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Weekly Torah portion: Pinhas
Faith that God’s compassion extends equally to all is the belief that now motivates women and men to challenge routine discrimination against women
Our parasha is full of contrasts, just as our lives are full of contrasts. On the one hand, in the second half of the parasha we read God’s command to Moses in regard to sacrifices. We find exhaustive – and, for us, perhaps exhausting – details of the sacrifices that Israel is to bring daily, on Shabbat, Passover, the Feast of Weeks, Rosh HaShanna, Yom Kippur, Sukkoth, and Shemini Atzeret (Numbers 28-29). On the other hand, the parasha comprises unique narratives: the end of the story of Phinehas’s zealotry (Numbers 25:11-18), and the story of the daughters of Zelophehad (Numbers 27:1-11).
The parasha comprises elements of routine and permanence, expressed in the list of sacrifices, juxtaposed with the exceptional and extraordinary, expressed in the stories of Phinehas and the daughters of Zelophehad.
The permanent – the sacrifices once brought to the Temple, or prayer and mitzvoth in our own day – provides the routine framework for our lives as Jews. But this routine, even if necessary, may desensitize us if it becomes rote and unthinking. As opposed to this, the exceptional and extraordinary holds the potential to add variety and enrich life, but only when defined by clear boundaries.
Let us examine the two events in our parasha. At the beginning of the parasha, Phinehas appears to receive authorization for his act of zealotry:
And the Lord said to Moses, “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy. Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace.’” (Numbers 25:10-13)
If we examine the Hebrew text of the Bible, we notice that the letter vav in the word “peace” (shalom) is broken. It would seem intended to imply that Phinehas’ deed is not a path to be repeated in an attempt to bring peace. Indeed, some of the Sages were of the opinion that Phinehas acted of his own accord, spurred on by his personal zealotry, without seeking counsel. His acts were of a one-time nature, and similar acts of zealotry should be condemned.
As opposed to the story of Phinehas, our parasha also tells the story of the daughters of Zelophehad. In the long genealogy that separates the story of Phinehas from that of the daughters of Zelophehad, one verse stands out: “Now Zelophehad son of Hepher had no sons, only daughters, and the names of Zelophehad's daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah” (Numbers 26:33).
The clans are listed according to the head of each clan (Numbers 26) for the purpose of apportioning the land, and the text emphasizes the fact that the daughters of Zelophehad could not inherit, because the shares were to be given only to men.
What did the daughters of Zelophehad do? How did they arrive at their decision to approach Moses, Eleazar and the elders? The midrash fills in the blanks:
Then drew near the daughters of Zelophehad: When the daughters of Zelophehad heard that the Land was being apportioned to the tribes and not to the women, they gathered together to take counsel. They said: God’s compassion is not like human compassion. Humans have greater compassion for men than for women, but God has compassion for all, as it is written (Psalms 145:9) “and His compassion is over all that He has made.” (Sifrei Pinhas 133)
The midrash tells us that they drew near to one another in order to take counsel, and on the basis of their belief that God is equally compassionate towards women and men, they demanded of Moses: “Give us a holding among our father’s kinsmen!” Moses turned to God, and the answer he received was: “The plea of Zelophehad’s daughters is just.” As a result of the demand of the daughters of Zelophehad, a law was established for the generations: “If a man dies, and has no son, then you shall cause his inheritance to pass to his daughter,” and this rule became institutionalized.
Indeed, the faith of the daughters of Zelophehad that God’s compassion extends equally to all is the belief that now motivates women and men to challenge routine discrimination against women. A salient example is the efforts on behalf of women denied Jewish divorce (get) in the Israeli Rabbinical Courts. Let us hope that we will have the wisdom to make exceptional and extraordinary instances of justice routine, as in the case of the daughters of Zelophehad. And so may it be Your will.
Dr Brenda Bacon is head of the Jewish Education and Social Education Tracks at the Schechter Institute
