Let’s Get Back into Sync
We’re not referring to Parshat HaShavua. That’s a minor issue, and we took care of it a couple of weeks ago. The bigger out-of-sync issue should be of concern to each of us as individual Jews and as members of Klal Yisrael.

Parshat Pinchas (last week’s reading) represents a new era in the early history of DOR HAMIDBAR, the generation of the Wilderness. The “bad stuff” is behind them. The Meraglim Disaster, Korach’s rebellion, repeated complaints about water and food, the Baal Peor episode — it’s all behind them (us). Pinchas had good things in it: Pinchas’ reward, daughters of Tzelafchad, daily korbanot and Musafim of Rosh Chodesh and the Holy days. Matot and Mas’ei continue on the upswing: Successful war against Midyan, cooperation between the people and the army, good news and wonderful gesture by the officers, first stage of entry into Eretz Yisrael (before actual entry) in the arrangement for the territory on the east side of the Jordan. (Even though Moshe’s first reaction was disappointment and anger directed against the leaders of Reuven and Gad, the situation worked out well in G-d’s eyes as well as for Moshe and the people.) Then, in Mas’ei, we have the travelogue of the people, the exciting announcement of impending entry into Eretz Yisrael, the description of the boundaries of Eretz Yisrael, the list of the new leaders who will help settle the people in the Land, the details of the cities for Levi, (IR MIKLAT, cities of refuge - not the most pleasant of topics, but another indication of the practical living that awaits the people when they will emerge from the cocoon of the Midbar), then the amicable arrangement between the daughters of Tzelaf- chad and the members of their Tribe.

Mas’ei and the book of Bamidbar end with the people of Israel armed with Torah and mitzvot on the threshold of Eretz Yisrael.

But we are grossly out-of-sync with all of the above. Look at the calendar.

As we read these sedras, we enter the Three Weeks of mourning for the destruction of Jerusalem and the Beit HaMikdash. We mark the Sin of the Golden Calf and the Sin of the Spies, and the multitude of sins that caused the Destructions and Exiles. And most significantly, our apparent continued “devotion” to the same things that brought about our downfalls.

So, in short, that is our challenge. Not just to mourn the CHURBAN, but to become the people - individually and communally that will bring us back in sync.