Torah Portion: Matot/Masei, Numbers 30:2-26:13

Not everything in the Torah is pretty.  The beginning of this week's portion, in fact, contains a disturbing story about the Israelites waging war against the Midianites.  God instructs Moses to instruct the Israelites to spare no one, to decimate the entire Midianite people.  The battle commanders, however, kill only the men, and spare the women and children.  When Moses learns of this mercy, he rebukes the commanders and orders them to kill every young male, while sparing only the women and girls.  Reading this story, one cannot help but think of Pharaoh's evil decree to kill every Israelite male child, an event that eventually led to the Israelites' freedom.  This story brings up a number of difficult theological questions: Are the Israelites actually more spiritually "chosen" than other peoples?  If God is compassionate, why would God order the death of all these people?  Was Moses a righteous leader?  

While it would be easy to dismiss this story as "an ancient, unevolved reflection of an all-powerful deity," I deeply believe that every section of Torah comes to teach us something about how we live our lives today.  Instead of dismissing the story, we need to ask ourselves, "what can we learn from this?  What is this teaching us?"  My answer, this week, is that I am not sure.  I am troubled by the story, but I also maintain my reverence for Torah.  Perhaps what the portion is teaching us is that there is much in this world that we cannot resolve.  How do we wrestle with our role in the Gulf oil disaster (we all drive, don't we?)?  How can we stand by when innocent children are sold into human slavery every day?  Why - oh, why - do people still act so cruelly and basely toward others, because they have a different religion or sexuality or skin color?  We might think we are much more evolved than our ancestors, but are we really?  Perhaps the story of the battle with the Midianites comes to remind us that we have more in common with the bloodiness of our past than we like to admit.  Perhaps the story teaches us  that what goes around, comes around.  Perhaps it is just one more lesson to remain humble, reminding us that  we, like our ancestors, can always grow in compassion.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Annie