Summertime Torah portions get short shrift. They aren’t exactly breezy beach reading and many concern Moses’ repetition of the Israelites journey from Egypt to the doorstep of the Promised Land. But, as with any piece of Torah, there is gold to mine. This year Parashat Matot was read on July 11, a week after the hoopla of America’s 250th anniversary, and (as is often the case), it shared the billing with Parashat Masei. Matot poses an essential question, which rings even more powerfully today: when is each Jew compelled to join the fight for our people and the future of Israel?

The Israelites are on the cusp of crossing the Jordan River to begin the divine conquest of the Land of Israel, establishing a Jewish State per Hashem’s decree. The tribes of Reuben and Gad had substantial herds of livestock. Their leaders approached Moses and essentially asked to inherit grazing lands east of the Jordan River instead of receiving their allotted share in the Land of Israel. From their perspective, this was a pragmatically driven economic proposal.

Moses reacts sharply, asking “Shall your brothers go to war while you sit here?” (Bamidbar/Numbers 32:6). In so doing, Moshe accuses the tribes of discouraging the rest of the Jewish people, comparing their proposal to the sin of the spies almost 40 years earlier. Recall that 10 of the 12 spies had caused the nation to lose heart before entering Canaan. Despite most of that generation dying in the wilderness, Moses fears Reuben and Gad are again undermining the new national resolve – on the eve of........

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