pinchas

The Torah describes the process for the division of the land among the Jewish people as inheritance based on who came out of Mitzraim. The daughters of צלפחד came to Moshe & said, “why should our father’s name be lost from his family because he has no son? Give us a possession amongst our father’s brothers. When Moshe asked 'ה what do to, 'ה answered, “they have spoken well; give them an inheritance amongst their father’s brothers.” Then the Torah proceeds to teach the laws of inheritance. Rashi says that the parsha regarding the laws of inheritance should have been given to Moshe just like the rest of the Torah. Because the בנות צלפחד were deemed worthy, it was written through them. אשרי אדם שהקב"ה מודה לדבריו , praiseworthy is the one with whose words 'ה agrees.   We see a stark contrast to Moshe's own sons later on in the parsha. When 'ה tells Moshe to start preparing for his own death, Moshe’s first concern is that the Jews have a leader to take his place & lead them. Moshe asks 'ה to appoint a leader, about which Rashi explains the words 'יפקד ה, that 'ה should appoint, that Moshe's intention was to pass along his position of leadership to his son. He based this hope on Hashem’s decision regarding the בנות צלפחד . Hashem though, said “no, your position is going to Yehoshua.” What was so special about Yehoshua that he surpassed Moshe's own son? When Moshe was requesting the new leader he said he wanted someone אשר יצא לפניהם ואשר יבא לפניהם ואשר יוציאם ואשר יביאם , “who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall take them out and who shall bring them in.” ר' משה מנדל asks why the double lashon? An interesting explanation is offered by ר' ישראל סלנט on the saying of פני הדור כפני הכלב “the face of the generation is like the face of the dog”; the normal action of a dog is that it runs ahead of its master so it appears as if the dog is leading the master. However, when the dog comes to a turn in the road, it waits to see which way the master turns & then continues to run in that direction. At that point it’s obvious who the master is & who's leading whom. This is what Chazal say is going to happen at the time of משיח: the פני הדור, the leaders, will be like פני הכלב; they will look like they're leading but will really be looking back to see how the people want them to behave. This says ר' משה מנדל is why the Torah used the double lashon stressing the need of the leader to be someone who was going to lead and always be before the people leading & not looking back to see if they approve. This was Yehoshua. When 'ה denies Moshe’s request for his son to take over, He says the reason is that Yehoshua should be rewarded for his service of לא ימיש מתוך האהל,” he would not depart from within the tent.” On the surface, this means that he never left Moshe’s side. Perhaps there is an alternative explanation. He never departed from the tent means that he would never depart from the teachings that were taught in the tent no matter whether he had public approval or not. Therefore he was the one who was chosen to lead the people. This teaches us that a person has the ability to make his own destiny. From the בנות צלפחד whose father was killed because of his sins & yet they still rose to the  highest level of having 'ה admitting to their words to Moshe’s sons, whose father was the greatest leader of all time, yet they didn't merit being his successor, which  teaches us that no matter the level of a person’s situation, from the highest to the lowest, we all choose our own destiny. Since the choice is ours, we need to make it a good one!