This portion is called Mattot (Tribes) because it begins with God telling Moses to speak to the heads of the tribes about the laws of vows. The Talmud teaches that after receiving a revelation from God, Moses always taught Aaron first, Aaron’s sons next, then the elders (including the leaders of the tribes), and finally the people who assembled at his tent (Eruvin 54b). We discussed above in Kedoshim why God told Moses to depart from this custom and address the entire assembled people first. In this portion, Moses does not depart from his normal manner of addressing the elders before the people, yet the heads of the tribes are surprisingly highlighted in the opening verse. Rashi wonders why and he answers by stating that they were specifically mentioned here in order to teach that a single expert, like a tribal prince, could annul a vow, and if none is to be found an impromptu court of three laymen could perform the same task.
Moses’ speaking to the heads of the tribes moreover serves as another indication that the torch is being passed on to a new generation. Joshua has just been appointed Moses’ successor and God has again informed Moses that he will not be entering the Promised Land; Moses, consequently, further empowers and honors the heads of the tribes by addressing them. This is especially important because the Jewish people had just spent forty years in the desert because the previous heads of the tribes – the ten spies – had undermined their faith in God’s promise and in their ability to conquer the Land of Israel with disastrous results. Moses is indicating that the new leadership is ready to assume responsibility and lead the new generation into the Land of Israel.
Aware of the symbolic importance of lines and circles, discussed in the previous portion, we immediately notice that the Hebrew word for tribes is “mattot,” which also means staffs or rods. Another Hebrew word for tribe, “shevet,” also denotes a staff or a rod. We discussed above the significance of Pinchas’ spear, and how his act created a total paradigm shift in Israel (“A Covenant of Peace”). This spear, shaped like a staff, a symbolic line, has now been spiritually and symbolically transmuted into the readiness of the heads of the tribes and Joshua to “stand tall” and lead the people into the Land of Israel.
That Moses was ready and willing to hand over the reigns of leadership is no surprise. He had been reluctant to accept the leadership role at the burning bush in the first place and at several points in his career explicitly expressed his desire to share the power and burdens of leadership. Before the Giving of the Torah, he was happy to take Jethro’s advice and appoint leaders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens to help him judge the people. He explicitly asked God for assistance in shouldering the burden of the people in Beha’alotcha (Numbers 11:14-15) and even expressed his desire that all the people be prophets (Numbers 11:29). As Moses prepares the people to enter the Land without him, this process of his sharing and divesting himself of power and authority is merely accelerated.
Although Moses would have liked to have had his sons succeed him (as Rashi notes in his commentary on Numbers 27:16), he accepted God’s choice of Joshua as the logical one. In fact, Moses’ sons never rose to great prominence. How different this is from so many historical dynasties whose founding kings and dictators have fought tooth and nail to ensure their children’s succession. Even today kings, dictators, and politicians, whose main motivation is the exercise of personal power, glory, and wealth, foist their children on the people oftentimes with negative or even disastrous results for the very people they are supposed to lead and represent.
Although a teacher’s natural tendency may be to always outshine his or her students, a true teacher longs for them to surpass him. This was certainly Moses’ attitude, as it was Elijah’s when his main disciple, Elisha, requested “double his [Elijah’s] spirit” (2 Kings: 2:1- 15). Elijah tells him that this is not such an easy request to fulfill, but Elisha does evidently get his wish; for he performs exactly twice the number of miracles that Elijah did. This is similar to parents’ pride at their children’s accomplishments exceeding their own.
Another connection between the heads of the tribes and the matter of vows may be God’s desire to emphasize how greatly the nature of the leadership had changed from the time of the spies. Just as a vow can strengthen someone to implement life changing decisions, so too these leaders had managed to break out of earlier corrupt leadership paradigms. The natural tendency of power to corrupt has been overcome in the new heads of the tribes; therefore, the Torah honors them by naming the portion after them. The incorruptibility of that entire new generation is expressed at the end of the book of Joshua: “And Israel served God all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua” (24:31).
