Parashat Pinchas (Numbers 25:10-30:1)

A weekly Torah exploration for families by Michael S. Raileanu, M.A.Ed.

A weekly Torah exploration for families by Michael S. Raileanu, M.A.Ed.

This week's parasha, Pinchas (Numbers 25:10 - 30:1), begins with a recounting of the leaders of the tribes and then we learn about how the land that God promised to the Jewish people will be divided. There is also the very important story regarding the daughters of Zelophchad. They were afraid that they were not going to get an inheritance and God understands their problem and guarantees them an inheritance.

The land is divided amongst the tribes in a couple of different ways. The bigger tribes get more land and the smaller ones get less. Do you think that this is necessarily the fair way to divide the land? If a tribe is made up mainly of farmers, should they get more? Maybe a tribe of traders should get less. What do you think?
The land was assigned by lot. What does that mean? Was that a fair system? Should God have assigned the tribes to specific places? Do you believe that God would have allowed the lot to be completely random? Or did God know the outcome of the lot before it happened?
The daughters of Zelophchad came before Moshe to find out about their inheritance since their dad was dead and they had no brothers. They wanted to make sure that their father's name did not die and that his family got an inheritance. Why did they have to ask? How would woman have been treated back then? Are you surprised by the result? The decision was that if a man dies without sons his land rightly goes to his daughter. This became law for all time! You go girls!
In this parasha we find out that Joshua is going to lead the people after Moshe dies. Why not Moshe's sons? Why Joshua? What do you know about Joshua that makes him the right guy for the job? What has he already done to prove that he can and should be the leader?
There are six parashiot named after people. How many of them can you name? How many of the people after whom the parashiot are named are really, really famous? How many parashiot are named for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob or Moses? Why do you think that is the case? Three of the "people parashiot" were in the last month or so. Can you name them?