Matot: Shall your brothers come without you?

The Reubenites and the Gadites owned cattle in very great numbers. Noting that the lands of Jazer and Gilead were a region suitable for cattle, the Gadite and Reubenite [leaders] came to Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the chieftains of the community, and said, “Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon— the land that יהוה has conquered for the community of Israel—is cattle country, and your servants have cattle. It would be a favor to us,” they continued, “if this land were given to your servants as a holding; do not move us across the Jordan.” Moses replied to the Gadites and the Reubenites, “Are your brothers to go to war while you stay here? Why will you turn the minds of the Israelites from crossing into the land that יהוה has given them? That is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to survey the land. After going up to the wadi Eshcol and surveying the land, they turned the minds of the Israelites from invading the land that יהוה had given them. Thereupon יהוה was incensed and swore, ‘None of the men from twenty years up who came out of Egypt shall see the land that I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for they did not remain loyal to Me— none except Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua son of Nun, for they remained loyal to יהוה.’ יהוה, incensed at Israel, made them wander in the wilderness for forty years, until the whole generation that had provoked יהוה’s displeasure was gone. And now you, a breed of sinful fellows, have replaced your fathers, to add still further to יהוה’s wrath against Israel. If you turn away from [God], who then abandons them once more in the wilderness, you will bring calamity upon all this people.” Then they stepped up to him and said, “We will build here sheepfolds for our flocks and towns for our children. And we will hasten as shock-troops in the van of the Israelites until we have established them in their home, while our children stay in the fortified towns because of the inhabitants of the land. We will not return to our homes until the Israelites—every one of them—are in possession of their portion. But we will not have a share with them in the territory beyond the Jordan, for we have received our share on the east side of the Jordan.” Moses said to them, “If you do this, if you go to battle as shock-troops, at the instance of יהוה, and every shock-fighter among you crosses the Jordan, at the instance of יהוה, until [God] has personally dispossessed the enemies, and the land has been subdued, at the instance of יהוה, and then you return—you shall be clear before יהוה and before Israel; and this land shall be your holding under יהוה. But if you do not do so, you will have sinned against יהוה; and know that your sin will overtake you. Build towns for your children and sheepfolds for your flocks, but do what you have promised.” The Gadites and the Reubenites answered Moses, “Your servants will do as my lord commands. Our children, our wives, our flocks, and all our other livestock will stay behind in the towns of Gilead; while your servants, all those recruited for war, cross over, at the instance of יהוה, to engage in battle—as my lord orders.” Then Moses gave instructions concerning them to Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the family heads of the Israelite tribes. Moses said to them, “If every shock-fighter among the Gadites and the Reubenites crosses the Jordan with you to do battle, at the instance of יהוה, and the land is subdued before you, you shall give them the land of Gilead as a holding. But if they do not cross over with you as shock-troops, they shall receive holdings among you in the land of Canaan.” The Gadites and the Reubenites said in reply, “Whatever יהוה has spoken concerning your servants, that we will do. We ourselves will cross over as shock-troops, at the instance of יהוה, into the land of Canaan; and we shall keep our hereditary holding across the Jordan.” So Moses assigned to them—to the Gadites, the Reubenites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph—the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites and the kingdom of King Og of Bashan, the land with its various cities and the territories of their surrounding towns.

אל תעברנו את הירדן, "do not make us cross the Jordan."Baba Batra 109 explains the meaning of the word העבר as being similar to the same word in Numbers 27,8: והעברתם את נחלתו לבתו, "you will transfer his inheritance to his daughter." It means that the daughter transfers the inheritance from its original place. The two tribes implied that if Moses were not to grant their request he would in fact transfer their rightful inheritance from its proper place. They also intended to remove from themselves the suspicion that they chose this land in order to live more tranquilly and not enter the land of their enemies. This is why they explained that the reason they saw no point in crossing the Jordan was only that they did not stake a claim to any part of the land across the river. They were not motivated by a desire to escape their duty to take part in the war of conquest. They even implied that the fact that they would not cross the Jordan enabled all the other tribes to each receive larger slices of land than they would have received if they had to parcel it out amongst 12 tribes. It is also possible that they meant that no useful purpose would be served by their crossing the Jordan seeing G'd would do the fighting that had to be done anyway. ויאמר משה…האחיכם יבואו למלחמה…ולמה תניאון, Moses said: "are your brethren going to go into battle, …and why do you turn away the heart, etc.?" Moses understood full well all that the tribes of Gad and Reuven had in mind with their words, in accordance with what we have explained. However, he advanced counter arguments. Moses addressed the argument that the lands really belonged to G'd to do with as He saw fit, and that the other tribes had not established a claim to these lands. He also responded to the argument that in the future too G'd would do the fighting so that their participation was irrelevant. He told them that it was quite true that G'd would do the fighting, but the army of the Israelites had to be present and prepared to do battle. He did not say האחיכם ילחמו, "are your brethren to do battle?," but he said האחיכם יבאו למלחמה, "are your brethren going to be present in order to do battle?" He could not understand that these two tribes were not willing to be present at the time when the Israelites would conquer the West Bank. Moses accused the two tribes of contradicting themselves as they were well aware that even though G'd had done the fighting which resulted in the conquest of the lands of Sichon and Og, nonetheless it had involved the soldiers in great fatigue. The same would occur in the future. By what right did they think they could shirk their duty to undergo this fatigue also? They were behaving like parasites collecting the reward for the fatigue suffered by the other tribes. This is why he asked them: ואתם תשבו פה? "and you are going to sit here? Another aspect which Moses alluded to when he asked: "are you going to sit here?" (while the conquest of the West Bank will take place), was the fact that when these lands of Sichon and Og were conquered all the tribes were present, and their combined merit helped to ensure that G'd did all the fighting. If they were now going to remain behind, only ten tribes would cross the Jordan and their combined merit would be smaller, possibly with the result that also G'd's input into the battle would be smaller. Moses effectively demolished the arguments which the two tribes had advanced for wanting to stay behind on the East Bank.

ולמה תניאון means AND WHY WILL YE TURN ASIDE AND WITHHOLD their heart from passing over? — because they will think that you are afraid to pass over on account of the prospect of war and the strength of the cities and the peoples.