What Five Brave Sisters Teach.
In our Torah reading we are nearing the end of our wilderness journey. Sources Here. As I write this post, it is the 17th of Tammuz, a day to remember the sadness in our history and honor the the fear we face in a challenging world. As I write this post it is also 103 Degrees Fahrenheit- deadly hot, as are tempers round the world. The powers that be in this world, both human leaders, and technological challenges seem overwhelming. We in the older generations are living a lifestyle that is destroying our nest – we take natural gifts, and really most of our gifts for granted in the quest for “getting and spending, we lay waste our power” ~William Wordsworth. In our wilderness journey, a census is taken, “lifting up the heads of those who are counted” It is about half of what it was at the outset of the freedom project that began 40 years ago. An entire generation has died. Miriam and Aaron have died, and Moshe (Moses) knows he will not enter the land. It is a time of transition. As if to dramatize that the “times they are a’changing” the Five Daughters rise up, and draw near. I’ve written about them before (2021 post) Have you heard of these women, the daughters of Tzeloph’chad? In an all male genealogy, where women had no rights of inheritance, they bravely and brilliantly “wrote themselves into the narrative” to paraphrase Hamilton. Song below. There is brilliant timing and Torah spoken by the Sisters, and even a bit of gender bending (Chizkuni).
Immediately after this wonderful scene, as if to emphasize this crossing over, Moshe is called by G8d to travel to Mount Eivarim – which is elsewhere called Mount Nebo. Eivarim, with the Hebrew root Ayin, Vet, Reish means to cross over, as Ramban reminds us. Ramban opines that it’s because the folks are about to cross the Jordan. But an entire generation has crossed over, and Moshe himself is about to cross over. Nostalgia can be sweet or toxic. We are in a world where nostalgia of returning people to a former powerful era is being used as an excuse to harass and deport refugees and immigrants. As I write this, ICE is intensifying its efforts. And in Israel and Iran to continue warring. When will they ever learn? Let’s be in it for the long haul, with a vision that extends from generation to the next: l’dor va’dor.
The Daughters and the Promise. Miryam Wolfson, 2016, final form 2021, Sound track
“Who are we that have the courage to be freely
Standing tall before the powers that be?
We are Machla, Noa, Hogla Milka and Tirtza,
daughters of Tzelophechad
Five strong sisters, each her sister’s keeper
On the journey to our land“
Now our father’s gone,
what will come of our name?
Who will tell our family’s story?
We believe in the Kingdom
a land milk and honey
Where justice and wisdom
will sing of G8d’s glory.
Chorus
Hand in hand we stand,
talking justice to the Man
“Moses, Our father was a good man,
even though he had no sons
his name should not be banned.
Please take our case to the Holy One
for the sake of the orphan,
the powerless, and all women”
Chorus
Moses says
“Listen up oh Children of Israel,
The law of these five sisters is true, G8d tells”
And in their love for each other and their strength,
They bring down the justice of the Holy One
Machlah, Noa, Hogla, Mika and Tirtza
They put themselves back in the narrative
(Machlah, Noa, Hogla, Milka and Tirtza)
In their story I see hope for,
the disenfranchised of today.
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