Standing up for Rights: Daughters of Zelophehad

Two cases of women standing up for their rights in Israel caught my attention this week. A group of ultra-Orthodox women has petitioned the High Court of Justice against the Petah Tikva rabbinate, the municipal burial society and the city’s chief rabbi, Baruch Shimon Solomon.

Why? Because in Petach Tikva, women are banned from delivering eulogies and comforting mourners at funerals held at the local cemetery. In Petach Tikva, men and women are not allowed to sit next to each other at any time during a funeral or any part of its ceremonies.

The lawyers arguing against the rabbinate commented that these practices contradict the religious law practiced in many other cemeteries across the country and the Jewish world — and even though they are in Petah Tikva, the rabbinate and the burial society are relying on the strictest interpretation of what is termed “customs of Jerusalem.”

The second issue that caught my attention is a new law called the “Condoleezza Law.” It requires the Israeli government to include women in every governmental committee covering all domestic, foreign and security policy.

To win the cabinet’s support, the law’s proponents, MKs Yuli Tamir (Labor) and Eti Livni (Shinui) had to give up the demand for a minimum of 25-percent representation in each committee. However, it’s better than nothing — before there were no women represented at all. One article I read highlighted the fact that women will now be appointed part of the delegation representing Israel in all future peace negotiations.

It’s possible that I was especially struck by the importance of these issues this week because women standing up for their rights is one of the central themes of parashat Pinchas. I am referring to the story of the daughters of Zelophehad.

We read that a petition was presented by the daughters of Zelophehad: And they stood before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the princes and the entire community at the door of the Tent of Meeting, and they said:

“Our father died in the desert…and he has left no sons. Why should our father’s name be lost to his clan, just because he had no son? Give to us a portion of land along with our father’s brothers.” (Numbers 27:2-4)

So Moses brought their case [literally, “judgement”] before God.

God spoke to Moses saying: “The daughters of Zelophehad speak rightly. Give them a hereditary portion of land alongside their father’s brothers. Let their father’s hereditary property thus pass over to them.

According to the Midrash Rabba, the daughters of Zelophehad were wise and righteous women. What shows their wisdom? They spoke at the appropriate moment, for Moses was engaged in the subject of inheritances. (Talmud, Bava Batra 119b; Midrash Rabbah, Numbers 21:11).

They knew to wait for the right moment to correct an injustice.

Another commentary talks about their wisdom by commenting on the verse: “And Moses brought their judgment before God. Why does it say “their judgment,” and not “their question?” Because their petition already included the legal argument and its ruling as well. In other words, the daughters of Zelophehad were so wise, that they gave the judgment themselves and Moses just passed it on to God for validation! (Anaf Yosef, Ein Yaakov, Talmud Bava Batra 119b).

Another midrash gives the legal argument they used in a dialogue between the daughters of Zelophehad and Moses:

Daughters: Give us a portion of the land along with our father’s brothers. Moses: It is impossible for a daughter to inherit.

Daughters: Why?

Moses: You are women.

Daughters: Then let our mother enter into yibbum (levirate marriage– the law where the wife of the deceased who died “without seed” marries the deceased husband’s brother) and conceive an inheritor that way.

Moses: Impossible, since once there are children (you, the daughters!) yibbum is not possible.

Daughters: You are contradicting yourself, Moses. Either we are not “seed” and the obligation of yibbum applies to our mother, or we are “seed” and can inherit the land ourselves. [Either we count or we don’t count, Moses!] In that moment they convinced Moses. When he heard the justice of their complaint he immediately presented their case before God. (Midrash Yalkut Shimoni 27)

In the Masorti-Conservative movement, we have our own b’not Zelophehad. In the last few years a series of study booklets has been published regarding women in Jewish law – written by women — called “To Learn and to Teach” [based on Prof. Rabbi David Golinkin’s book “The Status of Women in Jewish Law”] from the Center for Women in Jewish Law, and put out by the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem.

They have published on women’s aliyot in halacha, agunot, and the issue of mehitza in synagogues. My knee jerk feminist reaction tells me they are doing the right thing – standing up for women’s rights – much like the Knesset passing a new law to include women in governmental committees. But my Jewish heart is greatly satisfied with the meticulous research, and the careful proofs from Jewish sources that each booklet gives. These women have done their halachik homework.

I only wish it had come sooner. If women had been taught Jewish law and Talmud — if Jewish women had learned to lead services and read Torah in the United States in the early part of the 20th century when immigrant fathers went off to work – the American Jewish world would look very different today. The fathers were busy at factories and starting businesses — but the mothers could have saved a generation or two of children who never had a proper Jewish education — but they could have learned at home.

Thank God we live in a generation when all these opportunities are now available to women. I remember once hearing Israeli feminist and former Rector of the Schechter Institute, Professor Alice Shalvi say: “The first time I went up for an aliyah – my eyes filled with tears – I realized that I had never been allowed to even come to see the text of the Torah up close – let alone have an aliyah. I ask you now, do we have at least 25% of women at our schul — taking aliyot, reading Torah or leading services? Our very own b’not Zelophehad have done the work to set the Jewish female soul free to worship — to lead — to take pride in representing the congregation before God. The time is right to correct this situation — it’s time for greater women’s participation and representation at Bet Israel.

In Psalms 119:54, King David sings to God: “Your laws have been my songs.” And in the spirit of King David, I’m reminded of an old protest song called 59 Cents (words and music by Fred Small), that captures women’s struggle for equality under the law in the work force. The call was for equal pay for equal work, and the chorus was:

59 cents for every man’s dollar
59 cents – it’s a lowdown deal
59 cents makes a grown woman holler:
They give you a diploma; it’s you’re paycheck they steal.

And I remember that by the end of the song, the chorus changes to:

59 cents for every man’s dollar
59 cents – oh the deal has changed
59 cents makes a grown woman holler
You can keep your flowers, buddy, give us a raise!

And I’d like to add my own coda.

To make real progress, women should no longer demand equal pay – they shouldn’t be asking for more than 59 cents for every man’s dollar – they should be in charge of the payroll. Women should not demand equal rights – they themselves should be making better laws.

And finally, let me say that women should not be asking for better scholarly research to be done on women’s halachic issues – because, well, it is already being done by people like Rabbi Monique Susskind Goldberg, and Rabbi Diana Villa at the Schechter Institute — writing the booklets for the Center for Women in Jewish Law. Although, I suppose there is always room for more…

How do we move forward — to take the next step toward equality in our schul and in the larger community? We learn this from the daughters of Zelophehad, who, (according to our midrash), became the judges themselves and presented their judgment to Moses.

There is progress to report on women’s issues in society – and today I brought you a number of examples. Let me say yishar koach – to the Knesset for the law to include women in all committees and b’hatzlacha — the best of luck — to the women of Petach Tikvah in their case against the rabbinate.

Moses met with b’not Tzlophchad outside the tent of meeting and he agreed that their cause was just. Today I’ve spoken about the women of our generation who are calling the next great meeting…inside the tent itself.

Shabbat Shalom.

Schechter graduate Rabbi Paul Arberman delivered this sermon to members of his Netanya congregation, Kehilat Bet Israel.

Photo: The Daughters of Zelophehad (illustration from the 1908 Bible and Its Story Taught by One Thousand Picture Lessons).