Moshe Rabbeinu’s reaction to Bnei Gad and Bnei Reuven seems atypical. What did they do that was sufficiently terrible to invoke such anger on his part? How were they jeopardizing the rest of the people with their request? Horav Eliyohu Meir Bloch,zl, offers a thoughtful explanation, addressing why Moshe Rabbeinu reacted in the way that he did. When a group of people breaks away from the community and seek to be different – even if what they are requesting is justified – it creates a rift in the general populace. The situation is no longer the same. The communal zeal that had existed before slackens. Although their intentions were noble, their reasons justifiable, they unintentionally engendered a feeling of disunity in Klal Yisrael, which, unfortunately, could not be erased.
