Women in The Bible/Tanach, Josef's Progeny

Sisters! The Daughters of Tzelofchad
by Raise Your Spirits Theatre

Today, during our Women's Shabbat Torah Class, my mind did one of its little whirls and took something said a bit further. The topic was the Torah Portion of this Week, Vayechi. It is the very end of the Book of Bereishit, Geneis. It gives us the foundations of Judaism, what Gd wants from us.

In my title I promised you something about Women in the Bible, and that's what you'll get here.

Vayechi is the portion in which Jacob blesses his sons and gives a short description of their characters and what could be expected from them. Jacob's sons are the first group of siblings of which all are included in the inheritance and each has a role in the future of the Jewish People. There is one exception. Joseph is given a double portion. His two son are blessed as if they were Jacob's own sons. Ephraim and Menashe were born in Egypt but are given the same rights as Joseph's brothers. Why?

Sisters! The Daughters of Tzelofchad
by Raise Your Spirits Theatre

Why is the status of Ephraim and Menashe raised? Could it be to help them assimilate into the family and make sure that they will want to leave Egypt and enter the Holy Land with their cousins? If that was the reason, it seems to have worked, at least with the females. The six women who showed the most attachment to the Land of Israel came from the tribes of Ephraim and Menashe.

Many people are familiar with the story of the five daughters of Tzlofchad, of the Tribe of Menashe. Being that they had no brother, and their father had already died, they feared that their family portion of Land would be given to others. They petitioned Moshe to find a way for them to inherit the Land and pass it on to their children. Moshe consulted with Gd and was told that as long as the daughters married within the tribe their children could inherit the family Land.

Sisters! The Daughters of Tzelofchad by Raise Your Spirits Theatre

It's very possible that there were similar situations in other tribes, but only these sisters petitioned Moshe to preserve the Land.

There's another lesser known descendant of Josef through his son Efraim, a granddaughter, She'era who is mentioned in Chronicles I, Chapter 7:

22And Ephraim their father mourned for them many days, and his brothers came to console him.		כבוַיִּתְאַבֵּ֛ל אֶפְרַ֥יִם אֲבִיהֶ֖ם יָמִ֣ים רַבִּ֑ים וַיָּבֹ֥אוּ אֶחָ֖יו לְנַֽחֲמֽוֹ:
23And he went in to his wife, and she conceived and bore a son, and he named him Beriah, because during a time of trouble she was in his house.		כגוַיָּבֹא֙ אֶל־אִשְׁתּ֔וֹ וַתַּ֖הַר וַתֵּ֣לֶד בֵּ֑ן וַיִּקְרָ֚א אֶת־שְׁמוֹ֙ בְּרִיעָ֔ה כִּ֥י בְרָעָ֖ה הָֽיְתָ֥ה בְּבֵיתֽוֹ:
24And his daughter was Sheerah, and she built the lower Beth-Horon and the upper one, and Uzen Sheerah.		כדוּבִתּ֣וֹ שֶֽׁאֱרָ֔ה וַתִּ֧בֶן אֶת־בֵּֽית־חוֹר֛וֹן הַתַּחְתּ֖וֹן וְאֶת־הָֽעֶלְי֑וֹן וְאֵ֖ת אֻזֵּ֥ן שֶֽׁאֱרָֽה:

As you can see from the Bible, She'era must have been a very dynamic woman. She built three cities.

If you go through those chapters in Chronicles, you'll notice that only the male descendants are mentioned, except for She'era and the Daughters of Tzelafchad. It makes me wonder... What about you?

"Be strong and courageous!"

Today as I read through the Torah Portions, Nitzavim-Vayelech, in synagogue, I suddenly read:

Deuteronomy Chapter 31 6Be strong and courageous! Neither fear, nor be dismayed of them, for the Lord, your God He is the One Who goes with you. He will neither fail you, nor forsake you."

וחִזְק֣וּ וְאִמְצ֔וּ אַל־תִּֽירְא֥וּ וְאַל־תַּֽעַרְצ֖וּ מִפְּנֵיהֶ֑ם כִּ֣י | יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֗יךָ ה֚וּא הַֽהֹלֵ֣ךְ עִמָּ֔ךְ לֹ֥א יַרְפְּךָ֖ וְלֹ֥א יַֽעַזְבֶֽךָּ:

That is exactly what comes to my mind every time Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, other politicians, media, academics etc try to tell us that we can't institute the policies that would make the State of Israel stronger and safer. They use it as an excuse for not building the quantity of homes in Judea and Samaria that would lower prices all over.

We're back to the notorious "sin of the spies," which delayed the entrance to the Land of Israel by forty years. Ten out of twelve tribal chiefs insisted that the "giants" who occupied the Promised Land were too strong for the Jewish People. Those ten frightened the people, and only a tiny minority trusted that Gd would help.

As the Jewish Year 5777 is in its final days, and we are reading the very end of the final and fifth book of the Torah, the Chumash. The forty year delay is over, and the Jewish People are about to enter the Land led by Joshua. Moses is soon to die and not enter with his people. He led the Jewish People as they escaped from Pharaoh in Egypt, and he led them through the wilderness helping them prepare for the next stage, entering the Land of Israel.

A new generation is to enter the Holy Land, and they are reminded yet again that Gd will be with us, to help and not forsake us. Here we are thousands of years later. We read the Torah through every single year. And most of the Jewish People still need reminding and reassurance.

Gd willing in the upcoming year, 5778, the Jewish People and the Government of Israel will have the faith in Gd to think of what's best for the Jewish People and State of Israel, and not what "the world" may say or do. When we act assured with full confidence and sovereignty, like we did in those first few hours of the 1967 Six Days War, the world will accept and respect us. They will be in awe of our Gd given power. That is the "light" we must shine on the world.

Shana Tova One and All

Powerful Women in Shmot This Week's Torah Portion

Over Shabbat my husband and I were in the Kinar Hotel in northern Israel which is on the shore of Yam Kineret, the Sea of Galilee.

The Shabbat Prayers we attended, (there was an amazing variety to choose from,) was led by a talented sweet-voiced chazan, cantor who was accompanied by a small choir which included the veteran Israeli singing duo the Tzemed Re'im. During the Prayer for The Welfare of the Israeli Government I noticed something rather surprising to me. While all the women I could see from my frontrow seat in the Ezrat Nashim, Women's Section were standing, very few of the men were.



How could that be? I wondered.  Then I thought back to the Torah Portion of the Week, Shemot, Names, Exodus 1,1-6,1, which tells how the "Children of Israel" suddenly fell from favor in Egypt. They had entered as honored guests and suddenly discovered themselves to be enslaved.

This Torah Portion is full of heroines:

• The midwives who defied Pharaoh and refused to murder Jewish baby boys at birth.
• Bat Paroh, the daughter of Pharaoh who rescued the obviously Jewish baby boy she saw floating in the Nile.
• Miriam and Yocheved who cared for the baby until he was old enough to live with Pharaoh's daughter in the palace.
• Tzippora, who circumcised her baby son.

We don't see the men fearlessly taking the initiative the way the women did in the Biblical narrative. Moshe would not have reached maturity if it hadn't been for those women I just listed. Yes, only after the women made it possible did the men begin to act.

I noticed that more men get up when the Prayer for the IDF Soldiers began. Considering my interpretation of the parsha, the Torah Portion of the week, we shouldn't be surprised. Should we?

He Who blessed our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob -- may He bless the fighters of the Israel Defense Forces, who stand guard over our land and the cities of our God, from the border of the Lebanon to the desert of Egypt, and from the Great Sea unto the approach of the Aravah, on the land, in the air, and on the sea.
May the Almighty cause the enemies who rise up against us to be struck down before them. May the Holy One, Blessed is He, preserve and rescue our fighters from every trouble and distress and from every plague and illness, and may He send blessing and success in their every endeavor.
May He lead our enemies under our soldiers’ sway and may He grant them salvation and crown them with victory. And may there be fulfilled for them the verse: For it is the Lord your God, Who goes with you to battle your enemies for you to save you.
Now let us respond: Amen. (Aish.com)

bhol.co.il

I searched but couldn't find the arrangement I had heard in the Kinar Synagogue.

Dvar Torah, Parshat Shavua Shmot: Could Moshe's Father Have Had More Than One Wife

Those who know me may know that I prefer learning my Bible, Chumash, Tanach from the text, not the drash, midrash.  Here and there I may find it interesting, but on the whole I find midrashim contradictory and then confusing.  If one is right, then the other is wrong, so they haven't helped explain the more difficult passage.

There's a midrash about a very famous line in this week's Torah Portion, Shmot, that is so blithely quoted, I was sure it must be written someplace in the the Bible.  It's the story that has Miriam chastising her parents for divorcing, because that means they are killing both male and female babies which was worse than Pharaoh's decree to kill the males.  They listen to her and marry again.

I think it was a year ago that I got frustrated and aggravated at a class listening to it and asked where it's written in the text.  I was told that it was to explain a very complicated passage.  This is the passage:

Exodus Chapter 2 שְׁמוֹת

א  וַיֵּלֶךְ אִישׁ, מִבֵּית לֵוִי; וַיִּקַּח, אֶת-בַּת-לֵוִי.	1 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.
ב  וַתַּהַר הָאִשָּׁה, וַתֵּלֶד בֵּן; וַתֵּרֶא אֹתוֹ כִּי-טוֹב הוּא, וַתִּצְפְּנֵהוּ שְׁלֹשָׁה יְרָחִים.	2 And the woman conceived, and bore a son; and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
ג  וְלֹא-יָכְלָה עוֹד, הַצְּפִינוֹ, וַתִּקַּח-לוֹ תֵּבַת גֹּמֶא, וַתַּחְמְרָה בַחֵמָר וּבַזָּפֶת; וַתָּשֶׂם בָּהּ אֶת-הַיֶּלֶד, וַתָּשֶׂם בַּסּוּף עַל-שְׂפַת הַיְאֹר.	3 And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch; and she put the child therein, and laid it in the flags by the river's brink.
ד  וַתֵּתַצַּב אֲחֹתוֹ, מֵרָחֹק, לְדֵעָה, מַה-יֵּעָשֶׂה לוֹ.	4 And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him.

Honestly, I don't find anything peculiar or difficult about this narrative.  So, I was answered:

"There was an older sister, Miriam and later we learn of an older brother, Aharon.  That's a peculiar situation. The midrash helps us understand how that could be."

I don't see that as an incomprehensible situation.  It's normal to me.  There are two very simple reasons for such a scenario.

• One, the personal is that my mother was from a "his, hers and theirs" family.  When her parents, a widow and a widower got married they already had children from their dead spouses.  Their children had five older brothers and sisters.  I have no doubt that widows and widowers, especially considering medical care at the time, married in Biblical days. 
• Two, during those times it was completely permitted for a man to marry a number of wives simultaneously.  Miriam and Aharon could have very well been from one, or even two, of that Levi's other wives.

This is just my opinion.  When I state it, none of the Biblical experts I know can say that I'm wrong.  Everything I've just written is consistent with the text and Jewish society of that time.

And after following the instructions in a comment by  yaak, there's another simple explanation.  In Tanach there's no "early/later." That sentence announcing the marriage just skips the births of Aaron and Miriam, because there was nothing special to write about.

And what do you think?