Chazal describe the dialogue between Moshe and the tribes of Bnei Gad and Reuven in the following manner. First they asked for sheep enclosures. Afterward, they requested cities for their children. Moshe corrected them by saying, “Do not turn the unimportant into the essential and the essential into the secondary. First you must provide for your children, and then for your possessions.” Chazal explain that their obsession with their material needs caused these tribes to be the first to be exiled.
How true this has been throughout history. As soon as there is a modest improvement in our material sustenance, we tend to neglect our most sacred treasure, the Torah. We have shamelessly relegated the Torah to an inferior status as soon as opportunity for material advancement emerges. We should realize that all advancement becomes worthless if our awareness of Torah values becomes sullied. If Torah precepts do not dominate our life, then what value does it have?
Our noblest fulfillment should be the success of having reared children “b’derech ha’Torah,” in the Torah way. Our greatest symbol of Divine trust is the ability to dedicate ourselves and our family to Torah first and foremost. The desire to care for the “sheep” or our material security, while relegating Torah education to a distant second place catalyzes in the downfall of Jewish family values and Torah nachas. Indeed, financial worries are justified, but we are not permitted to sacrifice our most precious Torah treasures in order to pursue material pleasures. The Tanna in Avos 3:21 states, “If there is no flour (referring to material security), there is no Torah.” This is indeed true, but we are not free to sacrifice Torah in the pursuit of “flour.”
