Matot opens with Moses’ instruction to the “heads of the tribes” regarding the laws of vows:
If a man vows a vow to G‑d, or swears an oath to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word; according to all that proceeds out of his mouth shall he do.
A vow, however, can be annulled (as long as it does not involve an obligation towards another person). A father has the authority to annul the vows of his daughter, and a husband the vows of his wife or betrothed, within the day of the vow’s declaration. (Another kind of annulment is that effected by a Torah scholar or a panel of three judges.)
The War on Midian
G‑d instructs Moses to “avenge the vengeance of the children of Israel upon the Midianites, after which you shall be gathered to your people.”
Moses spoke to the people, saying: “Arm from yourselves men for an army, to go against Midian and to take G‑d’s vengeance on Midian . . .”
There were delivered out of the thousands of Israel a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.
Moses sent them to the war, a thousand of every tribe, them and Pinchas the son of Elazar the priest, to the war, with the holy instruments, and the trumpets to blow, in his hand.
They warred against Midian, as G‑d commanded Moses, and they slew all the males.
Also killed are the five kings of Midian (Evi, Rekem, Tzur, Hur and Reva) and the evil prophet Balaam. Not killed but captured were “all the women of Midian, and their little ones.” Also taken is “the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods.”
Upon their return,
Moses, Elazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation went out to meet them outside the camp.
And Moses was angry with the officers of the host . . . and said to them: “Have you saved all the women alive?
“Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to betray G‑d in the matter of Pe’or, and there was a plague among the congregation of G‑d. Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that has known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.”
Moses also tells them to undergo the seven-day purification process for one who comes in contact with the dead, while Elazar instructs them on the laws of hagalah (“koshering”—the cleansing of utensils of the non-kosher food absorbed in them), by which to cleanse the “gold, silver, copper, iron, tin and lead” utensils captured in the war:
Everything that passes through the fire, you shall make it go through the fire . . . and all that does not pass through the fire shall you make to go through water.
The Booty
A tally is made of the spoils taken in the war on Midian, which include: 675,000 sheep; 72,000 heads of cattle; 61,000 donkeys; and 32,000 human captives.
All this was divided into two equal parts: half was given to the soldiers who fought in the war, who in turn gave 1/500 of their share as a “tax” to the high priest; the other half was divided among the people, who gave 1/50 of their share to the Levites. (Thus the high priest received 675 sheep, 72 cattle, 61 donkeys and 32 human captives; the Levites received 6,750 sheep, 720 cattle, 610 donkeys and 320 human captives.)
Everything else (i.e., utensils, jewelry and the like) was decreed to belong to the soldiers, to each what he had captured. However,
The officers who were over the thousands of the host, the captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, approached Moses.
And they said to Moses: “Your servants have taken a count of the men of war who are under our charge, and not one man of us is missing.
“We have therefore brought an offering for G‑d, what every man has gotten, of jewels of gold, chains, and bracelets, rings, earrings, and girdles—to make atonement for our souls before G‑d.”
The donated gold totaled 16,750 shekels (approx. 837.5 pounds), which Moses placed in the Tent of Meeting as “a remembrance for the children of Israel before G‑d.”
The Eastern Territories
As related in the Parshah of Chukat (Numbers 21), the people of Israel had conquered the lands of Sichon and Og, which lay east of the Jordan River.
The children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle; and they saw the land of Yaazer and the land of Gilead, that, behold, the place was a place for cattle.
[They] came to Moses, and to Elazar the priest, and to the princes of the congregation, and they said: “. . . Let this land be given to your servants for a possession; do not take us across the Jordan.”
Moses is extremely upset by their request. “Shall your brethren go to war,” he demands, “and you sit here?”
“And why,” continues Moses, “do you dishearten the children of Israel from going over into the land which G‑d has given them?
“Thus did your fathers, when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land.
“They went up to the wadi of Eshkol and saw the Land; and they disheartened the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which G‑d had given them.
“G‑d’s anger burned at that time, and He swore, saying: ‘Surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. . . .’ G‑d’s anger burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness for forty years, until all the generation, that had done evil in the sight of G‑d, was consumed.
“And, behold, you are risen up in place of your fathers, a brood of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce anger of G‑d towards Israel. For if you turn away from after Him, He will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and you will destroy all this people!”
But the Reubenites and the Gadites persist. “We will build sheepfolds here for our cattle, and cities for our little ones.” But we have no intention to remain behind while the rest of the people fight for the conquest of the Land; indeed, we promise to march at the fore of the troops and fight in the front lines. “We will not return to our houses, until the children of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance.”
Moses agrees, on the condition that they fulfill their promise: “If you will do this thing, if you will go armed before G‑d to war . . . then afterwards you shall return, and be guiltless before G‑d and before Israel; and this land shall be your possession before G‑d.”
Half of the tribe of Manasseh joins the tribes of Reuben and Gad in settling the territories east of the Jordan.