26 Jul SACRIFICING THE MISSION FOR THE LOVE THE EASTERN SETTLERS: A TALE OF LOVE

In Search for a

Successor.

The Old Man.

Arnold had reached

the age of 105 and

suddenly stopped

going to synagogue.

Worried by Arnold’s

absence after so

many years of faithful attendance, his rabbi went

to see him. He found him in excellent health, so

the Rabbi asked, “How come after all these years

we don’t see you at services anymore?” Arnold

looked around and lowered his voice. “I’ll tell

you, Rabbi,” he whispered. “When I got to be 90,

I expected Hashem to take me any day. But then

I got to be 95, then 100, then 105. So I figured

that G-d is very busy and must have “forgotten”

about me and I don’t want to remind Him.”

The Eastern Colonists The children of Israel are

en route to the Land of Canaan when they are

attacked by the armies of Sichon and Og, whose

domain lay on the eastern bank of the Jordanian

river. Moses leads the Israelites into battle,

defeats the two kings and conquers their land. In

an unexpected turn of events, the tribes of Gad

and Reuben, who own an enormous amount of

sheep and cattle, ask that they be given these

territories, which were prime pastureland, in lieu

of their allotment in the land of Canaan, which

lay to the west of the Jordan. “The descendants

of Reuben and Gad had an extremely large

number of animals,” the Bible relates in this

week’s portion. “And they saw that the Ya’zer

and Gilead areas were good for livestock. The

descendants of Gad and Reuben came and

presented the following petition to Moses… ‘If

we have found favor in your eyes, may this land

be given to your servants for a possession; do

not take us across the Jordan.'” Moses becomes

extremely upset. He gives them a fiery and

dramatic sermon that lasts ten complete verses,

a pretty long stretch in biblical narrative. “Shall

your brothers go to war while you sit here?”

Moses thunders. “Why do you dissuade the

heart of the children of Israel from crossing to

the land that Hashem has given them”? Forty

years earlier, he reminds them, the people of

Israel had been poised to enter the land of

Canaan. But following a negative report by the

spies who were sent to scout the land, the entire

nation spurned the land promised to their

ancestors as the eternal heritage of Israel.

Hashem decreed that they remain in the desert

for forty years, until that entire generation died

out and a new generation prepared to accept the

gift and challenge of the Promised Land. And

now, said Moses to the Reubenites and the

Gadites, you are repeating the sin of the Spies —

a sin which condemned an entire generation and

stopped Jewish history in its tracks for forty

years. Like your parents before you, you are

about to dissuade the heart of your brethren

from entering the land. “You will destroy this

entire nation,” Moses concludes his passionate

rebuke. The Reubenites and Gadites accept

Moses’ words with grace. In response, they

clarify their original position. Far from seeking

to free themselves from the impending

wars for the Land, they were fully

prepared to send their troops into the

Land and take a leading role in the battles

until they were successfully concluded.

Only then would they return to the lands

allotted to them in the east. “We will not

return to our homes until every Israelite

has received his Inheritance,” they

pledge. Moses consents to their plea. He

changes his tone and grants them the

territories they requested. The Questions

Several points in this narrative are

perplexing. First, since their intentions it

seems, were really pure (they never had

in mind to abandon their brethren going

to war), how did Moses misread them so

profoundly and grow so furious with them?

Why did Moses not first inquire what their

intentions were before coming down so hard on

them? Second, Moses’ words focused on the

point that it was unacceptable that one segment

of Jewry isolates from the rest of the nation,

shirking responsibility and escaping the fate of

their brethren. But what about the seemingly

more important point: Hashem wanted the Jews

to settle the land at the west of the Jordan! These

people decided that they wish to remain in the

Trans-Jordan, but who gave these two tribes the

right to redefine the plan and choose the East

instead of the West? Why did Moses consent to

their request? Searching for the Sub-Plot Every

serious student of the Hebrew Bible is aware

that most biblical plots contain sub-plots (often

sub-sub plots), rarely articulated in the narrative

explicitly. Our present tale is no exception:

The explicit narrative is about two tribes of

Israel concerned with their enormous

amount of livestock. Yet the drama in

which this episode is captured in the Torah

somehow gives one a sense that these

tribes were not only concerned about their

cattle; something very personal was at

stake in their request to remain in the

Trans-Jordan. What was it? The Bible

gives us no hint. There is no way of

knowing. We are left in the dark until

Moses is about to leave the world. In the

last section of Deuteronomy, just moments

before his passing, Moses speaks to each

of the twelve tribes of Israel. His words to

the tribe of Gad must be heeded to

carefully: “He [Gad] chose the first portion

[of land available], for that is where the

lawgiver’s plot is hidden.” Unlimited

Loyalty These brief cryptic words, at last,

expose to us the true reason behind Gad’s

insistence to settle the territory to the East

of the Jordan. Moses, the lawgiver, was

destined to die in the East and never to

cross the Jordan. Gad pined to remain with

Moses. Gad would not allow Moses’

burial plot to remain isolated in the plains

of Moab devoid of the presence of even a

single Jew. The cry of Gad and Reuben

“Do not take us across the Jordan,” was a

plea not to separate them from Moses. If

Moses is not destined to cross the river,

they too did not wish to cross it. These

were no mere farmers worrying about

real-estate. These were souls so deeply

attached to their Rebbe who were

determined to spend their lives near the

resting place of Moses. Moses’ Intuition

Moses, clearly, did not anticipate such a

movement. When the members of the

tribes of Gad and Reuben approached him

with their request, they naturally could not

communicate the entire truth. They would

not talk to Moses about his own death and

his gravesite. Instead, they discussed

secondary, albeit not dishonest,

motivations, namely the fate of their abundant

cattle. Moses, in his intuition, felt that what they

were expressing to him did not capture the entire

story. Moses sensed that their words eclipsed a

deeper truth. He thus suspected them in

contriving a scheme designed to escape

responsibility. Hence, he rebuked them severely.

Yet surprisingly, they accepted Moses’ words in

grace. The narrative makes it clear that they were

not upset by the false accusations Moses thrust

upon them. Why not? Because they knew that

they were not being straightforward. Above all,

this was not about them and their ego; it was

about their selfless love and dedication to

Moses. His fury did not alienate them, it merely

demonstrated once again the genuine leader

Moses was and strengthened their resolve to

remain in his proximity for eternity. Moses

agreed to fulfill their request. He could not tear

himself away from the people he dedicated his

life to. If his people reciprocated the love he

showered upon them, he would not be the one to

expel them from his midst. And at the last

moments before his death, he extols Gad for this

deeply loving choice. The mistake Yet, after all

is said, rabbinic commentary does criticize the

Reubenites and Gadites for their decision to

remain in the Trans-Jordan. The verse in

Proverbs, “If an inheritance is seized hastily in

the beginning, its end will not be blessed,” is

applied in the Midrash to the two tribes who

seized the territory to the East of the Jordan.

Centuries later, when the Jews are exiled from

their land through the Assyrian and later

Babylonian empires, it is these two tribes who

are the first to be exiled from their land. Why?

Notwithstanding the noble and deeply moving

intentions of Gad and Reuben, their choice is

considered “hasty” and immature. It was

emotionally compelling and profoundly

moving, but spiritually short sighted. Yes, Gad

and Reuben could not abandon Moses’ burial

place. They were determined to remain in the

proximity of Moses’ body. Yet they failed to

realize that Moses’ true presence would not

remain interred in the earth of the plains of

Moab. Moses would continue to live on in his

vision, in his ideas, in his teachings. And Moses

vision was that the Jewish people fulfill their

Hashem given mandate to enter the Land of

Canaan, settle it and transform it into a Holy

Land, redefining the physical landscape of the

land as an abode for Hashemliness. Moses was

never comprised of simple matter so that his

identity would be defined merely in terms of his

physical body. Moses’ life embodied a truth, a

vision, a way of looking at the world and

understanding the objective of man’s journey on

this earth. As long as that truth would live in the

hearts of people dedicated to Moses’ dream of

transforming the earthy land of Canaan into a

divine landscape, Moses would remain alive. To

be in the physical presence of Moses is great.

Greater yet is to leave his presence and fulfill his

mission to settle the Holy Land.