Missing The Point

The Mishna in Bikkurim (1:10) brings a machlokes if bikkurim can be brought from עבר הירדן.  According to Rebbe Yose they can't be brought from עבר הירדן.  It is a debate in the Yerushalmi if his reason is that its not considered ארץ זבת חלב ודבש or because it says אשר נתתה לי but they took the portion by asking for it.  True this derasha of אשר נתתה לי is only written by bikkurim, but it begs the question of why would they be obligated in all of the mitzvot that apply to crops but exempt from bikkurim?

Explains Rav Unertman:

The episode of the tribes asking for the land is met by Moshe with anger.  He compares them to the meraglim trying to dismay everyone else from entering the land.  Why was Moshe so harsh, they just made a sensible request because they had a lot of livestock, they wanted to remain in grassy lands?  Rav Dovid Solevetchik explains that being sensible was the mistake.  We weren't given Eretz Yisreol because of its greater physical nature and makeup; because it has superior fruits.  We were given the land that has the ability to give spiritual growth to its inhabitants.  By taking into consideration their mundane needs, the tribes of Reuban and Gad showed they missed the boat.  In that vein they were similar to the meraglim who were also afraid of a fight because they thought the conquest of Eretz Yisroel was עפ"י טבע, when in deed it was not. 

Eretz Yisroel isn't ours as just a land to call our own, it is the land that enhances, improves and intensifies our connection to Hashem.