ON THE PARSHA

	Parshas Matos-Mas'ei

	by Dovid Lipman

THE DEAD REBBE

The Midrash (B'midbar Rabbah 22:6) says that because
the tribes of Reuvain and Gad chose to separate them-
selves from their brothers (the other tribes) they
were the first to be exiled at the time of the exile
of the ten tribes. What was their sin here?
The Torah implies here that there main intention was
to maintain their high "standard of living". They had
large flocks and needed the extra room on the East Bank
for grazing. Rashi in V'zos HaBracha on the pasuk "Ki
Sham Chelkas M'chokeik" says the pasuk means the idea
of taking the East Bank was that Moshe would be buried
there. This is no contradiction. Rashi is telling us,
don't think the 2.5 tribes realized they were doing it
for money. They rationalized that they wanted to be
where Moshe would be buried. But although this was not
their true reason, we need to know why it wasn't a good
enough reason, in truth, to stay on the eastern side.

From the gemara (Gittin 8b) we learn that the halachos
of the land of Israel apply to any land which is
conquered by the Jews by Hashem's command (there the
gemara discusses Suria, and whether it was considered
"conquered" or not). Therefore, the East Bank clearly
was also to be considered part of the land of Israel
(this does not apply nowadays, however - see Chulin 7a).
The only problem with the West Bank was being "separated"
in the words of the Midrash. Separated from what?

The gemara (Makkos 10a) says if a teacher of Torah has
to be exiled (to a city of refuge) the students go with
him, for without them he has no life. So the 2.5 tribes
said, "If Moshe is to be cut off from the main part of
Eretz Yisrael, so will we!" How could they leave him
alone? A noble intent, indeed!

But there's a difference. If students accompany their
teacher to a city of refuge, they HAVE A TEACHER. But
the 2.5 tribes couldn't rely on Moshe to teach them
any more. The most they could do would be to make
bonfires by Mount Nevo every year on his Yahrtzeit
and hope for some special inspiration.

But on the West side were Yehoshua, Pinchas, Kalev,
Asniel, and all the Torah leaders of Israel. They
were separating themselves from Torah! One can be
loyal to a dead Rebbe, but to learn you need a live
one.

(Keeping in mind, this wasn't their actual motivation.
With purer motives, they surely would have realized
the fallacy of their logic.)