G-D willing this will be the last dvar torah for about a month or so. Please click here for a whole slew of Torah Riddles to ponder with G-D’s help.
For Food for Thought in Spanish: Haga clic aquí para leer en español. Please share this with your Jewish Spanish speaking family, friends, and associates.
As opposed to Nadav and Avihu, whom commentary point to their not seeking advice from each other as the source of their downfall, the daughters of Tzelofchod DID seek advice from each other in this week’s Torah portion of Pinchas. This led to them successfully obtaining a portion of the land in Israel.
The Sifri on the pasuk 27:1 says, “‘And the daughters of Tzelafchad confronted…’ Since the daughters of Tzelofchod heard that the land will be split up amongst the males (tribes) and not the females, they gathered together to seek advice from each other. They said, the mercy of Hashem is not like the mercy of flesh and blood. Flesh and blood has more mercy on males then on females but The One Who Created The World is not like that, rather He is merciful to everyone, both males and females, as it says ‘Hashem is good to all, and is merciful on all His creations’ (This pasuk comes from Tehillim, that we say in Ashrei every day).”
The Malbim says the daughters of Tzelofchod “got together to seek advice, and when they agreed that it’s impossible that Hashem would not be merciful on them to give them a portion of The Land then they stood up before Moshe.” (Click here for Hebrew text)
Chaza”l elsewhere praised the daughters of Tzelofchod for their intelligence and insight on how they approached Moshe Rabbeinu, and what they said when asking for their father’s portion of the land in Israel. Yet if they were so smart and put together, why did they first have to seek advice from each other to decide to even confront Moshe Rabbeinu? They were obviously on very high levels of emuna and bitachon, belief and trust in Hashem, and knew that Hashem is perfect and all merciful with such clear clarity, especially seeing the way they have been treated for forty years in the desert; so why the confidence booster? It even seems from this medrish that they were all on the same page. There was no conversation or back and forth; they all came to the same conclusion, solidified based on the pasuk in Tehillim which says that Hashem is different than mankind and therefore is all merciful to everyone without exceptions, when deserving?
We must have to say that because of the preconceived insecurity that was created in them based on mankind, that created a doubt, albeit on a very slight level, that they questioned whether maybe Hashem acts the same way. And they therefore felt that they had to come together to squelch their infinitesimally microscopic doubt, by bringing to the forefront and emphasizing the pasuk that Hashem is merciful to all. Only then were they able to build their confidence level to the point of confronting Moshe Rabbeinu about what they felt and knew they deserved.
There are times when insecurities which can be based on what seem to be social norms, can stop a person from seeking proper instruction. We see from here how healthy it is to seek advice from our peers, in order to gain the proper confidence to take the step in the right direction.