Parashat Pinchas, Numbers 25:10-30:1

This Parasha has been generously sponsored by Michael, Yoav and Danny, in memory of their beloved father Arno Schlesinger, Tammuz 15.

Women will tell you it is difficult to be heard.

Remember the power suit? I don't mean superhero outfits. I'm talking about the 1980's woman's outfit with sharp lines and wide shoulder pads and pants rather than a skirt. Men had their own power suits but more important was the power tie, usually red. Women wore a floppy scarf tie. The power suit meant women were making their way in the corporate world. This item was meant to fit in and be noticed. Even today, women in power will rarely wear a dress, though the modern professional woman's suit is softer and more feminine than its ancestor.

Enough fashion history. Appearances do make a statement, but the bottom line is that men and women are still treated differently in the professional world. Even now women will tell you it is difficult to be heard at meetings. There is the common experience of a woman saying something to no response, only to have it repeated a few minutes later by a male colleague who gets a tremendous reaction to his idea. Women are also interrupted more frequently, as is noted in this example from a reporter at conference on brain science:

At M.I.T., we were mostly spoken to by men, various kinds of men, of different ages and with different speaking styles, and we interacted with them with typical reportorial formality. Some were more popular with us than others; some were more engaged with us than others. Some spoke right over our heads; some reached even me with perfect clarity.
Something very different happened, however, on the two occasions when we were spoken to by women. The atmosphere in the room changed. We all became more familiar. We asked more questions. We interrupted more. We made sounds of assent or dissent; we questioned methods, concepts, base assumptions. It was as though, with the women, the boundaries dissolved. We were all immediately drawn into relationships.
How much of this had to do with the fact that the women tended to speak more relationally (“I think,” “I feel”), I don’t know. I don’t know if it was created by the fact that the women — to varying degrees — turned the story of their work into personal narratives.

Judith Warner, Of Mice and Women , Domestic Disturbances blog,
New York Times, June 26, 2008

Framing the issue as a personal narrative occurs in Parashat Pinchas. The daughters of Zelophehad have a problem and bring it to the attention of the powers-that-be: The daughters of Zelophehad, of Manassite family—son of Hepher son of Gilead son of Machir son of Manasseh son of Joseph—came forward. The names of the daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. They stood before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the chieftains, and the whole assembly, at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and they said, "Our father died in the wilderness. He was not one of the faction, Korah's faction, which banded together against the Lord, but died for his own sin; and he has left no sons. Let not our father's name be lost to his clan just because he had no son! Give us a holding among our father's kinsmen!" (Numbers 27:1-4)

Moses turns to God for help in adjudicating this problem. In a powerful declaration, God states that the plea of Zelophehad's daughters is just (Numbers 27:7). Rashi comments on this by saying that the daughters of Zelophehad "saw what Moses' eyes could not see."

Not only was their perspective different, so was their approach to the problem. They spoke of it calmly, taking it through the proper channels. The result was revolutionary:

…we can understand this story as a valuable lesson for all of us, teaching us that Jewish law has the flexibility to expand and embrace women, giving us increasingly more rights and a fairer share of our common legacy.

Ellen Frankel, The Five Books of Miriam, p. 236

This powerful story has set an example for women over the years. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the 19th century women's rights activist, drew on this text in her struggle, taking both sexes to task for not having the foresight or courage of our biblical ancestors:

The respect paid to the daughters of Zelophehad at that early day is worth the imitation of the rulers in our own times. …
… It would have been commendable if the members of the late Constitutional Convention in New York had, like Moses, asked the guidance of the Lord in deciding the rights of the daughters of the Van Rensselaers, the Stuyvesants, the Livingstons, and the Knickerbockers. Their final action revealed the painful fact that they never thought to take the case to the highest court in the moral universe. The daughters of Zelophehad were fortunate in being all of one mind; none there to plead the fatigue, the publicity, the responsibility of paying taxes and investing property, of keeping a bank account, and having some knowledge of mathematics. The daughters of Zelophehad were happy to accept all the necessary burdens, imposed by the laws of inheritance, while the daughters of the Knickerbockers trembled at the thought of assuming the duties involved in self-government

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, The Woman's Bible, chapter 5

Times change. Recently an article appeared in the Boston Globe examining the increased role of women in liberal synagogue life and the perceived disappearance of men from this same sphere.

Some Jewish leaders argue that the preponderance of women in segments of Jewish community life reflects pent-up demand for involvement by a gender excluded from leadership for much of religious history. Some suggest that in the Western world, spirituality, especially in more liberal denominations, has become associated with femininity. Others believe that men are reluctant to join organizations unless they can play leadership roles, and with the entry of large numbers of women into synagogue life, there are fewer such opportunities for men.

Michael Paulson, Where Have All the Men Gone?, Boston Globe, June 22, 2008

One rabbi interviewed in the article suggested that men devalue things done by women. I hope he is wrong. As Stanton exhorted the people of her day to take responsibility, we too need to encourage all members of our community to embrace the responsibilities that are ours, be it by birth or through struggle.

Parashat Pinchas teaches that there are different ways of doing things, different ways of seeing things, each of which serves to strengthen the community. It is this versatility that is our lesson.

New leadership comes to the fore in the parashah. Pinchas receives the "pact of priesthood" for taking decisive, if to our sensibilities, controversial action that saves lives. Joshua is named to replace Moses when the latter asks God to appoint someone over the community who shall go out before them and come in before them, and who shall take them out and bring them in, so that the Lord's community may not be like sheep that have no shepherd (Numbers 27:16-17). Pinchas and Joshua will continue on the path of the transactional "follow me" mode of leadership.

Where do Zelophehad's daughters fit in? They bring about a change in the community itself. They are the heirs to Miriam's transformational style of leadership; her words and example empowered the community to act for its own welfare as was noted a couple of weeks ago in the parashah commentary. We need the five daughters of Zelophehad no less than Pinchas and Joshua to have a strong and diverse community.

Shabbat shalom,
MS