“Oops. Good point; didn’t think of that.” – Moshe
“Me either. The women are right. Give them what they want.” – HaShem
Where does the idea that there is any such thing as an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-seeing deity come from? Certainly not our Torah; this week’s parashah is one of many that show this. The description our Torah offers of HaShem is not perfect; it is, however, perfectly perfectible.
Let’s dismantle a few assumptions here. The Torah does not support our view of G*d as perfect. That is a projection, probably via the Greeks, that some humans insist upon. They need it because they need to know that someone’s “got this” when they don’t, and can’t – such as in the case of senseless evil. Or they need it so that they can set up a “straw god” to reject.
Similarly, the Torah, meaning all Jewish sacred texts, are not revealed truth. That is a Christian assumption, and as such has become part of what we assume we are supposed to believe – and makes it easy to reject, all together and at once, when we find something offensive in it. Rather, our ancestors understood that our sacred texts offer a glimpse of what truths we might work our way toward.
This week’s parashah is a great example. The scene is this: in this particular text that clearly reflects a patriarchal assumption, there is a general discussion going on about inheritance, and it assumes a line of sons inheriting fathers. But there’s an unforeseen problem with that approach: sometimes offspring are daughters.
And thus it is with the daughters of a man named Tzelof’khad; there are five of them, with no brother to inherit. They argue:
לָ֣מָּה יִגָּרַ֤ע שֵׁם־אָבִ֙ינוּ֙ מִתּ֣וֹךְ מִשְׁפַּחְתּ֔וֹ כִּ֛י אֵ֥ין ל֖וֹ בֵּ֑ן תְּנָה־לָּ֣נוּ אֲחֻזָּ֔ה בְּת֖וֹךְ אֲחֵ֥י אָבִֽינוּ׃
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! (Numbers 27.4)
In this moment, the assumption that the patriarchal approach is “enough” is disproved, and then the greater teaching moment occurs:
וַיַּקְרֵ֥ב מֹשֶׁ֛ה אֶת־מִשְׁפָּטָ֖ן לִפְנֵ֥י ה. ’וַיֹּ֥אמֶר ה’ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֥ה לֵּאמֹֽר כֵּ֗ן בְּנ֣וֹת צְלׇפְחָד֮ דֹּבְרֹת֒ נָתֹ֨ן תִּתֵּ֤ן לָהֶם֙ אֲחֻזַּ֣ת נַחֲלָ֔ה בְּת֖וֹךְ אֲחֵ֣י אֲבִיהֶ֑ם וְהַֽעֲבַרְתָּ֛ אֶת־נַחֲלַ֥ת אֲבִיהֶ֖ן לָהֶֽן׃ וְאֶל־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל תְּדַבֵּ֣ר לֵאמֹ֑ר אִ֣ישׁ כִּֽי־יָמ֗וּת וּבֵן֙ אֵ֣ין ל֔וֹ וְהַֽעֲבַרְתֶּ֥ם אֶת־נַחֲלָת֖וֹ לְבִתּֽוֹ׃
Moses brought their case before ‘ה And ‘ה said to Moses, “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. “Further, speak to the Israelite people as follows: ‘If a householder dies without leaving a son, you shall transfer his property to his daughter.” (Numbers 27.5-7)
Moshe models his understanding of the revealed nature of the truth he transmits: it is partial and not completely understood. Then HaShem demonstrates that our awareness of what is holy is entirely incomplete.
Maybe the best part of the Jewish approach to all this is from our Talmudic sages, so often assumed by our Western modern Jewish values to be hopelessly misogynistic:
תָּנָא: בְּנוֹת צְלָפְחָד חַכְמָנִיּוֹת הֵן, דַּרְשָׁנִיּוֹת הֵן, צִדְקָנִיּוֹת הֵן
The Sages taught: The daughters of Tzelof’khad are wise, they are interpreters of verses, and they are righteous. – BT Bava Batra 119b
The midrash explains what Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah understood, and helped their community to learn:
And then the daughters of Tzelof’khad approached (Numbers 27.1) “When the daughters of Tzelof’khad heard that the land was to be apportioned to the tribes and not to females, they gathered together to take counsel, saying: Not as the mercies of flesh and blood are the mercies of HaShem. The mercies of flesh and blood are greater for males than for females. Not so the mercies of the One who spoke and brought the world into being; HaShem’s mercies are for males and females (equally). They are for all! As it is written (Psalms 145:9) “HaShem is good to all, and mercy alights upon all of Creation.”
The mystics of our tradition call our attempts to understand the reality of HaShem like “looking through a cloudy glass into a dark room.” We are not where HaShem is; we don’t know all of what’s right, and we can’t simply read it and understand it out of a book. Our personal impressions are not completely true and our hearts are not infallible. Not even our longing for certainty somewhere (which we often project unfairly upon HaShem) can ever, really, be assuaged.
Our parashat hashavua this week carries a clear message:
The greatest leader is one who can admit that s/he hasn’t thought of that.
The truest understanding of divine wisdom is that we can only partially see it.
And learning can come from any place, any person, any time.
May we become comfortable enough with our ignorance to admit it, willing to give our curiosity more room than our need for certainty, and thus to move toward at least a partial enlightenment to illuminate the path we walk together.
Torah for the 21st Century by Rabbi Ariel Stone 