In
this week’s Torah reading, Parshat Pinchas, we find some
uppity
Jewish women. Some say, the first Jewish feminists. But what did they
demand? That they be treated equally in inheriting a part of Eretz
Yisrael (the Land of Israel), promised by HaShem (the God of Israel),
to their ancestors. Their
love for Eretz Yisrael burned in their hearts.
“The daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, came forward, and his daughters’ names were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah,” (Numbers 27:1).
On the words “of the families of Manasseh, the son of Joseph,” Rashi asks why is this necessary? Has it not already said earlier, “the son of Manasseh?” To inform you that Joseph cherished the Land, as it says, “and you shall bring up my bones…” (Exodus 13:19), and his daughters cherished the Land, as it says, “Give us a portion,” (later in verse 4), (Sifrei Pinchas 10).
“They stood before Moses, before Eleazar the Kohen, and before the leaders and the entire congregation at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, saying: ‘Our father died in the desert, but he was not in the assembly that banded together against HaShem, during Korah’s rebellion, he died for his own sin, and he had no sons.
Why
should our father’s name be eliminated from his family [tribe],
because he had no son? Give us a portion along with our father’s
brothers,’” (Numbers
27:2-4).
“So
Moses brought their claim
before HaShem.
HaShem
spoke to
Moses, saying: ‘Zelophehad’s daughters speak righteously.
You shall certainly give them a portion of inheritance [in
the Land], among the brothers of their father,
and you shall transfer their father’s inheritance to them,’”
(Numbers
27:5-7).
Eretz Yisrael was so dear to them, that they risked everything, demanding from Moses, that they too acquire a portion in the Land.
The Talmud, Sotah 11b says,“Rav Avira taught: In the merit of the righteous women who were in that generation, [the children of] Israel were redeemed from Egypt.”
There are many reasons given, as to what constituted their righteousness. But certainly, their trust in HaShem’s promise, to the Forefathers and Foremothers, to redeem them from Egypt and bring them back to Eretz Yisrael to inherit the Land, is one of them.
According to the great 15th century kabbalist, Rabbi Yitzhak Luria, the Ari’zl, the souls of the final generation before the Messiah’s arrival, are reincarnations of the souls of the generation of the Exodus. (Shaar HaGilgulim, Hakdamah-Introduction 20).
And,
we’ve seen these women’s righteous
actions,
filled with
Gevurah (Holy Strength)
in our
days...
Last
summer, a
ceremony marking the
fourth year since the passing of Rabbi Moshe Levinger, and the 40th
anniversary of the entry and resettlement of Beit Hadassah, inside
Hebron, was held.
Rabbanit
Miriam Levinger, and Daniella
Weiss, spoke.
Daniella
Weiss is a
former
leader
of the
resettlement movement, Gush
Emunim, a
former
mayor of Kedumim in
Samaria, and
currently
the Secretary-General
of the Nachala Settlement Movement.
Gush
Emunim spearheaded the resettlement of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, in
the 1970s and
1980s, that
has led to almost a million Jews living in the areas liberated in the
1967 Six Day War.
For those who don’t know, Rabbi Levinger (student of Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook) was the founding father of the Jewish resettlement of Hebron, along with his wife, Rabbanit Levinger, after the 1967 Six Day War, and a leader of Gush Emunim.
In the spring of 1968, Rabbi Levinger put an advertisement in an Israeli newspaper, for a Passover Seder in Hebron, at an Arab owned hotel that he had rented out. Refusing to leave after Passover, he and his group negotiated with the IDF and the government, first moving to the Military Headquarters building (the Memshal), and eventually getting the Israeli government to agree to develop an empty hilltop just outside Hebron, what became Kiryat Arba, where about 7,500 Jews live today.
Eleven years later, in the spring of 1979, his wife, Rabbanit Miriam, Sarah Nachshon [wife of famed artist Baruch Nachshon], along with several other women and children, entered the till then, abandoned Hadassah Hospital building. It had been unused since the infamous 1929 massacre on the Jewish community of Hebron, by Hebron’s Arabs. After which, the British authorities expelled the surviving Jews from Hebron “for their own good.”
After a protracted struggle with the Israeli government to get the women out, the government agreed to the development of Jewish resettlement within the city of Hebron itself. Which has led to nearly a thousand Jews living in Hebron today.
Then Deputy Foreign Minister, and now tipped as the next Israeli Ambassador to the UK, Tzippi Hotovely, speaking at the ceremony, praised Rabbanit Levinger, Sarah Nachshon, and the other righteous women, for setting an example to her generation of women, fighting for the Jewish people’s right to Eretz Yisrael today.
Hotovely said she hoped that this government of Israel (after the 1st elections in Sept. 2019) would apply Sovereignty to Judea and Samaria, and that all future governments of Israel would put to rest, the idea of dividing the land, and giving away part of it to others.
Hotovely
earlier,
in
her
inaugural
speech in
2015, as
the then new Deputy
Foreign Minister, said that
Israel had
tried too hard to appease the world. “This land is ours. All of it
is ours. We did not come here to apologize
for that…We expect as a matter of principle, the international
community recognize Israel’s right to build homes for Jews in their
homeland, everywhere.”
Other righteous women of our generation include, Nadia Matar and Yehudit Katzover, founders of Women in Green. They have spearheaded Ribonut (The movement to apply Israeli sovereignty to Judea and Samaria), and put the issue of sovereignty onto the political agenda.
We
need more Bnot Tzlaphchad (Daughters
of Zelophehad),
like these
women. Jewish women
seem to get it, even if the men don’t always. Maybe there should be
a new
organization
started, called Bnot Tzlaphchad, a
Jewish women’s organization, encouraging
Jewish
Moms to teach their children and
husbands,
the love of Eretz Yisrael, importance of Aliyah, re-settlement of the
Land, and
to push their husbands and grown children to take practical actions,
as the Jewish women do.
With
Parshat Shlach just behind us, and the three weeks and Tisha B’Av
coming, now is a good time to do the Tikkun (fixing/healing) on the
“Sin of the Spies.” “Vayotziu Dibat HaAretz,” they
said Lashon
HaRa, slander on Eretz Yisrael, (Numbers 13:32).
Just
as it was in the merit of faithful
Jewish
women then,
that Israel
was
redeemed, so too, it will be in the merit of the righteous women of
our generation, and their unwavering faithfulness
to Eretz
Yisrael, and
the coming
Final Redemption,
that the
Jews will
be fully
redeemed
once again.
Ariel
Natan Pasko, an independent analyst and consultant, has a Master's
Degree specializing in International Relations, Political Economy &
Policy Analysis. His articles appear regularly on numerous
news/views and think-tank websites and in newspapers. His
latest articles can also be read on his archive: The
Think Tank by Ariel Natan Pasko.
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2020/5780 Pasko
