פָּרָשַׁת מַסְעֵי

Parshat Masei, the last parsha of Sefer Bamidbar, looks back over the whole road from Mitzrayim (Egypt) and forward to life in the land. It opens with the journeys of Bnei Yisrael (the children of Israel), which Moshe writes down by Hashem's word: forty-two places, from Ramses, the day after the first Pesach, to Arvot Moav (the plains of Moav) by the Yarden (Jordan). The list recalls the sea, the springs of Elim, Refidim without water, Sinai, and Hor HaHar, where Aharon dies at 123 in the fortieth year. Hashem commands Bnei Yisrael to drive out the inhabitants of Kenaan (Canaan) and destroy their idols, warning that whoever they leave will become thorns in their eyes.

Then the land itself. Hashem sets its borders on every side, from Midbar Tzin (the wilderness of Tzin) in the south to Levo Chamat in the north, and from the Great Sea to the Yarden. Elazar the kohen (priest), Yehoshua and one nasi (leader) from each tribe will divide it among the nine and a half tribes. Bnei Yisrael give the Leviim (Levites) forty-eight cities with open land around them. Six of them are arei miklat (cities of refuge), three on each side of the Yarden, where one who kills by accident is safe from the go'el hadam (the blood avenger) until the death of the Kohen Gadol (High Priest). A murderer is put to death on the testimony of witnesses and cannot pay a ransom, for spilled blood pollutes the land in which Hashem dwells.

The parsha and the sefer end with the daughters of Tzelofchad, who marry within the tribe of Menashe so that each tribe's inheritance stays its own. These are the mitzvot Hashem commanded Bnei Yisrael in Arvot Moav, as they stand ready to enter the land. In most years Parshat Masei is read together with Matot as a double parsha. Chazak, chazak, venitchazek.