So the topic tonight is, as I called it, the holiness of the tribes of Reuven and Gad. Well, the reason I chose that topic this week is because this week we're learning in Chumash and we're reading in the Torah Parshas Vayetze. So we're learning Parshas Vayetze, and in Parshas Vayetze we learn about the birth of the children of Yaakov, which are known as the tribes. Actually, we don't learn about the birth of all 12, this week we only learn about the birth of 11, because the last one, Binyamin, his birth is spoken about in the later parshah. But we learn about the birth of most of the shevatim in this week's parshah. Now we know that the 12 children of Yaakov, besides being his children, they also represent different concepts in Yiddishkeit, in a Jew's service of Hashem. And we do find in different sefarim, whether it's in הלכה ספרים or in Kabbalah or in Chassidus, explanations about the different shevatim, what they represent. Some of the explanations are even connected to the names of the shevatim, that their names show on the different type of ways of serving God. Some of them are connected to what we find later on in the behavior of the shevatim. But most of them we find in things that took place later on in Jewish history concerning this specific shevatim, and from there we learn out what these specific shevatim stand for. Just to use an example, we have Reuven and Shimon, so it says in Chassidus that Reuven comes from the word ראו, ראו means to see. Shimon comes from the word שמיעה, שמעו, to hear. And it explains all kinds of things concerning the difference between when a person serves Hashem in the form of hearing versus serving Hashem in the form of, seeing versus serving Hashem in the form of hearing, and all kinds of different things. Sometimes we talk about the shevatim in what we see they did in their life later on, whether it's the specific shevatim, the actual children of Yaakov, or their descendants who belong to that shevet. And the most famous ones are Yissachar and Zevulun. We all know that Yissachar and Zevulun represent those that study Torah and those that support the people who study Torah. Yissachar were the people who study Torah, we know that in later on when the Jews crossed the, left the desert and entered Eretz Yisrael and they were settled in different sections of Eretz Yisrael, so Yissachar, the tribe of Yissachar did not work. They sat and learned Torah the whole time. The tribe of Zevulun, who was their neighbor, worked and supported Yissachar. And because of that, since they shared their earnings with Yissachar, they got a share in the Torah that Yissachar learned. And from then on we know that Yissachar and Zevulun represents those two forms of serving Hashem: one is those people who sit and learn Torah, the other one those people who support Torah. And the same is with many other שבטים that we find in Chassidut explanations of what these שבטים stand for. So once we had already a discussion, a class on Yissachar and Zevulun, I think we had a class on Yosef if I remember correctly, today we're going to discuss Reuven and Gad. Now one might ask, what's the combination of Reuven and Gad, why pick these two? If we'd say Reuven and Shimon would be the two who are next to each other, or Shimon and Levi. But as we will see, there is something very much in common between Reuven and Gad, and therefore they represent certain things that we always apply to both of them, to Reuven and to Gad. What do we find concerning Reuven and Gad? There's something special we find later on in Chumash, in Parshat Matot, that the heads of the tribes of Reuven and Gad came to Moshe Rabbeinu. And they said to Moshe Rabbeinu, this was after the Jews already had conquered the land of Sichon and Og, which were the areas on this side of the Yarden. Eretz Yisrael proper was on the other side of the Yarden, and the Jews were going to enter Eretz Yisrael by crossing the Yarden, as they did, not with Moshe Rabbeinu because Moshe Rabbeinu did not enter Eretz Yisrael, it was already done through the successor of Moshe Rabbeinu who was Yehoshua, so they crossed the Yarden and that's where ארץ ישראל was. But the lands of Sichon and Og were on this side of the Yarden, and this was officially, originally not part of ארץ ישראל. But the leaders from the tribes of Reuven and Gad came to Moshe Rabbeinu asking that they would like to take their share on this side of the Yarden. And they says why? Because they have a lot of cattle, and this area seems to be an ארץ מקנה, a place which is good for cattle. And they ask to stay on this side of the Yarden. Moshe Rabbeinu's reaction originally to them was that how could you do that? Ha'acheichem yavo'u lamilchamah va'atem teshevu poh? Your brothers are going to cross the Yarden, and they're going to have to fight with the Kena'anim, fight to conquer ארץ ישראל, and you are going to stay here and you're not going to participate? The land that you want to take was conquered by all the Jews, they all fought for it. And now they're going to cross the Yarden, they're going to fight themselves and you'll stay here? Yeah, it's a chutzpah. And that's what he said, Ha'acheichem yavo'u lamilchamah va'atem teshevu poh? And Moshe Rabbeinu even added, you know what you're going to do? You're going to turn away the hearts of the Jews from wanting to enter ארץ ישראל. They're going to claim that you're afraid, and since you're afraid, you're going to bring fear upon them, too. And then Moshe Rabbeinu went even further and said to them, you know what you remind me of? Of the meraglim, of the twelve spies. It's exactly what they did. We sent, this was 38 years earlier, we sent twelve spies to ארץ ישראל, they came back, and they brought a bad report from ארץ ישראל, they got all the Yidden scared, and because of that, the Yidden didn't want to go in ארץ ישראל, and they cried, and Hashem punished them that they had to stay in the desert for another close to 40 years. So, when they heard this, they said, \"No, you know what we'll do? We will build homes for our wives and places for our cattle here on this side of the Yarden. We will cross the Yarden together with all the Jews. We will help them fight the war on the other side of the Yarden. We will help them conquer ארץ ישראל. When all that will be finished, then we will come back and settle in this place.\" When Moshe Rabbeinu heard that, Moshe Rabbeinu agreed, and he said, \"Fine.\" And he told Yehoshua, \"You are the one that's going to take the Jews across the Yarden into ארץ ישראל. So, I want you to make sure that if they cross the Yarden and they help the Jews fight, then you will get this you will give them this part of ארץ ישראל rather than the other part of ארץ ישראל, they will stay here.\" And it says that's exactly what happened. It says they went, they crossed the Yarden with the Jews, and there are two opinions of how it went. It says that Reuven and Gad were the strongest of all the Jews, the members of those tribes were the strongest. So, in one place it says that what they did was they were put at the heads of all the battalions, all the groups of soldiers. The leaders of those groups, the generals, the officers, were all from Gad and Reuven. And they always went ahead of the groups. There's another opinion that they had a group of their own, but they went ahead. The first group were the tribes of Reuven and Gad, and they were so strong that concerning Gad specifically, it says that a member from the tribe of Gad was so strong, every member, that וטרף זרוע אף קדקד. They were able, with one knock of a sword, and it says they would chop down the enemy's head together with his arm with one knock, that's how strong they were. And that's how the Torah describes it. And that's what happened. This is the story that we find in Chumash. Now, when we will look into this story and see the details of how what the meaning of all this is, we will get to understand what the tribe of Reuven and Gad stand for and what it means to us in our way of serving Hashem. Let us first understand the whole story that happened here. First of all, what did they think? When they came to Moshe Rabbeinu and they said, \"We want our share on this side of the Yarden,\" how do they expect that Moshe Rabbeinu would expect accept it knowing that the Jews still have to cross the Yarden to conquer the rest of Eretz Yisrael? Why would they think Moshe Rabbeinu would What kind of right would they have to do it? Like you said, this is a chutspah. Moshe Rabbeinu told it to them, but what did they think? So, the Or HaChaim HaKadosh in his commentary on Chumash explains that if you look in the words of Chumash, what they said were it was said like this: ארץ אשר הכה השם, the land that Hashem has given us. Hashem has beaten our enemies, and that's how we got the land. And therefore, they said, we're asking for this land. So, they gave this introduction that they feel, they know, that the land really was given to them by Hashem, and therefore, if it's given by Hashem, so what difference does it make if we will cross the Yarden or not? Anyway, Hashem will lead the war. So we don't care whether we will go or not. That's why they said that even though we didn't plan to cross the Yarden, we want our share in this land. But Moshe Rabbeinu told them, as much as Hashem helps, as the expression goes, \"Hashem helps those who help themselves,\" you have to go to war, you have to fight in the war, and you have to do everything in the derech hateva, a natural way, and Hashem will help. So therefore you have to go to war, and that's why they said, okay, we are ready to go to war, and when they said that, Moshe Rabbeinu accepted it. But the question is, and this will lead us to understand the more spiritual meaning of behind the shevet of Gad and Reuven, why did Moshe Rabbeinu compare their request to the מרגלים, to the twelve spies? If we look at what they asked for and what the מרגלים asked for, completely different. As we just said, they their whole the basis of their request was based on the fact that they believed that Hashem will take care of it, Hashem could do it, and that Hashem doesn't need any help, so therefore our help makes no difference. If you look at what the מרגלים did was complete opposite. When the מרגלים came back and they they said, \"We cannot enter Eretz Yisrael because we'll never succeed, and even Hashem can't help us, because the enemy is stronger than Hashem.\" That's what they said. And here, these are the people who said just opposite, that you know that we have so much trust in Hashem that we feel that there is no need for us to go there. So how do you compare it to the meraglim? Then there's another thing: they said, \"Please give us the land.\" What would have been if Moshe Rabbeinu would have said no? So they would have said, \"We tried, didn't succeed.\" But the meraglim didn't ask for something; they came with a resolution, they came saying that, \"We don't want to go to ארץ ישראל.\" So how does Moshe Rabbeinu compare them to the meraglim? Then there's another thing here. It says in Tanach that בני גד ובני ראובן, the two the members of these two tribes, were the first one to go to exile. The first tribe to go to exile. We know that the עשרת השבטים, we know that the ten tribes went to exile before the other two. That's why, as we know, nowadays we don't even know where the ten tribes are. We Jews are all from or שבט יהודה or שבט בנימין. And then we have the Kohanim and the Leviim, which are from שבט לוי. But where are the Jews from the other ten tribes? We don't know, because they went to galut earlier and they got lost. Well, some opinions are that they got lost completely, integrated with the goyim, but the accepted opinion is that they're someplace: they are behind the Sambatyon. There is a river that's called Sambatyon, and that's a river that shoots rocks a whole week, and you can't cross it. Friday afternoon that river stops shooting rocks, and that's the only time they're able to cross it. Now, we don't know where the Sambatyon is, and it says that the עשרת השבטים are behind the Sambatyon. There is a story told, and I'm not going to get into the story now, but a story told with the Or Hachaim Hakadosh, the one that I mentioned his commentary before, who was a very, very great tzadik, that he crossed the Sambatyon. And he came there and he met up with the עשרת השבטים, and he came back and gave a report. There are other stories told about the עשרת השבטים. There's even a whole sefer called Sefer Aseret Hashvatim, the sefer concerning the ten tribes, and it tells all kinds of stories and brings all kinds of midrashim about what going on to the with the עשרת השבטים, about certain people who met with the עשרת השבטים. There are even people known in history that came, claimed at least that they came from there. One person was famous, one known as Eldad Hadani. A person, he says his name is Eldad from Shevet Dan, Eldad Hadani, and others like that. But anyway, they are chased away and they're different, we don't have contact with them. The way the stories go that they have their own malchut, their own government, and they're all religious Jews, and they're all tzadikim, but Hashem wanted that they should be separate and we should not meet up with them until Mashiach comes. All the Jews in the world that we know now are all from שבט לוי, if they're Kohanim or Leviim, and שבט יהודה and Binyamin. I did hear once from somebody, which I don't know the source for it, that they say that generally speaking, the Sephardim are from Yehudah and the Ashkenazim are from Binyamin. Now, I don't know if that's true or not, but whatever it is, that's the only ones there are. Now, the עשרת השבטים, as I said, were chased out of Eretz Yisrael the first. Among the עשרת השבטים, who were the first to go? The first to go were Reuven and Gad. They were the closest, right, but they were the first to go. And it says in Midrash that the reason they were the first to go is because this is almost like a punishment for their choosing to live in the place where they did. Now, in Chumash, it doesn't seem like there was anything wrong with what they did. Originally, the way they wanted it, Moshe was not happy with it, but after they agreed to Moshe Rabbeinu's condition, then it seems like everything was fine. So why did they get punished, even if it's not a real punishment, but why was it that it says נחלה מבוהלת בראשונה, this was a inheritance that was taken away first? Why is it, because of what they did they stayed there, what was wrong with them staying there? Now, at first glance, one might say that the problem was not the fact that they didn't cross the Yarden or whatever, the problem was that they claimed that the land that they want to take is better than Eretz Yisrael. They said, \"We'd rather have this land because this land is an ארץ מקנה.\" It became, it was an extension, it was annexed to Eretz Yisrael, but originally this was not part of Eretz Yisrael. And they came, claim and said that, \"You see, we want this land because this has מעלות, this is better than Eretz Yisrael.\" And that's why Moshe Rabbeinu compared them to the מרגלים, because that's exactly what the מרגלים did. The מרגלים spoke Lashon Hara against Eretz Yisrael, and these people did the same. They spoke Lashon Hara against Eretz Yisrael, that's what it seems like. And that's why Moshe Rabbeinu was upset with them. And Moshe Rabbeinu said to them, \"By doing this, you know what you're going to do? The Jews are not going to want to go to Eretz Yisrael. They'll hear that there are other places which are better than Eretz Yisrael, exactly what the מרגלים did. The מרגלים came and said that there are places better, let's not go where it's no good there, so let's not go. That's what you're going to do.\" And Moshe Rabbeinu said to them that, \"If you're going to cross the Yarden and go to war, you're going to show that Eretz Yisrael is good.\" And that's why Moshe Rabbeinu agreed. But still, after all, they chose a place which is not really Eretz Yisrael, and maybe that's why they were punished. But the question goes back: If that's so, then why did Moshe Rabbeinu agree? If Moshe Rabbeinu agreed, obviously it was fine. So what we have to do is find a fine point that Moshe Rabbeinu on one hand agreed, and on the other hand Moshe Rabbeinu, after he agreed, yet still there is something missing there, it's not 100%. And when we get the picture of what that is, we'll understand what is בני גד ובני ראובן, what is the שבט גד and the שבט ראובן.

Let's look at what was their request. The request of Gad and Reuven was, \"We want to stay in this area because this is a place for מקנה, for cattle, and we will be able to raise our cattle here.\" In order to raise cattle, you have to be a shepherd. Basically, what they said, \"We'd rather be shepherds than do all other kinds of work. We have a lot of cattle, and we want to be shepherds.\" Why did they want to, why was it that they wanted to be shepherds? What's so special about being shepherds? So we find in Chassidut and in Kabbalah it explains why the Avot, we know that the Avot, Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov were shepherds. The Shevatim, the original Shevatim, the sons of Yaakov, not the tribes, their descendants, but the sons of Yaakov were all רועי צאן, were all shepherds. Why were they shepherds? So it says the reason they were shepherds was because when you're a shepherd, you're outside in the field. You have nothing to do with the hooha, they call it, of the city. And you're able to concentrate constantly on the greatness of Hashem. Your mind is able to be connected to Hashem always, without any interruptions. When you're in the city, in the big city, and you have all kinds of things going on, there are so many things that interrupt from your Deveikut, it says in Kabbalah, from your connection to Hashem. In order not to be interrupted, not to stay, not to have any problems, so they chose to be shepherds. And when you're a shepherd, you're out in the field all day, they could sit and think and learn, and not be involved in all kinds of physical matters which disturbs a person from his true service of Hashem. Obviously, you have to eat, you have to do things that to exist, but still your most of the time is spent in a place and in a way that you could constantly concentrate on your connection to Hashem. And that's what the Shevatim did, that's what the Avot did, that's why they were shepherds. Bnei Gad u'Bnei Reuven, these were such great Tzadikim. They wanted To do the same. Bnei Gad u'Bnei Reuven represent a way of serving Hashem by separating yourself from the physical world and constantly being connected to the Creator with their mind without any problems, without any disturbances. So they came to Moshe Rabbeinu and they said to Moshe, what we would like is to have this area because here we could be shepherds, here we have מקנה, ארץ מקנה, here we could be shepherds, here we could constantly be Davuk in our mind, be connected to Hashem. That's what they wanted to do. What was Moshe Rabbeinu's response to them right away? He said to them, you know what you are? You're exactly like the Meraglim. What was the problem of the Meraglim? What was the problem of the 12 spies? So when we learn Chumash, in simple Peshat, it seems that they just didn't like Eretz Yisrael, and they were bad people, evil people, and they came to turn the Jews away from Hashem, who told them to go to Eretz Yisrael, not to want to go to Eretz Yisrael. But in Chassidut we learn that this is not what the Meraglim were. Originally the Meraglim were great Tzadikim. If Moshe Rabbeinu chose these people to be the ones to spy the land, obviously he chose the best people for the job. And actually in Chumash it says that these people were Tzadikim. So how is it possible for people who are Tzadikim, all of a sudden to turn against Hashem, and come and speak against Eretz Yisrael, and come and say that Hashem doesn't have the power to take us to Eretz Yisrael, not to believe in the power of Hashem, can't be. So therefore Chassidus says that the meraglim, the problem of the meraglim was a different problem. The problem was, because they were such great tzadikim, they made a mistake, but it was a mistake in a very high level. When they came to Eretz Yisrael and they saw how you would have to live in Eretz Yisrael, in order to survive, in order to live, you have to work. You'll have to plow and plant and work in the field, and then other you have to in order to make the the wheat into food, into bread, you have to work on that, you'll be involved in physical work and that's the only way to live. So they thought to themselves, what do we need this for? In the desert, you know what they did in the desert? In the desert they didn't have to work. In the desert they didn't have to earn a living. In the desert they didn't have to work for things to grow. They had food, מן מן השמים. Hashem gave them the מן from heaven, and by most people, many people, it came down from heaven already finished product. It didn't come down from heaven as wheat, and then they would have to grind it and make it into dough, and then make it into bread. It came a perfect finished product. They had bread, and they could have any taste they want. That's concerning food. Water, they didn't have to go and draw water from the well like you would have to do normally. The water was the בארה של מרים, you had the well of Miriam, that miraculously the water came down. And it says in in Rashi, Midrash, that every leader, prince of every tribe would go over to that rock, the rock which gave the water, and with his stick he would make a path in the ground all the way to his tribe, and the water would flow all the way to his tribe and go by everyone's tent. So when you needed water it was almost like now, you walk over to the kitchen, you open your sink. Not like normal places in those days that you would have to draw water. So they had water without a problem, they had what to eat without a problem. Their clothes, it says, grew with them together. A person grew, a child grew, the clothes would grow. You never had to clean your clothes because the ענני הכבוד, it says that the clouds would actually press and clean your clothes. The question is only what happened if a button tore? I guess then you'd have to sew it in. But otherwise, but in most cases, they had everything that they need. So what did they do? On what did they spend their time? It says clearly they spent their time all day and all night, except the time they had to eat, was learning Torah. Learning Torah, davenen to Hashem, that's all they did the whole time. So the meraglim who were such great tzadikim thought to themselves, why in the world do we have to go to Eretz Yisrael? Why in the world do we have to go to work, spend hours upon hours in the field, do all kinds of things? Let's better be connected to Hashem, let's better sit and learn all day, so let's stay in the desert. So they came back to to the desert from Eretz Yisrael and they said, let's not go to Eretz Yisrael. And even when you look into the words that they used, Chassidus explains the expressions of the meraglim. One of the words they used they said ארץ אוכלת יושביה, it's a land that eats up its inhabitants, that eats up its people. Now the simple peshat is wherever they went they saw funerals. They said people are dying constantly. Hashem did it special so people shouldn't pay attention to them, people should be busy with other things. But that's the simple peshat. But Chassidus says the peshat is, what they said was, it's an ארץ, it's a land that will eat up its people. You will be drawn into the land, meaning to say, drawn into land things, into physical things, materialistic things, rather than heavenly matters. But they didn't realize this. But not, I don't mean the funerals. The way they looked at Eretz Yisrael was that this is a place that will pull people in, into materialistic things, and will disturb them from being close to Hashem. So they didn't want to go. Now, the question is, what was wrong with that? Why do we say that the meraglim did such a terrible aveirah when they came with such a complaint? It makes a lot of sense. Aren't they right? Yes, but there's one mistake. It makes a lot of sense, but that's not what Hashem wanted. Hashem wants us to get involved in physical matters and bring godliness into the physical world. If Hashem would want us to stay away from the physical world and just be isolated and be connected to Hashem in our mind all day and not have anything to do with the world, he wouldn't have created the world. That, for that he has plenty and plenty of malachim. He has plenty of angels who are in heaven, have nothing to do with the world, and are constantly davuk, connected in their mind to Hashem. Why did he create a world? So, as we know the term from Chassidus that's brought down in every sefer, every מאמר, נתאוה הקדוש ברוך הוא להיות לו דירה בתחתונים. Hashem wants a dwelling place in this world. Hashem wants that we should get involved in physical matters and bring godliness into this physical world by doing physical things, not by staying away. And therefore, when the meraglim came back and said this, this was against Hashem's will. It makes a lot of sense, but this is not the רצון העליון, this is not what Hashem wants. This is against what Hashem wants. And that's why this was an aveirah, and even though it started at that point from a very, very high level, but with that small mistake, we call it a small mistake that they made, it turned into a tragedy for generations. Because of the meraglim, we have the tragedy for all generations. It says the night that they cried was Tisha B'Av. And Hashem said, \"Why are you crying? You're crying about You're afraid to go into Eretz Yisrael, you're crying for no reason. Now you're crying for no reason, because of this I'm going to make you cry in the future for a reason.\" Which means the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash is all goes back to the meraglim. It's all because of that mistake. Now the question is, what is the difference between the meraglim and Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov and the shevatim? We said before that Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov and the shevatim, they were shepherds, and why were they shepherds? Because they wanted to stay away from being involved in worldly, physical matters, in order that they should constantly be connected to Hashem. Here we're saying this shows on the great level of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, and on the other hand we say this was a terrible mistake that the meraglim made. The difference is whether it was before the Torah was given or after the Torah was given. Before the Torah was given this was very good. Every person had to think for himself and get connected to Hashem as close as possible. After the Torah was given, Hashem gave us a Torah specially to bring godliness into this world. When we look in Chumash, in the Gemara, and the Gemara tells the story of Moshe Rabbeinu, when Moshe Rabbeinu went up to heaven to receive the Torah, there was a whole discussion Moshe Rabbeinu had with the malachim. When the malachim saw a human being, the malachim turned around to Hashem and said, \"מה לילוד אשה בינינו? What's a human being doing here?\" So Hashem said, \"Well, he came to take the Torah.\" So they said, \"He came to take the Torah? Why give the Torah to them? To the people down there? תנה הודך על השמים, give the Torah to us, to heaven.\" And Moshe Rabbeinu got very scared, he was scared of the מלאכים. So Hashem said, \"Answer them.\" Moshe Rabbeinu was scared, Hashem said, \"Well, hold on to my throne and don't be scared, I'll protect you.\" And Moshe Rabbeinu said to them, \"How do you expect to take the Torah?\" He said, \"You work? It says in Chumash, in the Torah, that you work six days and the seventh day you rest. Do you work? No, you don't work, so what are you going to do with the Torah? You have parents? No. It says, כבד את אביך ואת אמך.\" Then he says to them, \"You have a yetzer hara, an evil inclination? No. So what are you going to do with the Torah?\" And they were very happy with his answer, and they applauded him, and they gave him presents, and everything was fine. But what did Moshe Rabbeinu mean to answer them? He said to them, \"You don't need the Torah because the Torah was given special down here in this world, in a place where we work, not a place where we don't work, a place where we work, a place where we have a yetzer hara, a place where there are is gashmiyut and there are problems, and the whole purpose of the Torah is to overcome the problems and to bring bring kedushah into the world. But you מלאכים don't have it. So before the Torah was given, yes, Hashem wanted that people should be that way, because that was only a preparation to receive the Torah later on. But when the Torah was given, that's it. Now the kavanah, the purpose is that we should bring Godliness into the world and not be isolated from the world. And therefore, the מרגלים did a terrible sin. This is what Moshe Rabbeinu said to the Bnei Gad u'Bnei Reuven: This is exactly what you want. You want the same thing as the מרגלים wanted. You want to stay here and be in a place of מקנה, and you want to be shepherds in order to stay away, be isolated from working in the גשמיותדיקע world, you are like the מרגלים. And that's why he was very upset with them.

The question is, so why did Moshe eventually agree? But after they discussed, Moshe Rabbeinu agreed. And the answer is, and this is where what Bnei Gad u'Bnei Reuven stands for comes in. What the מרגלים wanted is that all the Jews should be that way. That the Jewish nation should be a nation that's isolated from the world, and should only be involved in spiritual matters, and not have anything to do with gashmiyut. What Bnei Gad u'Bnei Reuven wanted is that they should be the ones, but not everybody. If all the people would be completely involved in in physical matters, then you will lose the accomplishment. The whole idea is to be involved in physical matters, but to bring ruchniyut, to bring spirituality into the gashmiyut. But if everybody's going to be involved in the gashmiyut, and there will be nobody that is beyond the gashmiyut, then you will be pulled into the gashmiyut, not having the ruchniyut to have an effect on the gashmiyut. So what you have to have is like this: you have to have, it says in the Zohar, two types of people. This is the Zohar. The Zohar says that by Jews you have two types of people. You have what you call מארי תורה, מארי עובדין טבין. You have people who are mostly involved in Torah. That's their occupation, and they don't get involved in working and doing other things of gashmiyut. Then you have people who are involved in gashmiyut, that's their main occupation, and therefore they're able to do mitzvot, they're able to give tzedakah, but they're involved in work. The majority of the people are the ones that are involved in working. But the Zohar says you have to have a minority of people who are מארי תורה, who are people who study Torah, and when you have the combination of the two, then you're able to accomplish what you're supposed to. The Gemara says an interesting thing. The Gemara says there's an argument between Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi... Rabbi Yishmael and Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai. Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai says, how could people work? What's going to happen to Torah? People are going to work, who's going to learn Torah? And Rabbi Yishmael says, no, you have to work. הנהג בהם מנהג דרך ארץ, you have to work. And the Gemara says like this: הרבה עשו כרבי שמעון בן יוחאי ולא עלתה בידם. Many tried to be like Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai, it didn't work. They tried to sit and learn and not getting involved in work, it didn't work, it didn't go. הרבה עשו כרבי ישמעאל ועלתה בידם. Many people did like Rabbi Yishmael, it worked. Which means, many, most of the people have to be like Rabbi Yishmael says, have to be people involved in gashmiyut. Some people have to have, you have to have people who are completely involved in ruchniyut. This is something that everyone understands. Even Pharaoh, imagine, Pharaoh, the king of Mitzrayim who caused all the tzarot to the Yidden, all the troubles, understood it. It says in Midrash, we know that שבט לוי, the שבט of לוי did not work in Mitzrayim. All the Yidden worked hard labor. שבט לוי did not work. How did שבט לוי not work? So it says in Midrash that Moshe Rabbeinu told Pharaoh: If you want to succeed in keeping this nation as a nation, you want slaves, right? Now, what's going to happen after a while? They'll integrate with the Mitzrayim, the Egyptians, and they'll be lost as a nation, and you won't have any slaves anymore. You want to keep them as a nation? The only way you'll keep them as a nation is if you're going to have a certain group who's not going to work and be involved in studying their philosophy and be their teachers, then you could be sure that you'll continue the nation as a nation, and you will have what you want. Now, Moshe Rabbeinu had other things in mind. His reason was because he wanted the Jews to have teachers and to continue learning. But what he told Paro was that this is the only way you're going to have your slaves. But even Paro understood that if you want the nation to succeed, you have to have teachers. So too in ruchniyus, the way we understand from the Zohar, you have to have the people who are involved in the gashmiyus, and that's the whole goal of מתן תורה and that's what you have to do. But at the same time, you have to have those people who are involved purely in ruchniyus. And this is what Bnei Gad and Bnei Reuven stands for. Bnei Gad, Bnei Reuven, that שבט, those two שבטים stand for those people who wanted the land for the cattle to be the shepherds. Being the shepherds means these are people who are completely removed from the gashmiyus and they are the spiritual ones. By having some people like that, not the majority, only two שבטים versus the others, if you have two שבטים like that, together they are the ones that are the minority, with the majority of people working, together you are able to have a nation accomplishing exactly what Hashem wants. So on one hand, there is nothing wrong with what Bnei Gad and Bnei Reuven wanted. On the other hand, out of the two, who really, really accomplishes what Hashem wants? Is it the ones who are working, or are the ones who are isolated and are involved constantly in spirituality? Now again, you must have both in order to succeed and do what Hashem wants. But out of the two, who really, really does the ratzon of Hashem to bring godliness into this world are the people who are involved in the gashmiyus. That's why it says that who went to galus first? The Bnei Gad and Bnei Reuven, because what they represent, as great as it is, is not 100% as great as the others. This is similar to what we always know about Yissachar and Zevulun. As I mentioned before, Yissachar and Zevulun represent Yissachar represents the person who studies Torah, Zevulun represents the one that supports him and works and gets involved in gashmiyus. So Rashi in Chumash says, the pasuk says, ״שמח זבולון בצאתך ויששכר באהליך״. Let Zevulun be happy by going out, and Yissachar by sitting in the tent. And Rashi says that's what happened: Yissachar went out, and Zevulun sat. The interesting thing is that Yissachar is Zevulun is mentioned first. Zevulun is mentioned first. Why is Zevulun mentioned? It should say, ״שמח יששכר באהליך וזבולון בצאתך״. It says, ״שמח זבולון בצאתך״, first Zevulun, then Yissachar. Because even though you have to have both, you can't, Yiddishkeit cannot survive without both. But who is the one that actually does the bottom line? That is the Zevulun, and in this case, who is the one that does the bottom line is not what the Bnei Gad and Bnei Reuven did, but what the other Jews did, getting involved in gashmiyus. The Bnei Gad and Bnei Reuven are also needed, and that's why Moshe Rabbeinu gave in, because you have to have that group in order to give the chayus, the life, and the spirituality to the other group, the majority who does it. This is one explanation that Chassidus says concerning what Bnei Gad and Bnei Reuven stands for.

But then there is another point in what Bnei Gad and Bnei Reuven stands for, and that's a much stronger point, and this is very simple. Since Bnei Gad and Bnei Reuven were the ones that went ahead, when they went to fight the war, they were in the front. They were the first ones. And as we said before, there are two opinions whether they were the first of every group or they were the first group of all the Jews, but they were the first. Being the first is the greatest danger. Being in the front is the greatest danger. And they were ready to go, and they said, we're going to do it. So obviously, Bnei Gad and Bnei Reuven represents mesirat nefesh. Mesirat nefesh means self-sacrifice. So it says in Chassidus that we want to understand what do the shevatim of Bnei Gad and Bnei Reuven represent, and what is that we are supposed to take from what Bnei Gad and Bnei Reuven represents? It represents mesirat nefesh. And mesirat nefesh does not necessarily mean physically giving up your life. Mesirat nefesh means giving up yourself, that when you serve Hashem, you give up of yourself. And I'll explain it in more detail. The word nefesh in Hebrew has another meaning. Nefesh means the soul, the life, but there's another translation to the word nefesh. The word nefesh means ratzon. Ratzon means will. Mesirat nefesh means giving up your will, that we are mevatel, we nullify our own will for Hashem. And it says in פרקי אבות, ״בטל רצונך מפני רצונו״, you should nullify your will for the will of Hashem. So that's what mesirat nefesh is. There are two ways. There are sometimes a person serves Hashem because he understands it, and it makes sense to him. It's not because he gives himself up. In that case, when you serve Hashem because you understand it and it makes sense to you, in truth Or, it's hard to say this, but in truth, you're serving yourself. If it makes sense to you that this is what you should do, you are doing it because you like it, you think it's right. So you're doing it for yourself. You're not doing it for Hashem. Doing it for Hashem means it's not because I want it. I'm giving up my will. I'm doing it for Hashem because Hashem wants it, not because I want it. I'm just doing it because I have to do it, not because of my, Chassidut says the lashon of טעם ודעת, my understanding, or even my feeling. Some people have a feeling, and it's very important, it's very good, but on the other hand, when you do it because I feel good about it, then you know what it really means? That I'm doing it for myself. You know, in truth, when you do something for somebody that you love and you feel very good because that you do it to the person, in essence, you're not doing it for that person, you're doing it for yourself. It gives me great satisfaction to do this favor to that person. So essentially, why am I doing it? Because I feel good about it. It gives me great satisfaction. So it's again it's doing it for myself. Mesirut nefesh means to do it just because Hashem wants, not because I understand it. And Chassidut says this is the meaning of what it says by the, by Gad, which is one of the two, וטרף זרוע אף קדקד, they would chop off the head with, zeroa the hand with the head together. That means when a person serves Hashem because he understands it, then not everything is the same. Certain things that he has a greater understanding he'll do it better, certain things he doesn't have such a great understanding he won't do it with so strong and so much. But if you do it with mesirut nefesh, then it's all the same. Because you're not doing it because I care, if I do because I understand, then whatever I understand more I'll do more. But if I do because this is the right thing, so whatever is the right thing to do, any mitzvah is the same. That's why it says a person should not weigh the mitzvot. Says, says in Pirkei Avot, do not weigh the מצוות, קלה שבקלות כחמורה שבחמורות, the least, the most lenient one should be as important as the most strict one. Now how is that possible? Why should it be like that? Well, depends why. If we're going to do it because of a sechel, well, this is more important, I'll do this more, this is less important, I'll be more I'll be more careful. But if I do it because this is what Hashem wants, then they're all the same. The one that's קלה, השם wants that too, He wants it. He wants this too, so they're both the same. So everything is the same. That's why it says the head and the hand will go together. Because it's all the same. And not only that, it mentions first the hand, and then the head, because the hand represents action. And that's the first thing. When you have the mesirut nefesh, it represents, what will it bring a person to do? It'll bring a person to have the proper action. Not so much understanding, that's not the most important thing. The most important thing is to do. Like it says in Pirkei Avot, לא התלמוד עיקר אלא המעשה. The learning is not the most important, but the doing. So when a person has this mesirut nefesh, that person will do it. And that's why the first thing is the zeroa. And we see something else. It's interesting, we're saying here now that the Bnei Gad u'Bnei Reuven were the level of mesirut nefesh. They represent mesirut nefesh, giving yourself over to Hashem. Having the true faith in Hashem 100%. One of the things that brought the Jews to have the true faith in Hashem in the desert was eating the mon. When they saw the mon come, that showed them the hand of Hashem. Who did hear of such a thing as mon coming down from heaven, food? There's no such thing. This brought them to have the true faith in Hashem. The more the people ate the mon, the more faith they had in Hashem. It says, why was it that Bnei Gad u'Bnei Reuven had more cattle than others? What made it? When they left Mitzrayim, they all came out with the same amount. Everyone grabbed as much as they could. Why was it that Shevet Gad and Shevet Reuven had the most animals? It says simple. During the time of the desert, they ate the mon. There were many people who besides eating the mon wanted a steak, wanted a, some meat, so they would shachat their animals. And they didn't really pay attention so much to the mon. The people from Reuven and Gad, they only ate the מן. They never שחט their animals. And if they never שחט their animals, so they had more and more and more, that's why they had the most. And that's why Gad and Reuven represent the true emunah and the true bitachon, the true faith in Hashem, because they ate the מן. And we see a remez, the word Gad is hint, written in the, by The מן, it says in Chumash that the מן was כזרע גד. Gad is a name of a certain, certain seed. So Gad is the same word as the seed, that כזרע גד of the מן. And it says why? Because the people from שבט גד were the people who ate the מן, and so too with שבט ראובן. So since they stuck to the מן the most, that's why the faith that they had was the most, and that's why they were the ones that went on mesirat nefesh. So the bottom line, let's get the end with a סך הכל, with the sum total. We know that all the shevatim represent different concepts in Yiddishkeit, different ways of serving Hashem. And it says that we have to learn from them all. Not everybody's able to learn from every one of the shevatim because there's so much there. From Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov it says we have to learn. They are called avot, and since they're our fathers, we have to have the attributes of all of them. But the attributes of the shevatim, we can have some, some yes, some not. Depends which שבט you're from, and bichlal not from everybody. But at least we have to know what each one of the shevatim represents. So what we know so far is Yissachar and Zevulun, and now we know also what Gad and Reuven represent. The two shevatim represent two things. Number one, they represent those people at that level of being isolated, being away from the gashmiyut, being involved in ruchniyut in order to help the people who are in the gashmiyut to bring ruchniyut into the gashmiyut. And they also represent the concept of mesirat nefesh. And one of the mitzvot, one of the mitzvot that brings us to our daily life the avodah of what Gad and Reuven did, it says, is the mitzvah of tefillin. Mitzvah of tefillin, and that's why by Gad it says טרף זרוע אף קדקד, that when he would chop down, he would chop down the hand and the head. What do we do with the hand and the head? The tefillin, we put on the hand and we put on the head. So Gad and Reuven, what they represent is we we do it when we put on tefillin. That's when we bring that feeling of mesirat nefesh into ourselves. And by the way, the Rosh says that soldiers in the army, that soldiers in the army in order to overcome the enemy, if you put on tefillin, Hashem will give you the koach to do what Gad did, וטרף זרוע אף קדקד, to beat the enemy, the head with the hand together. But it's all in the mitzvah of tefillin. And the Six-Day War or later on, when the Rebbe came out with the Mivtzah Tefillin, the Rebbe said then many times that the Gemara says on the פסוק וראו כל עמי הארץ כי שם השם נקרא עליך ויראו ממך, that the goyim will see Hashem's name upon you and they will be afraid. The Gemara says that's tefillin. So if you want the enemies to get scared of you, put on tefillin. Then the Gemara also says, כל המניח תפילין מאריך ימים, anybody puts on tefillin will live long. So if you go to war and you need a special berachah for arichut yamim to live long, put on tefillin. But then later the Rebbe said, it's a mitzvah, that's what he wrote, it's a mitzvah to publicize this Rosh, that the Rosh writes that by putting on tefillin this will give you the koach, the soldiers the koach of וטרף זרוע אף קדקד to win. But that's when you fight a physical war. When we fight a spiritual war, that's the war that we fight with our yetzer hara and we serve Hashem, putting on tefillin puts into us this that Bnei Gad u'Vnei Reuven represent. And that is the true mesirat nefesh, the true faith in Hashem, and also in a way that we are connected to spirituality, and we bring this spirituality to those people who are involved in the gashmiyut. And together, we accomplish the mission that was given to us by Hashem to make this world into a dwelling place for Hashem. Both, whenever you have to. Yeah, even during. Well, yeah. Yeah. They would go with the tefillin, yeah, yeah. Doesn't say they didn't. Yeah, yeah, together with their armor, you know. Yes. Two types, namely for the completely separated and totally spiritual and and holy Torah study, and that other type which obviously is working and everything, is that how somebody should think of their own life or own self, like two parts of you That's true. Yeah, I'll tell you. You're You're You're right. Right. Two parts of you meaning we have it like this: one day a week, you're like Bnei Gad u'Vnei Reuven, that's Shabbos. Six days a week, you're like the other tribes. Every day, when you wake up in the morning, you say your prayers, you say the berachot, your prayers, at that time you're Bnei Gad u'Vnei Reuven. Later on throughout the day, that's when you're like the other tribes, certainly. Yeah. Yeah. Very good.