Matot-Masei - 2024

Chevre, this week’s parsha is Matot-Masei (מַטּוֹת - מַסְעֵי). We finish the book of Bamidbar this week. We always read Parsha Devarim the Shabbat before Tisha be-Av, which is coming up on Aug 13th. There is a battle with Midian, but the soldiers do not do as they are told. They kept the females alive, while a few weeks ago, it was the Midianite Women that caused Israel to sin. Attention to detail is important, I see this a lot when dealing with technical issues in the cloud, if someone misses 1 step or 1 configuration it could mean the difference between your data being secure or you opening the whole site to the Internet. It’s possible to implement safeguards and guardrails, but those need to properly be implemented as well.

Later on in the parsha we have the boundaries of Eretz Yisrael. Boundaries always brings me back to my networking days. A broadcast boundary is a router, hubs don’t work here. In the world of cloud, this becomes more problematic, with the number of VPC and network options including Transit Gateways (TGW), Direct Connects, VPC Peering, Gateway Load Balancers, etc. The basic rules are the same, but the reach, scope and impact of changes can grow. In regards to the boundaries of Eretz Yisrael, there are many commentaries about which land formations were being referenced. And just like extending a VPC can be done with TGWs and VPC Peering, Eretz Yisrael seems to have been extended to the East Bank of The Jordan River by the tribes of Reuven and Gad.

May we all know where we stand and reach only for the good of everyone. Shabbat Shalom.

https://www.clouded-torah.org/