Since Pesach, there has been a different weekly Parsha in Israel than the one we read in the Diaspora.
Due to the 8th day of Pesach occurring on Shabbat, we read the special holiday reading, while Israel reads Parshat Acharei Mot. This one-week discrepancy has continued ever since and will only be rectified next week when we will read the double portion of Matot-Masei and Israel will read just Masei.
I’m sure that you, too, are losing sleep over the question of why we wait so long to get everyone back on the same page. Why didn’t we just read a double portion after Pesach or any time since? Why wait till now?
I think the answer can be found this week when we compare two sets of children and their relationship with the Land of Israel.
In Parshat Pinchas, the Diaspora is reading about the Bnot Tzelafchad, the five daughters who want to claim their fair share of the land of Israel. (They have the BEST names: Machlah, Noa, Choglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.) Based on the standard laws of inheritance, only the males inherited, so the daughters demand their portion in Israel, and God agrees. The Bnot Tzelafchad model a love for Israel in which it is unfathomable and intolerable to remain unattached to the land.
In Israel, they are reading Parshat Matot, which includes the story of the Bnei Gad and Bnei Reuvain. Due to their abundant cattle, these tribes (along with half of the tribe of Menashe) wanted to remain on the eastern side of the Jordan River. When challenged that they would be dividing the nation, they agree to fight alongside their fellow tribes to conquer the land but would settle outside of it. Bnei Gad and Bnei Reuvain are committed to Israel but choose to live outside the land where they feel they will be more successful.
This week, WE read about the daughters who want in, while ISRAEL reads about the sons who want to remain out. This sounds about right.
We in the Diaspora can use a lesson in love of the Land of Israel. Bnot Tzelafchad are very compelling examples for those of us dwelling outside of Israel. We may not be ready to go (yet), but we should always maintain that desire within us. Do we love the land in a way that we wish we could go or have some “achuzah,” some portion there we can call our own?
In Israel, they’re reading about Jews who remain outside of Israel but promise to stand up for their brothers and sisters in the land. Bnei Gad and Bnei Reuvain show that there is an essential, symbiotic, synergistic relationship between Israel and the Diaspora. Recently, efforts have been increased to teach Israelis about Jewish life outside of Israel. No longer is Diaspora Jewry the “big sibling” in the relationship.
In a very fitting conclusion to this saga, next week, all Jews will read Parshat Masei, which recounts BOTH stories in one parsha.
This Shabbat, we should think about Bnot Tzelafchad and their longing for the land. We will be hosting IDF soldiers as part of a Shabbat with Friends of the IDF (FIDF). Encountering young men and women who defend Israel provides an up close and personal example of what it means to live and love the land. Greeting them, thanking them, and supporting them are our “achuzah,” ways – albeit indirect – for us to possess the land. I feel this very personally when I encounter chayalei Tzahal and in the fact that our daughter, Meira, is serving in the IDF. Another small way I connect with this feeling is when I pray for the IDF and the State of Israel, I pronounce the words with hav’ara Sephardit, the Israeli way to pronounce words, as opposed to the hav’ara Ashkenazis, the Ashkenaz pronunciation which I use for the rest of davening.
Everyone has their own unique way to connect, but this is a Shabbat for longing and loving the land, the soldiers, and the people of Israel.
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