Gad and Reuben's Request to Receive Lands East of the Jordan

The tribes had put sheep first, then children. But can it then be that that they actually loved their sheep more than their children?

Sometimes the question is raised whether the Torah scholar is “escaping” from the real world.

Why the dramatic shift in Moses' view on the Jewish settlement of the eastern territories? If the Reubenites' and Gadites' petition initially struck him as reminiscent of the sin of the Spies, what convinced him to endorse their plan and even expand on it...

Had they learned nothing from the sin of the spies who, by de-motivating others through their behavior, condemned an entire generation to forty years of wandering in the desert?

Just before entering the Promised Land, two and a half of the Twelve Tribes ask for special permission to settle on the other side of the Jordan River. If they were meant to settle in that place, then why didn't G-d assign it to them to begin with? And if...

It was the tribes of Reuven and Gad that requested to settle in the land east of the Jordan; but half the tribe of Menasheh also receives their portion on the other side of the Jordan. Why?

Likkutei Sichos, Vol. VIII, p. 186ff. I. This week’s Torah reading relates that the tribes of Reuven and Gad had many herds. Therefore they spoke to Moshe, saying:Bamidbar 32:4. “The land which G‑d has smitten before the congregation of Israel is a land f...

The descendants of Reuben and Gad had an abundance of livestock, very numerous . . . and they spoke to Moses and to Eleazar the kohen and to the princes of the community, saying . . . “The land that the L‑rd struck down before the congregation of Israel i...

Gad's battle victims were readily identifiable. With one fell swoop of the sword they would cut off the head together with the arm. The ability to strike such a blow is an indication of tremendous lion-like strength.