In Song: Masei
James Tissot, ‘The Ark Passes Over the Jordan,’ 1896-1902.
Each week The Arty Semite connects the Torah reading — however tenuously — with a classic work of rock and roll.
This week’s parsha, Masei, traces the route of Israel’s travels through the desert over 40 years.
The tribal princes responsible for parceling out the land are appointed and the boundaries of the Promised Land are sketched. Forty-eight cities are to be given to the tribe of Levi, including six cities of refuge, three on either side of the Jordan River.
Laws and definitions relating to murder and manslaughter are given.
Finally, the claim of the tribe of Menashe is accepted, whereby women who inherit land are only to marry within their tribe in order to keep the land within the tribe.
On the subject of dividing up the land, this week’s song is “Subdivisions” by Rush, led by a nice Jewish boy, Geddy Lee.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO