By Aaron Kay

Think back to the time you felt most ashamed of your Jewish community. It could be an incident when synagogue politics turned isolating, a lack of solidarity from community leaders to recent race-based struggles, or perhaps a time when Israel acted especially undemocratically. For me, it was reading this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Matot. (Note: there are actually two parashot read this week, Matot and Massai. I will be focusing only on the former, but see here for a full translation of both texts. I also encourage anyone educating at machaneh to see here for a comprehensive peula prepared by dave.)

We are set in the nomadic period between liberation from Mitzrayim and maturity in Canaan. The parsha begins with Moses relaying the (expectedly gendered) rules of vow cancellations from God to the Israelites, and ends with Moses rejecting a proposal by some Israelite leaders that the Israelites settle in some optimal looking land outside of Canaan. Between these two points lays the bulk of the reading, a festering history almost too overpowering to grapple with:

ז. וַיִּצְבְּאוּ עַל מִדְיָן כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה יְהֹוָה אֶת משֶׁה וַיַּהַרְגוּ כָּל זָכָר:

ט. וַיִּשְׁבּוּ בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת נְשֵׁי מִדְיָן וְאֶת טַפָּם וְאֵת כָּל בְּהֶמְתָּם וְאֶת כָּל מִקְנֵהֶ וְאֶת כָּל חֵילָם בָּזָזוּ:

י. וְאֵת כָּל עָרֵיהֶם בְּמוֹשְׁבֹתָם וְאֵת כָּל טִירֹתָם שָׂרְפוּ בָּאֵשׁ:

י ז. וְעַתָּה הִרְגוּ כָל זָכָר בַּטָּף וְכָל אִשָּׁה יֹדַעַת אִישׁ לְמִשְׁכַּב זָכָר הֲרֹגוּ:

יח. וְכֹל הַטַּף בַּנָּשִׁים אֲשֶׁר לֹא יָדְעוּ מִשְׁכַּב זָכָר הַחֲיוּ לָכֶם:

7. [The Israelites] mounted an attack against Midian, as the Lord had commanded Moses, and they killed every male.

9. The children of Israel took the Midianite women and their small children captive, and they plundered all their beasts, livestock, and all their possessions.

10. They set fire to all their residential cities and their castles.

17. [And Moses instructed] So now kill every male child, and every woman who can lie intimately with a man you shall kill.

18. And all the [approximately 32,000] young girls who have no experience of intimate relations with a man, you may keep alive for yourselves.*

Regardless of circumstance, this is gruesome. Placed in the larger biblical context, it becomes even more terrifying, confusing, and inexcusable. What I mean is that the Israelites who enacted this genocide upon the Midianites are the very same generation who fled Egypt with the scars of enslavement still stinging on their backs. While I believe it is important to acknowledge the presence of such atrocities within our Torah, I do not accept their function as an example for model behavior. The Israelites’ revenge against the Midnites must serve as a warning for what follows when we as a nation fail to “remember that [we] were once slaves in the land of Egypt” (Deut. 15:15). When we forget that we were once (or historically speaking, countless times) subjected to degradation of human life, that we were treated mercilessly at the hands of so many oppressors, then we are all too swift in enacting the same upon others.

So how exactly do we heed this warning? First we must reflect on the wrongdoings, the points of shame, in our Jewish communities. What needs to be atoned for and what needs to change? What will come about if the problem goes without intervention, and who will bear the consequences?

Next Page >>>