Rabbi's Derasha

Shabbat Shacharit

Shacharit tomorrow will begin at 9 am with Nishmat Kol Chai.

Rabbi Feldman's Derasha

These two Parashiot make a fitting end to the arc of the book of Bamidbar, which has transitioned from a generation shaped by events around it to a generation that shapes events.  Nowhere is this more evident than in the sphere that matters most: The laws of the Torah.  

Mattot begins with the laws of vows. A vow puts the power to create a prohibition in the hands of human beings.  This is such a radical tool that its introduction is prefaced with a phrase rarely seen: Zeh Hadavar Asher Tziva Hashem -- this is what Hashem commands.  Commentators say that this phrase comes as reassurance: Yes, as radical as this is, it is really what Hashem says.  The power to forbid something is normally a divine power, but Hashem places it among human powers.  

But the greatest sign of the shift to human power over Halacha comes both before and after this.  There is no story in the book that demonstrates this more than the story of the daughters of Tzelafechad, which took place last week, and which, not coincidentally, comes up again at the end of the book.  

Let’s review: The daughters of Tzelafechad came forward with their apprehensions during last week’s Parasha.  Apropos of the discussion of the Halachic order of inheritance, the daughters came forward with their concern that as the descendents of a father who had no sons, there was a chance that their family inheritance would be lost.  In doing so, they were not asserting rights, nor were they uneasy about the loss of money.  Rather the daughters were expressing their worry that their father’s name would be erased from posterity.  Hashem agrees with them and announces an addendum to the laws of inheritance which allows for family land in such a situation to go to the daughters.  

That story is one of just a handful in the Torah in which a new law is enunciated because of a situation which arises from a story.  A famous example is Pesach Sheni, the make-up sacrifice a month after Pesach.  A number of people who were unable to participate in the first Pesach in the desert approached Moshe and asked for a chance to make it up.  The Halacha granting that second chance is revealed because of their request.  

There are five such stories, according to R’ Elchanon Samet, a teacher in Eretz Yisrael.  All but one of the stories are in Bamidbar, and two of the four in Bamidbar grow out of the situation of the daughters of Tzelafechad.  These two are actually two sides of the same story.  Namely, the story began in last week’s Parasha, but it continues -- after a hiatus of several chapters -- this week.  

One of the consequences of granting the daughters of Tzelafechad their request raises another thorny problem.  When the daughters marry, their inheritance will be joined with the family inheritance of their husbands.  If their husbands are from the same tribe -- that of Menashe -- there’s no problem.  But if they are from another tribe, the map of the tribe as it stakes its claim in the land of Israel will be altered.  This was not a worry of the daughters but it is a worry of the elders of the tribe.  They approach Moshe and, again, a law is revealed because of this situation: The daughters must marry within the tribe.  [This law did not last long, but that issue is beyond our scope this week.]
​​​​​​​
The shift from the generation that was shaped by events to a generation that shapes them means many things.  But the fact that it plays out in Halacha begins to teach us something about the Oral Law.  The Torah is telling us that the Halacha is often a process which sometimes arises out of events, and out of the consequences of events. Next week, the Torah itself will start to be enunciated by a human, Moshe Rabbenu, which tells us that this process is in the hands of those who have listened the most closely to Hashem.