Making The Torah Yours

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In this week's parsha, Pinchas, we read about the laws of inheritance of the land of Israel.

The daughters of Tzelafchad brought their case before Moshe. They were five women who were very learned in Torah, and they had no brothers. In the laws of inheritance, when there are brothers and sisters, the land goes only to the brothers, and they support their sisters, so they benefit from their father's estate. When they get married, they are supported by their husband, so they benefit from his estate.

The outcome is that land doesn't shift from tribe to tribe, keeping the tribe's territory intact. For example, if a daughter of the tribe of Menashe were to inherit her father's land, and then marry a man from the tribe of Efraim, that land would shift and become the territory of Efraim.

The question that the daughters of Tzelafchad had was, what if a man only has daughters, who inherits his land?

There are two possible answers. Either it goes to the closest male relative, or to the daughters. In Tzelafchad's case, if it goes to the closest male relative, it will get swallowed into his estate, and not be identified as Tzelafchad's land. And that is what his daughters wanted, that a part of the land of Israel should carry their father's name.

Rashi tells us, that Moshe forgot the law. Not that he didn't yet receive the law from Hashem, but rather, that he knew it and forgot it. One of the reasons brought by Rashi for this memory lapse, is that Hashem wanted that this law "be written by their hands," meaning, in the daughters of Tzelafchad's merit.

There was one other time that Rashi tells us that Moshe forgot the law, in last week's parsha, by the story of Zimri. When he took a Midianite princess to have relations with her. Moshe forgot the law, that if a Jew has carnal relations with a non Jewish woman, zealots may take action against him.

Why would Hashem make it that Moshe, the teacher of the Jewish people, should forget specifically these two laws? It is obvious that it was necessary for him to forget them, and that there is a positive gain and outcome from his lapse of memory in these laws. If not, what was the purpose of telling us these stories. So what is the positive outcome of this event?

Another question. Why is so much prominence given to the daughters of Tzelafchad? They are mentioned by name three times in the Torah.

In both of these stories, Moshe would not have been believed to say what the law was, because he was personally involved. By forgetting the law, it had to be transmitted in a different way, or it had to be retransmitted by Hashem to Moshe, to give it the strength and validity of every other mitzvah that Moshe taught.

In the case of Zimri, he wanted to be with a Midianite woman, and being that Moshe's wife was Tzipora, Yisro's daughter, a Midianite, he was too involved to give the ruling. Because of this, the Torah law had to be transmitted through a different person, Pinchas.

In the case that the daughters of Tzelafchad brought, Moshe wasn't originally involved, but they dragged him in. They said that their father wasn't part of Korach's rebellion against Moshe. Which although it seems like a minor thing, it would be enough to weaken the ruling. By forgetting the law, he had to go to Hashem to receive it again and that was enough to give it the full strength of Torah.

The daughters of Tzelafchad are mentioned three times in the Torah, each time it says their names, Machla, Tirtza, Chagla, Milka and Noah, specifically connected to the laws of inheritance. This is because of their self sacrifice and total investment into these laws. Their father died in one of the first years after the Exodus, so some of them were born yet in Egypt and their case was brought in the fortieth year after the Exodus. They all refrained from getting married until their case would be heard, because once they would be married, their case would not be so strong, because they would be connected to their husband's land. This was a major sacrifice on their part, now they were around forty. They also delved into the subject with all their being, making it theirs, hence they merited to have it "written by their hands," in their honor.

This is a lesson to each of us, that if we put our effort into Torah study and do it with self sacrifice and not for a personal gain, like the daughters of Tzelafchad. Then the Torah becomes ours, and as if it was written in our honor. This is true for any sacrifice that is done for Hashem and His Torah, it makes it yours and in your merit.

May the merit of our sacrifices for Hashem and His Torah stand up for us, and storm the gates of heaven, asking that Moshiach should come already. The time has come.