Divrei Mattos
Money
This week’s parsha –
whether joined to Parshas Masei or not -- always comes near the beginning of the
Three Weeks. At first glance, it seems that the parsha has no direct connection
to the time of year. In fact, the one battle mentioned in the parsha – against
Midian – ended in a smashing success for Klal Yisroel. Unlike the catastrophes
which came with the destruction of the two Batei Mikdash, this time the enemy
was routed, captives were taken, and the booty was neatly divided.
Likewise, the request of Reuven and Gad for land east of the Jordan River seemed to have worked out well. The negotiations were concluded, an agreement was reached, and everyone was satisfied. The members of Reuven and Gad received the land they coveted, Moshe still had his full army of soldiers to conquer the other side of the Jordan, and the other tribes now had more land each, for Eretz Canaan was now divided by fewer tribes. In business terms, this is a classic “win-win.” What could be wrong with that?
The Midrash (Bamidbar Rabbah 22:8), however, gives us an inside view of the latter episode. It states (Koheles 10:2): “’A sage’s mind [tends] to his right, while a fool’s mind [tends] to his left.’ ‘A sage’s mind tends to his right’ – this is Moshe; ‘a fool’s mind [tends] to his left’ – these are the members of Reuven and Gad, who made what should have been essential, secondary; and what should have been secondary, essential., for they loved their money more than their lives. They said to Moshe, “We plan to build pens for our flocks here, and cities for our small children.” (BaMidbar 32:16) Moshe said back to them, “You’re going about this in the wrong way. Make what is essential, essential: first, build the cities for your children, and then put up the pens for your flocks.” . . . Hashem said to them, ‘You love money more than lives? [I swear] by your lives, [your little deal] will not bring you any blessing ‘ About them it is said, (Mishlei 20:21): ‘If an inheritance is seized hastily at the beginning, its end will not be blessed.’ It also states, (23:4): ‘Do not weary yourself to become rich, forebear from your own understanding’ For who is truly rich? He who is satisfied with what he already has, as it says (Tehillim 128:2): ‘When you eat the labor of your hands, you are praiseworthy, and it is well with you.’”
Says HaRav Aharon Kotler zt”l (in Mishnas Rabbi Aharon): we see here that the Torah takes a severely critical view of the desire for money that drove the Bnei Reuven and the Bnei Gad to offer their plan to Moshe. Yet until we read this Midrash, how many of us would think that what they were doing was so terrible? Certainly, it did not even fall under the prohibition of “Do not covet,” for they did not begrudge their fellow shevatim’s good fortune in having more land per shevet, as mentioned above.Answers Rav Aharon: their real sin was a lack of emunah and bitachon in Hashem, Who Opens His Hand and Satisfies the Desire of All. And because this flaw lies at the essence of a person, it can twist his entire life into a cheap caricature of what it could become.
How far can a lust for money drag us down? The Tosefta at the end of Menachos tells us: “At the end of Bayis Sheini, the people were toiling in Torah and were careful in their deeds. So why were they exiled? Because they loved money and hated each other.” Rav Kotler sees the first reason as a cause for the second: because they loved money, they hated each other. What is the connection? As many ba’alei mussar point out, it is well-known that absolute love of this world and love of the next world, i.e. love of the physical and love of the spiritual, cannot coexist inside a person; one either desires one, or he desires the other. Since spirituality by definition cannot bring one to hate a fellow Jew, it must be that only those who love physicality – and money is just that – over spirituality are those who can hate one another.
Rav Kotler amplifies his point by bringing the Gr”a’s explanation of the Gemara (Yuma 9b) which states: “The fingernail of the early generations was greater than the belly of the later generations.” Comments the Gr”a: even though the yetzer hara caused such terrible aveiros -- yehareg v’al ya’avor – as murder, idol-worship, and immorality to be committed in the earlier times, the people then still enjoyed the midah of bitachon, of a strong trusting relationship with Hashem, Who provided them with all that they needed. Later on, however, they had lost this trust and began to look askance at one another’s good fortune. Only in this poisoned environment could sinas chinam develop.
What’s more, because this lack of bitachon affected their essential relationship with Hashem, it also corrupted their own innermost essences. All the Torah that that generation learned, all the chasadim they performed, were not only not on the same quantitative level as before, but their intrinsic quality was profoundly affected, to the point that these acts could not be remotely compared to those of before.
Now we can begin to understand why Sancheiriv, the king of Ashur, began his conquest of Eretz Yisroel with overcoming and sending into exile the descendants of the Bnei Reuven and Bnei Gad. It wasn’t convenient military strategy; rather, it was a reflection of reality. True, they had learned Torah and had done mitzvos, and there is no doubt that their lush land granted them the wherewithal and the leisure time to do so. However, because their lives, no matter how extrinsically spiritual, were actually spent in pursuit of material wealth, their spiritual acts were of far lower quality than those of their brethren across the Jordan, and their connection to Hashem was far more tenuous. Middah-k’neged-middah, just as they exiled their interior selves from Hashem, so were they exiled. (BaMidbar Rabbah 22:7)
We also understand the Gemara (Makkos (9b-10a) which explains the reason why Hashem commanded Moshe to set up three cities of refuge for accidental murderers for the two-and-a-half shevatim on the east bank of the Jordan, and another three for the other nine-and-a-half on the west bank. At first glance, the proportions seem out of kilter; there should be at most two on the east bank, and at least four on the west. Abaye says: Murderers were common there, as the posuk (Hoshea 6:8) says, “Gilead [representing the east bank] is a city of murderers, of those who waylay for blood.” The Tiferes Yisroel (Boaz) on Mishnayos (Makkos 2:4) asks: These cities of refuge were for accidental murderers, so how can the inhabitants of the east bank be blamed? He answers: “They were bitter-spirited and hot-tempered, and would ambush each other more often. Therefore, since all murderers – whether accidental or on purpose – could run to cities of refuge in order to at temporarily escape from their victims’ avenging relatives, these areas had proportionately more need for cities of refuge.” Now, what caused this sorry state of affairs? Once they had been infected by the poison of a desire for money (which put them there in the first place), they could then come to envying each other and even hating each other. Life itself became cheapened.
We also understand why Chazal (?) tell us that the sorry spiritual state of the inhabitants of the east bank of the Jordan was due to their distance from Yerushalayim. One need only to look at a map to see that in fact they lived no further away than their fellows; in fact, only Yehudah and Binyamin enjoyed more closeness to the Bais HaMikdash than did Reuven. Chazal were not talking about physical proximity; those who chose to stay on the east bank may have been close, but spiritually, they were far away.
Now, Yiddishkeit does not make poverty a virtue; the Gemara (Eruvin 86a) states that “Rabbi Yehudah haNasi would honor the rich; Rabbi Akiva would honor the rich.” The Midrash (BaMidbar Rabbah 22:7), which introduces the parsha of the Bnei Reuven and the Bnei Gad, tells us that as long as one acknowledges that his wealth is a gift from Hashem to use properly, than affluence is a bracha. When, however, one fancies that he, and only he, is the reason for the big bank accounts and packed stock portfolios, he might take one more false step and think that he can then compromise his spirituality for more money. When our lives are driven by “getting ahead,” “going for the gusto,” “making the most of when opportunity knocks,” or whatever of the endless clichés and euphemisms that we use, then our spiritual lives, our true essences, are corroded, and we cannot carry on a meaningful relationship with Hashem. The Midrash concludes by noting that this concept is universal: “There have been two uniquely rich people in the world – one, Korach, from Yisroel, and one, Haman, from the nations of the world. Both of them were lost from the world, ultimately because they saw their wealth as their own doing, not as a useful tool, bestowed upon them by Hashem, to bring more good into the world.
Ever since Churban Bayis Sheini, this time of year has been set aside for us to reflect upon our unnatural state of golus and to set up strategies to get us out of it. This week’s parsha now reflects our own situation in microcosm; we now see the utter tragedy of the innocent-appearing request of the Bnei Reuven and the Bnei Gad, and the resulting centuries of bitterness and strife and the premature exile. May we be zocheh to overcome our lusts for the emptiness of this world, replace it with a true trust in Hashem, and so merit the geulah shliemah.