Commentary on Parasha: Mattot-Massei

 

Vows and Oaths

Tags:  confession, honesty, honor, integrity, oaths, vows

Integrity is a matter of Torah. Over and over again we encounter legislation regarding honest weights and measures, equity, vows and oaths. Integrity is a matter of internal and external consistency. Disingenuousness and deceit may be measured by the size of discrepancy between a person's words and the actual matter of which they are speaking. When our actions agree with our confessions, we are living out integrity according to the Torah's standards....
Read...   Print...

 

Blushing Like Fire

Tags:  idolatary, innocence, Midianites, modesty, seduction, sensuality, sexual immorality

We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. (1 Corinthians 10:8)...
Read...   Print...

 

Promise Keepers

Tags:  accountability, oaths, obligation, promises, speech, swear falsely, vows

You shall not be double-minded nor double-tongued; for to be double-tongued is a snare of death. Your speech shall not be false, nor empty, but fulfilled by deed. (Didache 2:4-5)...
Read...   Print...

 

Messiah the Avenger

Tags:  Land of Israel

Messiah is our redeemer. He has redeemed us from slavery, from sin, from condemnation and from death. He is our kinsmen redeemer, our brother in the house of God, who has ransomed us from the debt we could not pay. Therefore, we speak of Him as redeemer. He is also the national redeemer of Israel. Just as Moses, the first redeemer, redeemed all Israel from slavery, so too the second redeemer, Messiah, redeems the whole nation. And this great second redemption is not only a spiritual redemption, but it is the literal, physical redemption of Israel. He will gather the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob from the nations, and restore them to the land of Israel....
Read...   Print...

 

First Glimmer of Redemption

Tags:  Land of Israel, salvation

Thought: The Torah taught us that the daughters of Zelophehad had claimed their portion of the birthright. This shows us that even before the conquest, the land of Israel was regarded as if it was already in the possession of Israel. (B. Bava Batra 119a)...
Read...   Print...