Bnot Tzelofchad: Female Agents of Change

Every word in the Torah teaches us something; no single term is excessive or unnecessary. Hence, the mention of the daughters of Tzelofchad in two different places, and the details that were chronicled, convey an important message for all generations.  

The Torah tells of Bnot Tzelofchad, the five daughters of Tzelofchad, who were preparing to enter Eretz Yisrael with the Jewish nation. They wanted to receive a portion of land for themselves but, as females, they were not allowed to own or inherit land in Israel, according to the Jewish practices at the time. They had been orphaned from their father more than three decades earlier and were unmarried; there was no father or husband on whose portion of land any of the five sisters could reside. They put aside their modest, discreet ways and courageously pled their case to inherit land before all the highest-ranking leaders of the nation. Moshe Rabbeinu then presented their request to Hashem, who approved it.¹

Their love of the land was ingrained in their DNA. In introducing Bnot Tzelofchad, the Torah redundantly mentions their lineage from Menashe, the son of Yosef Hatzadik, twice in one verse². Rashi explains this was to show that the special love for the land of Israel was demonstrated by their ancestors and continued through the generations until Bnot Tzelofchad. Yosef had urged that his bones be brought to Israel for burial when he died; a few generations later, his descendants were urging for the right to live on a plot of land in Israel.

Choglah, Machlah, Milkah, Noa, and Tirtzah weren’t trying to modernize the Torah laws, make change for personal financial gain, or promote a women’s rights agenda. They were fighting for justifiable, righteous reasons: They loved the holy land of Israel and wanted a share for themselves and for their family to have a continued legacy in it.

From their intentions and behavior, Bnot Tzelafchad received the inheritance in their own merit, and not due to the actions of their holy ancestors. Chazal note that Bnot Tzelofchad were not just wise, but also righteous. They were so eager to have land for themselves and as a legacy for their father, that Hashem brought a miracle for the unmarried women.

This genuine motivation is seen in their specific wording; they requested a portion because “Our father had no sons.”³ They would have stepped aside if they had brothers, and thus welcomed Hashem’s issuance of bequeathal laws: “If a man shall die without a son, you shall pass his inheritance to his daughter.”⁴ They were the antithesis of feminist provocateurs; they did not act because they were women, but despite being women.

Moreover, Hashem did not just issue a change in the inheritance laws but emphasized that Bnot Tzelofchad had taken the right action. The Torah specifically records that Hashem said to Moshe, “The daughters of Tzelofchad have spoken correctly.”⁵ The sisters knew Hashem equally loved men and women, and therefore believed that He would respond empathetically to their request. This change in the inheritance law was not an afterthought of Hashem, made only when the Jewish women showed their love for the land. Rather, Hashem waited for these sagacious women to step forward, at the proper time and in the proper way, to divulge this halacha.⁶  

Moshe had been teaching Bnei Yisrael about the laws of yibum⁷, when a man dies without leaving descendants. Bnot Tzelofchad suggested that if they, as females and the only children, do not inherit land, it is as if their father did not leave descendants; therefore, their mother should marry their father’s brother, under the law of yibum.They are described as being wise⁸, not only for their intelligent way of presenting a rationally sound case, but in their timing at a significantly relevant moment. Moreover, throughout the process, they were demure and refined, questioning without aggressively demanding and asking without demonstrated entitlement.

There is a legitimate question as to why the daughters waited so long after their father’s death to request an inheritance of land. Rav Yissachar Frand relates a discussion⁹ between the Imrei Emes¹⁰ and his mother, the wife of the Sfas Emes¹¹ who was seeking confirmation that Bnot Tzelofchad did not have financial interests in the land. The Imrei Emes explained that Tzelofchad died 38 years prior; usually, it is immediately after someone’s death that inheritances gets distributed and disputed. Since that time, for several decades, Bnot Tzelofchad did not ask for land upon their father’s death, nor for any of their father’s animals or other possessions that could have been owned by him. It was only when they were about to enter the Land of Israel that they asked only for the right to his portion, for the sake of the land itself and not out of financial interest.

From their intentions and behavior, Bnot Tzelafchad received the inheritance in their own merit, and not due to the actions of their holy ancestors.¹² Chazal note that Bnot Tzelofchad were not just wise, but also righteous¹³. They were so eager to have land for themselves and as a legacy for their father, that Hashem brought a miracle for the unmarried women. Each one was rewarded with a husband and, following the marriage, they naturally mothered children, even though they were over the age of 40.¹⁴ They received the same miracles as an illustration that one sister was not superior to another. The sisters were worthy of being identified by name in several places but are not always listed in the same order. The inconsistent order of their names indicates that one was not greater in her righteousness or intelligent discernment than the other.¹⁵

Each of the daughters of Tzelofchad was a modest, unassuming, wise, and righteous woman throughout her life. Yet when there was an opportunity to stand up for the women of Bnei Yisrael, they did not hesitate, taking their request all the way to the top. The details of this story, and every word used to relate it in the Torah, teach us that Jewish women can and should be instrumental in impacting their community, not only in her own time but for future generations. The Bnot Tzelofchad show that the Torah is equally for men and women, and, when done properly, there is a place in Judaism for women to question, probe, and discuss halacha, and ultimately effect lasting change.

1. Numbers, 27:5. ↩︎
2. Numbers, 27:1. ↩︎
3. Numbers, 27:3. ↩︎
4. Numbers, 27:7. ↩︎
5. Ibid. ↩︎
6. Yalkut Shimoni, Pinchas (773). ↩︎
7. Yibum refers to a levirate marriage, where the widow of a man who dies childless is supposed to marry his brother. ↩︎
8. Talmud, Bava Basra (119b). ↩︎
9. Frand, Rabbi Yissocher. “Tzelafchad’s Daughters Were Motivated by the Land, Not the Money.” Torah.Org, 2005. ↩︎
10. The fourth Rebbe of Gur Chassidus, Rav Avraham Mordechai Alter (1865 – 1948). ↩︎
11. Former Rebbe of Gur Chassidus, Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter (1847-1905). ↩︎
12. Talmud, Bava Basra (119b). ↩︎
13. Talmud, Bava Basra (119b). ↩︎
14. Talmud, Shabbat (96b). ↩︎
15. Kaminker, Mendy. “The Daughters of Zelophehad”, Chabad.org, 2023, www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2259008/jewish/The-Daughters-of-Zelophehad.html.  ↩︎