Friday, 10 July 2026

Tzetl: Mattot-Masei & Mevarchim Av

4:58pm - Candle Lighting, Friday
6:00pm - Havdalah, Saturday
(Melbourne Australia)
Eruv Status: KOSHER cosv.org.au/eruv/
Good Shabbos!


This Shabbat is Shabbat Mevarchim (“the Shabbat that blesses" the new month): a special prayer is recited blessing the Rosh Chodesh ("Head of the Month") of the upcoming month of Av (also called "Menachem Av”), which falls on Wednesday of next week.

Prior to the blessing, we announce the precise time of the molad, the "birth" of the new moon. See molad times.


PARSHAH IN A NUTSHELL
Numbers 30:2–36:13
The name of the Parshah, “Matot,” means “Tribes,” and it is found in Numbers 30:2. The name of the Parshah, “Masei,” means “Journeys,” and it is found in Numbers 33:1.

Moses conveys the laws governing the annulment of vows to the heads of the tribes of Israel. War is waged against Midian for their role in plotting the moral destruction of Israel, and the Torah gives a detailed account of the war spoils and how they were allocated amongst the people, the warriors, the Levites and the high priest.

The tribes of Reuben and Gad (later joined by half of the tribe of Manasseh) ask for the lands east of the Jordan as their portion in the Promised Land, these being prime pastureland for their cattle. Moses is initially angered by the request, but subsequently agrees on the condition that they first join, and lead, in Israel’s conquest of the lands west of the Jordan.

The forty-two journeys and encampments of Israel are listed, from the Exodus to their encampment on the plains of Moab across the river from the land of Canaan. The boundaries of the Promised Land are given, and cities of refuge are designated as havens and places of exile for inadvertent murderers. The daughters of Tzelafchad marry within their own tribe of Manasseh, so that the estate which they inherit from their father should not pass to the province of another tribe.


HAFTORAH IN A NUTSHELL
Jeremiah 2:4–28; 4:1–2
This week’s haftorah is the second of a series of three “haftarot of affliction.” These three haftarot are read during the Three Weeks of mourning for Jerusalem, between the fasts of 17 Tammuz and 9 Av.

The prophet Jeremiah transmits G‑d’s message to the Jewish people, in strong tones chastising all the sectors of the people, including the leadership, for their abandonment of G‑d. “What wrong did your forefathers find in Me, that they distanced themselves from Me, and they went after futility and themselves became futile?” He reminds them of the kindness G‑d did for them, taking them out of Egypt and leading them through the desert and settling them in the Promised Land, yet they repaid kindness with disloyalty. “For My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the spring of living waters, [and furthermore, this was in order] to dig for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that do not hold water.”

G‑d asks them to view the actions of their neighboring nations, the Kittites and Kedarites, “and see whether there was any such thing, whether a nation exchanged a god, although they are not gods. Yet My nation exchanged their glory for what does not avail.”

Jeremiah then goes on to foretell the suffering the Jewish people will suffer at the hands of their enemies, and also their erstwhile allies: “Your evil will chastise you, and you will be rebuked for your backslidings; and you shall know and see that your forsaking the L‑rd your G‑d is evil and bitter.”

The haftorah ends on an encouraging note, assuring the people that if they return to G‑d with sincerity, they will be restored to their full glory.


SAGES ON THE PARSHAH

You shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell in it; for I have given you the land to possess it (33:53)

The Torah should have begun with the verse “This month shall be to you the head of months . . .” (Exodus 12:2), which is the first mitzvah commanded to the Jewish people. Why does it begin with “In the beginning G‑d created the heavens and the earth”?

So that if the nations of the world will say to the people of Israel, “You are thieves, for you have conquered the lands of seven nations,” they will reply to them: “The entire world is G‑d’s; He created it, and He gives it to whomever he desires. It was His desire to first give it to them, and by His desire it was taken from them and given to us.”

(Rashi, Genesis 1:1)

https://w2.chabad.org/media/pdf/113145.pdf




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