When the leaders of the tribes of Reuven and Gad approach Moshe and ask his blessing to settle in the lands east of the Jordan River, Moshe is aghast. He saw a great spiritual failing on the part of Reuven and Gad whose relationship and commitment to the land of Israel was apparently so conditional. What was it that Moshe detected in Reuven and Gad’s request that so troubled him, and what changed for Moshe so that in the end he agreed to their settling east of the Jordan.
