Economists report that by 2045 our country will experience a “Great Wealth Transfer.” 84 trillion dollars will pass from one generation to the next. Because women statistically outlive men, they stand to inherit not only from their spouses and partners, but also from their spouses’ and parents’ estates. Add a woman’s personal wealth to this windfall, and you will see why experts say that by 2030, women will inherit and control 30 trillion dollars of the transfer. This represents a seismic advance in women’s rights and financial clout.
Israelite women 2500 years ago did not enjoy this right. Biblical law held that a father’s estate passed only to his sons, and if he had no sons, it passed to other male relatives in his tribal clan. This exclusion of women consigned them to a life of financial dependence on men, and often to poverty.
But the five daughters of a man named Zelophehad, from the tribe of Manasseh, challenged that law. In Torah portion Pinchas, we read that because their father died leaving no sons, they approached God, Moses and the leaders of the tribe with a question and a demand. They asked, “Why should our father’s name disappear from his clan because he had no son? Give us property among our father’s relatives.” Moses brought their case before God, and God said to him, “What Zelophehad’s daughters are saying is right. You must certainly give them property as an inheritance among their father’s relatives …” (Nu 27:1-5) Later, we learn the daughters received ten tracts of land from their father’s estate. (Joshua 17:3-6)
This transfer represented a significant coup for women’s empowerment, though the daughters’ victory was not total. When the leaders of Manasseh realized that Zelophehad’s daughters could potentially marry husbands from other tribes and take their inheritance with them, they prohibited the women from marrying out. This setback was disappointing, but it does not diminish the magnitude of their tradition-defying, gender-affirming achievement.
In fact, the added restriction may have indirectly solidified the daughters’ gain. The wording suggests that the tribal leaders were fearful of losing land to neighboring tribes. They may have reasoned that if they allowed the women to inherit, the women would have an incentive to keep their family property within the tribe. The women may have sensed this and believed that the men’s self-interest at least guaranteed the continuation of their newly won right, even if their right was restricted.
Effecting social change is messy. It proceeds in fits and starts, with a few advances and retreats mixed in. Today’s political climate is a prime example. Changes in law are rarely permanent, and outcomes are seldom perfect. But even an imperfect win is still a win!
Had the women won their rights in full, it would have been far more gratifying. But their courageous first step toward financial freedom was a giant one, no matter how incomplete.
Who knows, the coming “Great Wealth Transfer” for women may have started with these five, unheralded daughters of Zelophehad. It is not that much of a stretch to connect the dots.
This column is published as a public service by the Jewish Press in cooperation with the Tampa Rabbinical Association, which assigns the column on a rotating basis. The views expressed are those of the rabbi and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Jewish Press or the TRA.