 
|
Sermon Archive |
 |
Chayva Lehrman July 25, 2008 Dvar Torah for July 25, 2008, Parashat Mattot Shabbat Shalom. Let’s start with a recap. The portion this week, Parashat Mattot, opens with a complex outline of who may annul whose vows and obligations, which boils down to men annulling all female vows unless the woman is widowed or divorced. From there we move into one of the more disturbing scenes in the Torah: the Midianite Massacre. As you may recall from a few weeks ago, the Israelites had been seduced by the women of the tribe of Midian when Balaam failed to curse them (the Israelites). At this point, God tells Moses to “Avenge the Israelite people on the Midianites.” (31:2). Subsequently, Moses recruits 12,000 men to attack Midian, killing every man. When the women and children are brought back in captivity, however, Moses is outraged. “How could you do this? It was the women who seduced us!” Moses proclaimed, “Now you must kill every male child and every woman who is not a virgin.” PAUSE This occurs with little mention of gory details, and the portion closes with the recounting of the tribes of Reuben and Gad deciding to stay east of the
There are several themes that weave through this portion, but what stands out to me is the illustration of extreme weakness, and the need for dominance that is borne out of that weakness. Most people encounter great challenges when assessing weakness in themselves, and thus compensate by seeking to dominate not only their weakness, but also, or perhaps primarily, other people. This is clearly seen in the Torah portion for this week. The first section clearly denotes dominance of men over women, since men may annul women’s vows but not vice versa. Then we move into the vengeful campaign on the Midianites. The Midianite women must have been pretty sexy, because it didn’t seem to have taken much to seduce the Israelite men. Either that, or the Israelite men were severely lacking self control. Regardless, they succumbed to temptation. But who was blamed? The Midianite women. Both God and Moses condemned this behavior; God with Plague on all his houses, and Moses with his bloodthirsty battle and ensuing slaughter. This exposes Moses’ tragic flaw as a man and a leader: he cannot control his anger. The rabbis say that Moses’ anger was primarily directed at himself, and only unleashed upon the Midianites. Moses had a tight relationship with the Midianites; he had lived with them when he fled
In ordering 12,000 men into battle, it would certainly seem like Moses is an extraordinarily powerful man. By many standards this is accurate. But whose power here is overlooked? That of the women, who utilized their power of seduction and fueled the small war. At its core, this is a story of a gender-based power struggle waged by the men against the women. Neither side has absolute power. The women cannot control their circumstances, but the men cannot control themselves. The inner conflict that the Israelite men, and especially Moses, have to deal with here is one that many of us must confront today. Dominating others is exponentially easier than dominating oneself, which takes discipline, morality, and integrity. Many of us are aware of this, yet we are still dismayed and baffled when the personal flaws of our leaders are exposed. Many of us make the same mistake with our personal relationships, when we try to push each other or gain respect by flaunting superiority. In a healthy relationship, there is no need for one party to dominate the other, because both sides have understanding, confidence, and consequently, individual strength. Unfortunately, when this is not the situation things can go awry very quickly. When a person feels powerless or suppressed, those feelings can be turned around in dangerous and destructive ways. The disturbed students who go on campus rampages, the small children who throw rocks from afar, and even the suicide bombers in
At Beth Am, we each come to services out of different circumstances. Some of us are content, others not so much. But all of us interact with people every day, and therefore we can learn from this parasha. When we approach a situation at work, do we seek to “come out ahead”? Do we drive our friends and family to do better for their sake or ours? Do we lose our sense, from time to time, of where our spheres of influence should end and restrict that of others? We all have answered affirmatively at some point, or at least for the sake of this Dvar Torah I will assume so. It certainly applies to me, and I hope I’m not alone. So when I see the signs, especially as we bring in Shabbat, I’ll think of a reading by Abraham Joshua Heschel that can be found in our siddur (on page ____). He says, “The world has our hands, but our soul belongs to Someone Else. Six days a week we seek to dominate the world, on the seventh day we try to dominate the self.” Shabbat Shalom. |
|
|
|
|||
