Parashiyos Matos-Masai

We hope that everyone has had a good week and that
this particular Dvar Torah speaks to everyone during
this time of reflection and teshuvah.

Please make sure to read the Parshiot and have a
pleasant and restful Shabbat.

Parashiyos Matos-Masai

I.  Hashem's Infinite Love for Us

These are the journeys of the Children of Israel by
which they left
the land of Egypt…(Bamidbar 33:1)


Rashi quotes a Midrash (Bamidbar Rabbah 23:3) that
explains, via a parable, why Hashem chose to recount
B'nei Yisrael's travels:  A king once took his ill son
abroad to find a cure for his malady.  Upon their
joyous return home, the king recounted their
stopovers, "Here you had a fever, at this inn your
head hurt..."  Similarly, Hashem told Moshe to list
for B'nei Yisrael all the places they had angered Him
(see Mahrzu, ibid.).
This parable is easy enough to understand.  A father,
joyfully returning after finding a cure to his son's
illness, recounts the difficulties they endured along
the way.  Here your head hurt, here you suffered
another symptom – all memories which evoke feelings of
relief and thankfulness now that the disorder has been
cured.  Hashem's actions, however, are more difficult
to fathom.  The incidents recalled in this parashah
are not illnesses, but rather rebellions and
transgressions of Hashem's will.  Would a father
wistfully recall the ingratitude and chutzpah that his
son displayed to him?  These memories are painful
ones, which most fathers would rather forget.  Why
would Hashem wish to recall them?
Hashem's relationship with us, His Chosen People, is
much closer than we can imagine.  The metaphors we
find in the Torah – a father with his son, a chasan
with his kallah and other such illustrations, don't
even begin to reveal the love that Hashem has for us.
They serve merely to help us grasp some small
dimension of the powerful bond of love that Hashem
feels for the Jewish people.  Even when we sin, when
we rebel and act with ingratitude towards Him, He does
not view it in that light.  In Hashem's eyes, the most
willful transgressions are temporary illnesses – "My
children are sick, they don't appreciate all that I do
for them.  They rebel, but it's only because they
don't understand.  If only My beloved children would
cure themselves of this sickness by doing teshuvah –
repentance."  Upon returning from the trip, Hashem
does command Moshe to recount these sins, because in
His overwhelming love for us, they are really only
illnesses.
The three weeks between the Seventeenth of Tammuz and
the Ninth of Av are a period of mourning meant to urge
us to do teshuvah.  One of the prerequisites to
repentance is the knowledge that teshuvah does truly
help to erase our sins from the heavenly blotter;
otherwise, we would succumb to a feeling of
hopelessness and not even try to mend our ways.  If we
can appreciate the infinite love Hashem has for each
of us, we will have no doubt in our minds that our
teshuvah will be accepted.  Hopefully, in this way we
can cleanse ourselves of sin and merit the rebuilding
of the Beis HaMikdash.