Q&A: On the Daughters of Zelophehad
On the Daughters of Zelophehad
Question
Regarding the story of the daughters of Zelophehad, there are two appeals to the Holy One, blessed be He, to clarify the law: one by the daughters of Zelophehad themselves, and the second by Zelophehad’s brothers (the tribe of the descendants of Joseph), and in both cases the Holy One, blessed be He, accepts their claim. The question is: what would the law have been had they not appealed for clarification? Did the Holy One, blessed be He, not know before the appeals that this was the law? Or perhaps the very appeal brought about a change in the law? Why did the Torah not address the case of daughters without a brother in the laws of inheritance before these requests for clarification? Seemingly, it appears that the Holy One, blessed be He, does not really care what the law will be regarding the daughters of Zelophehad and his brothers (and in general similar cases of daughters inheriting), and only when people turn to Him does He vindicate them; and if they had not appealed, they would have remained deprived. Maybe one can learn from this whole story that commandments between one person and another are not rigid commandments, and can be changed according to changing reality and logic?
Answer
I don’t think so. After all, if before the appeal to the Holy One, blessed be He, the law was simply that a daughter does not inherit, why did Moses turn to Him at all? He should have answered them in the negative, and that would be that. So it seems that Moses already had a doubt from the outset when they came to him, because in his view the Torah was not unequivocal on the matter. And once they raised the issue, he referred it to the Holy One, blessed be He. Then the Holy One, blessed be He, clarified what He had meant from the outset.
The question of why He did not write it explicitly in the Torah, so that there would be no need to appeal to Him, is a different question. Perhaps He wanted to show that the interpretation of ordinary people can also hit upon the truth (the importance of common sense). Or that He wanted to grant them the merit that a halakhic ruling would be revealed through them. I don’t know.