Pinchas - Ladies' Guild

B"H

(slightly flippant title, but I couldn't think of anything better...)

Full text here. This one is genuinely shorter, I promise ;-)

Sources:

1) Midrash Tanchuma Pinchas, Chapter 7

ותקרבנה בנות צלפחד. אותו הדור הנשים היו גודרות מה שאנשים פורצין. שכן את מוצא שאמר להם אהרן, פרקו נזמי הזהב (שמ' לב ב), ולא רצו הנשים ומיחו בבעליהן, שנאמר, ויתפרקו כל העם וגו' (שם שם ג), והנשים לא נשתתפו במעשה העגל. וכן במרגלים שהוציאו דבה, וישובו וילינו עליו (במ' יד לו). ועליהם נגזרה גזרה, שאמרו, לא נוכל לעלות אל העם (שם יג לא). אבל הנשים לא היו עמהם בעצה, שהרי כתיב למעלה מן הענין, כי אמר ה' להם מות ימותו במדבר ולא נותר מהם איש וגו' (שם כו סה), איש ולא אשה, על מה שלא רצו להכנס לארץ. אבל הנשים, קרבו עצמן לבקש נחלה. ותקרבנה בנות צלפחד. ולכך נכתבה פרשה זו סמוך [למיתת מרים], שמשם פרצו האנשים וגדרו הנשים. דבר אחר, ותקרבנה בנות צלפחד וגו', גדולה להם וגדולה לאביהם, גדולה למכיר וגדולה למנשה, וגדולה ליוסף, שכך יצאו ממנו נשים חכמות צדקניות. ומה חכמתן, שלפי שעה דברו, שהיה משה עוסק בפרשת נחלות, שנאמר, לאלה תחלק הארץ. אמרו לו, אם כבן אנו, נירש כבן. ואם לאו, תתיבם אמנו. מיד, ויקרב משה את משפטן. צדקניות היו, שלא נשאו אלא להגון להם. ולמה זמנו למשה באחרונה. שלא יראה משה עצמו שפירש מן האשה ארבעים שנה, הודיעו הקדוש ברוך הוא באלו לומר, הרי הנשים שלא נצטוו, ישבו ארבעים שנה עד שנשאו להגון להם:

One of the most contentious issues facing Orthodox Judaism today is the status of women within the Jewish community. Those outside Orthodoxy in the secular/non-Orthodox world often use examples from Torah itself to argue that Judaism is inherently sexist against women. Those within Orthodoxy, particularly in the more 'chareidi' camp, counteract this by pointing to other examples from both the written Torah itself and the oral Torah and commentaries that go together with it showing that Biblical women were seen in a more positive light, at times even more positively than their male contemporaries. While I am not going into this in more depth here, it is worth reading this post's midrash bearing these considerations in mind.

The midrash at source 1 above contains several ideas which are commonly used to counteract accusations of   women having an inferior status in Torah. Based on the request made by the daughters of Tzelofchad for their father's portion of land in Eretz Israel to be realised through them, the midrash uses this to praise both the daughters and the women of that generation in general. 

The first part of the midrash comes to prove the opening statement that 'in that generation, the women upheld what the men had breached' (underlined above). Examples of this include the women not wishing to take part in the Chet Ha'Egel (Sin of the Golden Calf - it is not clear whether the women successfully withheld their golden jewellry or were forced into giving these up, but either way their resistance is noted by the midrash); the women not being pessimistic over their chances of conquering Eretz Yisrael and therefore not being subject to the decree of dying in the midbar; and the women's positive desire to not only live in but also have ownership rights in Eretz Yisrael, as exemplified by the daughters of Tzelofchad.

The second part of the midrash focuses on the said daughters, praising both them and their ancestors for meriting to have such 'nashim hachamot v'tzidkaniyot' (wise and righteous women) as their descendants. From the midrash's perspective, the 'wisdom' of the daughters of Tzelofchad lie not only their making their request to Moshe but in their timing (when Moshe was apportioning the land) and the way in which they ask, by presenting Moshe with the dilemma that if he does not treat them as sons he would then have to agree to their mother being subject to a 'levirate' marriage (i.e. marrying her husband's brother in the hope of having a son who could have his father's portion in Eretz Yisrael) even though the mother's first marriage had clearly produced children. Meanwhile, the daughters' 'righteousness' lies in their self-sacrifice* in not marrying until they could find appropriate husbands - 'appropriate' in this case (bearing in mind the subsequent ruling issued to them to marry within their tribe) meaning husbands whose status would not be in conflict with the halachic ruling to be issued to them regarding their ability to take their father's portion in Eretz Yisrael. 

What are the common themes to be found here? Well, the women of that generation as a whole are shown as having a greater sense of commitment and loyalty to both G-d and Eretz Yisrael than the men, while the qualities for which the daughters of Tzelofchad are singled out are the persuasive way in which they present their argument and their self-sacrifice in essentially putting their lives 'on hold' in order to do so by not marrying until they present and receive an answer to their question. While it is all very well to use these as examples to those outside of/returning to Jewish observance as Orthodox Judaism's view of women, it is not enough to leave these as external messages. We should also seriously consider internally as a community how these Biblical role models and qualities may be relevant to Orthodox Jewish women's practices and role in the community. 

Shavua tov,

RPT

*Interestingly, the midrash makes a particular point that they were also to act as a sign to Moshe that he should not pride himself on his own forty years' abstinence from sexual relations with his own wife.