Netvort Parshas Mattos 5771:          Keep the Light On For Me
By Rabbi Joshua (tirelessly known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

In memory of Leibel Kletzky, zt'l, whose tragic death last week shocked all of us, while at the same time generated a sense of unity among the Jewish people that we have not seen in recent memory.    May we maintain that unity, and may his memory be a blessing.

After the Torah's account of the battle of revenge against Midian, we read about the request of the tribes of Reuven and Gad to take their portion of land on the eastern side of the Jordan (Yardein), and Moshe's response that in order to do so they must first fight, together with the rest of the Jewish people, for Eretz Yisroel proper.This would entail building housing for their wives and children and pens for their cattle and flock, and joining the rest of the Jewish people for the next fourteen years  in their  campaign to capture the land from the Canaanites, and distribute it among the various other tribes.After that process, the tribes of Reuven and Gad could return to their homes and family on the eastern side. Rav Meir Simcha of Dvinsk, in his Meshech Chochma, wonders how these tribes were able to absent themselves from their families for fourteen years and still remain loyal to them, to the extent that they would return after those years and simply pick up from where they had left off. He explains their capacity to do this by the juxtaposition of the section of the battle of Midian and the request of these two tribes. The rabbis tell us that tzaddikim, righteous people, were picked to fight against Midian,and, being righteous, they were able to resist the temptations that usually accompany a battle scene. In the same way, the members of the tribes of Gad and Reuven who accepted the task of joining with the rest of the tribes in fighting for the land were tzadikim, and were able to withstand the challenges that a fourteen year separation from their families would naturally confront them with.

I would like to suggest a different answer to the Meshech Chochma's question. It was not so much the qualities of the men of the two tribes that enabled them to remain loyal for fourteen years, but the quality of the wives that sustained them.  What Moshe was initially worried about when the two tribes asked for their portion to be on the eastern side of the Yardein was that they would view that area as the central part of the land, and forget that it was the western side that was the main portion of the land, which must be conquered first in order for the other side to become sanctified. By participating in conquering the main part of Eretz Yisroel, they would prove that they recognized this truth. The women of the Jewish people were especially noted for their dedication to the Holy Land. In fact, Rashi, in Parshas Pinchas mentions the midrash that the decree for the Jews in to remain in the wilderness for forty years due to the sin of the spies applied only to the males of that generation, but not to the women.The men of the tribes of Gad and Reuven, then, were inspired by their wives and their dedicationto the land, and remained true to them for the entire period of fourteen years that they were away.

Interestingly, part of the tribe of Menasha later joined with the tribes of Reuven and Gad in setting up cities on the eastern side, and joined with these tribes for the fourteen year period of conquest and distribution of the land, and then returned back to their cities onthe eastern side. The Netziv explains that we find in the song of Devorah, in the book of Shoftim having within it 'mechokekim- lawmakers or Torah scholars.  The Netziv says that it was through the Torah of Menashe that the unity of the nation was maintained, and that is why, when there was more land available of the eastern side than was necessary for the needs of Reuven and Gad, Moshe chose the tribe of Menashe to be the ones who settled this part of the land. We may add that it was the tribe of Menashe which was notable for its dedication to Eretz Yisroel, first through coming from Yosef, who maintained his loyalty to the land even while in Egypt, and, secondly, through the example of the daughters of Tzelaphchad, who appealed to Moshe to receive their father's portion in the land, since he died without sons who could inherit it from him.Again, it was the women left at home who would assure, following the example of the daughters of Tzelaphchad, that the men would carry out their duties towards them as outlined by Moshe, until they returned to their homes in the east, where they would maintain their connection with the main body of the nation, settled on the western side.

Rav Hillel Lieberman, H'yd, notes, in his work Ahavas HaAretz, that when the tribes of Reuven and Gad answered Moshe that they would build houses for their families in the east and join their brothers in battle for the western part of the land(Bamidbar 32: 25), their answer is given in the singular, rather than in the appropriate plural, to indicate that they were determined to maintain the unity of the nation through acting in this way. It was, I believe, the women, with their dedication to the land, who sustained them in this determination, and enabled them to maintain that dedication throughout the fourteen year period in which they were away from their homes.

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