Menashe Joins Reuven and Gad/2

Menashe's Conquests

Exegetical Approaches

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Personal Initiative

After Moshe finished negotiating with Reuven and Gad and acquiesced to their request to settle in the lands of Sichon, the tribe of Menashe approached with a personal, distinct request to settle the lands of Og.  This position subdivides regarding when they conquered the lands discussed:

Present Conquests

Menashe conquered their territory in the fortieth year, after Reuven and Gad were granted their request to settle on the eastern bank of the Jordan.

Sources:ShadalBemidbar 32:33About R. Shemuel David Luzzatto¹

Why did Menashe need to conquer the land? When describing the conquests over Sihcon and Og in Bemidbar 21, the text shares that the lands of Sichon were settled by Israel (וַיֵּשֶׁב יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּכׇל עָרֵי הָאֱמֹרִי בְּחֶשְׁבּוֹן וּבְכׇל בְּנֹתֶיהָ), while no such statement is made regarding the lands of Og.² As such, there were likely areas in this northern region that still housed the original inhabitants. This would explain why Reuven and Gad request only the lands of Sichon and it is only Menashe who later adds a request for the lands of Og, as they need to finish conquering its cities.³

Why wait? This approach can offer one of two somewhat opposite approaches to this question:

• It is possible that the tribe of Menashe was wary of Moshe's reaction to a request to settle lands east of the Jordan, recognizing that he might find the petition problematic. They, therefore, decided to wait to gauge his response to Reuven and Gad before asking for their own territory.
• Conversely, it is possible that Menashe intentionally separated themselves from the problematic petition of Reuven and Gad, since they viewed their own request, in contrast, as a legitimate one.  Prof. Elitzur⁴ suggests that the lands of Sichon and Og had very different statuses. While the Bashan was considered part of the Promised Land (and thus not problematic to settle), the southern territory of Sichon was not.⁵

Why did they want the territory?

• It is possible, that like Reuven and Gd, they also had much cattle and desired the grazing land east of the Jordan. 
• Prof. Elitzur suggests , instead, that the tribes knew of the future inheritances, so Menashe asked for the Bashan because it was his intended portion.⁶
• Menachem b. Yashar⁷ raises a similar possibility, but suggests that Menashe was aware only that the region around Shekhem was promised to them.⁸ Knowing that the area was hilly and not well-suited to agriculture, and, moreover, that they were very numerous, they thought to resolve the issue ahead of time, by requesting an extra inheritance.

Different conditions?

• It is possible that Moshe does not make Menashe's settlement contingent on joining the rest of the nation in the Conquest, since unlike Reuven and Gad, they were settling areas conquered by themselves and not simply asking to enjoy the benefits of everyone else's work.
• Alternatively, despite the text's silence, it is possible that Moshe also had Menashe promise to participate in the campaign against Canaan.  This could be supported by the fact that in Sefer Yehoshau, they too go to war.⁹

Disproportionate inheritance

Yair and Machir, the sons of Menashe – This position could explain, like Ibn Ezra, that the verse is referring not to Machir or Yair themselves, but rather to their descendants.

Previous Conquests

The cities had been conquered by the tribe of Menashe much earlier, either in the Patriarchal period, or during the sojourn in Egypt.

Sources:Student of R. Saadia, opinion brought by Abarbanel

Moshe's Initiative

Moshe, rather than Menashe, requested that some of the tribe join Reuven and Gad east of the Jordan.

Sources:YerushalmiBikkurim 1:8About the Yerushalmi, RambanBemidbar 32:33About R. Moshe b. Nachman, RalbagBemidbar 32:33Bemidbar 32:39About R. Levi b. Gershom, AbarbanelBemidbar 32About R. Yitzchak Abarbanel R. Avraham Saba #2, NetzivBemidbar 32:33Devarim 3:16About R. Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin

Why did Moshe want  Menashe to join?

• Demographics – Ramban¹⁰ claims that after Moshe agreed to Reuven and Gad's request, he realized that the land was too vast for just two tribes and therefore offered a portion to anyone who wished to join.¹¹ 
• Spiritual aid – R. Saba and the Netziv assert that Moshe was motivated by religious concerns. R. Saba posits that Moshe worried that the two tribes were spiritually deficient (as proven by how their materialism led them to reject Canaan for the eastern bank), while the Netziv has him concerned about the lower level of Torah inspiration in their chosen lands. Moshe hoped that the presence of the tribe of Menashe, who were Torah scholars,¹² would spiritually fortify the inhabitants.
• Unity – Alternatively, Moshe wanted to ensure the unity of the nation and prevent the possible alienation of the tribes of Reuven and Gad.  By splitting Menashe and having one half settle on each of the two banks of the Jordan, he hoped to ensure that family and tribal ties would connect the two communities.

Different conditions? Moshe had no need to make Menashe's settlement conditional on joining the conquest since it was not they who asked to live on the eastern bank.  They had never suggested that they would forsake their brethren, so Moshe had no need to emphasize that they must fight together with them.

Why did they need to conquer the land? Ralbag offers two explanations:

• Extra-conquests post inheritance – After Moshe had them join Reuven and Gad, and gave them their main inheritance, Menashe conquered other outlying cities and surrounding regions and annexed them to their portion.¹³
• During the war with Og – Menashe conquered the territories earlier, when the nation as a whole fought against Og (Bemidbar 21). If so, it is possible that the reason Moshe chose them specifically to live there was because they had previously conquered these regions.

Disproportionate inheritance

• According to Ramban, Moshe had opened the land to all the tribes equally, so whoever had wanted could have similarly claimed a larger inheritance. Thus, there was no injustice in the disproportionate size of their territory.
• According to Ralbag, the larger size was due to the fact that they independently conquered more area.

Machir and Yair, the sons of Menashe – As above, this position could say that these refer to Menashe's descendants, and not to literal sons.

Part of Reuven and Gad's Petition

Despite the silence in the text, Menashe had been part of the negotiations from the beginning.

Sources:R. Avraham Saba #1

Why is Menashe not mentioned? According to R. Avraham Saba, the clans from Menashe were not mentioned earlier due to their small numbers.

Different conditions? R. Saba would likely say that Menashe was given the same conditions as Reuven and Gad (as evidenced by their participation in the Conquest in Sefer Yehoshua) and the text simply did not want to repeat the fact

Not Moshe's Intitaive – R. Saba maintains that Moshe was very reluctant to settle the eastern bank of the Jordan, viewing the land as impure and the desire to settle there as a rejection of the Promised Land. As such, he does not think that Moshe, on his own, would have ever forced one of the tribes to settle there against their will, leading him to conclude that Menashe must have desired the territory.

Disproportionate inheritance – It is not clear, according to this position, why Menashe should have merited such a large portion. It is possible that Moshe did not want to penalize the other clans of the tribe for the deeds of their brothers.¹⁴ Since these clans had not rejected Hashem's Land, he did not want to minimize their portion, even if part of their tribe was inheriting elsewhere.

¹ Shadal touches just briefly on the topic, so much of what is developed below is not found in his commentary, though the points might work with his general approach.

² The verse simply states, "וַיַּכּוּ אֹתוֹ וְאֶת בָּנָיו...  וַיִּירְשׁוּ אֶת אַרְצוֹ" without mentioning that they also settled in the area.

³ See Y. Ben-Shem, "הלכה ומציאות בהתנחלות שבטי ישראל" who goes further to suggest that these conquests were done without the authority of Moshe and against his will, in an act of rebellion. This was taking place exactly as Moshe was negotiating with Reuven and Gad, and influenced Moshe's agreement to their request. In his efforts to prevent civil war, Moshe made a compromise with the two tribes mainly so that he could have Menashe join in the agreement.

⁴ See his article, "אנשים ונחלות במנשה ובשבטי ישראל".

⁵ Prof. Elitzur points out that the land of Sichon was conquered only because this was necessary in order to cross the Jordan and enter Israel, and, as such, had no inherent holiness. The lands of Og, on the other hand, served no such purpose and were conquered because they had always been meant to be a part of Israel. He further posits that the tribes were aware ahead of time of the intended map of inheritances. Thus Menashe knew they were supposed to inherit the land of the Bashan.  [As evidence he points to Machir's naming his son Gilad, and Gilad naming his son Shekhem, after the regions to be settled.] Reuven and Gad, in contrast, had originally been meant to inherit some place west of the Jordan, and thus should not have asked for different territory.

⁶ See previous note.

⁷ See his article, "על היאחזות השבטים בעבר הירדן".

⁸ According to this reading Menashe was unique in knowing their intended portion since Yaakov had told Yosef in Bereshit 48:22, "וַאֲנִי נָתַתִּי לְךָ שְׁכֶם אַחַד עַל אַחֶיךָ".  The other tribes, in contrast, would not have known where they were to settle.

⁹ See Yehoshua 1:12-14 and Yehoshua 22:1-3.

¹⁰ See also Ralbag.

¹¹ Abarbanel explains similarly but suggests that Moshe chose Menashe, rather than asking who would like to join.

¹² The Netziv brings evidence of their knowledge from Devorah's song where she speaks of Machir as being, "מְחֹקְקִים", a term which is parallel to "מֹשְׁכִים בְּשֵׁבֶט סֹפֵר" (Shofetim 5:14)

¹³ Ralbag compares this to Yehoshua's advice to the tribe of Yosef in Sefer Yehoshua,  that if they were too numerous for their territory, they should go and conquer surrounding areas (Yehoshua 17:15). From this he learns that each tribe was allowed to conquer regions near their inheritance and claim them for themselves.

¹⁴ See Petition of the Two and a Half Tribes for elaboration on R. Saba's position that the tribes were wrong to request to settle the eastern bank of the Jordan as this betrayed a rejection of Hashem's Promised Land.