וּבְאֵ֙לֶּה֙ לֹא־הָ֣יָה אִ֔ישׁ מִפְּקוּדֵ֣י מֹשֶׁ֔ה וְאַהֲרֹ֖ן הַכֹּהֵ֑ן אֲשֶׁ֥ר פָּקְד֛וּ אֶת־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל בְּמִדְבַּ֥ר סִינָֽי׃
Rashi comments that the pasuk specifies "ish" because it meant to exclude the women:
– אבל על האישה לא נגזרה גזירת המרגלים, לפי שהיו מחבבות את הארץ. האנשים אומרים: נתנה ראש ונשובה מצרימה (במדבר י״ד:ד׳), והנשים אומרות: תנו לנו נחלה. לכך נסמכה פרשת בנות צלפחד לכאן.
The men had participated in cheit ha'mergalim and did not want to enter the land (see Kli Yakar). The women, however, were Zionists! They wanted to settle the land, as we see from the next portion where the Bnos Tzelafchad demand their inheritance of a portion in Eretz Yisrael.
The Bnos Tzelafchad were 5 exceptional people. Granted, sometimes there is a "yotzei min ha'klal" that is "melamed al ha'klal," but how can we really generalize from the behavior of these 5 women to say that all women had a love for Eretz Yisrael?
What we see is that even a small number of people who take a stand can effect on an entire population. When you have such staunch lovers of Eretz Yisrael like the Bnos Tzeflafchad, other women hear about it, they go home and look in the mirror, and they say to themselves, "Nu, what about me? Where is my love for Eretz Yisrael?" You can't live around people who radiate enthusiasm for a cause without some of it rubbing off and causing others to try harder, to do more, to step up to the plate.
But it all starts with one person or one small group having the courage to take action.
"...Va'yakam mitoch ha'eidah va'yikach romach b'yado..." Pinchas got up from amidst the people and took action. Why not just tell us what he did -- why do we need the "va'yakam mitoch ha'eidah?" Rav Nissim Yagen explains that the Torah wants to emphasize that before this event, Pinchas was not someone special. He was "toch ha'eidah," just another guy in the camp of Klal Yisrael. He could have easily gone about his business, chosen not to be involved, declared this was not his responsibility, and he would have been no different than anyone else. But "va'yakam mitoch ha'eidah" -- he broke free of the lethargy and indifference of the masses. One person -- and it stopped the mageifah.
"B'kanoh es kinasi b'socham..." Sefas Emes (5647) writes that inside every person in Klal Yisrael was the feeling that what Zimri did is wrong. What made Pinchas different was that he acted on that feeling; he didn't just let it sit inside, b'socham, and die a death of quietude.
You don't have to take action on the scale of what Pinchas did to make a difference. Simple things --a seder that is kavu'a, a minyan you always attend, etc. might be the one act that inspires others, the one act that causes people to say that if Ploni can do it, why not me?
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did the bnos Tzelafchad share a sense of 'now or never' with Pinchas? not only was it the fortieth year bamidbar (Rashi, 27:2a)[niglah], but the pasuk that concludes their bold foray, 27:11, is immediately followed by the deadly directive to Moshe at 27:12 [nistar-- a sequence objectively unknowable by the five women. but known by a sixth sense??]. the sisters sensed outwardly and inwardly that this was their opening, the ripe moment to make halachic history {through due process, rather than zealotry}...
ReplyDeletebut "enthusiasm" is not enough. the 'women of the wall' have enthusiasm. should traditional bnos Yisrael, davening unobtrusively at the kosel when these modern women raid, take note? should they, the recently modest, burst into the Mishkan, look in the kiyor's copper plating and say to themselves 'nu, what about me? where is my radical feminism?'?
or are there limits to the legitimacy of challenge? why is Sarach bas Asher named at 26:46? ...she made two arguments to inherit land: 1) 'I am an immediate child of Asher, not a descendant; surely I rank at least equal to the males who are only descendants at some remove from my father?'. and 2) 'shouldn't I receive land in the absence of the mishpacha of Yishva my brother (son #2, Bereishis 46:17, who is missing from Bamidbar 26:44)?'. Moshe dismissed both of these claims out of hand [and off the record] through the mysterious faculty of da'as Torah ['a Zionist she certainly is. an inheritor? not on my watch...']