Parashat Masei

The book of Numbers closes with a record of the forty-two stations from Rameses in Egypt to the plains of Moab, each one named. God sets the borders of the land to be inherited and names the leaders who will divide it. The Levites receive forty-eight cities with surrounding pasture, six of them cities of refuge where someone who killed by accident may flee from the blood avenger until the death of the high priest. A deliberate murderer may not ransom his life. Finally the tribe of Menashe raises a concern: if the daughters of Tzelofchad marry outside the tribe, their land will pass to another tribe. They agree to marry within it.