Devarim (Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22)

In our Torah portion this week, Moses begins by giving a brief overview of the last forty years of the Children of Israel’s journeys in the wilderness. One of the first events he brings to their attention is the evil report about the Land, and how that report put fear into their hearts, keeping them from entering the Land as the LORD intended. He makes a point to remind them that, because of this one event, all of God’s plans for them were put on hold and they had been suffering the consequences of this for the last forty years:

Then I said to you, “Do not be in dread or afraid of them. The LORD your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.” Yet in spite of this word you did not believe in the LORD your God (Deuteronomy 1:29-32).

In this rebuke, he says that the Children of Israel “did not believe in the LORD your God” (1:32). What did Moses mean when he said that they did not believe in God? Does it mean they didn’t believe in His existence? How could they not? They had seen His miracles, His signs, and wonders. They had seen His deliverance firsthand! So what did Moses mean?

Parashat Massei (Numbers 33:1-36:13)

Parashat Massei is the final portion in the book of Bamidbar (Numbers). This portion begins in chapter 33 by recounting the various encampments made by the Children of Israel during their years subsequent to their exodus from Egypt. Chapter 34 defines the borders given to the Children of Israel as their inheritance, and chapter 35 outlines the cities given to the Levites. In the final chapter, Numbers 36, we learn some foundational principles regarding biblical inheritance. But before we get into this account, we need to understand a couple of inheritance issues. 

First, although this matter has been under scrutiny in recent years, according to Jewish law, Jewish identity is inherited through the mother. This explains why Paul, who is very outspoken in his epistles against circumcision for Gentiles, has one of his disciples circumcised and another one remain uncircumcised. According to Galatians 2, Titus, who is clearly not Jewish (“he was a Greek,” Galatians 2:3), is not obligated to take on circumcision. Since he is Greek and does not have a Jewish mother, he is under no compulsion to be circumcised. 

This is not the case, however, with his disciple Timothy. According to the account in Acts 16, Timothy is never referred to as a Greek. He was “the son of a Jewish woman” whose “father was a Greek” (vs. 1–3). This made him halachically (legally) Jewish. His father, being a Greek, probably did not want him circumcised as a child and therefore Paul urged Timothy to fulfill his obligation as an adult to take on the sign of the covenant by way of circumcision. Timothy’s Jewish identity, inherited through his mother, mandated his need for circumcision.