Land & Zelofhad's Daughters

(52) The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, (53) “Among these shall the land be apportioned as shares, according to the listed names: (54) with larger groups increase the share, with smaller groups reduce the share. Each is to be assigned its share according to its enrollment. (55) The land, moreover, is to be apportioned by lot; and the allotment shall be made according to the listings of the tribes of their fathers. (56) Each portion shall be assigned by lot, whether for larger or smaller groups.”

(1) The family heads in the clan of the descendants of Gilead son of Machir son of Manasseh, one of the Josephite clans, came forward and appealed to Moses and the chieftains, family heads of the Israelites. (2) They said, “The LORD commanded my lord to assign the land to the Israelites as shares by lot, and my lord was further commanded by the LORD to assign the share of our kinsman Zelophehad to his daughters. (3) Now, if they marry men from another Israelite tribe, their share will be cut off from our ancestral portion and be added to the portion of the tribe into which they marry; thus our allotted portion will be diminished. (4) And even when the Israelites observe the jubilee, their share will be added to that of the tribe into which they marry, and their share will be cut off from the portion of the tribe of our fathers.” (5) So Moses, at the LORD’s bidding, instructed the Israelites, saying: “The plea of the Josephite tribe is just. (6) This is what the LORD has commanded concerning the daughters of Zelophehad: They may marry anyone they wish, provided they marry into a clan of their father’s tribe. (7) No inheritance of the Israelites may pass over from one tribe to another, but the Israelites must remain bound each to the portion of his fathers. (8) Every daughter among the Israelite tribes who inherits a share must marry someone from a clan of her father’s tribe, in order that every Israelite may keep his ancestral share. (9) Thus no inheritance shall pass over from one tribe to another, but the Israelite tribes shall remain bound each to its portion.” (10) The daughters of Zelophehad did as the LORD had commanded Moses: (11) Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, Zelophehad’s daughters, were married to sons of their uncles, (12) marrying into clans of descendants of Manasseh son of Joseph; and so their share remained in the tribe of their father’s clan.

It was taught: The daughters of Zelophehad were wise, they were interpreters, they were righteous.

It was taught:

It would have been fitting for the portion about inheritances to have been written by Moses, our teacher, but the daughters of Zelophehad achieved merit and it was written by them.

It would have been fitting for the portion of the gatherer (see Numbers 15:32–36) to have been written by Moses, our teacher. But the gatherer was found guilty, and it was written by him.

To teach you that guilt is engendered by means of the guilty and merit by means of the meritorious.

Rav Yehudah said: "Shmuel said: 'The daughters of Zelophehad were permitted to marry members of any of the tribes, as it is stated: “Let them be married to whom they think best” (Numbers 36:6). But how do I make sense of “Only into the family of the tribe of their father shall they be married” (Numbers 36:6)? The verse offered them good advice, that they should be married only to those fit for them.'"

Rabbi Shmuel bar Rav Yitzḥak said: "This teaches that Moses our teacher was sitting and interpreting in the Torah portion about men whose married brothers had died childless, as it is stated: 'If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies, and has no child, the wife of the dead shall not be married abroad to one not of his kin; her husband’s brother shall come to her, and take her for him as a wife' (Deuteronomy 25:5). The daughters of Zelophehad said to Moses: 'If we are each considered like a son, give us each an inheritance like a son; and if not, our mother should enter into levirate marriage.' Immediately upon hearing their claim, the verse records: 'And Moses brought their cause before the Lord' (Numbers 27:5)."