The book that spans the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness ends today with a surprise: The five bold sisters who claimed their inheritance and changed the law in the favor of justice for women, are back again, for one more legal twist in the plot. As preparation for the promised land settlement quicken, some of their male relatives from the Gilead family, whose lineage leads to Jospeh, take the case back to court, approaching Moses with a challenge to the prior verdict. If the five women are free to marry whomever they want, the land inherited from their father’s family line will not belong to the family anymore. The value of ‘land tenure’ - hereditary heritage of land - is still known today as a privilege that ensures, to some level, safety and continuity for the family - at large. The law then is amended: The women are indeed the heirs - but they must marry within their tribe and keep it in the family.
וַתִּהְיֶ֜ינָה מַחְלָ֣ה תִרְצָ֗ה וְחׇגְלָ֧ה וּמִלְכָּ֛ה וְנֹעָ֖ה בְּנ֣וֹת צְלׇפְחָ֑ד לִבְנֵ֥י דֹדֵיהֶ֖ן לְנָשִֽׁים׃מִֽמִּשְׁפְּחֹ֛ת בְּנֵֽי־מְנַשֶּׁ֥ה בֶן־יוֹסֵ֖ף הָי֣וּ לְנָשִׁ֑ים וַתְּהִי֙ נַחֲלָתָ֔ן עַל־מַטֵּ֖ה מִשְׁפַּ֥חַת אֲבִיהֶֽן׃
Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, Zelophehad’s daughters, became the wives of their uncles’ sons, becoming wives within clans of descendants of Manasseh son of Joseph; and so their share remained in the tribe of their father’s family.
The Case, and this fourth book, are closed. Proto-feminism? Sort of, and really not.
Why does this become the final trope of this wild ride of a journey?
On one level, this narrative ending echoes the many struggles of the book that describes so many protests and tragedies, trials and tribulations. The main thrust is the path to the promised land - the fulfillment of the covenant with the ancestors. From this perspective it’s not the women’s rights that matter but the continuity of ancestral - patriarchal - covenant with the land and its real owner - God. What matters is the law and order of real estate, governing, perhaps with guilt, the land that was once someone else’s before ‘handed over’ to each of the tribes. The book ends with a reminder of why this covenant is binding, how old it is, as guarantee of its rightful ownership and eternal status as ‘ours’. The women are once again named - among the few survivors of the wilderness whose stories still circulate. Tirzah would be the name of Israel’s first capital in the Samaria mountain. Some of the other names of these women seemed to have been other cities and provinces as well. They represent the all but forgotten leadership of women in our ancient history.
On a more mythic level, the book that buries almost all those who still saw Egypt brings to our mind the hero who first got us there - Joseph. His figure - perhaps the ghost of Jospeh, mummified as once great leaders of Egypt were - looms over the fate of his great grandchildren, as they wonder through the wilderness, seeking justice and a roof, struggling to balance human dignity and maintain family ties, transcend tensions, possibly heal old family wounds - or maybe just passing on the trauma? The nation heads to the place Jospeh left, sold into slavery by his brothers - many generations ago. Now they carry his bones, for ultimate burial. His ghost repeats the journey from Canaan to Egypt - but in reverse.
Joseph’s name here links us to the origin of this exodus from slavery, as it also evokes the patience that it takes to deal and heal and what we are invited to keep doing - take the story further, keep improving it, and us.
Joseph’s mythic story, too, is far from over. He’ll become a vital voice in the mystical narrative of messianic longing for the eternal promised life. One of his descents will become the Messiah, one day, when it’s time..
What’s clear from these verses is that collective identity and belonging to one’s tribe, with land rights and legacy becomes an ideal and a priority for those who left this legacy to us. This is perhaps the yearning of nomadic people, seekers of asylums and some measure of security, having gone from one exile to another for so many generations? Betrayed, like Jospeh, by their own neighbors, families and friends sometimes?
By the time this book gets written and edited, likely after the return to Zion from Babylon’s exile in the 5th century BCE, there is already a big emphasis on holding on to homeland at any price. There’s an echo of homeland insecurity. That trope persists, for better and for worse, in our contemporary personal and public lives.
And so the shifting sand dunes cover up the desert dead; this book, now done, will bury all that’s been and done. The final word will be the fifth book - the Book of Words awaits its turn, starting tomorrow; It’s the swan song of Moses, on the edge of the promised land of yearnings he will never enter - but we, the readers, will, and can.
Chazak Chazak V’Nitchazek: Let there be power to the people, with strength and stamina, curiosity and courage, compassion and humility - to carry on.
Image: The final page of the Book of Wilderness/Ba’Mibar, in the Almanzi Pentateuch, Lisbon, 15th century, British Library
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