The concluding aliya of Sefer Bamidbar details how the leaders of Shevet Menashe approached Moshe Rabbeinu regarding the land to be granted to the daughters of Tzelofchod. These leaders were concerned that - should the daughters of Tzelofchod marry into other tribes - the land granted to them would transfer to these other tribes and no longer be part of the inheritance of Shevet Menashe.

The obvious question is why the leaders of Menashe waited until now to address this issue. Even if we assume that the heads of Menashe raised the matter as soon as the daughters of Tzelofchod were told that they would inherit their father's land, why did the Torah not present the story when it occurred? Why does the narrative of the leadership of Menashe approaching Moshe not immediately follow the narrative in which the daughters of Tzelofchod are told that they would inherit their father, which occurred back in Parshas Pinchas?

The text of Parshas Massei immediately preceding the story of the heads of Menashe coming to Moshe Rabbeinu relates how Shevet Levi would receive no land tracts of its own; rather, the Levi'im were to dwell in 48 cities situated in the midst of the tracts of land owned by the other shevatim. The Torah then relates the halachos of one who kills unwittingly, requiring him to be exiled to a City of Refuge (Ir Miklat); all such cities are Levite cities.

Why is every Ir Miklat also a Levite city? Perhaps the answer is that part of the purpose of exiling a killer is to precipitate teshuva - repentance. The reason that the Levi'im had no land of their own was because they were focused purely on the spiritual; they learned Torah and spent much time in the Beis Ha-Mikdash. The Torah sought to place the unwitting killer in the midst of the Levi'im in order to change and elevate him and cause him to focus on his deeds, thereby leading to teshuva.

The leadership of Shevet Menashe were profoundly impacted by this lesson. Whereas they had heretofore assumed that the division and assignment of land to each shevet was based on practicality (see 26:23 with Rashi), they now realized that the portion assigned was unique to that shevet's identity. They reasoned that just as the assignment of no land tracts to the Levi'im reflected their special spiritual status, as did the fact that an Ir Miklat needed to be identified as a Levite city - so too was the assignment of specific land to Shevet Menashe of religious, spiritual imperative. It is for this reason that the appeal of the leadership of Menashe to Moshe occurs right after the apportionment of cities to the Levi'im and the designation of Arei Miklat as Levite cities, for it was clear at that point that the land to be inherited by the daughters of Tzelofchod was purposefully unique to Shevet Menashe and needed to remain with that tribe. (See chapter 33 of Sefer Devarim, where the various tracts of land assigned to the shevatim are linked to the spiritual role of each shevet.)

Although we cannot often understand why we are in a given situation at the time, let's try to learn from Shevet Menashe that what may at first glance seem to be a mere practicality is really Hashem's unique plan for each of us.