Babies and Sheep - Matot
וּמִקְנֶה רַב הָיָה לִבְנֵי רְאוּבֵן וְלִבְנֵי גָד עָצוּם מְאֹד וַיִּרְאוּ אֶת אֶרֶץ יַעְזֵר וְאֶת אֶרֶץ גִּלְעָד וְהִנֵּה הַמָּקוֹם מְקוֹם מִקְנֶה. (במדבר לב, א)
Moshe’s final task before passing on was to wage war and exact revenge on Midyan for what they did to Bnei Yisrael at Ba’al Pe’or. HKB”H explicitly told him that immediately after this he would die. Unlike Yehoshua, who Hashem criticized for dragging out the process of כיבוש and portioning out the נחלאות in an attempt to prolong his life, Moshe was extremely diligent and swift to perform HKB”H’s command.
This war with Midyan was unlike any other war Bnei Yisrael had ever fought. If you examine the psukkim and the Midrashim that describe it, you realize that Moshe “pulled out all the stops” and threw every possible resource, both physical and spiritual, into the battle. The reason for this is that this was not a war merely between physical armies, but between opposing spiritual forces and all the כוחות הטומאה were all recruited to try defeat Bnei Yisrael.
With HKB”H’s help, Bnei Yisrael were victorious and as a result captured vast quantities of spoils. Many of the halachot of kashering כלים are derived from the psukkim in which Elazar HaKohen describes how to kasher the utensils captured in the war.
In addition, Bnei Yisrael captured enormous amounts of livestock - 72,000 heads of cattle, 61,000 donkeys and a staggering 675,000 sheep. The fact that the Midyanim were sheep herders by nature is first revealed when Moshe went down to Midyan and encountered Yitro’s daughters tending their flocks.
Leading the military fighting forces of Bnei Yisrael were the tribes of Gad and Reuven. We know already from Yaakov’s brachot to his sons that the Tribe of Gad was destined to be a tribe of great warriors. Similarly, Reuven’s bracha describes his bravado and valiance in battle. As a result Gad and Reuven captured the majority of the spoils and thus it came about that they were suddenly in the possession of vast quantities of livestock.
Hundreds of thousands of sheep need feeding - they require vast tracts of grazing land. This prompted Gad’s and Reuven’s request to Moshe to be granted the lands on the other side of the Jordan River as their inheritance and not to receive part of Eretz Yisrael “proper”.
Moshe’s response seems to be instant outrage (although the passuk seems to indicate the opposite - using the word ויאמר and not וידבר). “Will your brothers go wage war and you will sit idly by here?” (Bamidbar 32, 6). Moshe goes on to equate Gad and Reuven’s request with the sin of the meraglim, that by doing so they will be weakening Bnei Yisrael’s morale to fight the seven nations in Eretz Yisrael. This claim is not without basis. Without their “elite” troops (Gad and Reuven), Bnei Yisrael would be more fearful of waging war against the nations living in Canaan. Moshe recounts the entire episode of the mergalim and says that now, at the final hurdle just before entering the Promised Land, Gad and Reuven were weakening Bnei Yisrael’s resolve.
Gad and Reuven placate Moshe. “That was not our intention. We do not intend to sit idly by in חוץ לארץ while the rest of Bnei Yisrael wages war on our enemies!” Gad and Reuven said that they would first safeguard their sheep and their families גִּדְרֹת צֹאן נִבְנֶה לְמִקְנֵנוּ פֹּה וְעָרִים לְטַפֵּנוּ over the Jordan and then they would spearhead the attack against the seven nations. Only after the last tribe was settled in their נחלה, would Gad and Reuven return back over the Jordan to take up their inheritance there.
Moshe accepts the response of Gad and Reuven אִם תַּעֲשׂוּן אֶת הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה..... וִהְיִיתֶם נְקִיִּים מֵה' וּמִיִּשְׂרָאֵל.. However, Moshe adds a veiled rebuke by switching the order בְּנוּ לָכֶם עָרִים לְטַפְּכֶם וּגְדֵרֹת לְצֹנַאֲכֶם. First take care of your babies and then your sheep.
Many Mefarshim pick up on this “rebuke” and say that Gad and Reuven got their priorities mixed up. They put their material assets ahead of their families and Moshe had to set them straight.
The question I would like to ask is “How could it have been so?”
Chazal, when referring to the generation of the Midbar, call them דור הדעה – a generation who had elevated knowledge of HKB”H and saw Him almost face to face. It is impossible for us to comprehend the spiritual stature of these gedolim (see the shiur on Shlach).
A few short weeks prior to that Gad and Reuven were not laden with sheep. Because of the war with Midyan they suddenly became “sheep heavy” almost overnight. Is it conceivable that Gad and Reuven would give priority to their newly acquired wealth over their wives and children? Is it conceivable that their sense of priorities could become so instantly warped, because of sheep?
It was not exactly that Bnei Yisrael, including Gad and Reuven, were lacking wealth. Each person left Egypt with 90 Libyan donkeys fully laden with riches. At Yam Suf all the Egyptian loot floated to the surface after the Egyptians drowned and Bnei Yisrael spent many days adding a few more layers to the backs of their poor, already straining donkeys! (see the shiur on Beshalach)
In last week’s parsha Pinchas, after Ba’al Peor, HKB”H told Moshe to take another census. Gad’s and Reuven’s numbers combined were 84,250. If each had 90 donkeys “doubly” laden with riches, this makes 7,582,500 donkeys laden with gold, silver, precious gems, silk, fine clothes and other untold riches. 7½ million donkeys! And now in the war with Midyan they captured 61,000 donkeys and 675,000 sheep (not all of which went to Reuven and Gad). They have already got 7½ million donkeys - another 61,000 is “eh!” A drop in the bucket!
OK, so you may say that they had gold, silver etc. but this was the first time they acquired sheep! So what? If Gad and Reuven were not corrupted before with 7½ million donkeys full of material possessions, another few hundred thousand sheep is not going to corrupt them either!
So what is really going on here?
To understand this we need to examine another reference in parshat Vezot Habracha (Devarim 33, 21) –
וַיַּרְא רֵאשִׁית לוֹ כִּי שָׁם חֶלְקַת מְחֹקֵק סָפוּן וַיֵּתֵא רָאשֵׁי עָם צִדְקַת ה' עָשָׂה וּמִשְׁפָּטָיו עִם יִשְׂרָאֵל.
Moshe blesses the tribes before his death and his blessing for the Tribe of Gad reveals the true motivation for them wanting to remain over the Jordan River and not inherit in Eretz Yisrael.
It had nothing to do with sheep!
Rashi on the above passuk explains that Gad’s motivation for inheriting over the Jordan River, was because that is where Moshe is buried - כִּי שָׁם חֶלְקַת מְחֹקֵק סָפוּן. It says in the passuk וַיַּרְא רֵאשִׁית לוֹ and the Mefarshim (רקנאטי, בראשית) says that Moshe is called Reishit.
The whole initiative was actually spearheaded by Gad and not Reuven and the Ramban (Bamidbar 32, 1) says that the reason Reuven is mentioned before Gad in the passuk, is out of respect because he is the bechor. However, Gad was a greater warrior than Reuven (Ibn Ezra, Devarim 33, 21) and he instigated the initiative.
Gad (and Reuven) wanted to remain on the other side of the Jordan River out of respect for their revered leader Moshe Rabbeinu and to not “abandon” his kever – even though its exact location is unknown. It had nothing to do with sheep or grazing land.
Moshe understood their deeper motivation and perhaps this is why in his response to them, he uses the word ויאמר – a gentler tone and not וידבר that reflects a harsher tone. Moshe was deeply touched at this gesture, however, despite this demonstration of loyalty to him personally, he could not allow even the hint of מראית עין, that this would preclude Gad and Reuven joining in the war to conquer Eretz Yisrael. Moshe makes this very clear – repeating it numerous times.
The very notion that Gad and Reuven would be corrupted by material wealth is absurd! They were already exceedingly wealthy beyond imagination. Suddenly now, with the addition of a few flocks of sheep, they suddenly lost all sense of proportion and placed the sheep above their children? It defies logic and is obviously not what happened.
So why then did they say גִּדְרֹת צֹאן נִבְנֶה לְמִקְנֵנוּ פֹּה וְעָרִים לְטַפֵּנוּ – first mention the sheep and only after, their babies?
The reason is because this was not a statement but a שאלה! If there was punctuation in the Torah, this line would be followed with a question mark. They were asking Moshe for a psak halacha!
This is hinted to in Moshe’s response to them וִהְיִיתֶם נְקִיִּים מֵה' וּמִיִּשְׂרָאֵל. There is a principle in the Torah, that whatever we do וִהְיִיתֶם נְקִיִּים, we need to take into account the Torah factor (מֵה') and the derech eretz factor (וּמִיִּשְׂרָאֵל). As Shlomo Hamelech says in Mishlei (3, 4) ומצא חן ושכל טוב בעיני א-לקים ואדם, you have to balance the בין אדם למקום with the בין אדם לחברו.
Gad’s and Reuven’s question is which precedes which? Which comes first?
In parshat Lech Lecha, (Breishit, 13) we read –
וְאַבְרָם כָּבֵד מְאֹד בַּמִּקְנֶה בַּכֶּסֶף וּבַזָּהָב ...... וְגַם לְלוֹט הַהֹלֵךְ אֶת אַבְרָם הָיָה צֹאן וּבָקָר וְאֹהָלִים ...... וַיְהִי רִיב בֵּין רֹעֵי מִקְנֵה אַבְרָם וּבֵין רֹעֵי מִקְנֵה לוֹט וְהַכְּנַעֲנִי וְהַפְּרִזִּי אָז יֹשֵׁב בָּאָרֶץ.
After the episode when Avram went down to Egypt because of the famine and Pharaoh kidnapped Sarah, the Torah tells us that Avram emerged from this a very rich man. Also Lot, his nephew, was heavily laden with livestock. A dispute broke out between Avram’s and Lot’s shepherds. What was the dispute?
Rashi tells us that Lot knew that Avraham’s descendants would inherit Eretz Canaan and since Avraham did not yet have any heirs, Lot thought himself to be Avraham’s heir. If Lot was the heir and the land was promised to “him”, he felt free to allow his sheep to graze wherever they liked, believing the land was already his. However, the passuk tells us that at that point וְהַכְּנַעֲנִי וְהַפְּרִזִּי אָז יֹשֵׁב בָּאָרֶץ – the land had not yet been conquered by Yehoshua and until then it did not belong to Avraham, nor to Lot. By allowing their sheep to roam free and graze wherever they like, Lot's shepherds were guilty of גזל!
Gad and Reuven had not yet inherited the land on the other side of the Jordan. It would only be theirs after their promise had been fulfilled – to spearhead the war against the seven nations in Eretz Yisrael and wait until the last of the other tribes were settled in their inheritance. Only then would the land be theirs. If they let their sheep roam free to graze wherever they liked – it would be גזל!
To prevent this איסור they were asking Moshe – “Do we first build fences to restrict our sheep from roaming to be mekayem וִהְיִיתֶם נְקִיִּים מֵה' ? Or do we first build cities for our families to be mekayem וּמִיִּשְׂרָאֵל? Which comes first?
It is a gevaldige question!
Which comes first – derech eretz (“common decency”)? Or the Torah? If derech eretz comes first, then we should first build cities for our babies - that is basic “common decency”, your babies come before your sheep! However, if the Torah comes first and there is a חשש of גזל – then you have to prevent that by first building fences so your sheep don’t steal.
So which comes first?
Chazal in the Midrash (מדרש רבה ויקרא פרשה ט פסקה ג, פרשה לה פסקה ו) learn that derech eretz comes before the Torah. They learn it from the passuk in Breishit (3, 24) “לשמור את דרך עץ החיים” – first “derech” (eretz) and only after “eitz hachayim” (Torah). From this they learn the principle דרך ארץ קדמה לתורה, that derech eretz is a precursor to the Torah. Unless you first have common decency, you cannot approach the Torah. The Torah is built on a foundation of derech eretz. If that is missing, then the Torah does not stand or last.
So that would appear to be the answer. However it is not the full story. The full story is in Moshe’s psak halacha in response to Gad’s and Reuven’s question.
Moshe’s reply was twofold – וִהְיִיתֶם נְקִיִּים מֵה' וּמִיִּשְׂרָאֵל and also בְּנוּ לָכֶם עָרִים לְטַפְּכֶם וּגְדֵרֹת לְצֹנַאֲכֶם.
Moshe’s psak seems to be self-contradictory. In the first passuk he puts the Torah before derech eretz (first Hashem - Torah and afterwards Yisrael – derech eretz) and in the second passuk, derech eretz before the Torah (first cities for your babies - derech eretz and afterwards the fences/the issur of gezel - Torah).
However it is not contradictory at all. Moshe is saying that neither precedes the other, they are concurrent. When you are presented with a situation where you can first finish one and then the other – the correct way to approach it is to do them both simultaneously, work on both at the same time. Don’t first build fences for the sheep and only then cities for the babies - build the cities and the fences simultaneously.
This is echoed in two Mishnayot in Pirkei Avot -
רַבָּן גַּמְלִיאֵל בְּנוֹ שֶׁל רַבִּי יְהוּדָה הַנָּשִׂיא אוֹמֵר: יָפֶה תַלְמוּד תּוֹרָה עִם דֶּרֶךְ אֶרֶץ, שֶׁיְּגִיעַת שְׁנֵיהֶם מְשַׁכַּחַת עָוֹן (אבות ב, ב)
רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר בֶּן עֲזַרְיָה אוֹמֵר: אִם אֵין תּוֹרָה, אֵין דֶּרֶךְ אֶרֶץ. אִם אֵין דֶּרֶךְ אֶרֶץ, אֵין תּוֹרָה (אבות ג, יז)
The two are interlinked and cannot exist one without the other.
Therefore, Moshe’s response to Gad and Reuven was not a rebuke, but rather a psak halacha that is just as relevant back then as it is today. It is all very well to be a great talmid chacham, but if you have no derech eretz, your Torah is worthless, because nobody will listen to or learn from you. Conversely, if you have derech eretz but no Torah, that derech eretz is often misplaced or misdirected, for example someone who cares more for animal rights than human rights.
Some Mefarshim (Rashi, Rabbeinu Yonah, Bartenura on Avot 2,2) give an added dimension to the definition of derech eretz, saying that it also means parnasa. This fits right in with the sheep and the babies, you just flip them. The babies are the Torah (חיוב ללמד בניכם תורה) and the sheep are the derech eretz (parnasa). In this case the two are also interlinked and simultaneous. I explore this principle at length in Meir Panim, the fact that the Shulchan and Menorah (parnasa and Torah) are alongside each other in the Heichal and symbiotic.
How delicate this balance is between derech eretz and Torah in these turbulent times - as Israel approaches another round of elections and derech eretz mostly goes out the window. Especially in these three weeks before Tisha Be’Av where the ס"מ is roaming the streets and provoking and stirring, the danger of sin’at chinam is imminent and ever present.
To counter that, we all need to make a extra special effort to increase both our derech eretz and our limud and observance of the Torah and most importantly – maintain a balance between them.
