But what gives these women any hope that their claim could be accepted? Hasn’t the law already been established by God at Sinai? Sure, the law seems unfair. But what’s fair got to do with it? Why should anyone think that his or her own sense of fairness is relevant when the Torah has already been revealed by God to Moses on Mount Sinai?
This question is the impetus for a remarkable early midrash found in Sifre BeMidbar (133):
The daughters of Zelophehad approached. When the daughters of Zelophehad heard that the Land was to be divided among the tribes, to males and not to females, they gathered together to take counsel in each other. They said, “Not like the mercies of people are the mercies of God. People have more mercy [i.e., preference] for males than females, but the One Who spoke and the World came to Be is not like this; rather, [God's] mercies are for both males and for females, and for all, as it says, “The Lord is good to all; His mercies are over all his creations.” (Psalms 145:9)
This early rabbinic text imagines the women citing the book of Psalms to vindicate their trust that God is egalitarian: “His mercies are over all his creations.” Preferential treatment for males is not, according to their interpretation, a policy established by God, but rather a bias established by men. The nineteenth-century commentator Barukh HaLevi Epstein asks what makes these women think that people (i.e., rabbis) favor men? He answers his own question with three Talmudic texts that give preferential treatment to men and concludes that “men tend to worry about their own reality more than that of women” (Torah Temimah to Numbers 27:1, number 1).
via The Jewish Theological Seminary – Parashat Pinhas.
A stunning midrash that admits that God is more egalitarian in nature than some of the laws promulgated in his name. I’ve often thought that the story of the daughters of Tzelofehad challenges many contemporary beliefs about the nature of Torah, but I particularlly appreciate the approach of this midrash. Not only can the law be challenged, but the law might not even be in line with God’s attributes. And this is in the Torah with Moses!
I would like to add another point. There must have been other families that had no sons, but it was the daughters of Tzelofehad that spoke up and enacted change.
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