Matot
Numbers 30:2-32:42
Jeremiah 1:1-2:3
“Choose men from among you to wreak the Lord’s vengeance upon Midian” (Number 31:3).
This proscription is included in this week’s Torah portion. The Israelites go to war against the Midianites because the latter incited a seduction scheme at Baal-Peor. The Israelites returned home victorious.
After the warriors spend seven days outside of camp to purify themselves, the Israelites are instructed to inventory all booty the warriors brought with them; how much gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, lead, oxen, sheep and cattle.
After assessing the booty and the warriors that returned, the commanders said to Moses: “Your servants have made a check of the warriors in our charge, and not one of us is missing.
“So we have brought as an offering to God such articles of gold as each of us came upon: armlets, bracelets, signet rings, earrings, and pendants, that expiation may be made for our persons before God” (Numbers 31:49-50).
Why do those Israelites who were commanded to go to war and returned home victorious bring jewelry to God to make an expiation (l’chaper) for themselves? (L’chaper is the same word that we use to describe our atonement on Yom Kippur.)
One explanation states that the ransom was thanksgiving for not losing a single life in the battle. Another is that it was offered for taking life, even with justification (“JPS Torah Commentary”).
If these explanations are sufficient, it appears that the offerings were of thanksgiving, not of guilt requiring expiation. Were the Israelites guilty of something?
Feeling tempted
Some of the commentaries direct us to the counting of those who returned home to describe why the warriors needed expiation.
In Exodus 30, when the Israelites were instructed to take a census, they collected a half-shekel from each person. Why?
Jewish tradition teaches against counting a person directly for fear of bringing the evil upon them (“Torah Anthology [Me’am Loez]”). It is for this reason that when counting a minyan (quorum of at least 10) for worship we use prayers such as “Ma Tovu Ohalecha Ya’akov” instead of numbers to enumerate how many are present.
The jewelry offering was for counting how many returned. Or was it?
One final commentary asserts that the gold and jewelry was all removed from chests in the Midianites’ homes. When discussing the booty they acquired, the Israelite soldiers said they didn’t remove anything from the Midianites’ bodies so as not to commit the sin of touching them.
“If it is true that you did not commit any sin, why then do you bring all of these things as atonement?” They replied, “Although we escaped committing any sin, we did not escape being tempted to sin” (“Torah Anthology”).
And Eleazar the priest accepted the offerings and made them into a vessel for the tabernacle, “For a memorial for the children of Israel before the Eternal” (Numbers 31:54).
After reading all of the commentary that describes why the offering was made, this verse stands out. Ramban (Nachmanides) points out that because the verse references the children of Israel, it means the memorial consists of something permanent that includes all people (“Ramban: Commentary on the Torah” translated by Rabbi Charles B. Chavel).
Regardless of how the Israelites acquired the jewelry, why they needed to offer it to God and what it stood for, the end outcome was a positive one — a lasting legacy for all people. This lasting memorial in the form of gold and silver is still one that is carried out today.
Think of the Torah scrolls in our sanctuaries. They are adorned with breastplates, a yad (pointer), a crown, bells, a colored mantle and more.
In many cases, these items were donated by different families so that their loved ones will be remembered. Some were given in moments of joy — a wedding, brit milah (ritual circumcision of a newborn boy), a bar or bat mitzvah celebration.
Others constituted an expression of grief for the loss of a loved one.
Joy and sorrow mix and create elements of beauty that adorn our Tabernacles as “a memorial for the children of Israel before the Eternal.”
Rabbi Shari Shamah is Jewish family specialist at the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center.
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