Sacred and Mundane in Settling the Land

Originally, Moshe our teacher did not intend to conquer the eastern bank of the Jordan. Although it is part of the Land of Israel, the intention was to settle first in the land of Canaan, which is on the western side of the Jordan and is holier, and from there to grow stronger and expand to all the borders of the Land. But Siḥon and Og went out to war against Israel, and Israel defeated them and conquered their land (see Bamidbar 21:21-35, and Ramban there 21; and see below 3:18).

When the tribes of Reuven and Gad, who had very great and abundant livestock, saw that the territory of the eastern bank of the Jordan was good for livestock, they came before Moshe with a request that he not take them across the Jordan, but rather give them their inheritance on the eastern bank of the Jordan.

Moshe our teacher’s response was surprising in its severity. First he flung at them: “Shall your brothers go to war while you sit here?!” (Bamidbar 32:6). He further accused them of repeating the sin of the spies, who despised the Land of Israel, discouraged the heart of the people from entering the Land, and aroused great wrath against Israel, to the point that because of them it was decreed that everyone of that generation would die in the wilderness. And now they were rising up to cause Israel to sin again and to weaken them so that they would not enter the Land, and perhaps they too, like the spies, would cause a terrible disaster. He expanded at length in words of rebuke, without asking them whether they indeed intended not to join Israel in conquering the Land (Bamidbar 32:7-15).

After Moshe finished his words of rebuke, the tribes of Reuven and Gad answered and said that they had no intention of evading the war; rather, they would build sheepfolds for their livestock and cities for their little ones, and would go out as vanguard troops before Israel to conquer the whole Land. And only after all the tribes had finished taking possession of their inheritance would they return to their land on the eastern bank of the Jordan. Seemingly, after these words, Moshe our teacher should have made peace with them, and perhaps even apologized to them for having suspected them. However, although Moshe agreed that if they indeed crossed over as vanguard troops before Israel they would be guiltless before God and before Israel, it appeared from his words that he feared they would not keep their word, and therefore he again demanded that they commit themselves once more, in detail and with a double condition, to their undertaking to take part in the conquest of the Land.

Seemingly one may ask about Moshe our teacher: why did he not listen to Reuven and Gad until they had finished speaking? Why did he begin to rebuke them with harsh words and grave accusations, without first clarifying whether they were willing to take part in conquering the Land? And why, after they told him that they were willing to take part in conquering the Land, did he continue to treat them with suspicion?

The answer is that there was a fundamental flaw in their desire to inherit the eastern bank of the Jordan. Their order of values was distorted. For they did not want to inherit the eastern bank of the Jordan because they felt an inner attachment to it, where they would be able to realize their unique vision for revealing God’s name in the world. Rather, they wanted to inherit it only because they were concerned about their wealth. And Moshe our teacher knew that when the primary motive for settling the Land does not stem from the supreme value of fulfilling the covenant with the Holy One, blessed be He, and revealing the Shekhina in the Land, their hold on the Land will be weak, and, Heaven forbid, the Land may not endure in their hands.^¹

Therefore, even after they committed to go out as vanguard troops before Israel, Moshe still treated them with suspicion. For indeed, after they committed to take part in conquering the Land, they were permitted to inherit the eastern bank of the Jordan, which is also the Land of Israel. But if they did not elevate their aim and intend to inherit the Land together with all Israel for the sake of revealing the word of God in the world, they would not be able to endure.

As the Sages said (Bamidbar Rabba 22:7), there are wealthy people who do not understand that wealth is a gift from Heaven, and are drawn after their money, and in the end they are lost from the world together with their money. “And so you find with the tribes of Gad and Reuven, who were wealthy and had a great deal of livestock, and they cherished their money and settled outside the Land of Israel; therefore they were exiled first of all the tribes, as it is stated (I Divrei Ha-yamim 5:26): ‘And he carried them away, the Reuvenites, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Menashe.’ And what caused this for them? That they separated themselves from their brothers for the sake of their possessions.” (What the Sages meant by “outside the Land of Israel” is outside the principal holiness of the Land, as explained below 3:2; 3:13.)^²