Episode #23 The Gad-Reuven Affair

In this episode, Rabbi Reinman shows how the particular interests of the tribes of Gad and Reuven opened the first cracks in the national unity.

Chapter Twenty-three

The Gad-Reuven Affair

The Jewish people were constructed on a system of confederated tribes. On his deathbed, Jacob did not give a general blessing to his sons. Rather, he defined their individual roles and blessed them to be successful. The idea was that each individual tribe would focus on developing its own specific skills and talents, and when they all joined together as a unified whole, the parts would complement each other.

The unity of the tribes lasted through the centuries of their captivity in Egypt, because they shared common experiences and interests. They arrived at Mount Sinai with their tribal unity intact. The Torah tell us that they encamped below the mountain, using the singular vayechan instead of the plural vayachnu, to indicate that they were united as a single entity.[1] This was crucial. If they were to form a single covenant with the one God, they had to be one people.

Although they traveled through the wilderness in a pattern of tribal encampments under tribal flags, we still do not read of any tribal differentiation or dissent, except for the Korach revolt, which was internal to the tribe of Levi. Otherwise, the shared experiences and interests of the tribes preserved their cohesive unity.

They approached Canaan as one people. They fought as one people and conquered the Amorite nation of Sichon to the east of Canaan. They fought as one people and conquered the Amorite nation of Bashan to the northeast of Canaan. Then they turned south and entered the nation of Moab and encamped by the river on the threshold of Canaan.

Once they crossed into Canaan and conquered it, the land would be apportioned among all the tribes, except for Levi who would serve as an unlanded priestly caste. All the tribes would assume the different but complementary roles Yaakov had assigned to them, and together, they would grow and prosper materially and spiritually. The recently conquered lands across the river to the east of Canaan would be a colonial possession of the entire people who would share its bounty.

At this point, the first cracks in the unity of the Jewish people appeared. The rolling hills to the east of Canaan were rich pastureland, and the tribes of Gad and Reuven had exceedingly large flocks. They approached Moshe and suggested that they would forfeit their shares in Canaan proper and instead take their shares in Gilead and Bashan and remain there.[2]

Moshe took exception to their request. “What is this?” he told them. “Your brothers will go to war, and you will stay here? Why would you demoralize your brothers by not entering the land with them?”

“Of course not,” they replied. “We just want to help our families and flocks settle, and then we will cross into Canaan and be at the forefront of the fight until they reach their destination.”

“If you join your brothers in battle,” Moshe said, “then you can take your shares in this land. But if you don’t, you will take a share in Canaan just like everyone else.”

They accepted these conditions, and Moshe gave all the lands east of the river to Gad, Reuven and half the tribe of Menashe.[3]

This exchange presents many questions. Why did he give some of the land to half the tribe of Menashe? They had never asked for anything. And why only half Menashe?

Furthermore, why would the other tribes be demoralized if Gad and Reuven didn’t cross the river with them? This was still the Age of Revelation. The conquest of Canaan featured numerous miracles. God was fighting for them. The walls of Jericho fell miraculously. The day was extended in Giveon miraculously. As long as they followed God’s instructions, there were no casualties. The only reason there were casualties in the battle of Ai was because they had violated the prohibition against taking the spoils of Jericho. With God helping them, they didn’t need the help of Gad and Reuven. Why then would they be demoralized?

The requirement to fight for the land was clearly a religious obligation, not a strategic one. The acquisition of the land was not won on the battlefield, but God wanted them to earn it by fighting for it. In fact, Moshe stated very clearly that if Gad and Reuven did not cross over and fight, they would have to take a share in Canaan proper along with all the other tribes.[4] They would not be penalized for sitting out the war. So why would they be demoralized?

In the Book of Joshua, the conquest is described. It took place in two seven-years phases.[5] In the first phase, all the people together fought great battles against coalitions of local Canaanite kings. After the land was conquered, the tribal lands were allocated to each respective tribe. In the second phase, each tribe was responsible for pacifying its own lands and eradicating remaining pockets of resistance.

After all the land was conquered, apportioned and pacified, Joshua told the tribes of Gad and Reuven that they had fulfilled their promise and that they were now free to return to their lands and their families.[6] Why did they have to remain during the second phase of the conquest when each of the tribes were fending for itself? Would they have been demoralized if Gad and Reuven were not there to assist them?

Clearly, Moshe had detected an entirely different issue when Gad and Reuven had asked to remain east of the river. He saw this as a fissure in the unity of the Jewish people. Gad and Reuven wanted to separate themselves from the main body of Israel. They were prepared to forgo their shares in the Holy Land for the sake of rich pastureland.

Over time, they would develop a separate identity. They would not relate to the other tribes as the American states relate to each other, but rather as Canada does to the United States. They would form a sister state that shared the religion and the heritage of Israel, but they would not be part of the same state. Once the unity was breached, there was no telling how far the cracks would go. The nation could disintegrate and become balkanized.

If they decided to remain behind, Moshe told them, their brothers would be demoralized. Of course, they did not need their help on the battlefield. God was helping them. Seeing the crack in the unity, they would fear that the nation they were building would be fatally flawed from the beginning, and they would be demoralized.

Moshe had two solutions to the problem. One, they would be required to cross into Canaan and fight with their brothers until the very end, long after each tribe had gone to pacify its own land. Sharing the battlefields with the other tribes would strengthen the bonds of brotherhood and help them feel as one nation even though they lived in the highlands across the river. Two, he attached half of the tribe of Menashe to them. Menashe would straddle the center of the land west and east of the river. It would be a bridge, a suture holding both sides of the nation together.

The tribes of Gad and Reuven surely understood Moshe’s concerns, and when they accepted his conditions, we have to assume that their intentions were to solidify their connection with the other tribes. Deep down, however, they had already separated, perhaps subconsciously. This was evident in their choice of words when the inheritance of Zelophechad’s daughters became an issue.

Among the people of Menashe who chose to settle in Gilead was the family of Machir, who had a grandson name Zelophechad, who died in the wilderness and left seven daughters behind. They approached Moshe and said that they also wanted a share in the land. If their father had left a son, he would inherit in his place, but since he had no sons, it was only fair that his daughters should inherit. God then told Moshe that their argument had merit. They would also inherit a portion of the land.

The elders of the family of Machir then approached Moshe with a complaint. “What will happen,” they said, “if these women marry echad mi’bnei shivtei bnei Yisrael, someone from a different tribe? The portion that should have been part of our lands would be absorbed in the lands of a different tribe.”[7] Moshe allayed their fears and told them that these women were required to marry men from their own tribe.

Let us consider the phrase echad mi’bnei shivtei bnei Yisrael. Literally, this means “one of the people of the tribes of the people of Israel.” What does this awkward phrase mean? They should have said, “One of the people of another tribe of Israel.”

This phrasing seems to reveal the mindset of the tribes who had been assigned to live in Ever Hayarden, on the other side of the river. They were already beginning to see themselves as a discrete entity. They saw the other tribes as an entity called Shivtei Bnei Yisrael, the tribes of the people of Israel proper, and they themselves as an entity called Shivtei Ever Hayarden, the tribes across the river. They did see the two as being associated and aligned but not organically and culturally integrated.

Their main concern was that the daughters of Zelophechad would marry one of the people of “the tribes of the people of Israel.” Their property would then belong to that quasi foreign entity. It is possible that they would have been less concerned about the daughters of Zelophechad marrying men from Gad and Reuven. At least, the property would remain with “the tribes across the river.”

Was Moshe’s plan successful? Did the years of military camaraderie with the other tribes bond them strongly together? Not entirely.

After the conquest was over, the central point of worship was in a stone temple in Shiloh. However, when the tribes of Ever Hayarden returned home, they built a great altar pavilion on the riverside visible to the tribes in Canaan. The tribes of Israel were incensed. They prepared to go to war, but they first sent a delegation of princes across the river.

“What’s this?” the princes demanded. “Already you turn your backs on the God of Israel? You will bring down His wrath on all of us! If your lands will be incomplete without a temple, then come back to Israel, and we will give you a share among us.”

“God knows it was not our intention,” they replied, “to bring sacrifices on this altar. We were concerned that your descendants, seeing the river boundary between our lands, would consider us foreigners. We feared they would eliminate us. Therefore, we built this structure to show that we are still part of you.”

The princes accepted this explanation and returned home.[8]

Apparently, even after all this time, after all the camaraderie on the battlefield, the tribes of Israel and the tribes of Ever Hayarden still viewed each other with suspicion.

[1] Rashi, Shemos 19:2.

[2] Although Reuven was the eldest among the tribes, while Gad was among the youngest, the Torah mentions them in that order, which indicates that Gad was the ringleader.

[3] Bamidbar 32:33.

[4] Ibid. 32,30, Kiddushin 61b.

[5] Ibid. 26:53.

[6] Joshua 22:1-4.

[7] Bamidbar 36:3.

[8] Joshua 22:9-32.