Pinchas Massei 2020
Isaac’s Parsha Corner · 2020
Why should we be diminished?
The daughter’s of Tzlafchad were intelligent and provocative. Not in a bad way, but in a way to help clarify G-d’s Torah. Their inquiry was both reasonable but also unprecedented. Never before had society deemed it appropriate for women to inherit property. Hitherto inheritance was the exclusive arena of men. The men in turn supported their women. The daughters thought otherwise. They argued that at least when a man died with no sons the daughters should receive the inheritance. Moshe thought this was a reasonable argument and presented it to G-d. The ruling came down in their favor; “and G-d said to Moshe saying “The daughters of Tzlafchad are correct, give them an inherited portion alongside their uncles. Pass the portion destined to go to their father to them.” Actually the final determination of the portion doesn’t emerge until the next week’s Parsha at the end of Parshat Masei. There at the very last topic in the book of Bamidbar the daughters are instructed to marry so as to keep the father’s portion within the father’s tribe of Menashe son of Joseph. “This is what G-d has instructed the daughter of Tzlafchad, “Let your choice for a husband be the very best man you choose but please choose from the family of your father’s tribe. In this way the portion will remain in the tribe. And so they did as instructed.”
The torah decided to instruct the fundamental rules of inheritance through a group of young women. The final disposition of the matter is actually the very last matter in the book of Bamidbar. Arguably it is the last of the Divine portion of the Torah. The book of Dvarim is a soliloquy delivered by Moshe as his final testament. Their story compares favorably to that of the spies and even to the two and half tribes who remained on the east bank of the Jordan. They yearned for a portion in the holy land while others did not. It is noteworthy that the daughter’s were from the tribe of Menashe who split up half joining in with Reuvain and Gad on the other side of the Jordan.
How should we judge them? Were they just greedy for land? Or was there something else? The torah actually gives us a clue. The language they choose “Why should our father’s portion diminished” is found earlier in the Torah in Parshat Behaalotcha. There a group of individuals desperate to participate in the great mitzvah of Passover sacrifice. Unfortunately they had become unclean due to being charged with disposition of the corpses of Nadav and Avihu. They approached Moshe with the same language. “Why should we be diminished”. The Torah is teaching us the purity of motive behind the daughters’ request. The motive was to honor their father’s memory and nothing more. It is noteworthy that the family members who worried about the ruling and wanted it overturned or reviewed used similar language no less than three times.