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A Little Dab Will Do You

     A neder (vow) and an oath are usually thought of as the same thing, but they are not. A neder changes the status of something in regards to a person. For example, if I make a neder to YHVH not to eat any apples, then apples become a forbidden fruit to me. However, an oath puts an obligation only on the person, not the object. If I declare an oath to eat an apple, the obligation is on me, the status of the apple has not changed.

     Now if a woman was married and her husband heard her make a vow or an oath that he thought was not proper, he could annul the vow. This is because the husband is head over the wife. But the vow had to be nullified by speaking out against it within the first day of when he heard her speak it. If her husband heard her one day, but never spoke up until three days later, the vow stood to the day he nullified it. The same rule was also for the father and daughter relationship if the woman was not married yet.

    At one time in this country, people would give their word on something and you could count on it. Those times are long gone. As the saying goes, “a man is only as good as his word”, now days that’s usually not very good. We’ve become very slack in just telling people we’ll do something or be somewhere and then not following through. This goes for telling children things also. You should never tell a child you’ll do something with him unless you know for sure you can fulfill that word. I’ve seen children hurt terribly because their father told them he would take them fishing, then go off with his friends and not think another thing about what he’d promised. There sits the little boy with his fishing pole waiting in excitement for hours on a dad who never shows. There is no excuse for that kind of behavior. Only if an unexpected emergency arises should one break his word on what he has promised, whether it be to an adult or a child!

     In chapter 31, you have YHVH instructing Moshe to go to war with the Midianites. The only problem was, upon returning from war, Moshe was very upset with the leaders of the army. The commanders should have given the instructions to kill everyone in the Midianite camp. But they saved the women, the children, the possessions, and the livestock, and brought them back with them. Since some of these very women were the ones who had caused the Israelite men to sin, they must have been in the sun too long to bring them back home with them. Now Moshe was very angry. He had to command something to be done that was very unpleasant to do. These soldiers had to kill every female of age that had ever lain with a man and every male child. Now there had to be some way they could determine if the female had ever lain with a man. That’s not exactly something you could look at their face and detect. Since marriages took place a very young age back then, who was out and who was in? Again, I always have my questions on these mattersJ . So, I looked at some resources and according to the Sages, (Yevamos 60b) the Kohen Gadol’s Headplate identified the females who were to be put to death. According to Rashi, they were made to pass before the Headplate and the guilty ones faces took on a greenish complexion. Sort of gives new meaning to the old saying, “it ain’t easy being green” don’t you thinkJ ? I will admit when it came to having to kill the children I don’t think I could have done that. Now give me a female with beautiful thick curly hair, perfect complexion, and a perfect figure and I’ll hold her while you carry out the sentence. (only joking)

      So now they all have to stay outside the camp for seven days for cleansing purposes. Even the vessels had to be cleansed. Non kosher food had been cooked in these vessels, besides the fact they were found among the dead. Metal utensils had to go through a fire, and be purified also with the water of sprinkling. Everything either went through the fire, or water, or both. The people who had either killed someone or who had touched a dead body had to be cleansed on the third and seventh day both with the water. Others were only cleansed on the seventh day.

    You will notice when it came to the division of the goods from the war, the men who fought got half and the rest of it went to the nation. Then YHVH received an offering from these groups. From the men who went to war, YHVH said to take one in every five hundred of everything they had and give it to Elazar the Kohen. Then from the children of Israel, YHVH had them give one out of every fifty items to the Leviim. Even the captains of the thousands and the captains of hundreds brought their catch of jewels, bracelets, chains, and etc and gave them voluntarily to Moshe as an offering for a memorial for the children of Israel. What I found eye catching here in this account is the fact they tithed off the people as well as the animals. Now they were not tithing another Israelite, and they killed all the Midianite men. They killed all the male children if you remember. So who does that leave to tithe off of except the women or girls who had not lain with a man. So some of these women were given to the Levites and Elazar as part of the offerings along with the animals! Some were picked, some were not. Again, here’s another meaning to taking part in a lotto when you’re the prizeJ . I’m sure they were all made servants in some capacity. If you remember, if an Israelite man (doesn’t apply to the Kohen, he couldn’t marry her) wanted to keep a captured servant “as a wife”, the servant had to cut off her nails and shave her head and mourn for one month for her people. Then the Israelite man decided if he still wanted her as a wife or not. If not, then she was just his servant. I’m sure after having lived with some of those women for a month, they decided it was like using Brylcreem, “a little dab will do you.”J I know, some of you are saying, what’s Brylcreem. Do as I do on these things, “phone a friend” who is older and askJ . No, that doesn’t include calling me!

       Now a new problem crops up in chapter 32. Gad and Reuben and part of Manasseh decide they don’t want to cross over Jordon, they like it just fine where they are. Moshe reminds them what happened to the people when the 10 spies discouraged them previously in the desert. But they come to an agreement, if the men would come with the rest and fight the enemies until all the other tribes were in their respectful places, they could stay there in that land and it would become theirs.

      After all the war, the deaths, and everything else those forty years, just maybe a little peaceful green pasture made them think a little dab of this will do us Moshe! But you always have to remember, even as Moshe had to remind them, it’s not about you! Now repeat after me ten times, life is not about me, life is not about me, life is not about me…….getting the ideaJ ?   Shalom