Masei begins with an itinerary of the forty-two stopping points of the Israelites on their forty-year journey through the wilderness, culminating in their encampment on the plains of Moab, where they will stay until the death of Moses.

Their destination already close, the parsha sets out the boundaries of the Promised Land, as well as specifying certain places that will become cities of refuge where people guilty of manslaughter are to be protected against possible vengeance on the part of a relative of the person who died.

The parsha ends with a claim on the part of the leaders of the tribe of Menashe that the ruling in favour of the daughters of Tzelofehad that they are entitled to inherit their late father’s share in the land could mean that the land is lost to the tribe of Menashe if any daughters marry members of another tribe. A Divine ruling resolves the conflict: the daughters have a right to inherit the land but must marry only within the tribe. With this, the parsha of Masei – and the book of Numbers – ends.

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