Parshat Devarim
August 2, 2003

In recounting the events of the past forty years, Moshe describes the first conquest east of Jordan. Since he is speaking to the very people who carried out these conquests, his purpose is not to inform them of facts they already know. Rather, Moshe’s intention here – as in all of Devarim – is to impart to his people the moral and spiritual lessons of history.

Moshe recalls how he apportioned these territories the inheritance of Reuven, Gad, and half of Menasheh:

And of this land we captured at that time, from Aro’er on the Arnon Stream, and half of Mount Gil’ad and its cities, I gave to the Reuvenites and to the Gadites. And the rest of Gil’ad and the entire Bashan (the kingdom of Og), I gave to half of the tribe of Menasheh: the whole Argov region and the entire Bashan, which is called the land of Refaim. Yair, a son of Menasheh took the whole Argov region as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Ma’achatites, and he called them Bashan, after his name – the villages of Yair - until this day. And to Machir I gave the Gil’ad. And to the Reuvenites and the Gadites I gave from Gil’ad up to the Arnon Stream, the interior of the Stream and its boundary, and to the Yabbok Stream, the boundary of the children of Ammon; and the Aravah, and the Jordan and its boundary, from the Kinneret as far as the Sea of the Aravah, the Salt Sea, below the rapids on the cliff to the east (Devarim 3:12-17).

It would be helpful to get a picture of the lands discussed here. The territory described as from Aro’er and the Arnon Stream and half of Mount Gil’ad and its cities (v. 12), was originally the kingdom of Sichon. The Arnon Stream flows into the Dead/Salt Sea from the east, and forms the southern boundary of the land given to the tribes of Reuven and Gad. It would seem that Reuven’s region extended from the Arnon to just north of the Dead Sea, a distance of about 40 kilometers. The tribe of Gad was given the rest of the territory to the Yabbok, which flows from the Jordan River from the east at a point between the Dead Sea and the Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee); this gave Gad a portion along the Jordan of about 30 kilometers.

But, without question, the largest territory is given to half of the tribe of Menasheh. Their land, originally the kingdom of Og, the whole Argov region and the entire Bashan…as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Ma’achatites… the Gilad, describes an area north of Gad’s, along the east bank of the Jordan and east of the Kinneret Sea. This is a distance of about 90 kilometers - all for half a tribe!

The greatest difficulty however, is the structure and sequence of Moshe’s words. First he delineates the land of Reuven and Gad (verse 12); then he explains the apportioning of the land to half the tribe of Menasheh (verses 13-15); and then he goes back to discuss the territory of Reuven and Gad (verses 16-17).

Why this strange, alternating presentation: And, what is the spiritual lesson to be derived from it?

Ha’amek Davar discusses this issue at some length. Moshe is analyzing the sequence of events that begin with the sin of the scouts, which Moshe mentioned earlier (1:19-2:1). Had it not been for that sin, the Israelites would have entered the land directly from Kadesh Barne’a, and even Edom would not have resisted them, because they would have been terrified by the nation for whom the Sea of Reeds split. The conquest of the Land of Israel would have proceeded apace; afterwards, they could have conquered the eastern side of the Jordan. Had this been the order of events then the entire land – on both sides of the Jordan – would have remained in the hands of the Israelites forever. None of the tribes would have ever suffered exile.

The sin of the scouts disrupted all this. The generation of the Exodus was doomed to remain in the Wilderness. By the time they returned to lay claim to the land, Edom no longer feared them and they were forced to cross over farther north, through the territories of Sichon and Og. Since these lands were not part of the original promise to Avraham, their sanctity was more precarious, as was their “Torah power.” Ha’amek Davar interprets a saying in Avot of Rabbi Natan (ch 27, end):

“Originally, they would say: Grain in Yehudah, straw in the Galilee and chaff across the Jordan”

as referring to the quality of Torah study in these regions. The conquest of the trans-Jordan first – which was the direct result of the sin of the scouts – created a region of lesser sanctity and less devotion to Torah learning.

Eventually, these tribes were the first to be exiled (Divrei HaYamim I 5:6, 26), after which time the sanctity of the entire land of Israel was weakened, such that some of the mitzvot of the land no longer applied (Arachin 32b). All this was brought about by the sin of the scouts (which tradition says, occurred on the ninth of Av).

Ha’amek Davar explains that Moshe wished to counter the effects of the conquests of Reuven and Gad. So, he interrupts the narrative by saying that he persuaded half of the tribe of Menasheh to settle nearby, and compensated them for their troubles with extra land. He chose them because, as it says in the song of Devorah,

From Machir [son of Menasheh] descended law-makers (Shoftim 5:14),

which refers to Torah leaders (see Sanhedrin 5a). By his own initiative, Moshe granted this exceptionally large territory to half the tribe of Menasheh, whose Torah leadership would help stave off the harmful effects of Reuven’s and Gad’s materialism for as long as possible. “And so,” concludes Ha’amek Davar, “ has it been in every generation.”

In the darkness of exile, throughout all our history, it has been the strengthening of Torah that has illuminated our lives.

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