Text: Bamidbar 32:1-5

1 And there was great multitude of livestock to the children of Reuben and the children of Gad; and they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, that indeed the region was a place for livestock, 2 So the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spoke to Moshe, to Eleazar the kohen, and to the leaders of the congregation, saying… 4 the country which the Lord defeated before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.” 5 They said, “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants as a possession. Do not take us over the Jordan.”

• The lands in question are those conquered by the Israelites on the eastern side of the Jordan when Sihon refused to let them pass through.
• The children of Reuben and Gad are introduced as speaking twice (Bamidbar 32:2, 32:5). Only the second time did they present a request. Why do you think that they did not present it the first time? What might have happened between their first and second speech? (There is no verbal response recorded. Consider other stage directions.)
• What are these tribes requesting? (Try to be exact) What do you think about the request? Why?

Text: Bamidbar 32:6-15

6 And Moshe said to the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben: “Shall your brethren go to war while you sit here? 7 And why will you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the Lord has given them? … 8 Thus your fathers did when I sent them … to see the land … 10 And the Lord’s anger was aroused … and He swore an oath, saying, 11 ‘Surely none of the men who came up from Egypt … shall see the land of which I swore to Avraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they have not wholly followed Me … and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was gone. 14 And now you have risen in your fathers’ place, a brood of sinful men! To increase still more the fierce anger of the Lord against Israel. 15 For if you turn away from following Him, He will still more leave them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all these people.”

• Based on his response, how does Moshe perceive the request? What are his 2 reasons for refusal?
• Why do you think that he speaks only briefly about the first reason but at length about the second? What is the essential difference between the two issues? Is either solvable? 

In the end, after a detailed agreement of their responsibilities (“before the LORD”), these tribes received the land and dwelled east of the Jordan for centuries.

See more: Parashat Matot, Parashat Masei

Originally posted as part of the Conservative Yeshiva at the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center’s Torah Sparks. Support Torah learning from the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center/Conservative Yeshiva for leaders and seekers around the world here.