Summary of the Parasha

Moses speaks to the heads of the tribes (Matot) about vows (nedarim): whoever makes a vow must not break his word. The Torah details the cases of a young girl in her father’s house and of a married woman, whose father or husband may annul the vow on the day he hears it; a widow or divorcee is bound by her vows. The power of the spoken word is at the heart of Judaism; it is also the meaning of Kol Nidrei.

God commands the war against Midian, Moses’ last mission. A thousand men from each tribe go out with Pinchas and the holy vessels; the five kings of Midian and Balaam are killed. Moses rebukes the officers for sparing those who had drawn Israel to Peor. Then come the laws of purification for the soldiers and the kashering of vessels taken from non-Jews: what goes through fire is purified by fire, what cannot withstand fire by boiling water, and they are immersed in a mikveh (tevilat kelim). The spoils are shared between the fighters and the people, with a portion for the Kohanim and the Levites. The officers, finding that not one soldier is missing, bring gold as an offering.

The tribes of Reuben and Gad, rich in livestock, ask to settle in the pastures east of the Jordan. Moses is angry: “Shall your brothers go to war while you sit here?”, and recalls the failure of the scouts. They commit to fight at the head of their brothers until the conquest is complete, and only then return: “You shall be clean before Hashem and before Israel”, a lesson about being blameless in the eyes of people as well. Moses gives them the lands of Sichon and Og, together with half the tribe of Manasseh.

Summary of the Haftara

“Divrei Yirmeyahu” (“The words of Jeremiah”)
Text in Jeremiah 1:1–2:3

This is the first of the three haftarot of rebuke (Telata dePuranuta) read during the three weeks between the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av. God calls the young Jeremiah, who refuses: “I do not know how to speak, I am only a boy”. God touches his mouth and shows him two visions: an almond branch, for He watches to fulfill His word, and a boiling pot from the north, foretelling the Babylonian invasion. But the haftara ends tenderly: “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed Me in the desert, in a land not sown”.

Parasha-Haftara Connection

During the three weeks, the haftara follows the calendar of mourning rather than the text of the parasha. Yet a thread connects them: the parasha opens with the word that must not be broken, and the haftara with God’s word “placed in the mouth” of the prophet. And the love in the desert that Jeremiah recalls is that of the generation the parasha accompanies to the gates of the land.