Devorim in his commentary Ha'Amek Davar, takes great
exception to this approach, it does have a legitimate basis in early
authorities. Parshas Masei, then, following this approach, can be seen as
the culmination of the Torah. There is a time- honored tradition of seeking a
connection between the end of a work and its beginning. What, then, is the
connection between the beginning of the Torah and its completion in parshas Masei?
The Talmud in Sotah, 14a tells us that the Torah both begins and ends with
chesed, or acts of loving- kindness. In parshas Bereishis, God arranges the
marriage of Adam and Chava, and in parshas VeZos HaBeracha, which is
the actual completion of the Torah, God buries Moshe . Rabbi Lieberman, in
a kind of variation of this Talmudic passage, says that, if we view parshas
Masei as the completion of the Torah, then it connects to Bereishis in that
Masei ends with the daughters of Tzelaphchad getting married. I would like to
suggest another connection between Berieshis and Masei, which relates the very
beginning of the Torah to a verse in parshas Masei, albeit not at th every end
of the parsha, which in turn connects top the marriage of the daughters of Tzelaphchad,
as well.
Rashi in the beginning of parshas Berieshis cites a midrash in which Rav
Yitzchak asks, why does the Torah begin with Bereishis? Shouldn't it ave begun
with the parhsa of sanctifying the new moon, which is the first mitzvah given to
the collective of the Jewish people? He answers that the Torah began with an
account of the creation of the world and its subsequent history in order to
demonstrate that the world belongs to God, who created it, and He has the right
to give land to one nation, and then later take it away form that nation and
give it to another. Thus, the accounts of the creation of the world and its
subsequent history serve to support the claim of the Jewish nation to its land.
However, we still need to understand why this takes precedence over a
presentation of the mitzvos to the Jewish people, since the Torah is, after
all, mainly a book of instruction in the mitzvos. I believe that the answer
lies in the words of the Sifrei, cited by Rashi in parshas Vaeschanan and elaborated
upon by the Ramban, that all of the mitzvos, even those such as tefillin that
are not agriculturally- related, are meant to be kept mainly in Eretz Yisroel
Rav Avraham Yistzchak Bloch, spiritual guidance counselor ( mashgiach ruchani)
of Telshe Yeshiva in pre- WWll Europe, explained this to mean that the
spiritual effect of the mitzvos can be fully realized only in Eretz
Yisroel , since that is where the divine presence dwells. Based on this
teaching, we can understand that our connection to Eretz Yisroel does, indeed,
relate to our observance of the mitzvos of the Torah, since the spiritual
effect of the mitzvos can only be realized in Eretz Yisroel. Therefore, it is
appropriate to begin the Torah with the accounts in Bereishis, even though they
have no formal mitzvah content. we still ned to understand, however, how this
relates to parshas Masei.
The Ramban, in his comment to the verse in parshas Masei, " You
shall rid he land and you shall settle it, for to you I have given the land to
possess it" ( Bamidbar, 33,:52) writes that this is the source for our
obligation to conquer Eretz Yisrel and settle in it. He elaborates on
this mitzvah in his commentary to the Sefer HaMitvos of the Rambam, who did not
list this among the six hundred thirteen mitzvos. Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik
explained the failing of the spies in their mission to search out the land as
consisting in viewing their mission as one of strategic reconnaissance before
actually conquering the land. However, the real purpose of their mission was to
endear the land on the people.. Just as a groom must see his bride before
their marriage in order to endear her to him, so, too, the Jewish people, who
have a special relationship to the land, just as a groom has to his bride, needed
to view the land first, in order to increase their desire to conquer it and
settle in it. At the end of parshas Masei,some prominent members of
the tribe of Menashe complained to Moshe and the nesi'im ( princes)
that if the daughters of Tzelaphchad, who were to inherit their father's
portion of the land, would marry men from another tribe, then, when they
died, the land would transfer to another tribe, thereby diminishing
the territory of the tribe of of Menashe. Therefore, the daughters of
Tzelapchad were told to marry people from their own tribe, in order to maintain
their tribe's hold on their land. At the very end of the parsha, we are
told that the daughters of Tzelaphchad did, in fact, get married to
members of their own tribe. The entire saga of the daughters of
Tzelaphchad demonstrates their great love for Eretz Yisroel , and it is
therefore altogether appropriate that it ends with their marriage
and maintenance of their tribe's hold on their land. Their story,in
turn, highlights the notion of the nation's special relationship to the
land, which,as we have noted, is akin to the special relationship between
a groom and a bride. In turn, this relationship relates back to the connection
between dwelling in Eretz Yisroel and the account of the sections in the Torah
relating to the creation of the world and its subsequent history, as we
explained earlier. In this way, the beginning of the Torah and the end of
parshas Masei form a hermetically sealed unit, all relating back to the
teaching of the Sifrei, that the full spiritual effect of the mitzvos can only
be realized in Eretz Yisroel.
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