SPIRIT
TORAH PORTION
Seeking A Change
I
ate their father’s name. n this week’s Torah portion, This was a unique we learn of the daughsituation. Moses did not ters of Zelophehad: know how to answer Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, their request, so he went Milcah and Tirzah. The directly to God to find first thing which makes the answer. God agreed this story unique is that Rabbi Amy with the women: They we know the women’s Bigman are entitled to receive the names. So often in the land. Torah we don’t know the Parshat However, in parshat female characters’ names, Pinchas: Massei, which we read let alone what they Numbers next week in combinathought, felt or said. 25:10-30:1; The women approach Jeremiah 1:1- tion with parshat Matot, 2:3. we learn that this new Moses with a request. law about women’s inherSince the Israelite laws of itance is amended. In inheritance at that time cases where there is no male provided that only a man’s sons heir, the daughters may, indeed, inherit from him, and their father Zelophehad died without inherit. However, they are then limited to marrying men within leaving a male heir, the women request that they inherit his their own tribe to keep the land within the tribe. portion of the land to perpetu-
Some would debate whether this was a true, full victory for the women. They were given inheritance rights and then these rights were compromised by limiting the pool from which the women could choose potential husbands. Yet the outcome of the women’s request is not the point upon which most Biblical commentators focus; they note, instead, the way the women pursued their inheritance. The daughters of Zelophehad quietly and carefully prepared their case. Respecting the tradition from which and the people from whom they came, it is said that the women discussed the issue with people in various positions of authority before taking their case to Moses. Zelophehad’s daughters always accorded the tradition respect, never once demanding change
merely for change’s sake. Zelophehad’s daughters teach us that religious norms can be adapted. There is not always one correct understanding or one right way of doing something. Moses was open to considering the women’s request; and although it was something out of the norm, he took it to the highest authority — God — and God accepted the change in law. We must respect the traditions and the people from whom we have come while at the same time being open to new ideas, understandings and possibilities. This is how the Jewish community continues to flourish generation after generation. Rabbi Amy B. Bigman is rabbi at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in East Lansing.
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