פרשת מטות
In this week’s Parsha, the Jews’ forty year sojourn in the wilderness is about to come to an end, culminating with their entrance into the land of Israel. As the Jews approached the land of Israel from the eastern border, they arrived at the Jordan River. As they were traversing this gorgeous, grassy territory, the tribes of Gad and Reuven couldn’t help but notice the beauty of the land and how suited it would be for them in particular who owned a tremendous amount of livestock to be used for grazing terrain. They requested from Moshe that they be allowed to stay on that land and set up their homes there. Moshe agreed on the condition that they contribute their share in the conquering of the land, and indeed, the tribes of Gad and Reuven were the first into battle, and carried out their end of the agreement to perfection.
However, the Midrash teaches us that they were nonetheless punished severely for their request to dwell on the other end of the Jordan River. Later on when the Jews were exiled from the land of Israel, the tribes of Gad and Reuven were exiled first, and only then were the rest of the tribes exiled, and the reason the Midrash gives for this punishment is because they dwelled “outside” of the land. R’ Eliyashiv Shlit”a poses a powerful difficulty on this Midrash. We know that even the other side of the Jordan River was considered to be part of Israel, and contained almost the same holiness in every respect. Why then did their request warrant such a harsh response? R’ Eliyashiv explains that albeit the other side of the Jordan was certainly considered part of Israel, it was not the center. Gad and Reuven made a conscious decision to be located in a place which was distanced from the center of Jewish life, and for this they were punished.
R’ Eliyashiv goes on to explain why isolation from the primary Jewish hubs is such an iniquity, and is potentially very damaging to one’s spirituality. There is a Piska (106) in Devarim which says that the process of tithing one’s produce leads to holiness. This is because when a person tithes his fruits, he is forced to bring some of them to Jerusalem. When he does this, he will enter the holy city and inevitably come in contact with many Jewish men sitting and studying the Torah on a daily basis. This contact will certainly generate in him a strong desire to sit and study with them, and so it has come to pass that tithing has led to holiness. R’ Eliyashiv points out from this Chazal the effect our surrounding environment can have on us. If a person embeds himself in a community in which spirituality is the primary focus, there is no telling how deeply and positively such a decision can affect him. If on the other hand a person chooses to place himself in a milieu in which the people around him do not regard spiritual growth as particularly important, and have a different value system, he can rest assured that in a very short time, their value system will become his. The Mishnah in Avos (6:10) relates that R’ Yossi Ben Kisma used to tell his students that even if a township were to offer him all the riches in the world, he would not be willing to dwell in a place which was not steeped in Torah and holiness. This was a man who put his money where his mouth was, and was not willing to compromise a value which he obviously considered to be beyond any monetary gain. The Gemorah in Berachos even relates that there was a non-Jewish city called Masa Mechasya in which the Jews would gather every year for the Yarchei Kallah to completely abandon there livelihoods and study Torah full time. The Gemorah couldn’t understand how every non-Jewish inhabitant of that city did not convert from this awesome sight. From all the sources in Chazal that we mentioned, it is clear the extant that our surroundings can affect us and how careful we must be to ensure that those surroundings are positive ones.
There is another approach completely to understanding Gad and Reuven’s sin which I would like to discuss. Chazal point out that when Gad and Reuven asked to dwell on the other side of the Jordan, they first mentioned their interest in fertile grazing land, and only afterward mentioned their intention to set up good schools for their children’s education. Rashi quotes the Chazal which says that this reversal of priorities is what earned them such harsh rebuke. It seemed that they were more concerned with their livelihood then they were with there own children.
However, R Hanoch Leibowitz, the renowned leader of the Chofetz Chaim method, used to be very bothered by this Chazal. Let us analyze why a person works so hard to make a living. Most people, when asked, will respond that it is for their children, or to support their family. If so, it comes out that the real “B” behind the holy tribes of Gad and Reuven’s interest in increasing their grazing land and their economic portfolio was specifically for their children. Why then were they reprimanded for a warped value system? They did care very much about their children, and that was why they wanted to make such a good living! R’ Leibowitz explains that we see from this Chazal a very real pitfall that can happen during the Mitzvah of “making a living”. Certainly the tribe of Gad and Reuven went into their business ventures with the sole desire to fulfill the positive commandment to support their families. But somewhere along the line, they got so focused on the specific jobs they were doing that they lost sight of the ultimate goal of their toil, and for this they were punished. In other words, it was not a gross error which they made in which they placed their fiscal advances in front of their children, but rather a temporary lapse of concentration during which they confused their values, and this momentary slip earned them the stark retribution which they received. It goes without saying that in today’s day, this lesson is extremely poignant for us, who live a world which seems to worship money like a deity, how careful we must be to not confuse our own value system and place our financial careers in front of our family or our Torah observance.
R’ Chazkal Levinstein, the great Mashgiach used to say that a person must be very cautious to constantly monitor himself for this dangerous trait of chasing after money. He would say that we learn from Gad and Reuven how damaging even a temporary lapse in this particular arena can be and how we must always keep our value system straight. I once heard that when a certain Rosh Yeshiva was on his death bed, he told his shocked students that his whole life, he worked on this trait, and yet even now, a few minutes before he was to face the heavenly courts, where money is obviously of no value, if somebody were to hold out a bill with a large denomination, he would have to fight his instinct to not reach out and grab it greedily for himself. It is reported in the name of the Chazon Ish that when the Sanhedrin decided to force the Yetzer Hara to relinquish his ability to entice people to worship Avoda Zarah, the Yetzer Hara countered back that it would be unfair for him to be left with nothing in his arsenal to tempt people. The Rabbis then asked him what he felt would be appropriate to replace Avoda Zarah. He responded that if they would allow him to use the desire for money in place of Avoda Zarah, that would be sufficient for him to seduce people to sinning. The Rabbis thought about it, and voted to agree to the Yetzer Hara’s request.
May we all merit to understand the importance of our surroundings, and to always keep our spirituality at the forefront of our ambitions!