Our Parsha this Shabbos is a Double Parsha of the Sedras of Mattos and 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 between the 17th of Tammus and Tisha Be'Av . In the last Parsha , we were Taught By HaShem 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 of them deal with making an acknowledgement to do or not do something , but a ' Neder ' - 'A Vow , ' deals more with an obligation one makes over an object whereas a ' Sh'vuah ' - ' An Oath , ' deals with an obligation one makes over oneself . The ' Vow ' - ' Neder , ' thus brings about a new condition for an object , whereas a ' Sh'vuah ' - ' An 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 forbidden and so takes on a new forbidden status and so this is a ' Neder . ' But if 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 on the drink and so this is a ' Sh'vuah ' - ' An 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 That HaShem Does Not Like us to make Vows or Oaths . Only HaShem Is G-D Who Makes The 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 that 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 , Halacha 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 and annul the vow . But HaShem Takes the subject of Vows very seriously And Does Not Want us to make Vows or Oaths . Our Sages tell of the story of King Tzidkiyahu who was one of the captives to king Nebuchadnezzar of Bavel , where Tzidkiyahu 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 Nebuchadnezzar 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 pulled from one city , the city of Yerushalayim , to another city , the city of 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 That HaShem Has Put upon us . When we make Vows or Oaths , we are adding Laws To What HaShem Has Put On us And HaShem Knows All the Laws that we need . We should not make out that we know better , by adding more obligations upon ourselves Then HaShem Already Has Done . This Is HaShem's Creation and 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 Midyanites and thereafter , Moshe would be gathered 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 rather 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 . Moshe put Pinchas in charge of the campaign , for Moshe felt that seeing as Midyan years ago had sheltered him when he was running away from Egypt , Moshe felt it only right that he not directly head this battle . Pinchas was a most holy man and Moshe gave him the Tzitz , the Head - Band to use against Bilaam . They killed the five kings of Midyan , including Cozbi's Father ( Cozbi was 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 ) . Pinchas met Bilaam who had returned to Midyan to fetch his money for helping Midyan with his idea to catch our men with the incident of the Midyanite 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 Bilaam fell down and Pinchas slew him . The Children of Israel took the Midyanite women captive and their young children , cattle and flocks and spoils . They brought it to Moshe and Elazar the Kohain 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 Midyanite 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 was then given the Kashering Laws of utensils and the spoils of battle were divided . In the battle against Midyan , 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 were doing a similar action to the spies , for they might put off the rest of Israel from wanting to enter the Land as if they were shunning The Part Of The Land That 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 Side 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 that 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 by 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 travelled together , to the Father he feels that every place that they spent together in closeness was sweet . 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 travelled 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 us 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 Holy Torah , Defines the boundaries of Eretz Yisrael . HaShem Teaches Of The " Ir Miklas " - the " City of Refuge , " where an inadvertent unintentional Murderer could flee to and he would have to stay there till the death of the Kohain 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 it all ended in such a negative action . If the unintentional murderer would ever leave this City before he was permitted 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 the 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 HaShem's Holy Torah it states very clearly that " 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 nor subtracted from it . It is Perfect Just As It Is As HaShem Gave It To us . HaShem Made It And So It Is Perfect as a Path to get us To Total Holiness . We are not to add to The Holy Torah in any way or subtract from The Holy Torah in any way . It Is Perfect And Peaceful And Complete As HaShem Gave It . 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 we can go and make up our own controls on ourselves . HaShem Is Supreme And So Are His Laws . Who are we to think better . We are minute and so tiny in His Universe or Universes and we know so little . HaShem's Laws Are The Only Guideline That 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 So Says 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 As It Is . 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 Holy 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 Holy 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 And Never Be Abolished As It Clearly States In Devarim Deuteronomy 12 : 28 and 29 : 28 And Over And Over Again HaShem Tells us That His Laws Are Forever And Eternal , as we see in Bereishis Genesis 17 : 13 about circumcision and About Pesach - Shemos Exodus 12 : 14 - 17 and About Shabbos - Shemos Exodus 31 : 12 - 17 and About Tzitzis - Bamidbar Numbers 15 : 38 and About Yom Kippur - Vayikra Leviticus 23 : 27 - 31 and About Succos - Vayikra Leviticus 23 : 41 and so 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 HaShem's 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 . We are Never to add to Them or subtract from Them in any way . They Are totally Perfect And Complete Shalom Shaleim As They Are . We are to avoid making Vows and Oaths and any obligation we want to put on ourselves , That HaShem Did Not Command . HaShem Travelled With us At every point in our Journey from 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 HaShem too , In Keeping Every Torah Commandment That HaShem Commanded In HaShem's Holy Torah , Just As HaShem Commanded Moshe . HaShem Gave us A Complete Holy Torah As It Is , so that we might be ' Complete ' for we can be Complete and Perfect if we keep HaShem's Holy 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 Holy Torah As HaShem Gave It , Forever and Eternally and walk With HaShem In Completeness And Peace And Perfection Always And Eternally Close To HaShem Ha Kadosh Baruch Hu HaShem The Holy One Blessed Be He . I wish HaShem With The Sweetest Eternal And Forever Love , A Most Special And Beautiful Shabbos Kodesh With Sweetest Love and to all of my fellow Jews and to all of Creation , a Most Special and Beautiful Shabbos Kodesh with love .