I recently returned home from the Union for Reform Judaism’s Camp Newman in Santa Rosa, where I made a tallit for my youngest daughter to wear when she becomes a bat mitzvah next year. While I was busy with dyes and paints in Northern California, however, Israel’s Minister of Religious Affairs David Azoulay announced that women who go to the Western Wall to pray with a tallit are not coming to pray, but rather to provoke traditionalists.
I think this is a deliberate misunderstanding of their intentions. This week’s Torah portion teaches us that we have a history of women standing up in front of the community and seeking equality — not out of provocation, but out of conviction.
The story of Zelophehad’s daughters — Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah — shows us how God affirms equality in the community. The five sisters come forward before the Tent of Meeting and, in front of the whole community, ask for their father’s land holdings as an inheritance. Moses takes the case before God, and God tells him, “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” (Numbers 27:7). With God’s pronouncement, it becomes law — not just for the five sisters, but also for the whole community. Daughters can inherit when there are no sons.
Rashi explains that the five sisters were intelligent and knew how to make a legal argument. When the sisters argue, “Let not our father’s name be lost to his clan just because he had no son” (Numbers 27:4), Rashi imagines that the sisters are discussing Torah with Moses. They are familiar enough with Jewish law to know that if they did not count as offspring, their mother would have had to participate in Levirate marriage. These women know and respect the laws of the Torah, and they are willing to stand up to say how the laws apply to them. God’s agreement with their interpretation, Rashi says, shows that the sisters’ eyes saw what Moses did not see.
This is an incredible piece of Torah. As a woman, and a mother of three daughters, I am taken by Rashi’s reading of the text. I love how he expands our understanding of the sisters, making them smart and capable of defending themselves — as well as respectful of Torah. But I don’t need Rashi to tell me it is acceptable for women to use Torah to make legal arguments or that women have a claim on equality. It is within the Torah itself that women have this right and this role.
Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah don’t ask for permission. They don’t wait for someone to tell them that they can ask. They come before the whole community, the high priest and chieftains, and make their case.
They do not let their gender push them into the shadows — Moses listens to them, God confirms that they are correct, and their voices are heard. It is within Torah for women to stand up for justice. The sisters are not provocative; they are not attempting to be disruptive or disrespectful. They are helping to create Torah, and this law is preserved in their name.
Fighting for equality is not provocative; it is imperative. We are required to stand up and point out when things are not fair. The daughters of Zelophehad are acting out of complete conviction that the divine promise of the land of Israel will be fulfilled, and they want to ensure their family’s place. Their motivations are righteous and just and an example for us all.
In Sifrei Bamidbar, there is a rabbinic midrash that teaches that the five sisters consulted together on how to make their claim for their portion of the land and that they said, “The compassion of God is not like human compassion. Human rulers are more concerned with males than with females — but the One who spoke and brought the world into being is not like that. Rather, God shows mercy to every living thing.”
Judith Baskin explains in “The Torah: A Women’s Commentary” that the sisters trusted God would transcend the flawed human society that viewed women as lesser beings. God is beyond our human limitations, and the Torah teaches us to open our eyes to the larger truth that we are all equal.
In this story, I see sisters working together to carry on their family legacy. I see sisters coming together to demand justice in such a way that they are able to change the law. This is what I want for my daughters: that they will work together for justice. And this is the beauty of Torah — it contains everything within it, even the possibility for change.
Shawna Brynjegard-Bialik is a rabbi at Temple Ahavat Shalom in Northridge.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.