Today’s daf concludes with the following mishnah:
The daughters of Zelophehad took three portions in their inheritance: their father’s portion, as he was among those who left Egypt; the portion their father received along with his brothers (as an inheritance from his father) Hefer’s property; and another as their father was the firstborn, thus he received two portions.
We are in the midst of a number of mishnahs on inheritance that draw on Numbers 27:1–11, the account of the daughters of Zelophehad who came to Moses with a petition: Their father had died, they had no brothers and they wanted to inherit their father’s property. Moses turned to God, who amended divine law: In the absence of sons, daughters would now inherit from their fathers.
The Torah doesn’t state explicitly that Zelophehad’s daughters inherited three portions; this is derived from a midrashic reading found in Sifre Bamidbar, a tannaitic collection of midrashim on the Book of Numbers. The midrash creatively derives this meaning from Numbers 27:7, which is somewhat wordy: “Zelophehad’s daughters speak justly. You shall certainly give them a portion of inheritance along with their father’s brothers, and you shall transfer their father’s inheritance to them.” The midrash sections this verse into three parts, and connects each to a portion of inheritance, thereby “proving” the threefold inheritance — their father’s double portion plus the piece of their grandfather’s portion that their father inherited — that is also asserted in today’s mishnah.
Sifre Numbers also records a minority position, from Rabbi Eliezer ben Akiva, that the daughters actually received four portions, adding to the first three an inheritance from their uncles. And yet another dispute also lurks beneath the surface of today’s mishnah: Was the land of Israel apportioned according to those who left Egypt or according to those who arrived in the land? Numbers 26:55 tells us that “the land shall be apportioned according to the names of their fathers’ tribes,” (i.e., not according to those who were standing before Moses as they entered the land), but based on the previous generation that left Egypt. However, the Gemara on our mishnah, as we will see on tomorrow’s daf, debates whether this assumption is true, arguing different readings of verses to support each side.
So this mishnah is not simply an observation about how much land the daughters of Zelophehad inherited. It hints beyond that, perhaps subtly reminding us of the famous claim of Psalms 24:1: “the earth is God’s as is everything in it.” All land ownership is something of a fallacy, since ultimately everything comes from and belongs to God. The daughters of Zelophehad only received a share of it because God commanded it. It’s easy to lose sight of that in a text that delves deeply into the intricacies of property law. This mishnah invites us to ask bigger questions about the world that arise from such a body of law.
Read all of Bava Batra 116 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on October 19, 2024. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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