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Mas’ei

Stages
“The Effects of the Law of Israel”

Numbers 33:1-36:13
Jeremiah 2:4-28; 3:4 (A);
2:4-28; 4:1-2 (S)

excerpted from TorahScope, Volume I

The final Torah reading of the Book of Numbers is usually coupled with the previous Torah reading, Mattot (Numbers 30:2[1]-32:42), for the purposes of study and reflection. In many respects Mas’ei, just like Mattot, delivers a series of final instructions to the Israelites, prior to their invasion of the Promised Land. As Mas’ei begins, a summary of the forty-two stages or encampments of the Israelites is catalogued by name,[1] with details on how to rout Canaan of its current inhabitants.[2] The physical boundaries of Israel are described,[3] with the names of the leaders of the tribes recorded for posterity’s sake.[4] Some definition about how the Land should be organized is conveyed, especially as it regards cities for the Levites[5] and specific cities of refuge to be available as safe places when someone has committed unintentional manslaughter.[6] Our parashah ends with some inheritance injunctions, on what was to be done in Ancient Israel when no male heirs were born into a family.[7]

All of what is seen in Mas’ei is important, because very steadily Israel was preparing to transition from being a desert-bound group of wandering “nomads,” to an established nation-state within determined borders. The jurisprudence, of what it means to be an actual “country,” was being spoken into the hearts and minds of the Israelites. Of all the instructions which God delivered, He was most concerned about the Israelites being loyal to Him, and in the pagan idolatry of Canaan being routed as they entered into their inheritance:

“The LORD spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, “When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their stone idols, destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places. You shall take possession of the land, and dwell therein; for I have given the land to you to possess it. You shall inherit the land by lot according to your families; to the larger groups you shall give a larger inheritance, and to the smaller you shall give a smaller inheritance. Wherever the lot falls to any man, that shall be his. You shall inherit according to the tribes of your fathers. But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those you let remain of them will be like pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will harass you in the land in which you dwell. It shall happen that as I thought to do to them, so I will do to you”’” (Numbers 33:50-56, WMB).

Here the instructions were very detailed: completely eliminate the inhabitants and then let the lot determine who received what parcels of land. After seeing a great victory over the Midianites with not a single soldier lost (Numbers 31), this sounds fairly basic. This remarkable victory allowed the Israelites to understand that the Lord was on their side, and that taking the Promised Land was only a simple matter of obeying His instructions. All God asked for in return was loyalty and fidelity to Him, as their job was to see the Canaanites’ idols removed.

Cities of Refuge

One of the most important aspects of what it would be like to live in the Promised Land, with God’s Torah enforced as the law, would be the establishment of cities of refuge. There were to be a total of forty-eight cities in Israel, specifically for the Levites (Numbers 35:7), with six of the cities being designated as cities of refuge or arei ha’miqlat (Numbers 35:6). These cities of refuge were to be spaced between the eastern and western sides of the Jordan, three on the east and three on the west (Numbers 35:14), with the other forty-two cities sprinkled among the tribal territories.

The cities of refuge were designed to be places where those who committed unintentional manslaughter could come to avoid anyone seeking revenge, who probably had the assignment to avenge the death of a family member:

“These six cities shall be refuge for the children of Israel, for the stranger, and for the foreigner living among them, that everyone who kills any person unwittingly may flee there” (Numbers 35:15, WMB).

These instructions begin to formalize a code of justice on how Ancient Israel was to handle homicide, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, and accidental death. The establishment of various cities of refuge—safe places where people could go when there had been a homicide—is about as close as we see in the Torah to there being any kind of “prison system.” While every community would have had some kind of jail, not everyone who is sent to jail is an accused murderer, as many are jailed as a penalty for unruly behavior or failure to pay a debt or for violating some kind of local ordinances. Here, the cities of refuge accomplished the role of some of today’s maximum security prisons, where not only criminals could be held until trial, but where the state was supposed to keep them safe and unharmed until trial.

Mas’ei details how the cities of refuge were to function, in the determination of whether a homicide was intentional or unintentional, laying out some examples which would need to be considered in judging the accused:

“‘But if he struck him with an instrument of iron, so that he died, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. If he struck him with a stone in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. Or if he struck him with a weapon of wood in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death. When he meets him, he shall put him to death. If he shoved him out of hatred, or hurled something at him while lying in wait, so that he died, or in hostility struck him with his hand, so that he died, he who struck him shall surely be put to death. He is a murderer. The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he meets him. But if he shoved him suddenly without hostility, or hurled on him anything without lying in wait, or with any stone, by which a man may die, not seeing him, and cast it on him so that he died, and he was not his enemy and not seeking his harm, then the congregation shall judge between the striker and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances” (Numbers 35:16-24, WMB).

It is notable that here we see a real example of the Torah functioning as the Law. As serious as human death might be, with various examples of how tools or instruments could be used to murder, the ultimate judgment for guilt or innocence might still fall with a community’s leaders. It is stated how “the assembly must judge” (Numbers 35:24, NIV). But more important than this is how the principle of convicting a murderer must have multiple witnesses:

“These things shall be for a statute and ordinance to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings. Whoever kills any person, the murderer shall be slain based on the testimony of witnesses; but one witness shall not testify alone against any person so that he dies” (Numbers 35:29-30, WMB).

As you read Numbers 35, you should be able to easily discern how these verses have significantly influenced the Western legal tradition until our very day. The need to be able to not only read the Scriptures, but do so with a discerning mind, can be very important to see them applied properly.

Inheritance Laws

As the Book of Numbers finishes, some information about the inheritance of property is detailed. Again, while Twenty-First Century people might think that these instructions seem a bit archaic, as they might be viewed as promoting a male-exclusive transference of property across the generations—with a few exceptions—what the Torah says must be viewed within the overall context of how property was kept in families in the larger Ancient Near East. The issue which Moses and Eleazar had to rule upon (Numbers chs. 26-27), allowed the daughters of Zelophehad to inherit from their father’s estate, even though they were female:

“They stood before Moses, before Eleazar the priest, and before the princes and all the congregation, at the door of the Tent of Meeting, saying, ‘Our father died in the wilderness. He was not among the company of those who gathered themselves together against the LORD in the company of Korah, but he died in his own sin. He had no sons. Why should the name of our father be taken away from among his family, because he had no son? Give to us a possession among the brothers of our father.’ Moses brought their cause before the LORD. The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘The daughters of Zelophehad speak right. You shall surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father’s brothers. You shall cause the inheritance of their father to pass to them. You shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, “If a man dies, and has no son, then you shall cause his inheritance to pass to his daughter. If he has no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers. If he has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father’s brothers. If his father has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his kinsman who is next to him of his family, and he shall possess it. This shall be a statute and ordinance for the children of Israel, as the LORD commanded Moses”’” (Numbers 27:2-11, WMB).

Later in Mas’ei, additional rulings are delivered. The Manassehites, recognizing how the daughters of Zelophehad inherited from their father’s property, were concerned that they might marry Israelite men outside of their tribe of Manasseh. In doing so, the inheritance for the entire tribe might be jeopardized. After explaining the dilemma, Moses clarified what actions should be taken:

“Moses commanded the children of Israel according to the LORD’s word, saying, ‘The tribe of the sons of Joseph speak what is right. This is the thing which the LORD commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, “Let them be married to whom they think best, only they shall marry into the family of the tribe of their father. So shall no inheritance of the children of Israel move from tribe to tribe; for the children of Israel shall all keep the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. Every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel shall be wife to one of the family of the tribe of her father, that the children of Israel may each possess the inheritance of his fathers. So shall no inheritance move from one tribe to another tribe; for the tribes of the children of Israel shall each keep his own inheritance”’” (Numbers 36:5-9, WMB).

Even though the daughters of Zelophehad affectively were treated like males, in being able to inherit from their father’s estate—here we see how the need to maintain tribal distinctions was very important for the Ancient Israelites, still yet to enter into the Promised Land. It was ruled here that if any daughters had to inherit their fathers’ property, that they could only marry within their tribe. But the issue here probably had more to do with tribal integrity within the Promised Land, than it had to do with womens’ rights. Much of the property which would be inherited would not be in the form of a bank account, stock portfolio, or investments in a corporation—but rather in real estate within a tribe’s territory and in agricultural assets. You cannot have a tribe of Israel within set boundaries, with all of the land within such boundaries actually owned by (absentee) people from another tribe. This is an excellent example of how the Torah’s original setting and the needs of Ancient Israel have to be considered in our reading of the text—because presumably if a woman married outside of her tribe, she would have forfeited the right to having any inheritance which would pass into the family of another tribe.

The Torah gives readers a glimpse into the legal process of ancient people who were chosen to be vessels of the Creator God, and Mas’ei has certainly given much for various rabbis, theologians, scholars, and lawyers to discuss and debate for several millennia. Applying these instructions in a modern setting might be a little difficult, as the modern world has a different kind of economy than did the ancient world. But these instructions can definitely inform us, as some of the first legal precedents set in the Bible. By reading and meditating upon them, we make sure that these instructions continue to have an influence on our reading of the Scriptures, being relevant to men and women of faith—even if just in the sense, at times, of being Biblical history. Even if we cannot follow everything in the Torah, because we do not live in the Ancient Near East, meditating on the Word of God will still teach us things about His character and dealings with people!