Friday, July 10, 2026/26 Tammuz 5786

Friday, July 10, 2026/26 Tammuz 5786

Parashat Matot-Masei Numbers 30:2-36:13

2nd Haftarah of Rebuke Jeremiah 2:4-28; 3:4

Dear TBE Community,

Last week, I wrote about the daughters of Zelophehad, the five pleasing dancing movers and bracelet-shakers that stood up for their father’s name, and for themselves. They demanded that, in the absence of sons to inherit the land, their father’s land would fall to them.

Often, with God’s message to Moses that the plea of the daughters of Zelophehad is just, this is where the story ends, as a win for biblical women’s rights advocacy. And while arguably it is such a win – and by the end of this davar we will have confirmed that it is indeed – the prize doesn’t come without a price. The story of Zelophehad’s daughters continues in Masei, part of the double parasha this week, Matot-Masei, that wraps up the book of Numbers, the wilderness wanderings.

The family heads in the clan of the descendants of Gilead son of Machir son of Manasseh, one of the Josephite clans, came forward and appealed to Moses and the chieftains, family heads of the Israelites. They said, “God commanded my lord to assign the land to the Israelites as shares by lot, and my lord was further commanded by God to assign the share of our kinsman Zelophehad to his daughters. Now, if they become the wives of persons from another Israelite tribe, their share will be cut off from our ancestral portion and be added to the portion of the tribe into which they marry; thus our allotted portion will be diminished. And even when the Israelites observe the jubilee, their share will be added to that of the tribe into which they marry, and their share will be cut off from the ancestral portion of our tribe.” So Moses, at God’s bidding, instructed the Israelites, saying: “The plea of the Josephite tribe is just. This is what God has commanded concerning the daughters of Zelophehad: They may become the wives of anyone they wish, provided they marry into a clan of their father’s tribe. No inheritance of the Israelites may pass over from one tribe to another, but the Israelite [heirs]—each of them—must remain bound to the ancestral portion of their tribe. Every daughter among the Israelite tribes who inherits a share must become the wife of someone from a clan of her father’s tribe, in order that every Israelite [heir] may keep an ancestral share. Thus, no inheritance shall pass over from one tribe to another, but the Israelite tribes shall remain bound each to its portion. (Numbers 36:1-9)

Let’s unpack this request from the Josephites. If this designation is confusing (wait, do we have a tribe of Joseph?!), it is confusing for a reason: Jacob on his deathbed promoted his grandsons Ephraim and Menashe, Joseph’s Egyptian-born sons, to the full status of tribes of Israel: Thus, what would have been one tribe of Joseph, became the two tribes of Ephraim and Menashe. Zelophehad is a descendant of Menashe, thus, a descendant of Joseph – a Josephite.

So now the tribe of Menashe, who already expects a bit of a special treatment in the process of land allotment, points out that women’s rights are all well and good, but that God didn’t plan long-term: The daughters may inherit and possess the land now, but what happens if they get married to someone from another tribe? The land then would go into the possession of the husband’s tribe; thus it would ultimately be lost to the tribe of Menashe. And that can’t be of course – and the five women abide:

The daughters of Zelophehad did as God had commanded Moses: Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, Zelophehad’s daughters, became the wives of their uncles’ sons, marrying into clans of descendants of Manasseh son of Joseph; and so their share remained in the tribe of their father’s clan. (Numbers 36:10-12)

At first sight, this does feel like a setback, like a diminishing of the victory they achieved in the previous parasha, in Numbers 27. The five sisters may inherit the land for a while but just like on a film set, where the second team just stands in until everything is ready for the first team stars to act, so too here the women just steward the land until their male relatives, who would have inherited the land to begin with, are in charge. When they marry, they hand over their inheritance to the men.

So, nothing has changed?

A lot has changed. As Rabbis Lisa Edwards and Jill Berkson Zimmerman observe in the Women’s Torah Commentary: “The sisters marry from a position of strength, not dependency. Given the frequency with which the Torah reminds us of our societal obligation to care for widows and orphans, we can guess what might have happened if Zelophehad’s daughters had remained landless. The daughters’ actions and triumph eliminate a whole category of dependent orphans (the girls and women who until then did not inherit.” (A Women’s Commentary, page 1032)

And there’s more. These laws in the very last chapter of Numbers are among the very last verses before the book closes. Meaning, these laws were important enough to be added here before transitioning into the promised land, where the new society would be built based on Moses’ teachings in the desert. As Edwards and Zimmerman point out: “The ending of the book of Numbers sets the stage for process of change, showing us that even within the Torah itself, lawmaking is an inexact science requiring flexibility to change as issues arise and society evolves.”

Even though the women accept to cede some of their independence, they still end up with more than they had. And they not only preserved their father’s name, but also their own names. They live on not only in Torah and in the amended inheritance laws but also in tangible geographic places: Tirtzah for example was one name of the capital of the Northern Kingdom. Besides this, her and her sisters’ names all appear on unearthed ostraca, broken pieces of pottery found in archaeological digs, that attest to their geographical realness. Whether the women, real or fictional, were named for existing places or existing places for women named Tirtzah, Hoglah, Milcah, Noa and Machla becomes secondary. What counts is that the names of the women who challenged divine law and prevailed are inscribed into the fabric and landscape of the land, eternal portions of the divine promise. Hazak hazak ve’nithazek!

Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Julia Knobloch

More Torah Tidbits

Hadas Cootware

Torah School Coordinator

Hadas Cootware has been teaching Hebrew and Jewish Studies for over a decade, joining our Temple Beth El Community in 2018. Born and raised in Israel with Hebrew as her native language, she previously served as a combat soldier and operations officer in the IDF. Drawing on her studies in acting and psychology, she published a children’s book in Hebrew, The Marshmallow Story, which focuses on delayed gratification. Outside of teaching, she is the proud mother of her son, Henry, and loves to travel.

TBEtorahschool@bethelsp.org

Ilan Davidson

Cantor

Cantor Ilan Davidson has been pleasing audiences with his singing since before he could read. At age five, he began singing with his Cantor, Philip Moddel, and hasn’t shut up since. At ten, he made his Operatic debut with the Fullerton Civic Light Opera’s production of Bizet’s Carmen, as a street urchin. Since then, he has performed roles in opera and musical theatre, performing, directing, and producing world-class productions.

Among his many accomplishments, Cantor Davidson is also known as a contemporary Jewish songwriter and performer, having delighted audiences all over the world, including Israel and Lithuania with the soulful sounds of his music. His recordings, Stained Glass (1995) and In A Hanukkah Mood (2007) are collections of original and covered songs by himself and many contemporary Jewish artists. His most recent recording, God Is In This Place (2020), is a collection of original liturgical pieces for the Friday night Shabbat Service, commissioned and written in honor of his 25th Anniversary as the Cantor of Temple Beth El.

Cantor Davidson left the stage and in 1995 joined the Temple Beth El family, in San Pedro, where, in his nearly 30 years of service, he has brought many new programs and much enthusiasm to all he does. Coming from a long line of Cantors, it must have been Besheret for Cantor Davidson, although talented in all areas of musical performance, to finally settle down into his career as Hazzan for Temple Beth El in San Pedro, California. In 2007, Cantor Davidson founded a new foundation, KindredSPIRITS, producing an annual world humanitarian aid event. KindredSPIRITS premiered on June 5, 2008 at Walt Disney Concert Hall, adding that prestigious concert hall to the ever growing list of venues around the world, where Davidson has performed. During the 10 years of humanitarian events, Global KindredSPIRITS, Inc., as an official 501©3, raised awareness and close to $500,000 for its beneficiaries over the decade.
As a past president of the South Coast Interfaith Council, Ilan fought for tolerance and understanding of ALL faiths in a difficult climate. For the past 7 years, Cantor Davidson has been service as an LA County Commissioner, representing the 4th District on the Human Relations Commission, where he currently serves as President. Whether it is raising his voice for justice, Hazzanut, Pop, Opera, Musical Theatre, or folk music, Cantor Ilan Davidson shares his soul and genuine love in every note.

When asked about his finest accomplishment, Cantor Ilan invariably responds, “After all the great concerts, services, and roles, my finest role in life is that of husband to my beautiful wife, Jodi, and daddy to my gorgeous daughters, Jordan and Zoe.”

cantor@bethelsp.org

Office: (310) 833-2467 Ext. 106

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