Matos/Masei

As the Jewish people approach the land that they were promised, the tribes of Gad & Reuven come to Moshe with a request to settle on the east bank of the Jordan river because there was more grazing pasture for their livestock. Moshe insists that they first join their brothers in battle; only after conquering the land will they be permitted to return to Transjordan.  

‎However the wording of the posuk needs explanation. 'ונכבשה ‏ הארץ לפני ה, and the land should be conquered before Hashem,  ואחר תשבו והייתם נקים מה' ומישראל, and then you shall return. Then you shall be vindicated from Hashem & from Israel. 'ואם לא תעשון כן הנה חטאתם לה, but if you will not do so, behold! - you will have sinned to Hashem.

There are a few questions on this posuk. First why is it necessary to say, “and then you shall return" of course, after they conquer they can go back; that was the whole point of their request.  Also, asks the Ohr HaChaim, why does it say ‎'ואם לא תעשון כן הנה חטאתם לה , but if you will not do so, behold! - you will have sinned to Hashem. ‎It should have said, "if you will not do so, then you will not get the land".  Why does it mention sin?

The ליקוטי כרם שלמה answers with a parable from Chovos Halivovos. There was a righteous man who saw men coming back from battle. He said to them, “now you are coming back from a small battle; prepare yourselves for war.” They asked him what war is approaching? He answered, “the war with the evil inclination.” 

This, he says, is what Moshe was telling the tribes of Gad & Reuven: conquer the land before Hashem and then return and be vindicated from Hashem & the people. What he means to say is that once you conquer the land, come back but don't get rid of your armor. Stay prepared to battle the evil inclination to the point where you will be vindicated from both Hashem & man without any trace of sin. That's why the posuk concludes, “if you don't do that, then you will have sinned to Hashem”, meaning that if you are not constantly prepared for battle against the evil inclination, you will come to sin. 

‎  

‎We see that it's also not enough not to sin in Hashem’s eyes, but also not to sin in man's eyes.  People tend to think that as long as Hashem knows that I'm doing the right thing it's OK. However, the Torah stresses, "then you shall be vindicated from Hashem & from Israel". What you’re doing has to look right in the eyes of people too. 

There's a story told about R' Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld‎, the Rav of Yerushalaim. There was a woman in Hungary who unfortunately was not blessed with children. She came to the Rav of her town with a large sum of money & asked him to send the money to a great sage that he should pray for her. The Rav suggested R' Yosef Chaim as the sage. She agreed & the rav sent R' Yosef Chaim the money with a letter to pray for this woman to have children. 

A few weeks later this woman's husband came to the Rav extremely upset saying, “how could you take all that money from my wife without my consent?” the Rav said he was under the impression that he had consented but the husband insisted that the money be returned to him. The Rav didn't have the money & wasn't going to ask for it back so he offered to pay the man back in installments.  

As they were standing there, the postman knocked on the door with a special delivery from Jerusalem. The Rav looked at the return address and was stunned to see the words Sonnenfeld - Jerusalem. He opened the letter and found the entire sum of money with the following note. 

“I received your letter with the money, you wrote that a woman gave it to you. I am hesitant to accept it because I don't know that her husband agreed to it. I have sent back the money. Please give it back to the woman. I nevertheless fulfilled her request & hope that Hashem answers my prayer.” 

If we live our lives in this manner with the utmost integrity, then we, too, could merit to not only be clear in the eyes of Hashem but even in the eyes of man!