Matos 5774:    Enough Said

By Rabbi Joshua (instinctively known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

Parshas Matos begins with the laws of vows and oaths. The opening verse of the parsha reads, “Moshe spoke to the heads of the tribes of B’nei Yisroel saying, ‘This is the matter that the Lord has commanded: If a man takes a vow to God or swears an oath to prohibit a prohibition upon himself, he should not violate his words’” (Bamidbar 32:2-3). The Rashbam notes that this verse is unusual, in that it does not begin its set of law by saying that God spoke to Moshe, as we find in all other sections of law. This, says the Rashbam, is because it is connected to a verse at the end of the previous parsha, (Bamidbar 29:39), which mentions, God’s command not to delay in fulfilling one’s vows.  Rav Mordechai Gifter, in his Pirkei Torah, says that the Torah, by leaving out the direct command of God in regard to making vows, is hinting that is preferable not to take vows, especially considering that vows by which one generates a prohibition upon himself are included in these laws.

Rav Moshe Feinstein, in his Darash Moshe, offers a different explanation for the omission of a direct command of God in this section. He says that the prohibition of violating one’s words by not fulfilling a vow he took is something that is so obvious and essential that everyone should understand on his own that he should not do it, even without receiving a direct command. Speech is a gift given to man, and he should understand that it was not given to him in order to misuse it. Similarly, he says in regard to “eidim zomemin” or “plotting witnesses”, they are held liable even inadvertently and without a direct prohibition, because they should understand that one should not misuse speech by testifying falsely. 

Rav Moshe’s explanation posits that there are certain laws that, in fact, consist of behavior that a person should know intuitively, without a direct command. This notion resembles the teaching of Rav Kook in his Oros HaKodesh, that there are two types of mussar, or ethics: mussar enoshi, meaning matters that a person knows by himself, from his very essence as implanted in him by God, to be correct, and mussar Eloki, those that he knows through a command of God. Related to this notion is that certain ethical principles are inherent in the human psyche and are necessary antecedents for their acceptance of the Torah. A primary example of this is the need for a sense of gratitude. Rabbi Shubert Spero has pointed out that this idea emerges from a Mechilta, which says that God, in commanding the Torah, acted like a king who first does acts of kindness for his people and then commands them. That is why the Decalogue is preceded by the words, “I am the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt.” The people, thus, were expected to have a sense of gratitude, even before any commandments were given. This inherent sense of gratitude can also help us understand the link between the section on vows and the section on the battle against Midyan, which follows it.

God tells Moshe to arrange for the battle against Midyan in vengeance for the sins that they caused the Jewish nation to commit, which ultimately caused many deaths. Moshe readily transmitted this command, although he knew that he would die once the battle was fought. However, as Rav Avraham Korman points out, Moshe himself did not participate in the war, despite his eagerness to assure that God’s command be fulfilled. This is because Moshe, in his youth, received protection in the land of Midyan, and, out of a sense of gratitude, did not feel right in actually battling against it. This idea of an inherent sense of morality, then, expected of every human being, is what connects the first two sections of parshas Matos, explaining why one follows the other.