Having looked at some of the themes common to all the tribes, it is time to return to the Torah’s interest in their differentiation. Some tribes are barely mentioned in the Torah, and in those cases we will not attempt to create something from nothing. Instead we will concentrate on the many tribes that are described in ways that allow us to absorb concepts that the Torah seems clearly interested in our understanding. We will devote the remaining chapters of the book to those tribes.
In Chapter One, we noted that the Reuven degel formation was made up of less successful tribes. While the story of Gad and Reuven’s request to settle in Transjordan stands at the center of the issue and thus begs our evaluation of it, there are several other reasons for God’s choice of specifically Gad and Shimon to complete Reuven’s formation. Since Reuven and Gad chose a common path, we will discuss them in this chapter. We will get back to the other member of the formation, Shimon – together with Levi – only in a later chapter.
The Decline of Reuven
As we discussed earlier, the Torah hints to the inferiority of the tribe of Reuven by placing his formation behind that of Yehudah, as well as by positioning him strategically in the various tribal listings such that even though he is the firstborn he is often not at the top of the list. We also pointed out that the decline of the tribe of Reuven parallels their progenitor’s earlier fall from leadership. In the book of Bereshit, Reuven seems to be tortured by the prospect of leadership. Understanding the responsibility that traditionally accompanies the firstborn but not having the requisite character, Reuven often responds to crises in a rash and emotional fashion. We see this when he tears his clothes and bemoans his own fate after returning to the pit to find Yosef missing. We also see it when, while trying to convince Ya’akov to let the brothers go back to Egypt, he offers his father the right to kill his own children if he comes back without Binyamin. And finally we see it in Reuven’s disgrace of Bilhah, Rachel’s maidservant and one of Ya’akov’s wives. As a result, his father proclaims him to be as “instable as water.”143Bereshit 49:4. Thus it follows that Ya’akov designates Yehudah, and to a lesser extent Yosef, to take Reuven’s natural position of leadership.144This is discussed in detail in Redeeming Relevance in Genesis, 101–110. Turning our attention to his descendants in the book of Bemidbar, we will not surprisingly note a similar ambivalence regarding leadership which ultimately leads to the tribe’s complete withdrawal from such a role. We will now see how this plays itself out.
The only individuals from the tribe of Reuven that we know much about are Datan and Aviram, whose fame – or infamy – stems from their being among the major players in the Korach rebellion. Together with Ohn ben Pelet, they are described as bnei Reuven,145Bemidbar 16:1. sons of Reuven, a rather rare description of specific individuals within a tribe. This term stands out further because it appears right before the mention of other members of their party, who are described as bnei Yisrael.146Ibid., 16:2. Some commentators147See Ibn Ezra and Bechor Shor, Bemidbar 16:1, and Abarbanel, Bemidbar 16:12–13. note that the Torah is emphasizing Datan and Aviram’s tribal identity to explain why they objected to Moshe’s leadership. Quite simply, they had neither accepted nor recognized the transfer of leadership away from their own tribe – of whom they were leaders – to Moshe and the Levites. (Abarbanel even suggests that Moshe was prepared to make concessions to them in recognition of this, in his opinion, understandable claim.)
The notion that these Reuvenite leaders are particularly disturbed by someone outside of their tribe holding the reins of leadership is reinforced by their emphasis on the leadership issue when they refuse to meet with Moshe. They ask rhetorically whether Moshe was to rule over them, in view of what they saw as a record of failure.148Bemidbar 16:13. Korach and his other followers, in contrast, had seemingly different, albeit related, concerns.149Ibid., 16:3. See Chap. Three for a discussion of Korach’s public position and how it may well have been a mask for a hidden personal agenda.
As opposed to what he would say later, Korach’s opening demand that there be no leadership whatsoever likely resonated most powerfully with the Reuvenites. True, it would have also taken power away from the tribe of Reuven, but this might not have been as unwelcome to them as we might think, considering that it was not necessarily out of jealousy that they resented Moshe’s ascendance. Rather it was a constant reminder of their own incompetence, which was reinforced right after the affair of the spies. There, true leadership had been shown by the delegates of the ascendant tribes of Yehudah and Ephraim (Yosef) as opposed to Reuven.
Any tribe taking Reuven’s place in leadership always reminded the tribe of their failure to execute that which was expected of them as the firstborn. From this perspective, then, abolishing any hierarchy could be a way to erase their shame. What we see here is a manifestation of an inner turmoil which no other tribe would have to deal with. Thus, their alliance with Korach’s original public stance comes as no surprise.
It follows naturally, then, that once Korach moves away from his initial position of anarchy and agrees to a contest for the priesthood, Datan and Aviram separate themselves from his cause.150Tanchuma Yashan (Korach 2) identifies Korach’s party of 250 leaders who also participate in the contest as mostly Reuvenites. Yet, this doesn’t seem to be in line with the simple meaning of the text, which identifies them as coming from bnei Yisrael and not bnei Reuven, as Datan and Aviram are described. Moreover, other rabbinic sources (Tanchuma, Korach 2; Sanhedrin 110a) may well take a different position, as they relate to other criteria with no mention of any tribal determinant. That is why Moshe makes a separate appeal to them, only to be rebuffed by a stronger and more emotional tirade than anything we hear from Korach himself. In this, they remind us of the emotional instability that Ya’akov identified in their ancestor. Yet, what is most important here is that the Reuvenite leaders return to Korach’s first position, which reveals that their only real interest is in dethroning Moshe. Since they don’t view themselves as candidates for the priesthood, the proposed contest between the Korach contingent and Aharon will not help them. The only thing they are interested in is the complete abolishment of leadership – and with it, their shame.
Moshe and Aharon held two types of leadership in the desert, that of the king and that of the high priest, respectively. As the contest for leadership from which Datan and Aviram distanced themselves was centered on the latter, it became an inner Levite affair between Korach and Moshe/Aharon. This should not surprise us, since the priestly rites had previously belonged to all firstborn males regardless of which tribe they were from. That means that this role had never belonged to Reuven. Hence, the fact that the test was over ritual leadership and not political and social leadership could also be a reason why Datan and Aviram were uninterested in the contest.151One wonders why the 250 leaders who joined Korach did not react similarly, as it appears that they were not Levites; neither is there any indication that they were all firstborns. One is thus forced to conclude that either they were convinced by Korach, who was clearly the plan’s instigator, or that the only remotely possible prize of ritual leadership was so dear to these men that they were willing to make a claim they realized was not likely to succeed. See Netziv, Bemidbar 16:2, who makes the case that they so much desired greater closeness to God that they were willing to pay whatever price was required to go beyond what was allotted to them. Yet, this alone does not explain their behavior; why didn’t they ask for their own showdown over what did have meaning for them? It seems more reasonable to conclude, then, that Datan and Aviram were against the establishment of any new leadership – for them, Korach would be just as bad as Moshe. The pair’s concern was to pursue an exclusively negative campaign against the concept of leadership altogether. Once Korach and his adherents veered from this, they pursued the struggle on their own.
It is tempting to see this approach as a key to the particular and peculiar punishment meted out to Datan and Aviram. As opposed to Korach’s followers, for whom the contest over the priesthood resulted in their being burned alive, Datan and Aviram, together with their constituency, were swallowed up by the earth – which was to leave no trace of them. On some level, this is an appropriate response to what the Reuvenites really wanted – an end to their shame. Neither is it so different from what eventually happened to the rest of their tribe: their withdrawal to the other side of the Jordan, tucked away in the southeastern corner of Jewish habitation and out of sight from the rest of Israel and its new leaders. One way or another, then, the fate of Reuven was essentially to disappear.
As we continue in the story, we see still more evidence that Datan and Aviram’s claim against Moshe was based on his presumed usurpation of their tribal claim to leadership. As a sort of footnote to the struggle, the test involving the tribal staffs brings more testimony to what was really in question. Once Moshe’s other opponents, i.e., the 250 adherents of Korach who took part in the fire pan contest, had been killed, the prince of each tribe was told to lay his staff in the tent of meeting in order to see which one would miraculously bloom.
The “staff test” is a clear sign that there was confusion in the camp regarding who should have the right to the national leadership altogether. Had it only been a question of which Levite should preside over the ritual service, this test would have been out of place. Rather, even though the earth’s swallowing up Datan and Aviram had already demonstrated to the Jews that Moshe’s leadership was divinely sanctioned, it wasn’t enough. Apparently, a new, intertribal test was required in which Moshe would need to be completely passive, since there were those –especially in the tribe of Reuven, presumably – who still contested his and his tribe’s leadership.
It is worth noting that the next time the Levites take power by appointing one of their own as the political leader, i.e., at the time of the Hasmoneans, their action was criticized by the rabbis as a Levite usurpation of power that was reserved for the tribe of Yehudah.152See Ramban, Bereshit 49:10, citing Baba Batra 3b. Still, the two cases are quite different. In the desert and into the early days of the Israelite commonwealth, political leadership had not yet been given to one tribe alone. Until such a situation emerged and the Davidic line would firmly consolidate the sociopolitical leadership for Yehudah, it could be taken on by anyone capable of the task, including the Levites. Accordingly, the Shofetim, the early political leaders in the commonwealth, came from many different tribes.153The Talmud (Sukkah 27b) makes the claim that every single tribe was represented. See Rashi ad loc., who explains how this was configured. This was likely the position that the other tribes accepted even when they were in the desert, but it was apparently not accepted by Reuven, whose opposition was coming from a position of assumed entitlement.
Given Datan and Aviram’s enthusiastic support of Korach’s original call for political anarchy discussed above, the recalcitrant Reuvenites who survived them were no more interested in reclaiming the leadership for Reuven than they had been before. They too felt a guilt-induced inclination to protest its being taken by others, whether from one specific tribe or from any of them. Since the very notion of leadership reminded them of their own perceived failure and resulting anxiety, they would have been likely to protest almost anything having to do with leadership at all.
Whether the tribe of Reuven desired their own leadership of the Jewish people or no leadership at all, their desert defeat and its subsequent confirmation via the staffs was a watershed event for their aspirations — or at least, for their pretentions to leadership. Since it had now been fully established that Reuven had no particular claim to the leadership, the tribe would need to forge a new identity in line with the changed reality. Although we don’t hear anything more about Reuven until nearly the end of the book of Bemidbar, when we do it appears that the transformation had indeed taken place.
The next mention of Reuven, which narrates their decision to settle in Transjordan together with Gad, should be viewed as their formal abdication of any claims to leadership. Not only is this obvious from Reuven’s geographical separation from the other tribes, it is also indicated by the order of the two tribes that confront Moshe here. Many commentators note that as the head of the degel formation and the firstborn, Reuven should have appeared before Gad.154See Ibn Ezra, Ramban, Rabbeinu Bachya, Kli Yakar, etc., Bemidbar 32:2. While at the beginning of the Transjordan narrative we do find Reuven before Gad, immediately afterward and throughout the discussion between the two tribes and Moshe, we see Gad before Reuven. For these commentators, this means that Gad is the leader of the initiative and Reuven merely the follower. Below we will discuss how Gad came to such a position, yet still such a move is hard to imagine had Reuven not shrunk back, taking on a secondary role even within its own formation. One can actually imagine Gad doing the talking as Reuven sullenly watches, hoping for permission to be left in peace and isolation.155See Abarbanel on Bemidbar 32, who suggests that the disgrace of being ruled by other tribes may have been the prime motivator for Reuven in their desire to settle themselves in Transjordan, far from the other tribes.
Understanding the background makes us now more sensitive to the events that caused Reuven’s decline. Yet the firstborn tribe’s early exile, which we will soon explore, indicates that it did not fulfill its critical new task of showing humanity how to deal with frustration and disappointment. Not everyone is born for leadership, but everyone is born to fulfill a meaningful role. Figuring out that role can be a lifelong project, but dropping out is simply not an option.
Gad – The Tribe of the Nouveau Riche
In contrast to Reuven, we have little information about Gad beyond their request for Transjordan, and thus will have to work harder at looking for clues regarding their characteristics and motivations. Fortunately, the Transjordan narrative gives us much insight into them.
We begin by noting the one verse of narration preceding the actual conversation between Moshe and the tribal leaders: “The sons of Reuven had much livestock, and the sons of Gad had very much.”156Bemidbar 32:1. We can understand this verse to mean that although Reuven also had much livestock, Gad had an unusually great amount.157See Netziv and R. S.R. Hirsch, Bemidbar 32:1. How the tribe of Gad amassed their property is an interesting point of conjecture, but more to the point is the clear interest they must have had in the accumulation of such wealth. After all, it is reasonable to assume that this type of unusual wealth did not come about without serious effort, and it is difficult to imagine any group putting out the necessary effort without a conscious interest in creating this wealth. Perhaps the sons of Gad saw this as preparation for settlement of the land, when material wealth would come in handy. Still, one needs to ask why Gad seems to have been the only tribe with such an interest. It is possible that others were also interested but simply didn’t succeed, but nevertheless, putting Gad’s tremendous wealth together with various other indications brought the rabbis to the conclusion that this tribe had an atypically materialist streak.158Bemidbar Rabba 22:7, 9. Granted, the rabbis mention this as a trait common to Reuven as well here. One of the major textual observations that leads to this conclusion is stated in the latter midrash: Whereas these tribes told Moshe they would first secure their livestock and children before helping in the campaign to conquer the Land of Israel, Moshe changes the order telling them that they should indeed first secure their children and their livestock. In other words, Moshe’s change in order is seen as a rebuke of their distorted prioritization of their property over their children.
In fact, it may not be so difficult to uncover the motivation for Gad’s likely materialism. Wealth has traditionally been the great equalizer. It is what has allowed those lacking in pedigree (aristocracy) or in accomplishments (meritocracy) to attain power and influence. Given Gad’s unusual assignment as the rearguard of Degel Reuven, and considering that it was the only tribe that stemmed from one of the maidservants to be in a formation with tribes descended from either Rachel or Leah, we should not be surprised that they wanted to find a way to gain some prestige. We can only speculate about the relationship between the tribes of Reuven and Shimon and the tribe of Gad, but it is likely that Gad felt acute social disparity and discomfort – all the more so since Reuven and Shimon had other weaknesses which they would have been able to camouflage by virtue of their pedigree. Hence, they may have emphasized this disparity in their relationship with Gad, who would have likely been conscious of it even in the best of circumstances.
It is hard to know what is the cause and what is the effect of Gad’s being placed with Reuven and Shimon; meaning whether Gad was put together with them because the tribe had sufficient ambition to deal with the situation, or whether Gad’s ambition was a result of the association.159See Chap. One, 26, as well as n. 16, where we discuss why Gad’s placement with these two tribes is not a given and thus needs explanation. But what is clear is that, like Reuven, the tribe of Gad had a reason to be at least somewhat uncomfortable with the role that it had been given. But here the comparison ends, for if Reuven had chosen the path of decline and isolation, Gad would attempt to raise itself up.
Yet, if wealth is the easiest road to establish parity with aristocrats, it is not necessarily the only one. Moshe’s eventual blessing to Gad160“. . . blessed be He that enlarges Gad; he dwells as a lioness, and tears the arm, even the crown of the head,” Devarim 33:20. indicates that the tribe could have also tapped into its courage and military prowess that it had shown when offering to go from rearguard to vanguard in the fight for the Land of Israel.161Bemidbar 32:17. (Again we are assuming that what we hear from Gad and Reuven is coming primarily from Gad.) Yet, even if Moshe’s blessing strengthened the nobler tendency he saw in Gad, it apparently did not completely replace their materialistic streak. As such, his blessing might have paradoxically made matters worse, since prowess alongside materialism is a dangerous combination: the same courage used to settle conflicts on the battlefield can also be used to settle the many internal conflicts generally endemic to a materialistic society. It should therefore come as no surprise that the Talmud mentions the unusually high level of manslaughter in Gad.162See Makkot 9b–10a. The Talmud asks why out of six formal cities of refuge (which are designed to shelter those guilty of inadvertent killing), half of them are in Transjordan. The answer given is that there were “many killers in Gilad.” Most have not paid careful attention to the wording here and assume that murder – really manslaughter – was prevalent throughout Transjordan. In fact, a more precise reading should lead to the conclusion that the only problematic place was actually Gad, since Gilad is specifically the province of Gad. But equally revealing is the fact that the geographical arrangement of these three cities gives the residents of Gad three cities of refuge at their disposal (one completely theirs and two shared with the one of the other tribes), something unique even in Transjordan. Thus the raison d’être for the other two cities in Transjordan may not be for the primary benefit of Reuven and certainly not of Menashe, but rather for Gad.
Menashe – Odd Man Out
Before we turn to what actually happened when Gad and Reuven petitioned Moshe to settle in Transjordan, there is an additional character – albeit very secondary – who needs to be mentioned. One of the strange features of this story is Moshe’s inclusion of a section of Menashe together with Gad and Reuven in the Transjordanian settlement. It is an unusual and unprecedented move for three reasons: first, we have no indication that Menashe requested to live there; second, Moshe sends only part of the tribe over the Jordan, creating an unprecedented intra-tribal division; and finally, we have no real indication that Menashe would have fit in with the somewhat negative picture we have of Reuven and Gad.163We should not forget that Menashe is part of the elite East-West axis, a fact which should further bolster our cognitive dissonance at his placement with Gad and Reuven.
But things are never as simple as they seem. While Jewish history would generally bear out our conceptual dissociation of Menashe from Gad and Reuven, in truth the picture is more complicated. If Menashe doesn’t fit in with Gad and Reuven, neither is it a perfect match with the tribes of its own degel – nor with any of the other tribes for that matter. But we will need to hold off on this until the next chapter, where we will discuss the turmoil Menashe experiences determining the fate of its inheritance. There also, we will try to get a better handle on that tribe’s unique character. It is only then that we can get to the bottom of Menashe’s association with the other Transjordanian tribes.
In the meantime, however, it might be helpful to follow Netziv’s approach – at least its general contours. Netziv speculates that Moshe sent Menashe to Transjordan in an educational and watchdog capacity, to try to raise the shaky spiritual state of the other two tribes. While Netziv’s reasons for finding Menashe capable of such a role164Ha’amek Davar, Devarim 3:16. may be speculative, his assertion that they were settled there for completely different reasons from Gad and Reuven is hard to contest. Thus, whatever insights about Menashe that we will discover in our next chapter, they will primarily be in contrast to the new partners Moshe gave the tribe. In the meantime, our study here will continue to focus only on Gad and Reuven.
Now that we know more about our protagonists, we are in a better position to fully understand the near-debacle launched by Gad and Reuven’s request to settle in Transjordan. It is true that on some level the entire Reuven formation was a powder keg; a disaster waiting to happen. That means that the problem was not limited to Reuven and Gad but extended to Shimon as well. We will discuss the threat from Shimon and its mitigation later in the book. In the following sections, however, we will look more carefully at what happened with Reuven and Gad and how the federalist approach we discussed in Chapter One was already able to reap dividends for the Jewish nation at this crucial juncture in its history.
Israel and Jordan
The symbol of Menachem Begin’s Irgun militia and other similar organizations includes a map of what is now Israel and Jordan. The map makes the point that the Jewish nation’s ancient homeland included both sides of the Jordan River. And yet, correct as this claim may be, this territory – named by its relationship to Israel (Transjordan = across the Jordan) – has always held a problematic place in Jewish history.
The territory to the east of the Jordan River was not designated as part of the original Promised Land. It was neither where the forefathers sojourned nor inhabited by the seven Canaanite nations that God planned to expel.165In truth, ten and not seven nations are mentioned at first, in Bereshit 15:19–20, and Rashi (15:9) cites one opinion in the Midrash (Bereshit Rabba 44:23) that the extra three nations are actually located in Transjordan (although likely in areas to the east and south of those settled by Gad, Reuven, and Menashe). Nonetheless, even according to this midrash, the conquest of Transjordan would occur only in messianic times. Rather, it became part of the Jewish homeland as a result of a rather unusual turn of events: the land’s inhabitants were vanquished after trying to attack the Jews. The default expectation, however, was that the Jews would continue their march on to their own homeland on the western side of the Jordan while other nations would eventually take the place of the vanquished peoples on the east. Instead, the tribes of Gad and Reuven requested to settle it, ostensibly to find ample grazing for their livestock. While initially taken aback, Moshe eventually grants it to them with the stipulation that they participate in the war of national conquest on the western side of the Jordan. Even from this thumbnail sketch we see that the hasty annexation of these lands lacks the pedigree evident in the settlement of the Land of Israel proper. When we focus on the details, however, we will truly appreciate the actual ambivalence of the Jewish tradition toward this territory.
Moshe’s conversation with the leaders of Gad and Reuven is not an easy one. To say that he is initially upset with their request would be an understatement. Perhaps most significant is Moshe’s allegation that Gad and Reuven are a new version of the infamous spies whom we know from Chapter Two. The reader will recall that it is they who caused the Jews to remain another thirty-eight years in the wilderness, as well as almost the entire adult generation of the time to die during that period. As we discussed at that point, there is reason to describe this as the worst calamity suffered by the Jews in the desert, and perhaps in all of Jewish history. To compare Gad and Reuven with the spies, then, is to place the strongest of accusations at their doorstep.
Upon reflection, it is difficult not to share Moshe’s surprise at the audacity of Gad and Reuven’s request. Especially in view of the incident of the spies, the centrality of the Land of Israel should have been so clear as to make their request only slightly short of heresy. Moreover, the wording of their request, “Do not bring us over the Jordan,” sounds as if they may well have been rejecting the Holy Land which the spies had rejected earlier.166Bemidbar 32:5. R. Yitzchak Arama (Akeidat Yitzchak, Chap. 85), takes this position, as follows: “Indeed it appears that Moshe our master, of blessed memory, with his wealth of wisdom, understood their true intention. . . . For their original intention was not to pass over with them to war. And this is what they meant when they said, ‘Do not bring us over the Jordan.’ Moreover, it is not written [in v. 16], ‘And the children of Gad and the children of Reuven said to him,’ but rather, ‘And they approached him and said,’ meaning that they had heard what he said and had reconsidered, and thereafter they came back to him with their answer.” (Translation by Kaeren Fisch and David Silverberg, Virtual Beit Midrash.)
As mentioned earlier, the book of Bemidbar is really made up of two separate strands, the second of which begins only with the Jews’ first complaint at the beginning of Chapter 11. Before that point, we see only the “ideal Bemidbar” of the Jews preparing to enter their land. From that nondescript complaint on, however, the “ideal Bemidbar” moves over to share the limelight with the “real Bemidbar,” which describes the obstacles and challenges that meet the children of Israel along their way to the Promised Land. When we look at the latter strand, we see that the narrative of the spies (Chapter 12ff.) and the narrative of Gad and Reuven (Chapter 32ff.) – the two challenges to the land’s desirability – serve as near bookends. More than this, they can be viewed as the first and last major events of the “real Bemidbar.”
The symmetry of the two stories in question is buttressed by the converse ratios of tribes that are “pro-Israel” to those that are “anti-Israel.” In the episode of the spies, only two tribal leaders encouraged the march over the Jordan. In the episode of Gad and Reuven, however, this is turned on its head, as only two tribes voice resistance to the march forward. In the same way as the rabbis noted the strength represented by the number ten in the case of the spies,167Megillah 23b. one could equally point to the force of the ten tribes that register no interest in the words of Gad and Reuven here. Given this artful setup, it appears that the Torah wants us to note the contrast between these two bookends and appreciate how the contrast came about.
We can now understand that when Moshe calls Gad and Reuven the descendants of the spies – a phrase he repeats for emphasis168Bemidbar 32:8, 14. – he is tracing the history of a critical sociopolitical movement which defines much of the “real Bemidbar.” Moreover, the very denouement of the entire book of Bemidbar and the Jews’ final readiness to enter the land is largely related to the withering of the movement the spies first set into motion.
It is important to realize that the bottom line of the anti-Israel movement is resistance to God’s plan for the Jewish people. Its adherents are looking for a way to exclude themselves from a Divine trajectory for which they do not feel prepared.169See Chap. Two. Being that the aim of the spies was to counter God’s plan, we understand why He had wanted to wipe out the Jewish people when they followed the spies’ lead.170Bemidbar 14:12. In response to Moshe’s plea, however, God settles for the destruction of that generation only and not their children.171Ibid., 14:13–23. For his part, Moshe likely realized at that point that his new and central challenge was to educate the children to think differently from their parents regarding the Divine plan.
In the ensuing years, Moshe is largely successful in his educational strategy. Still, thirty-eight years later, when the story of Gad and Reuven takes place, Moshe learns that he had been only partially successful with the new generation. Although most of the tribes adapted to the desired new mentality, two tribes had maintained the lineage of the “tarbut anashim chata’im,” the culture of sinful people.
Following this line of thinking, Moshe’s accession to Gad and Reuven’s request – with certain conditions – is not based on approval or even agreement but rather upon resignation. He comes to terms with the fact that he can’t totally subdue resistance to God’s plan in his lifetime. Instead, he holds up Gad and Reuven only to a standard of basic decency, which had been his first claim against them when he said, “How could it be that you will desert your brothers in their fight over the Jordan after they helped conquer your new land on this side?”172Ibid., 32:6.
Yet Moshe’s resignation actually reveals the near-complete success of his educational project. He has experienced only partial failure in the face of overwhelming success. At the end of the day, he was able to quarantine the danger, limiting it to just two tribes and putting them on the defensive as well. And he could have done so only if the rest of the camp was basically on board with him. Thus, even assuming that Gad and Reuven’s petition was a threat equal to that of the spies, it wouldn’t compromise the nation’s mission. And now that the threat had been defanged, Moshe (and God) could afford to be more indulgent.
If Moshe is more forbearing with Gad and Reuven, still it doesn’t mean they got off scot-free. One could argue that Moshe was telling them: “It’s only appropriate that you get what you asked for – an inheritance outside the Holy Land. Indeed, just as your spiritual fathers, the spies, were not allowed to inherit the land, you will suffer the same fate. But whereas they received this decree as a Divine punishment, you will be getting it at your own request!”
It is truly interesting to contrast the punishment of the spies with the punishment/reward of Gad and Reuven. We know from the book of Bereshit that there are two ways to get rid of troublemakers: death and banishment. Whereas the spies get the former, Gad and Reuven get the latter. As in Bereshit,173See Redeeming Relevance in Exodus, 111. and indeed in general, the decision between banishment and death is often made according to the relative threat of the opponent in question. In the case of Bemidbar’s bookend narratives, the spies actively tried to convince the rest of the nation, whereas Gad and Reuven did not. Although the Jewish people were likely to be more convincible at the time of the spies and Moshe was less prepared for their threat, their campaign to win over the rest of the people remains the bottom line there. Exerting influence is a double-edged sword. For those who do it for a good purpose there is almost no limit to their reward, but for those who misuse it, as Korach and the spies did, the opposite is equally true.
Knowing, however, what we know about Gad and Reuven, we can surmise that their lack of a campaign to convince the other tribes was based not only on lack of opportunity. As opposed to the spies who were from the leaders of all the tribes and presumably influential men, the tribes of Gad and Reuven did not carry much weight and, given this reality, were more focused on themselves. (To some extent and as we will soon note, all the tribes were now more focused on themselves than they had been earlier in the journey.) Thus, when they asked for Transjordan, they were not looking to persuade others. They were really in it only for themselves.
Yet, even if Gad and Reuven did not have the same interest as the spies in winning over others to their cause, it doesn’t take away from the importance of the common ideology at play between the two groups. Even if it was Moshe that associated the two renegade tribes with the sin of the spies, it could be that the spy incident was even more intensely on the minds of Gad and Reuven than on his. As discussed above, these tribes were coming with a great ambivalence to the role in which they felt they had been placed. Reuven was a fallen leader who simply wanted to dissociate itself from the rest of the nation, and Gad had expended most of its energies into building its wealth and status, which would not carry much weight in the context of the Jews’ ultimately spiritual mission. Neither tribe would likely be motivated by the prospect of new adventures that would no doubt mark the settlement of the Promised Land – all the more so if its conquest required both spiritual discipline and physical sacrifice. They knew that the Land of Israel was supposed to be different; its purpose was to enhance their connection to God.174See ibid., Chap. One. Gad and Reuven likely felt that they would not have much success with this focus, just as the children of Israel felt they would not meet with success in the Holy Land after the spies brought back their report. To Gad and Reuven, the spies might have been seen in a quasi-heroic light, as men who tried to derail a spiritual adventure, the pursuit of which did not interest them.
If we are correct in our understanding of Reuven and Gad’s mindset, Moshe’s campaign to educate the rest of the new generation to reject the scouts’ ideology must have only alienated the two renegade tribes even further. The result of Moshe’s efforts was that they had no one to turn to for sympathy. Such an atmosphere drew them into their own shell, which they could now manifest physically by remaining across the river, away from the other tribes. The separation turned out to be so great that it fostered a complete lack of trust between the tribes on one side of the Jordan and those on the other. This is painfully apparent only one generation later when Reuven, Gad, and the Transjordanian section of Menashe are wrongly accused of worshiping idols and threatening the entire Jewish people with Divine retribution. Even more disturbing, the accusation is immediately accompanied by an undisguised threat to go to war against them. In response, the Transjordanian tribes explain that the monument they built, and which was the source of the suspicions, was created so that the other tribes would not forget that these tribes, too, are part of the Jewish nation.175Yehoshua 22. More serious than the negative impression the Transjordanian tribes had clearly made on the others, they clearly anticipated a time when they would not even be viewed as Israelites!
Getting back to our story, when Reuven and Gad came to Moshe they were unsure of his reaction, but they must have known that they could not expect sympathy for a cause he himself had fought so strongly against. Their hope must have been to get Moshe to allow them to chart their own course, to create a mini-state with values slightly different from the rest of the children of Israel. With the threat that these two tribes might infect the others already moot as their lack of influence showed, perhaps Moshe would allow for such a project. In the end, and with certain caveats, Moshe did just that. But what they didn’t realize was that by doing so Moshe was really expressing his complete opposition to their ideology. By letting them split off, he was allowing them to choose the poison that they had so badly wanted . . . far from the main populace.
Given what we have seen, we should not be surprised that the rabbis are highly critical of Gad and Reuven, and point out that their “rush to inherit land is connected to their being the first to be disinherited.”176Bemidbar Rabba 22:7. Though property and livestock is a blessing that God wants to bestow on His people, there is a time and place for everything. Rushing toward material wealth in the desert represents a lack of proper focus. This is presumably what allowed the two tribes to acquire more livestock than the others, who were likely preparing for entry into the Land of Israel in more rarified ways. To draw a contemporary analogy, to check one’s investment portfolio on Yom Kippur can only reveal a gross lack of perspective.
Putting too much emphasis on wealth is likely to lead to other mistakes as well. Certainly it is a great mistake to trade God’s land for another, no matter how good the latter; even the early, secular-dominated Zionist Congress was not prepared to take the British offer of Uganda as a more practical substitute for their ancestral land. For Reuven and Gad – and indeed, for any Jew living in the Diaspora – there would be at least one major practical disadvantage: living in Transjordan and away from the large Jewish settlement bloc would mean being in closer contact with foreign nations and their negative influences. And it is precisely these types of influences that would prove to be the Jews’ greatest nemesis in trying to hold on to God’s favor, and consequently, to their political independence.
Given that God allowed Reuven and Gad to live on the other side of the Jordan for many generations, the picture is not as bleak as we may have painted it. Though we have focused on the negative, these two tribes certainly carried many of the good traits of the rest of the Jews and certainly even unique, positive traits of their own. Still, the worrisome materialistic streak coupled with their self-doubts regarding their place within the Jewish people – along with living constantly among the other nations – would lead their descendants to sin more quickly than their brothers. And as noted above, that is why they would be the first that God would send into exile.
The Federalist Project Revisited
So far we have contrasted the spiritual and educational conditions of the Jews in the earlier and later periods of the desert experience. We will now look at other critical differences, this time related to tribal identity and affiliation.
At the time of the spies, we see greater cohesion among the elites – i.e., the spies – than among each individual tribal grouping. In other words, there is little tribal consciousness during this early period of tribal consolidation. While the twelve spies nominally represent the twelve ancestral groups, we have no evidence that the split opinion among the scouts led to a similar split among their constituents. On the contrary, the majority verdict seems to be accepted by all the people, including those represented by Calev and Yehoshua, who themselves had favored a different approach. Moreover, since Calev and Yehoshua are singled out as the two individuals who would be spared the general punishment, it stands to reason that they were not followed by their tribes.
In contrast to the situation at the time of the spies, Gad and Reuven come to Moshe toward the end of the period of tribal consolidation, a project which had now been almost forty years in the making. During this time, the Jews marched and camped with members of their own tribe in a much more rigid fashion than before the incident of the spies. They were counted according to their tribes and otherwise reminded of their tribal identity on many occasions. Hence, it makes sense to expect more intra-tribal and less inter-tribal cohesion at this point than was the case earlier. Not surprisingly, then, when Gad and Reuven come to Moshe, though it’s likely that the Torah is speaking about a leadership delegation, the fact that it does not confirm this is significant. The implication seems to be that even if it was only a delegation from Gad and Reuven that came to Moshe, it was as if the entire two tribes had come. This is a clear sign that the connection between tribal leaders and their followers had significantly developed since the time of the spies.
Returning to the theme of federalism that we discussed in Chapter One, it is paradoxically in quasi-secessionist tribal challenges like that of Gad and Reuven that we see the strength of the organizational system created by the Torah. A more unified structure means that the state can fall with its weakest elements. Since all are together, overcoming a significant minority becomes more difficult. Like a sick organism, it either gets healthy or it dies.
In a federal system, however, it is not all or nothing, as the federated sub-units are able to make more autonomous judgments regarding their fate. In the best-case scenario, the problematic minority is persuaded by the majority to go along with it. But if it is not persuaded, the majority can easily jettison itself, separating the two camps’ fates and causing less damage to the whole. Likewise, the majority can also place an ultimatum before the “sick” element, giving it the choice of going along with or further separating itself from the entire unit. (Incidentally, Gad and Reuven prove that this need not mean complete secession, as we see that they chart a separate course for themselves without dissolving the bonds of confederation that link them up to the rest of the commonwealth.)
Though the impact of Reuven and Gad’s decline was limited by the federal structure of Shivtei Yisrael, the tribes of Israel, their secession still represents a tragedy of major proportions. If we are left with ten tribes in good standing,177We will soon see in Chap. Seven that Shimon was also in a situation of decline and would soon drop out of recorded Jewish history as well. this is far from the ideal. A group functions at maximum capacity only if all of its members are accomplishing their tasks. Hence, Reuven and Gad’s settlement on the east bank of the Jordan River was not just a tragedy for them; it was a tragedy for the entire Jewish people.
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In our study, we noted how both Gad and Reuven came to their tragic preference for Transjordan due to discomfort with their God-given positions. Reuven didn’t know how to be a firstborn who was unequipped to be a leader; Gad didn’t know how to be in a group where it would be disadvantaged because of its lack of pedigree. We are all challenged by situations that are not of our choosing. Some are born into families into which they don’t “fit.” Others find themselves with responsibilities they wish they didn’t have. Still others are stuck with an image that they would prefer to dispel. There are many things that can be changed, and many others that cannot. One’s adaptation to undesired, unavoidable circumstances is often the most significant factor in his success. We are all familiar with stories that illustrate this point: crippled athletes or wounded veterans who find new careers with passion and enthusiasm, to name but two.
Reuven and Gad’s predicaments are actually the stuff of everyday life. Their tragedy is really the tragedy of all who become defined by their circumstances. No one is given a life where everything falls into place magically. It is our task to take control of our lives regardless of the situation in which we find ourselves. Ultimately, the failure of Gad and Reuven is that they neither coped nor adapted. Via their tragic, downward spiral, the Torah seeks to warn us about what can happen when we don’t take control of that which is in our power. That it happened to them should remind us that it need not happen to us.