Parashas Mattos - Masei Rosh Chodesh Av

Our Parsha this Shabbos is a Double Parsha of Mattos - Masei and this Shabbos is also Shabbos Rosh Chodesh Av and the start of the Nine Days heading up toward Tisha B' Av and the Haftorah for this Shabbos is in Yirmeyahu Jeremiah 2 : 4 - 28 ; 3 : 4 ; 4 : 1 - 2 , which goes along with the theme of these Three Weeks of Mourning and also Yeshayahu 66 , which is read on Shabbos Rosh Chodesh .

The last Parsha Spoke of the Offerings for the Festivals and this Parsha of Mattos starts teaching about Vows and Oaths . When discussing Vows and Oaths , what actually is the difference between a ' Neder ' - a ' Vow , ' and a ' Sh'vuah ' - an ' Oath ? '

Both Vows and Oaths have deal with us talking of or stating that we will either do or not do something , but a ' Neder , ' refers more to an obligation that one makes over an object , whereas a ' Sh'vuah , ' refers more to do with an obligation one makes over oneself . The interesting thing about this is that a ' Vow ' - ' Neder , ' brings about a new condition for an object , whereas , a ' Sh'vuah ' - ' Oath ' brings about a new condition for oneself . So if one says that from now on , one will no longer eat a specific food , then one brings about a new condition and law upon oneself , for that specific food and so , that specific food now becomes forbidden and , taking on a new forbidden status . This is a ' Neder . '

But if one has sworn that one will go and partake of a certain food , then one has placed an obligation upon oneself , and not the food , and so , this is a ' Sh'vuah ' - ' Oath .

This opportunity to obligate oneself to a law upon oneself that never existed before one made it , is a way to make a Law that becomes binding upon oneself , that HaShem Never Commanded and so , if one breaks , that which is uttered that one will do out of one's own mouth , one can be punished with lashes for not fulfilling it . This is one reason That HaShem Does not Like us to make Vows or Oaths . Only HaShem Is G-D , Who Makes Laws . As HaShem Says , to the one who made this prohibition upon himself , " he shall not desecrate his word ; according to whatever comes from his mouth shall he do . " So our word must be straight-forward and honest and we must uphold our word about things we say we will do , and not break it or take it lightly . Speech is very powerful . With HaShem's Words , HaShem Created Creation . As our Rabbonim say , better not to Vow , then vow and not do what we vowed , Chas Ve Shalom .

When one makes a Vow or Oath , that one was not sure of all the facts at the time of making it , our Rabbonim allow it to be annulled , in front of three learned sages or men of learned standing . This is why , HaShem Put the section of Vows and Oaths , in the Sedra called " Mattos , " - " Tribes , " as the heads of a Tribe who were men of high standing , could be approached to try annul the vow . But HaShem Takes the subject of Vows very seriously and Does Not Want us to Vow or make Oaths . Our Sages tell of the story of King Tzidkiyahu , one of the captives of king Nebuchadnezzar of Bavel , where Tzidkiyahu once walked in on Nebuchadnezzar breaking one of the Noachide Laws to the Gentiles , where he was eating the limb of a living rabbit . Nebuchadnezzar , had Tzidkiyahu vow that he would not tell anyone about what he saw , but after vowing , some time later , Tzidkiyahu went to the Sages of the time and had his Vow annulled and this subsequently came out and got to the ears of Nebuchadbezzar , who approached the Sages at the time and asked them to expound their Holy Torah . When the Sages came to the part of Vows and Oaths , he knew they had annulled Tzidkiyahu's Vow and so , he had them tied , with their hair tied to horses tails and had them pulled from one city , Yerushalaim , to another , Lud , ( Midrash Says - Bamidbar - Rabbi M Weissman ) , till they died . Why did HaShem Allow this to take place ? Because HaShem Does Not Like Vows and Oaths Made . Why would this be so hurtful to HaShem ? The answer is very understandable . Only HaShem Can Make Laws and Obligations for us . It is not for us to add to or to take away from the Holy Laws That HaShem Put on us . HaShem Knows What Laws we need and Knows Exactly What To Command us to do and it is not for us to add to or subtract from that , by putting upon ourselves restrictions That HaShem Never Did , and thus wrongly restricting ourselves from The Goodness That HaShem Made For us to enjoy , That HaShem Never Forbade of us to partake in . HaShem's Laws Are Totally Complete and All That we need , for living , in HaShem's Creation . When we make Vows or Oaths , we are adding Laws That HaShem Has Not Put On us , and as I mentioned , HaShem Knows All the Laws we need . We should not make out that we know better , by adding more obligations upon ourselves , then HaShem Already Has Done . This Is His Creation , not ours and we have no right to limit ourselves on things That HaShem Has Already Allowed us .

Torah then explains the Case of , if a woman makes a vow , and her Father , in his home hears it and he is silent about it , then her Vow stands upon her . But if her Father restrained her on the day of his hearing it , then it shall not stand , And HaShem Will Forgive her . If she is married , then her husband can revoke it if he heard it , but if he was silent , then her words stand . A Widow or Divorcee , who has no husband , her words stand . Thus , one should rather not make Vows or Oaths .

HaShem Then Commands Moshe that we are to take vengeance against the Midianites and thereafter , Moshe would be gather unto his people . What a Tzaddik was Moshe , who was able to put his own feelings aside , of knowing that after this battle , he would pass away , yet he still honoured HaShem With alacrity and love and did not delay , where he could have delayed this battle and lived longer , yet he did not , but organized straight away , for the battle , in honour of HaShem . Moshe took a thousand from each Tribe , only men of righteousness , who had not taken part in falling to the idol worship of baal , and he organized the army ready for battle . He put Pinchas in charge of the campaign , a most holy man , and gave him the Tzitz , the Head - Band , to use against Bilaam . They killed the five kings of Midian , including Cozbi's Father , where Cozbi was the woman who had come into the camp of Israel and gone into the tent of the head of Simeon , when they both committed an outrage in the Camp .

Pinchas met Bilaam , who had returned to Midian to fetch his money for helping Midian with his idea to catch our men with the incident of the Midianite women . His greed was his downfall , for he ended up facing Pinchas , and Bilaam flew into the air . Pinchas pointed the Holy Tzitz , at him and he fell down and Pinchas slew him .

The Children of Israel took the Midianite women captive , and their young children , cattle flocks and spoils , they also took . They brought it to Moshe and Elazar the Kohein and to the camp of the Children of Israel . Moshe was upset with them that they had let the women of Midyan live , the immoral women who had led Israel to sin . The Midianite women , according to Rashi ( Midrash Says Bamidbar - Rabbi M Weissman ) , were marched before the Tzitz , and all those who had known a man , their face took on a greenish glow , and they were slain .

Elazar then was given the Kashering Laws of utensils and the spoils of battle were divided . In the battle against Midian , Reuvein and Gad had accumulated much cattle and they desired to rather take their portion of Land on the East side of the Jordan . Moshe was upset with them that they were doing a similar action to what the spies had done before , for by their action and request , they might put off the rest of Israel from wanting to enter the Land , and that they were shunning What Land , HaShem Wanted To Give them In Israel . But they assured Moshe that they would join in the battle at the fore-front of Battle , when Israel went in to conquer the Land , leaving their wives and children on the East side of the Jordan . And no doubt , they did exactly that , in Yehoshuah's time , leaving their families for 14 years during the conquest . Though Moshe felt that they should take What HaShem Wants to Give them in the Holy Land . How interesting it was , that in later years , when Israel was conquered , their land , on the East side of the Jordan , was the first to be attacked . Manasseh had not asked to be there , but afterwards volunteered for half their Tribe to also settle on the East Bank of the Jordan . Our Rabbonim suggest that this took place , with half the Tribe of Manasseh joining them , so as to keep the other two Tribes in a much holier state , for the Tribe of Manasseh was at the time , great Torah Scholars . This is where the Sedra of Mattos ends .

The Sedra of Masei , begins by telling of the " Masei " - "Journeys " of the Children of Israel from Egypt to Israel . The word " Masei " means " Journeys . " We might ask why HaShem Would Put the list of our " Journeys " Place - By - Place , of our people from Mitzrayim to Canaan , in the Torah ? This was to show a Great Love That HaShem Has For us , For HaShem Had Moshe write down every place we went through , just like if a Father and son had traveled together , and so , to the Father who deeply loves his son , every place they spent together in closeness , would have emotional meaning . Also , these places were mostly uninhabitable , and so , HaShem Was Showing us That He Was With us All Along , Watching Over us And Protecting us , for had it not been For HaShem Helping us And Watching over us , we would never have survived . Each place we traveled through had something Spiritual about it that would test us in different ways . What people do in a place , gives that place a certain essence of that thing that has been done there . So each place brought its own test upon us . This shows how careful , we need to be in our own lives and how we have to behave , as we have the power as people , to put into our physical surroundings , a positive or negative holy or unholy , honest or thieving , peaceful or aggressive essence , into our surroundings , depending on how we as people behave there , and this essence we leave in a place , can be a Yetzer Horah or Yetzer Tov to those that live in that place , or that come to that place afterwards . We need to always keep the Spiritual Air Clean and Pure and Holy .

Seeing as we were about to enter into the Land of Israel , HaShem Then in His Torah , Defines the boundaries of Eretz Yisrael . HaShem Teaches of the " Ir Miklas , " - the " City of Refuge , " where an inadvertent unintentional Murderer could flee to and he would have to stay there till the death of the Kohein Gadol . No purposeful Murderer could take refuge in this place . There were to be six cities of Refuge . Three on one side and three on the other side of the Jordan . The Cities of Refuge were to be within the 48 cities of the Holy Levites , whose Cities were among the other Tribe's Territories . How different is HaShem's Laws , from the laws of man , where , in man's secular World , if a man commits an unintentional murder , he is sent off to prison with other undesirables and cannot grow Spiritually , but in the case of Jewish Law , this man is put into a place among holy people , where he can grow Spiritually and attain higher Spiritual levels to lead him to the right and correct path . Should he have been under a Rabbi when he committed his act , then that Rabbi and family also goes into the City of Refuge , for it showed something lacking in the teacher , if the student was not holy enough , and ended in such a negative action . If the unintentional murderer would ever leave this City , before he was allowed to , then the " Goel Hadam , " the " Avenger of the blood , " a close relative of the victim has the right to slay him . Our Rabbis teach that if there is no close relative , then the court appoints one in this role as the " Goel Hadam . "

For an intentional murderer , he is to be killed , for we must remove the evil from our midst .

The Parsha ends with the Tribal Marriages that each Tribe is to marry within their own Tribe , so that Tribal Lands , remain within the Tribes and this portion was in reference to the very holy daughters of Tzelafchad of the Tribe of Joseph , who married within their Tribe . The Sedra and the Book of Bamidbar Numbers ends with the words , " These are the Commandments and the Ordinances That HaShem Commanded Through Moshe to the Children of Israel in the Plains of Moav , at the Jordan , by Jericho . " ' Chazak Chazak Venitchazeik , ' - " Be strong Be strong and may we be strengthened . ' So ends the Sedras and so ends the Book of Bamidbar Numbers , the Fourth Book of the Holy Torah .

In the Book of Devarim Deuteronomy 4 : 2 in the Torah it states very clearly , " You shall not add to the word that I Command you , nor shall you subtract from it , to observe the Commandments of HaShem , your G-D , that I Command you . " HaShem's Torah Is Complete . It is Peace . The Hebrew word for ' Complete , ' is ' Shaleim , ' and the Hebrew word for ' Peace , ' is ' Shalom . ' So the Complete Torah , is Complete Peace and the Path to Peace . Torah is totally Perfect in it's entirety . It does not need anything added to it or subtracted from it . It is Perfect Just As It Is , Just As HaShem Wrote It And Gave It To us . HaShem Made It Alone In His Oneness , And So It Is Perfect As A Path To Bring us To Total Holiness . We are not to add to Torah in any way or subtract from Torah in any way . It Is Perfect And Peaceful And Complete . When we make our own Vows and Oaths and laws upon ourselves that HaShem Never Commanded us to do , we are adding to The Torah . This is so wrong . HaShem Has Permitted us to partake of certain things and when we limit ourselves of these things , we are adding more than HaShem Commanded or Forbade . We are saying then to HaShem , that we think we know better and so , we think we can go and make up our own controls on ourselves . HaShem Is Supreme And So Are His Laws . Who are we to think better . We are minute in His Universe or Universes and we know so very little . HaShem's Laws are the only Guideline we will ever need to get us to Him . Our own laws will not do that at all . The same goes with anyone thinking they can add more books to the Tanach Bible . This is the same Sin , for HaShem Tells us Clearly , that we are not to add to His Torah . Doing so , is Avodah Zorah Idol Worship , and this is HaShem's Own Law . There is one Torah and one Tanach , and no one , is allowed to add to it in any way or make up laws that are not deep within The Holy Torah From HaShem . It Is Complete As It Is , As It Was Written , As HaShem Wrote It . Any additions made to it , are not from G-D , but from man , for G-D Said " NO ADDING To IT . " Any new concept , that goes against what is written in HaShem's Torah , is a total forbidden Sin and a breaking of HaShem's Commandment of Devarim 4 : 2 . The same goes for anyone who wants to remove any Law , Chas Ve Shalom . HaShem Said Clearly That we must not subtract from it . To even say that one Law of HaShem should Chas Ve Shalom not be kept anymore in the strictness Commanded By HaShem To Moshe And us forever , is breaking HaShem's Commandments , as it is subtracting from HaShem's Laws , which HaShem in Devarim 4 : 2 Commanded us not to do . We are to keep The Holy Torah as strictly today as we did in Moshe's time , for to lessen on even a single Law , is to break this Commandment of G-D . G-D's Laws are for us and our children forever and will not be abolished , as it clearly states in Devarim Deuteronomy 12 : 28 and 29 : 28 and over and over again , HaShem Tells us that His Laws are forever and eternal - Bereishis Genesis 17 : 1 - 14 about circumcision ; Pesach - Shemos Exodus 12 : 14 - 17 ; Shabbos Shemos Exodus 31 : 12 - 17 ; Tzitzis Bamidbar Numbers 15 : 38 ; Yom Kippur Vayikra Leviticus 23 : 27 - 31 ; Succos Vayikra Leviticus 23 : 41 and many other examples of how HaShem's Laws are forever and do not change and are to be kept forever . Dovid Hamelech who wrote Tehillim Psalms , wrote in Psalm 119 , a most beautiful rendition to HaShem's Torah And Laws and how beautiful They are and how They are to be kept forever , never changing .

So we are never to change HaShem's Laws , add to them or subtract from them in any way . They are totally Perfect and Complete as they are . We are to avoid making Vows and Oaths and any obligation we want to put on ourselves , tbat HaShem Did Not Command . HaShem Traveled With us at every point in our Journey from Mitzrayim to Eretz Yisroel , and Still Travels With us every step we take now . HaShem Is Always With us , and we must always be with Him too , in keeping every Torah Commandment That HaShem Commanded In His Torah , just as HaShem Commanded Moshe . HaShem Gave us a Complete Torah , so that we will be ' Complete ' for we can only be Complete and Perfect if we keep HaShem's Torah . HaShem Said to Avraham , " I Am El Shaddai ; walk before Me and be perfect . I Will Set My Covenant ( My Torah ) between Me and you , and I will increase you most exceedingly . " How clear that is , that we are to keep HaShem's Torah as HaShem Gave it , Forever and Eternally and walk with HaShem in Completeness , and Peace and Perfection , Always and Eternally close to HaShem Ha Kadosh Baruch Hu , HaShem The Holy One Blessed Be He . Today as I mentioned , is also Rosh Chodesh Av , leading up to Tisha B'Av , the day of our people's greatest mourning . It was on Rosh Chodesh Av That Holy Aharon returned To HaShem . Aharon was a holy man , who was so well known for making peace between people , where he would go to two people , who were having a Machlokes Disagreement , and tell each one how the other years to make peace with the other , for he knew that deep down , within every Jew's neshoma , each Jewish soul deeply yearns to be at peace with his fellow Jew . Such a man of peace , was certainly a good Choice of HaShem's to be the Kohein Gadol , who makes peace by his Korbanos Offerings between HaShem and HaShem's People . This Korban was a way to closeness with HaShem , and within the very word ' Korban ' is the word ' Karov , ' - ' To Come Close to ' HaShem . At tis time of the year , as we approach Tisha B'Av , we all , as Jews , need to put our own wants aside , and come close to HaShem , through love , in Keeping all HaShem's Commandments . Closeness with HaShem , is our Path to Life . Closeness , with HaShem , is our destination in life . Closeness with HaShem Is Life . Let us all , these very holy days , take proper accounting of ourselves , as Parashas Masei took accounting of our Journeys toward Holiness and the Holiness of the Holy Land , and as Parashas Mattos did , remind us to be leaders of our own Path toward HaShem and HaShem's Holiness , and let us all become who we are all meant to be , Holy and Loving and Obedient Followers of HaShem Ha Kadosh Baruch Hu , HaShem , The Holy One Blessed Be He .

I wish HaShem with Sweetest And Deepest Eternal Love , A Most Special And Beautiful Shabbos Kodesh And Chodesh Tov With Forever Deepest Love , and to all my fellow Jews and to all of Creation , a Most Special and Beautiful Shabbos Kodesh and Chodesh Tov with love .