History of women's rights begins with Moses

July 10, 2:08 PMSpiritual Life ExaminerRabbi Ben Kamin

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They came to him without benefit of advocates, attorneys, or lobbying groups.  They were the five daughters of an obscure man named Zelophehad (hereafter referred to as ‘Z’) but they prevented him from going anonymous by boldly pleading their own case before Moses—as recorded in the Book of Numbers.

Z’s daughters, presumably adults, showed up at the door of the Sanctuary Tent (you can look up it up) and got into Moses’ face:  “Our father died in the desert,” they told the likely startled lawgiver.  They were unrepentant about Moses’ time and celebrity. They told him that their father had not taken part in a recent, particularly notorious rebellion against Moses’ authority that was led by an eccentric named Korach.  Not letting Moses get a word in, they declared:  “Our father was not in the company of those that gathered against God.  He died in his own sin.”  And then the clincher, and the real motivation for their unannounced visit:  “He had no sons.”

‘Why should our father’s name be eliminated because he has no son?’

This meant that old Z’s property, estate, and legacy would simply vanish because women could not inherit any of it.  Z’s five young women put a question before Moses that he had never heard before:  “Why should the name of our father be eliminated from his family because he has no son?  Give us an estate in the land among the brothers of our father.”

This got Moses’ attention and he went straight to God for reflection and an answer:  “And Moses brought their judgment before God.”  It remains a considerable tribute to Moses’ egalitarian character that he did not dismiss the women and their culturally outlandish petition; in fact, he saw enough gravity and humanity in it to turn to prayer and divine commiseration.

This is the reply from God recorded in the Hebrew Scripture, some 3,000 years old, long before Betty Friedan and the National Organization for Women and their good works:  “The daughters of Z speak rightly.  You shall surely give them a possession of inheritance among their father’s brethren, and you shall cause the inheritance of their father to pass to them.”

And then God adds:  “If a man dies, and has no son, then you shall pass his inheritance on to his daughter.”

This is why I love the Bible—not for the supernatural episodes, the diabolical incidents, the fiery upheavals that terrorize and plague people with guilt and violence.  It’s these moments of love and inclusiveness, long before we became so modern and programmed that we forgot to notice.

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