“The Eternal said to Moses, saying: the daughters of Zelophehad speak justly: you shall give them a portion for inheritance among their father’s” Numbers 27: 6

 When their father Zelophehad died in the wilderness without a son, his five daughters stood before Moses, Eleazar and the entire community of Israel: “Our father died in the wilderness… and he had no sons. Why should the name of our father be subtracted from among his family because he had no son?”, they asked (27: 3-4). Moses brought their case before the Source of Law and God answered favourably to them. “Their claim is just. Fortunate is the person with whose word the Holy One, ever to be praised, concurs”, comments Rashi.

Professor Benjamin D. Sommer, who teaches Bible and Semitic languages at the Jewish Theology Seminary in New York, published in 2017 a dvar Torah entitled “Upgrading the Torah — And the World”. He explains there are five passages in Torah where the law was unclear, or the Israelites were uncomfortable with the law as it is (Leviticus 24: 10-23; Numbers 9: 1-14; Numbers. 15: 32-36; Numbers 27: 1-11; and Numbers. 36: 1-9). In each case, Moses asks God to clarify the law and God responds to Moses’s request.

In the passage here, inheritance is extended to daughters, whereas up until now, only sons were inheriting from their father. In Genesis 24: 36, we learn that Abraham “gave all that he had” to his son Isaac. The background of our verse in parashat Pinchas is to keep property in the family and later on, in Numbers 36, it is stated that they have to marry within their tribe, lest they lose their property. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that law had to be adapted, clarified, already in written Torah.

Prof Sommer explains that the world created in Genesis 1 was good, sometime very good, but never perfect. It is incumbent on us to be God’s partners to complete the work. In Lurianic terms, the world needs tikkun, reparation, and we are part of it. Judaism is, by its very nature, an evolving body, and wherever one stands in the varied landscape of our community, we are all part of it, and contribute to its progressive essence.

Rabbi Dr RenÉ Pfertzel