פרשת פינחס תש"ב - בנות צלפחד וסמיכת יהושע

And they stood before Moses, and before Eleazar the priest, and before the princes and all the congregation, at the door of the tent of meeting, saying:

’Our father died in the wilderness, and he was not among the company of them that gathered themselves together against the LORD in the company of Korah, but he died in his own sin; and he had no sons.

כי אין לו בן [WHY SHOULD OUR FATHER'S NAME BE DONE AWAY WITH] BECAUSE HE HATH NO SON — Thus it follows that if he had had a son they would have made no claim of any kind: this tells us that they were women of intelligence (Sifrei Bamidbar 133:4; cf. Bava Batra 119b).

לפני משה [THEY STOOD] BEFORE MOSES, and afterwards לפני אלעזר, BEFORE ELEAZAR?! But is it possible if Moses did not know what reply to give them that Eleazar should know it? Rather, invert the words of the text and so expound it (before Eleazar and before Moses). This is the view of R. Josiah; but Abba Chanan said in the name of R. Eleazar that this inversion is unnecessary: they were sitting in the House of Study and they (the daughters of Zelophehad) stood before all of those who were present (Sifrei Bamidbar 133:3; Bava Batra 119b and Rashi on Numbers 9:6).

But he was not. Rashi wrote: “Since they were going to say that he died because of his sin, they needed to say: Not the sin of the complainers, nor with Korach’s assembly, who incited [the people] against the Holy One, Blessed is He — was he. Rather, he died by his sin alone, without provoking others to sin with him.” However, Rashi did not explain why they needed to say he died because of his own sin. They could have simply said, “Our father died in the Wilderness without leaving any sons.” According to the view of our Sages (Baba Basra 117b) they needed to say he was not part of Korach’s assembly, because Korach’s assembly lost their portion in the Land of Israel, as did the complainers. The daughters knew this because the Beis Din of Moshe spread this information among the people. Rabbi Avraham (Ibn Ezra) explained this way as well, and wrote that the daughters thought that the group that banded together against Hashem would not inherit in the Land. In my view, according to the plain meaning, they said this because they thought Moshe hated Korach’s assembly more than all the other sinners who died in the Wilderness, since they rebelled against him and denounced all his deeds. They thought that maybe Moshe would say about Korach’s assembly, due to his hatred of them: “May he have none who extends kindness, and may no one be gracious to his orphans” (Tehillim 109:12); “May the iniquity against his forefathers be remembered by Adonoy” (ibid. 14). Therefore, the daughters informed him that their father was not a part of that assembly, and hinted that he was not among those who died in the plague; rather, he died in the Wilderness upon his bed. The meaning of, but he died because of his own sin, was that he died because of his sin in the Wilderness and did not merit to enter the Land.

והוא לא היה, he was not a member of the rebellious people who had made common cause with Korach. Those people had been banished by Moses, i.e. disinherited by him, deprived not only of potential property but even of all their actual belongings, as we have been told in Numbers 16,26. The words כל הרכוש in verse 32 of that chapter make clear that they had forfeited all claims to anything.

And Moses brought their cause before the LORD.

ויקרב משה את משפטן AND MOSES BROUGHT THEIR CAUSE [BEFORE THE LORD] — The law on this subject escaped him (Sanhedrin 8a). Here he received punishment because he had assumed a “crown” (he had set himself up as the supreme judge) by saying, (Deuteronomy 1:17) “And the cause that is too hard for you ye shall bring to me”. Another explanation: This chapter ought to have been written by Moses (i.e., like most laws in the Torah it should have been spoken to the people by Moses without his having waited until some incident made its promulgation necessary), but for the fact that the daughters of Zelophehad had so much merit, it was therefore written through them (it was their complaint which gave occasion for stating it) (Bava Batra 119a; Sanhedrin 8a).

כן בנות צלפחד דברת THE DAUGHTERS OF ZELOPHEHAD SPEAK RIGHT — Understand the word כן as the Targum does: יאות rightly, properly. God said: Exactly so is this chapter written before me on High (The Law has long since been fixed) (Sifrei Bamidbar 134:1). This tells us that their eye saw what Moses’ eye did not see. (They had a finer perception of what was just in the law of inheritance than Moses had.) (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Pinchas 8).

כן בנות צלפחד דברת THE DAUGHTERS OF ZELOPHEHAD SPEAK RIGHT — Understand the word כן as the Targum does: יאות rightly, properly. God said: Exactly so is this chapter written before me on High (The Law has long since been fixed) (Sifrei Bamidbar 134:1). This tells us that their eye saw what Moses’ eye did not see. (They had a finer perception of what was just in the law of inheritance than Moses had.) (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Pinchas 8).

כן בנות צלפחד דברת THE DAUGHTERS OF ZELOPHEHAD SPEAK RIGHT — Understand the word כן as the Targum does: יאות rightly, properly. God said: Exactly so is this chapter written before me on High (The Law has long since been fixed) (Sifrei Bamidbar 134:1). This tells us that their eye saw what Moses’ eye did not see. (They had a finer perception of what was just in the law of inheritance than Moses had.) (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Pinchas 8).

נתן תתן lit., GIVING THOU SHALT GIVE [A POSSESSION OF AN INHERITANCE AMONGST THEIR FATHER’S BRETHREN] — This suggests: thou shalt give two portions, viz., the portion of their father (אחזת נחלה) who was one of those who came out of Egypt, and his portion that he should have had together with his brothers (נחלה בתוך אחי אביהם) in the property of his father Hefer (who also was one of those who left Egypt) (cf. Rashi on Numbers 26:55) (cf. Sifrei Bamidbar 134:1; Bava Batra 118b).

לשמות מטה אבתם ACCORDING TO THE NAMES OF THE TRIBES OF THEIR FATHERS [THEY SHALL INHERIT] — These (the fathers referred to) were they who came out of Egypt. — Scripture treated this inheritance differently to all other inheritances mentioned in the Torah, for in the case of all other inheritances the living become heirs to the dead, whilst here the dead become heirs to the living. How is this so? Two brothers who were of those who came out of Egypt who had sons at least twenty years old amongst those who came into the Land, one son to this and three to that, the one son took one portion, and the three took three portions, for it is said, (v. 53) “To these (enumerated in the census taken immediately before they entered Palestine) shall the land be divided”. Their inheritance (that of these four) returns to (is regarded as having belonged to) their fathers’ father, and they (the two brothers who have four sons between them), divide equally. This is what is stated, “according to the names of the tribes of their fathers they shall inherit” — that after the sons have received they divide it according to the fathers who came out of Egypt. If, however, they had straightway divided it according to the number of those who came out of Egypt these four would have taken only two portions, whilst now they take four portions (Bava Batra 117a; Sifrei Bamidbar 132:1).

Go up this Mount "Eivarim." The name of this mountain is "Mount Nevo," as it is explained in [the Torah portions] Ha'azinu and V'zot Haberachah, but it is called "Mount Eivarim"--"Mount of the Crossings"--because it is at the crossing of the [River] Jordan. And, there is where they will cross into the Land of Canaan, as it said there (in Ha'azinu and V'zot Haberachah), "...which is on the banks of the Jordan...," and there they crossed the Jordan, as it is said, (Joshua 4:19) "...And the people went up from the Jordan and camped in Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho...." And, it was not a mitzvah that the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded him (Moses) to do now, because if so, he would have been required to go up there immediately. But rather, the reason for "go up Mount Eivarim and see the Land..." was because He (God) commanded him, "To these the Land is to be allotted..." (Numbers 26:53). Let it be known that you will not apportion the Land with your own hand, but rather you will go up to the top of Mount Eivarim before the people Israel travels from the land of Moab, and you will die upon it and nothing of the Land will reach you but the sight [of it]. And similarly, "Take Joshua..." (Numbers 27:18): When your day comes, you will take Joshua and fulfill that which is written [in Numbers 27:22] that tells that Moses did so with a full heart - and this is the action that will be recalled (Deuteronomy 31:7) at the time of Moses' death, when the poem was said, "he and Hoshea son of Nun."

who may go out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in; that the congregation of the LORD be not as sheep which have no shepherd.’

אשר יצא לפניהם ONE WHO MAY GO BEFORE THEM — not as is the way of the kings of the nations who sit at home and send their armies to battle, but as “I” have done — I who fought against Sihon and against Og, as it is said, (Numbers 21:34) “Do not fear him: “[for I have delivered him into thy hand … and thou shall do to him as thou didst unto Sihon, etc.]” and as is the way that Joshua followed, as it is said, (Joshua 5:3) “And Joshua went to him and said, Art thou for us [or for our adversaries]”. And so, too, in the case of David, it says, (I Samuel 18:16) “For he went out and came in before them” — went out at their head, and came in at their head (Sifrei Bamidbar 139:2).

אשר יצא לפניהם, when they would go to war;

ואשר יוציאם, by means of someone else. This refers to political management of the affairs of the people.