In this week’s Torah portion, Moshe (Moses) apportions the Land
of Israel as an inheritance to the tribes, to the men and not to the women. “The
daughters of Tzelophchad came forward…Machla, Noa, Chogla, Milcha and Tirtza.
They stood before Moshe and before Eleazar the Kohen (priest) and before the
chieftains and the entire congregation, saying, ‘Our father died in the desert…and
he had no sons. Why should our father’s name be eliminated from his family
because he had no son? Give us a portion along with our father’s brothers.’”
(Bamidbar/Numbers 27:1-4)
The Midrash in Sifrei explains the thought process
behind the daughters’ challenge. They contend that human compassion favors
males, and that this vastly differs from G-d’s gender-blind compassion. “His
mercy extends to all, to the males and to the females, as it is said [in Tehillim/Psalms
145:9] ‘The L-rd is good to all, and His mercy is on all His works.’”
Comments Sarah Schneider in B’Or haTorah Journal: “[The
daughters] identified the underlying spiritual principle being violated…Because
they were focused on truth and the higher good, they had the strength to
persist.” Talmud (Baba Basra 119b)
characterizes the daughters: “They were chachamot (wise women) because
they spoke at the proper time.”
Talmud explains that the daughters approach Moshe while he is
expounding on the laws of Levirate marriage (See Devarim/Deuteronomy 25:5-10).
These laws instruct a childless widow to marry her deceased husband’s brother
in order to continue the husband’s name. Talmud relates that the daughters ask
hypothetically if their widowed mother could enter into a Levirate marriage in
order to conceive a male inheritor. Moshe answers that it is impossible
since their mother has already borne children. The daughters point out the
contradiction and persuade Moshe to pray to G-d to change the laws of
inheritance so they will apply to daughters when there is no son. G-d favorably
answers Moshe’s petition and the laws are amended.
Talmud teaches that the laws of inheritance ought to have been
taught in the name of Moshe, but were taught instead by the daughters of Tzelophchad
because of their special merit. Rebbetzin Chana Bracha Siegelbaum explains in Women
at the Crossroads: at a time when all the men but Calev and Yehoshua (Joshua)
lose hope of possessing the Land, these women have tremendous faith, and they
arise to demand a portion in the Land, their rightful inheritance as descendants
of Avraham (Abraham). Like their forefather Yosef (Joseph), who loves the Holy Land so
much that he requests that his bones be brought there for burial, Tzelophchad’s
daughters also intensely and faithfully love the Land.
Writes Mrs. Schneider: “There is no holier mission than to
reveal a Torah law that will influence the behavior of Jews until the end of
time…to be the source of one of the 613 mitzvot (commandments) is the
highest possible honor.”
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