This weeks Parasha, Mas'ey, begins with a travelogue, of sorts. Moses lists all of the places where the Israelites have encamped up to this point. It then switches gears and Moses relays God’s command to destroy all of the remnants of the Caananites in the land of Israel – both people and religious shrines. It then goes on to delineate the real estate ascribed to each tribe in the land. Special cities of refuge are to be created for people who accidentally commit murder. It concludes with both a geographic reminder of the current location of the Israelites – on the steppes of Moab – across from Jericho – and the conclusion of the story of the daughters of Tzelofchad who were granted the ability to inherit the land of their fathers – as long as they didn’t marry anyone from another tribe. Here is their story:
Zelophchad he had daughters five
Whose inheritance kept them alive
But to find a good man
They Must look in their clan
If Mennaseh was to survive
So, the Josephites pled their case,
ReplyDeleteThis decree may sound good on the face,
But think twice - it just ain’t fair
Egad, we could loose our share!
Quick! We need a marriage law in place.
Judy Berlinger
Judy- nice!
ReplyDeleteSome of these I've tried are just more difficult to do than others, but it is a really fun way to get into the Parsha and makes learning lots of fun!
ReplyDelete