Seder 123: Numbers 27---The Request of Zelophehad's Daughters

 As we are reminded in Numbers 26, certain family lines of the Israelites ended in the wilderness.  For example, there were no descendants of Dathan and Abiram to inherit land in Canaan, nor were there any descendants of Er and Onan.  

There were other families with no male heir, and according to custom, women did not inherit land.  After the census the women from one such family approached Moses to point out the unfairness in this custom.  Their father Zelophehad had not been a rebel like Dathan or Abiram; instead, he had "died for his own sin" (Num 27:3).  But like Dathan and Abiram, his name would not be preserved.  

There are lots of speculations in Jewish tradition about what "sin" of Zelophehad is in view in Num 27:3.  One popular one, proposed by Rabbi Akiva in the second century AD, is that Zelophehad was the Sabbath-breaker of Num 15:32-36.  However, there is no real evidence in the Bible for this identification.  Another sage, Judah ben Beteira, objected to Akiva's speculation.  If Akiva was right, Judah said, he had revealed a name that God chose not to reveal.  And if he was wrong, then Akiva had slandered an innocent party.  Either way, Judah said, God would hold him accountable (Sanhedrin 96b).  

Others have speculated that perhaps Zelophehad died at the hands of Canaanites in a previous battle--e.g., Num 21:1 or Num 14:39-45.  There is also nothing in the Bible to back up these guesses.  Most likely the daughters simply meant that he had died like all the rest of the older generation, for the collective sin of lacking the faith to proceed to the Promised Land.  

God honored the request of Zelophehad's daughters.  They, and other women after them, would be able to inherit land in situations where there was no male heir (Num 27:5-11).  Like the case of Second Passover (Num 9), this was a situation where where human initiative prompted a new Torah provision.

In a sermon at Church of the Messiah on November 5, 2022, Kyle Kettering discussed the bravery of these young women, who were at this point still unmarried (see Num 36).