Rabbi's Sermons

Shabat Shalom!

          If we were asked – who we considered as the most representative female figures – who have a symbolic role in the world of Judaism – I think that the vast majority of us would name, intuitively, the three matriarchs: Sara, Rivka, Rachel and Lea, surely leaving Bilha or Zilpa aside. Young girls receive a blessing from their parents, on their behalf, during Kabalat Shabbat at home, and they are mentioned during our Amidah prayer in its liberal version. However, neither they, nor Eve – the first woman, or the mysterious woman that Cain took to continue the human race, or the wife of Noah, or Lot’s daughters, or Dina – the only daughter of Israel, or Tamara – who was related to Yehuda, or even Putifar’s wife – who tried to conquer Yosef's heart, or Miriam – Moshe’s sister; None of them had a central role in the Torah stories, nor have they been considered as important and significant in the Jewish Halacha, as were Machla, Noa (my daughter's name), Chogla, Milka and Tirtza – the five daughters of Tzlofchad, mentioned in this week's Parashat Pinchas.

This short story is found in the book of Numbers, chapter 27: “¹ Then came the daughters of Tzlofchad, the son of Chepher, the son of Gilaad, the son of Machir, the son of Menashe, of the families of Menashe the son of Yosef; and these are the names of his daughters: Machlah, Noa, and Choglah, and Milca, and Tirza. ² And they stood before Moshe and before Eleazar the priest, and before the princes and all the congregation by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, ³ “Our father died in the wilderness; and he was not in the company of those who gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Korach, but died in his own sin and had no sons. ⁴ Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family because he hath no son? Give unto us therefore a possession among the brethren of our father” ⁵ And Moshe brought their cause before the Lord. ⁶ And the Lord spoke unto Moshe, saying, ⁷ “The daughters of Tzlofchad speak right. Thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father’s brethren, and thou shalt cause the inheritance of their father to pass unto them".

The response from Moshe is quite unexpected. It is so obvious and clear, that this is such a just and logical request, yet, right at that moment, Moshe hesitated and could not decide for himself – neither did the priest Eleazar – who "took his cause before Adonai" – as if this request required the seal of approval from the Creator; just as Abraham, our father, said to him back in Genesis 18:25 - "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?". Is it not clear as the daylight, that the request of Tzlofchad’s daughters, is just and legitimate? A midrash in Rashbi's Mechilta also criticizes Moshe. When Moshe founded a system of justice, Yitro, his father-in-law, advised him on Exodus 18:22 - "And let them judge the people at all seasons; and it shall be that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge". The Midrash says that: "God said to him: Moshe! Aren’t you supposed to give judgment in difficult matters? The daughters of Tzlofchad come to ask for justice, for something that even a baby from the house of Raban (youngsters) can answer and you don't know what to say? And so, 'you took her cause before Adonai'?”

          God's answer goes even further, since after giving His approval, He indicates to Moshe NEW LAWS that determine what to do when a person dies without sons, laws that did not come from the Torah received at Sinai, but are the result of the demands of Tzlofchad’s daughters! Didn't God think about this before? Or is there, perhaps, another message?

          The Bible scholar, Zeev Erlich, wrote that the names of the five daughters of Tzlofchad have something in common in the Hebrew language:

• Machla – comes from the verb – Lecholel, which means "to generate", or from the word – Machol, which means – "dance".
• Noa – comes from the root – Lanua, which means – "movement".
• Chogla – comes from the verb – Lachug, which means – “to go around in circles”.
• Milka – comes from the verb – Lalechet, which means – "to go" or "to walk".
• Tirtza – comes from the verb – Larutz, which means – "to run".

          All the Hebrew roots come from verbs related to movement, physical activity, an ACTION. The story of Tzlofchad’s daughters ends a few episodes later, when the issue of inheritance becomes a new law, recorded in the Torah: The condition and rights of women and their ability to receive inheritance. Until this moment, the Hebrew identity, the answer to the question – “who belongs to our group” – is patrilineal, that is, if the father is Jewish or not, not the mother. This is just the opposite of how one defines a Jew today: "one who was born to a Jewish mother (and not his father) or who has converted under Jewish law". If Tzlofchad’s daughters had married men from another tribe, the inheritance and property would pass to their sons, who would no longer be from the tribe of Menashe, to the detriment of the inheritance from the Menashe tribe itself. Eventually, in order to solve the problem, it was arranged that Tzlofchad’s daughters would marry people from the same tribe of Menashe as indicated on Numbers 36:8 - "shall be the wife unto one of the family of the tribe of her father". The same solution was applied whenever a daughter inherited from her father – the daughter had to marry a man from her father's tribe. But this ruling was given only to the people of Israel before arriving to the Land of Israel – from this point on, any woman could inherit independently and also marry any man from another tribe; something new and radical on women's rights, for that time!

          Today, Tzlofchad’s daughters are a symbol of ACTIVISM, of social justice for women – in a world being managed by male leadership almost exclusively, including in religion. Unfortunately, I imagine that Machla, Noa, Chogla, Milka and Tirtza – would be disappointed to find, that women in the Orthodox world today are still kept outside of synagogues and study houses. However, I think that they would also be happy to know about a modern Judaism, in which, today, women are received equally and are free to lead an open, just and complete religious life, giving them their proper place in Judaism. The five daughters of Tzlofchad in our community would have enough space to move, circulate, dance, celebrate, sing! Come and go freely in worship and religion. And still.. there is so much to be done...

          Many examples can be found in the history of the Jewish people: Tamara, demanding justice, Miriam leading the songs (that’s right, Miriam sang, and men listened to her! God forbid, should this happen in the Orthodox world of today!), Deborah the prophetess, acting as leader of the people and head of the military forces, Yael the brave, Queen Shlomtsion, who was the sister of Shimon ben Shetach, serving as Queen during the time of the Hasmoneans, Queen Esther – acting as leader of the people… In short, the list of stories of women in the Bible inspires us today.

          We must be proud to belong to a liberal, pluralistic, equal, and open Jewish movement. We should be proud to be able to maintain a community, where men and women sit together and enjoy the same rights and responsibilities in the ritual. Our role as members of the Jewish community is to strengthen this position, to improve the status of women, not only within the walls of a synagogue, but also, by educating our children at home, at school, and beyond: in the workplace, sitting freely anywhere on buses, and not as it exists contemptuously today, on some bus lines in Jerusalem dedicated to Orthodox communities, where women sit in the back of the bus, in the “women's section”, which obviously, brings back a memory of one of the most horrible stains in the human history, of the days of “color” separation here in the south of the USA of the early 20^th century. It is demeaning, disgusting and inadmissible.

          In Israel, the group of – "The Women of the Kotel", and the – "Reform Center for Religion and the State", are led by remarkable women, who, inspired by the daughters of Tzlofchad, fight to improve the rights of women within Judaism in Israel. Our efforts must go on, and further beyond – to achieve, in this country, equal levels of salary and opportunities for both genders, and demand justice – as it is written in Deuteronomy 16:20: "Tzedek Tzedek! Justice, justice thou shall follow". This verse is not a slogan of the Torah, but a commitment – for women and men, as one. Genesis 2:23 relates that when Adam first met Eve, he said: "This is now the bones of my bones and the flesh of my flesh". Indeed, we are the same bones and the same flesh, no less and no more as the next verse continues: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh". Only this way, two genders on the same level can form a whole, one connection, one song, one prayer, one spirit, because God is ONE and his name is ONE.

Shabat Shalom!

Rabbi David Laor

July 26^th, 2024