מסעי

This Torah portion is called Masei, a Hebrew word meaning “journeys” or “travels.” It is the final portion in the book of Numbers, and it opens with Moses writing down Israel’s travel stops, as God commanded. The people set out from Rameses on the fifteenth day of the first month, the day after the Passover offering, while Egyptians were burying their first-born, and God had judged Egypt’s gods. From Rameses they camped at Succoth, then Etham at the edge of the wilderness. They turned toward Pi-hahiroth, facing Baal-zephon, and camped before Migdol. They passed through the sea into the wilderness and traveled three days before reaching Marah. Next came Elim, with twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and then the Sea of Reeds. They moved on through the wilderness of Sin, Dophkah, Alush, and Rephidim, where there was no water. They camped in the wilderness of Sinai, and later reached Kadesh and Mount Hor, where Aaron died. At last they camped in the steppes of Moab, by the Jordan near Jericho.

In the steppes of Moab, by the Jordan near Jericho, God told Moses what must happen after the people crossed into Canaan. They were to dispossess the inhabitants, destroy figured objects and molten images, and demolish cult places. God warned that if any of those people remained, they would become “stings” and “thorns,” causing trouble in the land.

God also described the borders of the land. The south ran from the wilderness of Zin alongside Edom, starting at the tip of the Dead Sea, passing south of the ascent of Akrabbim, reaching south of Kadesh-barnea, then to Hazar-addar and Azmon, turning to the Wadi of Egypt and ending at the Sea. The west was the Great Sea. The north ran from the Great Sea to Mount Hor, then to Lebo-hamath, Zedad, Ziphron, and Hazar-enan. The east ran from Hazar-enan to Shepham, down to Riblah, along the eastern slopes of the Sea of Chinnereth, then down the Jordan to the Dead Sea. The land would be divided by lot among the nine and a half tribes, with Eleazar and Joshua overseeing the apportioning.

God commanded that towns be assigned for the Levites, with pasture land around them for cattle and other animals. In all, there were to be forty-eight Levitical towns, including six cities of refuge. Three cities of refuge would be on the far side of the Jordan and three in Canaan. They were for anyone, Israelite or resident alien, who killed a person unintentionally, so the “blood-avenger” could not kill the manslayer before a trial before the assembly.

God explained the difference between accident and murder. If someone struck another with an iron object, or a stone or wooden tool that could cause death, and death resulted, that person was a murderer and had to be put to death. But if the death happened without hatred or planning, the assembly would protect the manslayer and return him to the city of refuge, where he had to stay until the death of the anointed high priest.

Finally, the family heads from Manasseh raised a question about Zelophehad’s daughters. God’s answer was that they could marry anyone they wished, but only within their father’s tribe, so no inheritance would pass from tribe to tribe. Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah married their uncles’ sons, and their share remained in Manasseh.