Parashas Mattos - Masei

Our Parsha this Shabbos is a Double Parsha of Mattos - Masei and the Haftorah is in Yirmeyahu Jeremiah 2 : 4 - 28 ; 3 : 4 ; 4 : 1 - 2 , which goes along with the theme of these Three Weeks of Mourning . 
In the last Parsha , we Spoke of the Offerings for the Yomim Tovim and in this Parsha of Mattos , we start to learn about Vows and Oaths . 
But what is the difference between a ' Neder ' - ' Vow , ' and a ' Sh'vuah ' - ' Oath ? ' 
Both deal with making an acknowledgement to do or not do something , but a ' Neder , ' deals more with an obligation one makes over an object , whereas a ' Sh'vuah , ' deals with an obligation one makes over oneself . The ' Vow ' - ' Neder , ' thus brings about a new condition for an object , whereas , a ' Sh'vuah ' - ' Oath ' brings about a condition for oneself . If , for example , one says that from now on , one will no longer partake of a particular drink , then one brings about a new condition and law upon oneself , for that particular drink and so , that particular drink now becomes forbidded and so takes on a new forbidden status and so , this is a ' Neder . ' 
But is for example , one has sworn that one will go and drink a certain drink , then one has placed an obligation upon oneself , and not the drink , and so , this is a ' Sh'vuah ' - ' Oath . 
The very fact that one can obligate oneself to a law upon oneself that never existed before one made it , is thus in actual fact , a way to make a Law that becomes binding upon oneself , that HaShem Never Commanded and in breaking it , one can be punished with lashes . No wonder HaShem Does not Like us to make Vows or Oaths . Only HaShem Is G-D , Who Makes Laws . As HaShem Says , to the one who made this prohibition upon himself , " he shall not desecrate his word ; according to whatever comes from his mouth shall he do . " Thus our word must be straight-forward and honest and we must uphold our word about things we say we will do , and not break it or take it lightly . As our Rabbonim say , better not to Vow , then vow and not do what we vowed . 
When one makes a Vow or Oath , that one was not sure of all the facts at the time of making it , Torah allows it to be annulled , in front of three learned sages or men of learned standing . This is why , HaShem Put the section of Vows and Oaths , in the Sedra called " Mattos , " - " Tribes , " as the heads of a Tribe who were men of high standing , could be approached to try annul the vow . But HaShem Takes the subject of Vows very seriously and Does Not Want us to Vow or make Oaths . Our Sages tell of the story of King Tzidkiyahu who was one of the captives to king Nebuchadnezzar of Bavel , where Tidkiyahu once walked in on Nebuchadnezzar breaking one of the Noachide Laws to Gentiles , where he was eating the limb of a living rabbit . Nebuchadnezzar , had Tzidkiyahu vow that he would not tell anyone , but after vowing , some time later , Tzidkiyahu went to the Sages of the time and had his Vow annulled and this subsequently came out and got to the ears of Nebuchadbezzar , who approached the Sages at the time and asked them to expound their Torah . When they got to the part of Vows and Oaths , he knew they had annulled Tzidkiyahu's Vow and so , he had them with their hair tied to horses tails and pulled from one city , Yerushalaim , to another , Lud , ( Midrash Says - Bamidbar R. M Weissman ) , till they died . Why did HaShem Allow this to take place ? Because HaShem Does Not Like Vows and Oaths Made . Why would this be so hurtful to HaShem ? The answer is very understandable . Only HaShem Can Make Laws and Obligations for us . It is not for us to add to or take away from the Laws HaShem Put on us . When we make Vows or Oaths , we are adding Laws to What HaShem Has Put On us , HaShem Knows All the Laws we need . We should not make out that we know better , by adding more obligations upon ourselves , then HaShem Already Has Done . This Is His Creation , not ours and we have no right to limit ourselves on things That HaShem Has Already Allowed us . 
Torah then explains the Case of if a woman makes a vow , and her Father , in his home hears it and he is silent about it , then her Vow stands upon her . But if her Father restrained her on the day of his hearing it , then it shall not stand , and HaShem Will Forgive her . If she is married , then her husband can revoke it if he heard it , but if he was silent , then her words stand . A Widow or Divorcee , who has no husband , her words stand . Thus , one should rather not make Vows or Oaths .
HaShem Then Commands Moshe that we are to take vengeance against the Midianites and thereafter , Moshe would be gather unto his people . What a Tzaddik was Moshe , who was able to put his own feelings aside , of knowing that after this battle , he would pass away , yet he still honoured HaShem With alacrity and did not delay , where he could have delayed this battle and lived longer , yet he did not , but organized straight away , for the battle , in honour of HaShem . Moshe took a thousand from each Tribe , only men of righteousness , who had not taken part in falling to the idol worship of baal , and he organized the army ready for battle . He put Pinchas in charge of the campaign , a most holy man , and gave him the Tzitz , the Head - Band , against Bilaam . They killed the five kings of Midian , including Cozbi's ( the woman who had come into the camp of Israel and gone into the tent of the head of Simeon , when they both committed an outrage in the Camp ) Father .
Pinchas met Bilaam , who had returned to Midian to fetch his money for helping Midian with his idea to catch our men with the incident of the Midianite women . His greed was his downfall , for he ended up facing Pinchas , and Bilaam flew into the air . Pinchas pointed the Holy Tzitz , at him and he fell down and Pinchas slew him .
The Children of Israel took the Midianite women captive , and their young children , cattle flocks and spoils . They brought it to Moshe and Elazar the Kohein and to the camp of the Children of Israel . Moshe was upset with them that they had let the women of Midyan live , who had led Israel to sin . The Midianite women , according to Rashi ( Midrash Says Bamidbar - Rabbi M Wiessman ) , were marched before the Tzitz , and all those who had known a man , their face took on a greenish glow , and they were slain . 
Elazar then was given the Kashering Laws of utensils and the spoils of battle were divided . In the battle against Midian , Reuvein and Gad had accumulated much cattle and they desired to rather take their portion of Land on the East side of the Jordan . Moshe was upset with them that they are doing a similar action to the spies , for they might put off the rest of Israel from wanting to enter the Land , and that they were shunning What Land , HaShem Wanted To Give them in Israel . But they assured Moshe that they would join in the battle at the fore-front of Battle , when Israel went in to conquer the Land , leaving their wives and children on the East of the Jordan . And no doubt , they did exactly that , in Yehoshuah's time , leaving their families for 14 years during the conquest . Though Moshe felt they should take What HaShem Wants to Give them in the Holy Land . How interesting that in later years ,when Israel was conquered , their land , was the first to be attacked . Manasseh had not asked to be there , but afterwards volunteered for half their Tribe to also settle on the East Bank of the Jordan . This is where the Sedra of Mattos ends .
The Sedra of Masei , starts off telling of the " Masei " - "Journeys " of the Children of Israel from Egypt to Israel . The word " Masei " means " Journeys . " Why would HaShem Put the " Journeys " of our people in the Torah ? This was to show a Great Love That HaShem Has For us , for HaShem Had Moshe write down every place we went through , just like if a Father and son had traveled together , to the Father , every place they spent together in closeness . Also , these places were mostly uninhabitable , and so , HaShem Was Showing us That He Was With us all along , Watching Over us And Protecting us , for had it not been for HaShem Helping us and Watching over us , we would never have survived . Each place we traveled through had something Spiritual about it that would test us in different ways . What people do in a place , gives that place a certain essence of that thing that has been done there . So each place brought its own test on us . It shows how careful , we in our own lives have to behave , as we have the power as people , to put into our physical surroundings , a positive or negative holy or unholy , honest or thieving , peaceful or aggressive , surroundings , depending on how we as people behave there , and this essence we leave in a place , can be a Yetzer Horah or Yetzer Tov to those that live in that place . 
Seeing as we were about to enter into the Land of Israel , HaShem Then in His Torah , Defines the boundaries of Eretz Yisrael . HaShem Teaches of the " Ir Miklas , " - the " City of Refuge , " where an inadvertant unintentional Murderer could flee to and he would have to stay there till the death of the Kohein Gadol . No purposeful Murderer could take refuge in this place . There were to be six cities of Refuge . Three on one side and three on the other side of the Jordan . The Cities of Refuge were to be within the 48 cities of the Holy Levites , Whose Cities were among the other Tribe's Territories . How different is HaShem's Laws , from the laws of man , where if a man commits an unintentional murder , he is sent off to prison with other undesirables and cannot grow Spiritually , but in the case of Jewish Law , this man is put in a place among holy people , where he can grow Spiritually and attain higher Spiritual levels to lead him to the right and correct path . Should he have been under a Rabbi , when he committed his act , then that Rabbi and family also goes into the City of Refuge , for it showed something lacking in the teacher , if the student was not holy enough , and ended in such a negative action . If the unintentional murderer would ever leave this City , before he is allowed to , then the " Goel Hadam , " the " Avenger of the blood , " a close relative of the victim has the right to slay him . Our Rabbis teach that if there is no close relative , then the court appoints one in this role as the " Goel Hadam . " 
For an intentional murderer , he is to be killed , for we must remove the evil from our midst . 
The Parsha ends with the Tribal Marriages that each Tribe is to marry within their own Tribe , so that Tribal Lands , remain within the Tribes and refers to the daughters of Tzelafchad of the Tribe of Joseph , who married within their Tribe . The Sedra and the Book of Bamidbar Numbers ends with the words , " These are the Commandments and the Ordinances That HaShem Commanded Through Moshe to the Children of Israel in the Plains of Moav , at the Jordan , by Jericho . " ' Chazak Chazak Venitchazeik , ' - " Be strong Be strong and may we be strengthened . ' So ends the Sedras and so ends the Book of Bamidbar Numbers , the Fourth Book of the Torah .
In the Book of Devarim Deuteronomy 4 : 2 in the Torah it states very clearly , " You shall not add to the word that I Command you , nor shall you subtract from it , to observe the Commandments of HaShem , your G-D , that I Command you . " HaShem's Torah Is Complete . It is Peace . The Hebrew word for ' Complete , ' is ' Shaleim , ' and the Hebrew word for ' Peace , ' is ' Shalom . ' So the Complete Torah , is Complete Peace and the Path to Peace . Torah is totally Perfect in it's entirety . It does not need anything added to it or subtracted from it . It is Perfect Just as It Is . HaShem Made It , and so It Is Perfect as a Path to get us to total Holiness .We are not to add to Torah in any way or subtract from Torah in any way . It is Perfect and Peaceful and Complete . When we make our own Vows and Oaths and laws upon ourselves that HaShem Never Commanded us to do , we are adding to The Torah . This is so wrong . HaShem Has Permitted us to partake of certain things and when we limit ourselves of these things , we are adding more than HaShem Commanded or Forbade . We are saying then to HaShem , that we think we know better and so , we think w can go an make up our own controls on ourselves . HaShem Is Supreme and so are His Laws . Who are we to think better . We are minute in His Universe or Universes and we know so little . HaShem's Laws are the only Guideline we will ever need to get us to Him . Our own laws won't do that at all . The same goes with anyone thinking they can add more books to the Tanach Bible . This is the same Sin , for HaShem Tells us Clearly , that we are not to add to His Torah . Doing so , is Avodah Zorah Idol Worship , and this is HaShem's Own Law . There is one Torah and one Tanach , and no one , is allowed to add to it in any way . It is complete . Any additions made to it , are not from G-D , but from man , for G-D Said " NO ADDING To IT . "Any new concept , that goes against what is written in HaShem's Torah , is a total forbidden Sin and a breaking of HaShem's Commandment of Devarim 4 : 2 . The same goes for anyone who wants to remove any Law . HaShem Said Clearly that we must not subtract from it . To even say that one Law of HaShem should Chas Ve Shalom not be kept anymore in the strictness Commanded By HaShem to Moshe and us , is breaking HaShem's Commandments , as it is subtracting from HaShem's Laws , which HaShem in Devarim 4 : 2 Commanded us not to do . We are to keep the Torah as strictly today as we did in Moshe's time , for to lessen on even a single Law , is to break this Commandment of G-D . G-D's Laws are for us and our children forever and will not be abolished , as it clearly states in Devarim Deuteronomy 12 : 28 ; 29 : 28 and over and over again , HaShem Tells us that His Laws are forever and eternal - Bereishis Genesis 17 : 13 - 13 about circumcision ; Pesach - Shemos Exodus 12 : 14 - 17 ; Shabbos Shemos Exodus 31 : 12 - 17 ; Tzitzis Bamidbar Numbers 15 : 38 ; Yom Kippur Vayikra Leviticus 23 : 27 - 31 ; Succos Vayikra Leviticus 23 : 41 and many other examples of how HaShem's Laws are forever and do not change and are to be kept forever . Dovid Hamelech in Tehillim , wrote Psalm 119 , which is a most beautiful rendition to HaShem's Torah And Laws and how beautiful they are and how they are to be kept forever , never changing .
So we are never to change HaShem's Laws , add to them or subtract from them in any way . They are totally Perfect and Complete as they are . We are to avoid making Vows and Oaths and any obligation we want to put on ourselves , tbat HaShem Did Not Command . HaShem Traveled With us at every point in our Journey fron Mitzrayim to Eretz Yisroel , and Still Travels With us every step we take now . HaShem Is Always With us , and we must always be with Him too , in keeping every Torah Commandment That HaShem Commanded In His Torah , just as HaShem Commanded Moshe . HaShem Gave us a Complete Torah , so that we might be ' Complete ' for we can be Complete and perfect if we keep HaShem's Torah . HaShem Said to Avraham , " I Am El Shaddai ; walk before Me and be perfect . I Will Set My Covenant ( My Torah ) between Me and you , and I will increase you most exceedingly . " How clear that is , that we are to keep HaShem's Torah as HaShem Gave it , Forever and Eternally and walk with HaShem in Completeness , and Peace and Perfecion , always and eternally close to HaShem Ha Kdosh Baruch Hu , HaShem The Holy One Blessed Be He .
I wish HaShem with Sweetest Love , A Most Special And Beautiful Shabbos Kodesh With Love , and to all my fellow Jews and to all of Creation , a Most Special and Beautiful Shabbos Kodesh with love .