The Weekly Shtikle - Pinechas

It is with great joy that I announce the arrival of the newest addition to our family - Chaya Shaindel - born last Friday morning. For those of you who paid close attention to last week's shtikle it will be obvious that she is named after my wife's grandmother whose Yahrzeit was this past Sunday. MAZAL TOV!

 

    It is appropriate, following the birth of my daughter, that I discuss the very significant role that women play in this week's parsha. We have discussed before the special attention given to the daughters of Tzelafchad and the praise they are given by Chaza"l. R' Shternbuch explains the reason for the praise was that, although having been taught some of the procedures dealing with the division of the land, B'nei Yisroel still saw Eretz Yisroel as a distant venture. They were still wandering the desert. They focused themselves on the current situation and did not concern themselves with the details of the forthcoming inheritance of the land. The daughters of Tzelafchad, on the other hand, were more infused with belief and trust in HaShem's word, to the point that, to them, the inheritance was a current issue. Their haste in coming before Moshe showed an exceptional level of faith which deemed them worthy of praise.

 

    Although the daughters of Tzelafchad showed exemplary faith and love of Eretz Yisroel, their meritorious deeds were not completely unique. Following the census that appears at the beginning of the parsha, we are told (26:63) that of these individuals counted in the current census there was not one man who was part of the previous census because they had all died in the desert. Rashi infers from the superfluous mention of the word "ish" that the decree applied only to men and women were exempt because they showed a greater love for Eretz Yisroel.

 

    Our hope and our prayer is that our little Shaindy follow in the ways of the daughters of Tzelafchad and all the women of the Dor HaMidbar in their love for Eretz Yisroel and their exceptional levels of emunah.

 

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    Please check out an interesting mathematical essay on the statistics involved in the goral that was used to divide the land.

 

Have a good Shabbos.
 
Eliezer Bulka
EzBulka@hotmail.com
http://weeklyshtikle.blogspot.com
http://dikdukian.blogspot.com