Five Daughters, a Father’s Name, and the Forgotten Place of Women in God’s People

Not About Owning Land — About a Father's Name

The second major story of Parashat Pinchas has received far less attention than Pinchas's javelin. But in many ways it is equally revolutionary. After the census of military-age men in chapter 26, five daughters come to Moses with a case. Their father Zelophehad from the tribe of Manasseh — the tribe of Joseph — had died in the wilderness with no sons. Under the law of Moses, only sons inherit. The daughters could not receive their father's portion of land. And when they married men from other tribes, the land of Zelophehad's family would disappear entirely from the tribe of Manasseh.

Their names were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. And what they asked for, it is important to notice, was not primarily about property rights for themselves. The daughters of Zelophehad requested to inherit their father's land not so that they could be landowners, but for the perpetuation of the name of their father and his honor. Even though their father died for his own sin, his daughters apparently honored his memory. In my opinion, this is the first act of women's rights and women's liberation.

What the Archaeology Shows

What makes this case even more interesting is that Moses was raised as an Egyptian prince in the house of Pharaoh. He was probably well versed in Egyptian law — and in the law of the entire surrounding region. And the archaeology is very revealing.

Archaeologists have found documents from Alalakh (Stratum VII, 17th century B.C.E.) indicating that daughters had the right to inherit just as sons. This practice continued up to the 15th century B.C.E. In Ugarit (13-14th century B.C.E.) daughters could inherit their father in the absence of a male brother. In Emar (13th century B.C.E.) when specified in a testament of the father, daughters could inherit the same as sons. In Egypt, in the time of the Old Kingdom (2675-1980 B.C.E.), daughters inherited the property of their dead father — though their brothers inherited a larger portion. This Egyptian practice continued all the way into the New Kingdom — that is, all the way to the time of Moses and the children of Israel in Egypt.

So Moses had several options. He could say: "The law is the law. The law doesn't say daughters inherit, and they don't inherit." He could say: "I see your point — all the nations around us allow daughters to inherit when there are no sons. Why should we be different than our neighbors?" Moses takes a different route. He does not feel that he has the right to change the law or the custom of the people of Israel on his own. He has a higher authority from which to ask a solution to this problem. He considered the problem and didn't dismiss it.

God Changes His Own Torah

God understood the problem and changed the law — not only for this specific case, but for all future cases. And this is precisely what Paul remembered when he wrote to the Galatians:

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." — Galatians 3:28. Christians are very quick to quote Paul's statement regarding the Jew-Gentile challenge. They forget that the next words in Paul's statement include "neither male nor female." All one in Christ Jesus.

What the Church Has Ignored

I am a witness of a major breakdown of church hypocrisy. Churches waving the flag of restoration — "bible only is our authority, we want to be like the New Testament church" — have ignored the clear instruction written in the New Testament on the issue of women and their role in the life and practice of the church.

It is clear in this text that women can pray and prophesy in public. Churches that have denied women from praying in public have sinned against women and against the church itself.

In this text from Paul's letter to the Romans, we see that in the church of Rome there were female deacons. The Greek word for servant is "diakonos" — the same word used for the male deacons. And:

Paul calls women who worked with him in the gospel fellow workers and laborers in the gospel. One wonders what these women did together with Paul in order to deserve that description.

In Parashat Pinchas, God adjusted His own Torah to establish justice and equality in the case of the daughters of Zelophehad. If God was willing to update His own law for the sake of five women who honored their father's name — it is reasonable to ask whether our own religious institutions are willing to look at what they may have gotten wrong about the women in their midst.