Parshat Matot-Masei

‘…and you shall be clean before G-d and before Israel…’ (Bemidbar 32,22)

Chapter 32 deals with the request of 2 ½ (Reuven, Gad and half of Menashe) of the 12 tribes to settle outside of the Land of Israel, on the eastern bank of the River Jordan. Moses fears that this is another attempt to delay going to the Land, but the tribes reassure him and agree that they will assist in the conquest of the Land before settling on the eastern bank. This is a source for conditional agreements in Jewish law, specifically ‘tenai kaful’, a double condition.

Why though does Moses tell the tribes that they should be ‘clean’, nekiyim. The language of the Torah has defined meaning and is specifically chosen and nekiyim could appear to be ‘colloquial’ if used if a contractual sense.

The Talmud discusses this phrase in several places. For example, in a recent page in the Daf Yomi cycle, Yoma 38a, the Talmud explains that the Beit Garmu family, who made the Lechem Hapanim (shewbread) for the Temple, never left their house with fresh bread so that nobody could ever claim that the family was benefiting from that bread which should only have been made for the Cohanim (priests) in the Temple. The Talmud teaches that there are certain occasions when we should forgo even activities which are permitted intrinsically in case people would suspect us of wrongful activities. The great Talmudic sage Rav, for example, would never buy meat on credit at the butcher in case people thought that he was using his position to get a free meal (Yoma 86a) such was his concern to maintain integrity.

This area of halacha is sometimes called ‘marit ha’ayin’, what appears to another’s eye. Marit ha’ayin has specific criteria in specific circumstances (e.g. dairy-style products, see Rema, Yoreh Deah 87:3), but our verse nonetheless portrays a general obligation to appreciate the effect of our behaviour on others, to avoid what might appear to be wrong or anything which might cause chilul HaShem(r’l), a desecration of G-d’s Name.

In the run-up to Tisha B’Av, it is striking to consider that one of the reasons that can be inferred from the Talmud (Gitin 55b) for the feud leading to the destruction of Jerusalem, is that the prominent personalities present at the start of the feud did not stand up for what was right, despite the fact that their lack of action was not necessarily wrong. May G-d help us to avoid such mistakes.