A midsummer’s parsha

Midsummer doesn’t seem like the right time for beginnings or endings. June is for graduations and weddings, and those are great endings and beginnings. September starts school and the High Holy Days. July and August are for heat and camp and vacations to Chicago to go on the architechtural boat tour for the third time in 12 years.
The end of July however, at least this year, brings in parshat Masei, the last reading in the book of Numbers. It lays out the division of the land to the tribes, specifying that the Levites, being the priests, don’t get land but rather cities within their cousin-tribes’ lands. It also contains the mention of my sister Tirza’s namesake. Thank God my mom didn’t choose Tirza’s sister’s name for my sister, or I could be mentioning my sister Hoglath. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWtt5N7QjuI&feature=channel_video_title