THE DESCENDANTS OF GAD AND

OUR CHILDREN.

(Bamidbar

32)

We shall build sheepfolds

for our livestock here

They were more concerned about their possessions than about their sons and

daughters, since they mentioned their livestock before [mentioning] their

children. Moses said to them, "Not so! Treat the fundamental as a

fundamental, and the matter of secondary importance as a matter of secondary

importance. First build cities for your children, and afterwards, enclosures

for your sheep."

(Rashi

on Bamidbar 32:16, Judaica Press translation)

And you shall love the Lord,

your God, with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your means.

(Devarim

6:5)

One is required to recite a blessing

on evil events just as one recites a blessing on good events, for it is said, And

and with all your means.

With all your heart – with both your inclinations, the good

inclination and the evil inclination.

And with all your soul – even if He takes your soul.

And with all your means – with all your wealth. Another view: With

all your means [me'odekha] – For every measure and measure [mida

umida] that He grants you, you should be very, very [me'od me'od]

thankful.

(Mishnah

Berakhot 9:5)

And you shall love the Lord,

your God etc. It has been

taught: R. Eliezer says: If it says, with all your soul, why should it

also say, with all your means, and if it says with all your means,

why should it also say, with all your soul? Should there be a man who

values his life more than his money, for him it says; with all your soul;

and should there be a man who values his money more than his life, for him it

says, with all your means.

(Berakhot

61b)

The Legal Sublimation of Anger

Moshe Meir

Just

as they are about to complete their trek to the Land of Israel, the Children of

Gad and the Children of Reuben turn to Moses with a surprising request:

"Ataroth,

heritage; do not take us across the Jordan."

Moses'

shock is unbearable. How can they give up the goal of the whole journey for the

sake of economic advantages? It is all the more painful, given that Moses

himself will not be allowed to cross the Jordan:

I

and he will make them inherit the land which you will see. (Devarim 3)

Moses

is furious; in his anger he jumbles together two counterarguments:

"Shall

of Israel from crossing over to the land which the Lord has given them?

The

children of Gad and Reuben accept his criticism and attempt to reformulate

their request:

They

inhabitants of the land.

Moses

accepts the new request, offering his own restatement of it:

If

your heritage before the Lord.

Moses'

reformulation of the request points to the difference between the world view of

the children of Gad and Reuben, who see themselves as standing before the

Israelite nation, and that of Moses, who stands before God. Now the two sides

have reached agreement, a summary of which is presented to the leaders of the

people:

"If

Canaan."

The

stipulation is clearly stated in a double format; it reflects all of the anger

and distrust that Moses felt towards the tribes who had betrayed his dream. The

Sages used these conditional statements as a paradigm for the formulation of

conditional statements in law:

From

where do we learn about all conditional statements? From the stipulations of

the Children of Gad and the Children of Reuben. (Gittin 75a)

For

any stipulation to be halakhically valid it must fulfill three criteria learned

from the stipulations of Children of Gad and the Children of Reuben. First – it

must be a double conditional ["If you do X, then X will happen; if you don't

do X then Y will not happen"], and the principle that "the positive

conditional implies the negative conditional" must not be applied. Second

– the conditional term must precede the resulting act ["if"

precedes "you shall give"]. Third – the positive conditional

precedes the negative one ["If the descendants of Gad and Reuben cross"

precedes, "But if they do not cross"].

Anger

born of disappointment and feelings of betrayal can give rise to aggressive and

violent deeds. A culture's power finds expression in the restraint of human

inclinations, even when they are justified. When anger is transformed into a

binding legal framework the crisis is transformed into an eternal institution

of law. It allows Moses to accept the children of Gad and Reuben despite his

feelings of alienation from them.

Moses

spoke to the heads of the tribes of the children of Israel, saying: This is the thing the Lord has commanded. (Bamidbar 30:2)

This

is the thing the Lord has

commanded – It is not stated

where Moses was told this, as occurs in several other prophecies, such as: Thus

said the Lord concerning the plague of locusts (Shemot 10:3), and, Thus says the Lord: "At

around midnight…" (Shemot 11:4), and, Let

each man wear his sword on his thigh in connection with the calf (Shemot 32:27), and many other prophets prophesized with

this it is said: He fulfills the word of His servant. (Hizkuni Bamidbar 30:2)

He

fulfils the word of His servant – This refers to Moses, for it is said, to speak of My servant of

Moses; and the counsel of His messenger He completes – this refers

to Moses, for it is said, and He sent an angle and took us out of Egypt.

The Holy One blessed be He said to Moses: Go tell Israel, I will pass

through the land of Egypt on this night. Moses went and told them, Thus

says the Lord: At midnight… The Holy One blessed be He said: "I to

will act at midnight in order to fulfill Moses' decrees," that is: He fulfils

the word of His servant. (Yalkut Shimoni Isaiah 461)

The

meaning of and Moses spoke to the leaders of the tribes is this– There

was no reason to teach all the Israelites that a father or husband can render

void a [woman's] ascetic vow, and perhaps these laws should be kept secret from

them so that they not act frivolously regarding vows. But he did teach the law

to Israel's sages, the leaders of the tribes.

Our

Rabbis' midrash (Nedarim

78a) further alludes to the

tribal leaders having more to do with vows than did the rest of the people,

since a solitary expert can void a vow. The release from vows is not mentioned

explicitly in the Torah, rather it is a halakhah received by Moses at Sinai. They

connected it to Scripture with a link as thin as a hair, as it is written,

"The nullifications of vows floats in the air and have nothing supporting

them" (Hagigah

10a), but it is hinted at by

Scripture in the verse, lo yehal devaro – he shall not violate his word (Bamidbar 30:3), that is to say, he will not transgress his words, but the commandment

is lo yehallel devaro that his word should not be made hollow, for when

he comes to court and they find a loophole and they comfort him and forgive

him, he is not violating it. The point of this is as I have explained, the

nullification of vows and oaths were made secrets of the Torah that should only

be disclosed to those worthy of them, and they were [only] hinted at in

Scripture… regarding all [vows], he shall not violate his word, but

others can forgive them for him. (RaMBaN 30:2)

And Moses said

to the Children of Gad and to the Children of Reuben: "Shall your brothers come to war while you stay

here?"

(Bamidbar 32:6)

Shall your

brothers come to war

Usually Scripture uses the expression "went out to

war" [yatza lamilhama], while the expression "came to

war" [ba lamilhama] is unusual. Moses uses the latter when

addressing the children of Gad and the children of Reuben: Shall your

brothers come to war. He who goes out to war sets forth to battle

promptly and willingly. He takes joy in combat, going out to fight beyond his

country's borders. In contrast, one who comes to war or especially one

who comes towards war [ba milhama] (Bamidbar 10:9) takes the

dangers of combat upon himself only after finding himself entangled in war. The

war came without provocation on his part, and he is forced to endanger himself.

That is why Moses asks: Shall your brothers come to war? while in

contrast, you sit here. Your brothers want to reach rest and claim their

estates just as you do. However, war is necessary, it has come to us, and your

brothers must enter the fight – and you would shrug off that duty?

(Rabbi S.R. Hirsch on Bamidbar 10:9)

Gather the people, prepare the congregation, assemble the elders,

chamber and a bride from her canopy.

(Joel

2:16)

And the officers shall speak

further unto the people, etc.

R. Akiva says: Fearful and fainthearted is to be understood literally viz., one

who is unable to stand in the battle-ranks and to see a drawn sword. R. Yossi

HaGalili says: Fearful and fainthearted alludes to one who is afraid

because of the transgressions he had committed, therefore the Torah connected

all these with him that he may return home on their account. R. Yossi says: A

High Priest who married a widow, an ordinary priest who married a divorcee or haluzah,

a lay Israelite who married an illegitimate or a netinah, and the

daughter of an Israelite who married an illegitimate or a natin – behold

such a one is fearful and fainthearted… .

To what does all the foregoing

apply? To voluntary wars, but in the wars commanded by the Torah all go forth,

even a bridegroom from his chamber and a bride from her canopy (Joel 2). R. Yehudah says: To what does all the

foregoing apply? To the wars commanded by the Torah, but in obligatory wars all

go forth, even a bridegroom from his chamber and a bride from her canopy.

(Mishnah

Sotah 8:5, 7, Soncino translation)

R. Yohanan said: The difference

between them [R. Yehudah and the Sages] is terminological. R. Yehudah called

reshut] by the term a "commanded war" [milhemet mitzvah],

but in an obligatory war [milhemet hova], all go out [to battle], even a

bridegroom from his chamber and a bride from her canopy.

Rav Hisda said: They are in

war is the war of Joshua. R. Yehudah would call a war which we initiate a

"voluntary war," while he called a defensive war an "obligatory

war."

(J.

Sotah 8:10)

They agree that the wars

against the Seven Nations and Amalek are obligatory. They also agree that wars

against other lands belonging to other nations are voluntary. They only

disagreed regarding wars against nations which fight against them, [wars fought

by the Israelites] so as to weaken them [the nations] to keep them from

fighting against the Israelites and attacking their land. Regarding this the

first Tanna cited calls it a voluntary [war, while R. Yehudah calls it a

commanded war. According to R. Yehudah, one who is engaged in fighting such a

war or in supporting the war effort is exempt from observing the commandments,

because, as you know, we have a principle that one engaged in the performance

of a commandment is exempt from [the other] commandments. The first Tanna cited

does not think [that someone fighting such a war] is engaged in the performance

of a commandment. And the halakhah is not in accordance with R. Yehudah.

(RaMBaM's

Commentary on the Mishnah ad loc)

At first, the king may only

fight a commanded war, and which is a commanded war? It is the war against the

Seven Nations, and the war against Amalek, and rescue of Israelites from the

oppressor who comes upon them. Afterwards he can fight voluntary wars, which

are wars fought against the other nations to broaden Israel's borders and to

magnify his greatness and reputation.

He is not required to gain the

court's permission to prosecute a commanded war, rather he can go of his own

accord and at any time, and force the people to go out [to fight], but he

the Court of Seventy-One…

The annihilation of the Seven

nations is a positive commandment, for it says surely annihilate them,

and anyone who comes across one of them and does not kill him transgresses a

negative commandment, for it is said, do not allow any soul [to live] – but

their memory is already lost.

Similarly, the destruction of Amalek's

memory is a positive commandment, for it is said, Erase the memory of Amalek.

It is a positive commandment to always remember its evil deeds and the way it lay

in ambush [to attack Israel] in order to awaken hostility against it, for it is

said, Remember what Amalek did to you. Tradition teaches that remember

is with the mouth and do not forget is in the heart, that it is

prohibited to forget its hostility and hatred.

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