The Moguls

The paternal heads of the family of the sons of Gilead the son of Machir the son of Manasseh of the families of the sons of Joseph approached and spoke before Moses and before the chieftains, the paternal heads of the children of Israel. [Numbers 36:1]

His name was Yair Ben Menashe, and for a while he was regarded as one of the most powerful men in Israel. The real story, however, was that Yair was a fake. He had literally adopted another identity to become the real estate mogul of ancient Israel.

In this week’s double Torah portion, Matot-Masei, Yair leads the way for the tribe of Menashe to settle on the eastern bank of the Jordan River. This is not the land that G-d promised and will apportion to the Children of Israel. Unlike the Land of Canaan, the area east of the Jordan is desert, inhabited by nomadic and barbaric tribes. But there’s plenty of land to be had, far more than Yair and his family would have received in Canaan. The Torah had set firm boundaries on the Land of Israel. In the eastern desert, it was grab all you can.

Yair and his followers joined the tribes of Gad and Reuven in obtaining permission from Moses to stay out of the Promised Land and instead settle in the desert. The official reason was that the tribes had captured huge flocks from the warring Midianites and now they needed space. Actually, the initiator was Gad: Reuven and later Yair joined for the ride.

What was Yair doing in Menashe? Actually, the sages say, this was not his tribe. His father came from Judah, the grandson of Jacob’s son. Menashe was the tribe of Yair’s mother, and the young man saw an opportunity. Judah, promised the monarchy of Israel, would never have turned down G-d’s command to live in Canaan. But Menashe was a much smaller and far less important. They could be swayed by Yair to cash in their chips early in the vast desert of Gilead. Think of the possibilities — cheap housing, cattle, industry, casinos, and all this far away from the people of the Torah.

They said, “If it pleases you, let this land be given to your servants as a heritage; do not take us across the Jordan.” Thereupon, Moses said to the descendants of Gad and the descendants of Reuben, “Shall your brethren go to war while you stay here? [Numbers 32:5-6]

The episode has greed written all over it. The sages say Gad came away from Midian with the most booty. They might have fought like lions, but they swept Midian like jackals. And then Gad made the decision to live by themselves in the desert. But they could never have persuaded Moses without the help of a more prominent tribe. Enter Reuven: the first born of Jacob and looking for an opportunity throughout the 40-year trek toward Canaan. Reuven’s Dotan and Aviram had been the biggest critics of Moses until they became advisers to Korah. The two perished along with the rest of Korah’s camp of 250.

When Moses finally agreed to allow Gad and Reuven to remain on the East Bank of the Jordan River, Yair joined. The sages say he was one of two families with Menashe who decided to live in the desert — in all about 10 percent of the tribe. Yair piggybacked on the efforts of his grandfather Machir, whose children expelled the remaining Amorites. While the elderly Machir sat in his heavily-fortified compound, Yair grabbed as much land as he could in the Gilead region. His son Novah did the same. In all, father and son seized 23 cities. They could have stayed with their father’s tribe Judah and become part of the future Davidic dynasty. Instead, they chose money.

Perhaps more members of Menashe would have joined Yair but there were five young women who stopped the migration east. The daughters of Zelophehad insisted on receiving a portion of the Land of Israel. Addressing the Israeli leadership, they argued that in the absence of brothers they had as much right to their father’s inheritance as anybody. Their passion and courage delighted G-d and Moses and put pay to any expansion of the real estate campaign in the east.

Still, the heads of Menashe were alarmed. They recruited the deserters of the tribe, particularly the son of Machir, perhaps even Yair himself, to petition the Israeli leadership to stop the daughters of Zelophehad. They maintained that the women might marry those outside the tribe and eventually lose their considerable land holdings to their husbands.