Pinchas: Our Inheritances

This week’s parsha contains one of my favorite stories in the Torah: that of Bnot Tzlofchad, the daughters of Tzlofchad. The story, in Bamidbar 27 begins with “וַתִּקְרַבְנָה בְּנוֹת צְלָפְחָד,” “and Tzlofchad’s daughters drew near/approached/came close.”*

These named women — Machlah, Noah, Choglah, Milcah, and Tirtzah — approach not just Moshe, but Elazar the priest, the tribal leaders, and the entire community with their contention:

אָבִינוּ מֵת בַּמִּדְבָּר וְהוּא לֹא־הָיָה בְּתוֹךְ הָעֵדָה הַנּוֹעָדִים עַל־יְהוָה בַּעֲדַת־קֹרַח כִּי־בְחֶטְאוֹ מֵת וּבָנִים לֹא־הָיוּ לוֹ׃

“Our father died in the wilderness. He was not one of the faction, Korah’s faction, which banded together against the LORD, but died for his own sin; and he has left no sons.

לָמָּה יִגָּרַע שֵׁם־אָבִינוּ מִתּוֹךְ מִשְׁפַּחְתּוֹ כִּי אֵין לוֹ בֵּן תְּנָה־לָּנוּ אֲחֻזָּה בְּתוֹךְ אֲחֵי אָבִינוּ׃

Let not our father’s name be lost to his clan just because he had no son! Give us a holding among our father’s kinsmen!”

There is a census being conducted for the purposes of dividing up land into individual holdings when the Israelites arrive in the Land, and as things stand, these women will not be granted a portion because their father has already died and they do not stand to inherit him. Unlike other Biblical challenges to Divine rules or Moses’s authority, this is not treated as inappropriate or chutzpahdik, but Moshe still does not know what to do; he goes and asks God how to respond.

God answers:

כֵּן בְּנוֹת צְלָפְחָד דֹּבְרֹת נָתֹן תִּתֵּן לָהֶם אֲחֻזַּת נַחֲלָה בְּתוֹךְ אֲחֵי אֲבִיהֶם וְהַעֲבַרְתָּ אֶת־נַחֲלַת אֲבִיהֶן לָהֶן׃

“The plea of Zelophehad’s daughters is just: you should give them a hereditary holding among their father’s kinsmen; transfer their father’s share to them.”

God vindicates these women. Machlah, Noah, Choglah, Milcah, and Tirtzah’s claim becomes the source for new halacha, laws of inheritance which are taught to Moshe by God about inheritance in different family configurations. 

Bnot Tzlofchad are often cited as inspirational by Jewish feminists — myself included. They are brave and stand up for themselves and their familial legacy in front of the entire Israelite community and its leaders. 

As Rabbi Dr. Minna Bromberg puts it in her dvar Torah “Fat Torah: Emerging Together from the Shadow of Fear,” (this is an amazing piece of Torah, read it in its entirety and check out her project  Fat Torah!): 

These sisters saw a Torah, saw a truth about what was just, that no one–not even Moses–had seen before, and declared that now the world was ready for it. They used their own experience of facing the loss of their father’s portion — just because they were daughters and not sons — and empowered one another to stake their claim to an inheritance among their people.

I have always imagined these sisters and their “truth that no one had seen before” as trailblazers, themselves serving as role models and ancestors but without experiencing direct mentorship from anyone. They had intragenerational solidarity with each other, I imagined, but not a sense of intergenerational support as they stepped forward bravely in front of Moshe. 

But they are not the only women mentioned in the context of the census; there is one more. Serach bat Asher is mentioned in the genealogy in our parsha as well. 

Serach is mentioned only briefly in assorted genealogies, but lives a rich life in the midrash. I first encountered her in the story of her singing to her grandfather, Yaakov, to tell him that his beloved son Yosef was alive and not dead as he had thought — She sang gently to avoid shocking him. She is also said to have helped Moshe find Yosef’s bones so that they could be taken from Egypt at the time of the Exodus and buried in the Holy Land.

A particularly striking story that Serach is written into by the Rabbis occurs in Shmuel Bet, II Samuel. In this story, King David’s troops, commanded by his general Yoav, have laid siege to a city. In this city, called Aveilah Beit Ha’maakah, a traitor named Sheva ben Bichri has taken refuge, and the soldiers are battering down the wall of the city in an attempt to get to him. But then surprising figure appears: an ishah chachama, a wise woman. She asks to speak to Yoav, and she says: 

וַתֹּאמֶר לֵאמֹר דַּבֵּר יְדַבְּרוּ בָרִאשֹׁנָה לֵאמֹר שָׁאוֹל יְשָׁאֲלוּ בְּאָבֵל וְכֵן הֵתַמּוּ׃ 

And she continued, “In olden times people used to say, ‘Let them inquire of Abel,’ and that was the end of the matter.

אָנֹכִי שְׁלֻמֵי אֱמוּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אַתָּה מְבַקֵּשׁ לְהָמִית עִיר וְאֵם בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל לָמָּה תְבַלַּע נַחֲלַת יְהֹוָה׃ 

I am one of those who seek the welfare of the faithful in Israel. But you seek to bring death upon a mother city in Israel! Why should you destroy the LORD’s possession?”

וַיַּעַן יוֹאָב וַיֹּאמַר חָלִילָה חָלִילָה לִי אִם־אֲבַלַּע וְאִם־אַשְׁחִית׃ 

Joab replied, “Far be it, far be it from me to destroy or to ruin!

לֹא־כֵן הַדָּבָר כִּי אִישׁ מֵהַר אֶפְרַיִם שֶׁבַע בֶּן־בִּכְרִי שְׁמוֹ נָשָׂא יָדוֹ בַּמֶּלֶךְ בְּדָוִד תְּנוּ־אֹתוֹ לְבַדּוֹ וְאֵלְכָה מֵעַל הָעִיר וַתֹּאמֶר הָאִשָּׁה אֶל־יוֹאָב הִנֵּה רֹאשׁוֹ מֻשְׁלָךְ אֵלֶיךָ בְּעַד הַחוֹמָה׃ 

Not at all! But a certain man from the hill country of Ephraim, named Sheba son of Bichri, has rebelled against King David. Just hand him alone over to us, and I will withdraw from the city.” The woman assured Joab, “His head shall be thrown over the wall to you.”

(Shmuel Bet 20:18-21)

This wise woman convinces Yoav that it would be unjust for him to destroy the entire city simply to capture Sheva ben Bichri, and arranges for his head to be thrown over the wall instead. Rashi writes that this wise woman is Serach, the same person who told Yaakov that Yosef was alive and who helped Moshe find Yosef’s bones. 

In this story, Serach is characterized as one whose wisdom, her chochmah, is expressed by standing up to those in power in the name of justice. She objects to collective punishment directly to the face of King David’s most senior general, who was acting brutally toward her city.

Bnot Tzlofchad similarly stood up to the powerful leaders of the people for what was right and fair. They mustered their courage and confronted those in charge to advocate for themselves and for others. This act was one of solidarity between the sisters. But perhaps it stretched beyond them as well.

The Ramban, commenting on Bamidbar 26:46, explicitly compares Serach and Bnot Tzlofchad: 

ואונקלוס תרגם: ושום בת אתת אשר סרח, נתכוין בזה לומר כי היתה בת יורשת נחלה, ולכך הזכירה הכתוב בכאן כאשר הזכיר בנות צלפחד ותכנס בכלל "לאלה תחלק הארץ" (במדבר כ״ו:נ״ג)...

...Onkelos translated the verse: “The name of the daughter of Asher’s wife was Serach.” This means that Serach was eligible for an inheritance in Eretz Yisrael. Therefore, that is why the Torah mentions her here, as it mentioned the daughters of Tzelofchad; Serach was included in the command: “The land shall be apportioned among these”...**

I had previously imagined Bnot Tzlofchad as striking out alone, holding each other but not knowing what their power could create. But they are mentioned in the same parsha as Serach, who would have already been old by the time they make their claim to their inheritance. What if they were inspired by Serach, this wise woman who had already seen so much? A woman who is an inheritor as well? Perhaps they even sought her out, a woman leader and teacher as the people wandered through the desert, to ask for advice and for support in considering asking for their inheritance. Perhaps they felt the strength of another brave woman at their back. 

It can be so easy to feel intergenerationally lonely, particularly as a woman and queer person. I look around even my gender-egalitarian and feminist batei midrash and the teachers who share my experiences are still so relatively young. We are in such early generations of so many revolutions still. But if we look long and hard, if we look deeply and expansively, we can find our Serachs. We do not have to feel like we are walking a completely untrod path. There have been others before us, and we can seek out their wisdom. This is our holy inheritance.

*This is the source of the name for this newsletter! Also, a little bit of the summary part at the beginning here is lifted from my original intro post, so that’s why it might sound familiar. 

** Thank you to my friend Talia Weisberg for sharing a dvar Torah with me that she had written that included this Ramban!