The Torah existed before the world was created, so how did Zelophehad’s daughters say something new?
Table for Five: Pinchas
In partnership with the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles
Edited by Nina Litvak & Salvador Litvak, the Accidental Talmudist
Zelophehad’s daughters speak justly. You shall certainly give them a portion of inheritance along with their father’s brothers, and you shall transfer their father’s inheritance to them. – Numbers 27:7
Ben Elterman
Essayist, Speechwriter at MitzvahSpeeches.com
Parsha’s Pinchas contains the first account of a woman asking to speak to the manager. Not just one woman, but five. But why did the daughters speak before the entire community about this? According to the Midrash, the daughters first brought the issue to Moses who responded, “I have set up a hierarchy of suitable courts of law, go to them to have your petition considered.” Then they approached El’azar the Kohen Gadol who also kicked the case down to a lower court. The daughters kept presenting their case to the various courts and were either told to go to a lower court or were told the opposite. Unable to get a proper hearing, the daughters waited until the next general assembly. In front of this congress the daughters brought up the question and Moses was stumped. It should have been a straightforward question for him, but Hashem concealed Moses’s wisdom and he would have to go up to Him for the answer. Only when they put Moses on the spot is he forced to give it the consideration it deserves, at which point, he falls short. I believe the Torah is illustrating an important point concerning bias. This point isn’t to condemn Moses as a prejudiced and unfair leader. Instead, I think it is to make us all aware that even at the most learned and most enlightened echelon of society, bias is unavoidable.
Liane Pritikin
Writer, Public Speaker
Feminism is often blamed for the “Shidduch Crisis.” For those not yet initiated, the shidduch crisis is the perception that there are more marriageable Orthodox women than men, leading to a very depressing cosmic game of musical chairs. Some argue feminism made women less feminine and raised the bar in their expectations of men.
But the idea that women knew their worth wasn’t invented in the 1970s.
Zelophehad’s daughters—Machlah, Noa, Choglah, Milkah, and Tirzah—make that case in Parshas Pinchas. After a detailed census of the men of Israel, they approach Moshe with a simple question: Should their father’s name disappear simply because he had no sons? Their argument was RBG-worthy. If daughters did not count as offspring, their widowed mother would have required yibum to produce an heir. The fact that she didn’t require yibum meant they already counted as descendants.
Moshe brings the case before God, and the ruling is clear: “The daughters of Zelophehad speak properly.” The Sifre (via Artscroll) comments that “a human being might have more compassion for males, but God is different. His compassion is for both male and female. His compassion is for all.”
Which puts a new spin on the shidduch crisis. Human matchmakers and well-meaning individuals often say, “I know so many wonderful women and not enough wonderful men.” But Zelophehad’s daughters remind us that even when a system seems to have no place for women, God does. Which is a huge relief in a cosmic game of musical chairs.
Gila Ross
Author, Unbroken & Living Beautifully
Imagine this.
You’re the leader and as you are trying to teach a concept, you are challenged by someone who doesn’t seem to have the authority to challenge you!
Most of us could be forgiven for not taking the challenge seriously, for defending ourselves. But not Moshe. Tzelaphchad’s daughters, five young women, with no title and no official standing, challenge him on the inheritance law. He doesn’t defend himself, he brings their case straight to G-d.
How does the greatest leader who ever lived, the person tasked with giving us the Torah let himself be corrected by five people with hardly any power to demand it?
Moshe was the most humble of all men. Perhaps it was his humility that enabled him to be a truth seeker. Humility is knowing who you are — and that who you are is both a privilege and a responsibility. Moshe wasn’t afraid of being wrong, he knew his job wasn’t to be right all the time. His job was to find and transmit the truth, no matter where the truth came from.
We may fear that being challenged undermines our credibility – interestingly, it *builds* credibility. The Dr who says let me refer you, the teacher who says let me find out – are the ones that earn our trust.
The humility to seek the truth even at the cost of being wrong makes you more credible not less.
David Sacks
Happy Minyan of Los Angeles
Did Tzelophehad’s daughters really say something new?
And what does that have to do with the big final letter Nun in their section of the Torah?So… what Tzelophehad’s daughters revealed was *absolutely new.*
On the other hand, *it wasn’t new at all!*
How?
Because the Torah existed before the world was created.
So the mitzvah that daughters could inherit land in Israel was already there.
And that’s exactly what the large final nun is telling us.
Remember, a final nun is one long straight line from above to below.
It’s like a pipeline—going from before creation until the present. Tzelophehad’s daughters loved Israel so much that a piece of Torah that existed before creation came flowing down through them into this world. So it really was new and old at the same time!
Nun is also the number fifty and there are fifty gates of Divine Understanding or *Binah*.
The Kabbalists associate Binah with feminine intuition.
The big final nun (50) tells us that Tzelophehad’s daughters were tapping into *Binah* in the most awesome way.
Rabbi Moshe Wolfson says that Tzelophehad’s daughters knew in their hearts what the Torah would say. But here’s the important part:
They didn’t say, “We already know we’re right. Why bother asking?”
They went to Moshe. Moshe went to G-d. And G-d said: “Tzelophehad’s daughters speak justly.”
Sometimes your heart knows something true before you can explain it. But first check.
And sometimes, incredibly, heaven says:
You were right all along.
Yehudit Y. Wolffe
BaisChanaCA.com & KosherSofer.com
We are introduced to the five daughters who claimed their father’s inheritance in the Land of Israel. According to Chassidus, their initiative remains a timeless lesson for us to appreciate the unique spiritual strength and intrinsic love Jewish women possess for Torah and mitzvos. As the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, explains, while the men in the desert faltered with doubt, the women built their future with faith. Their love for the land was practical. The Rebbe teaches that Jewish women possess a superior spiritual intuition, ensuring Jewish continuity by anchoring holiness directly into the physical home. By proactively upholding mitzvos like placing only kosher mezuzahs on each door, eating only kosher food, and meticulously following family purity laws, women actively draw the holiness of the Land of Israel straight into our personal dwellings.
The daughters did not wait passively; their sophisticated, laser-focused love for their heritage reshaped Jewish law. These women teach us that true passion for G‑d’s commandments demands proactive leadership, even approaching the leader of their generation to assist them. Acknowledging their inner drive, they looked at the mundane world and intuitively perceived its hidden, Divine sparks, recognizing the land not just as property, but as a spiritual sanctuary.
May we, too, establish our homes with expressions of passionate, deep love for Hashem, Torah, and Jews living together in peace. May our good deeds bring each one of us back to our land, united as one family! Am Yisrael Chai!
With thanks to Ben Elterman, Liane Pritikin, Gila Ross, David Sacks, and Yehudit Y. Wolffe.
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