Tribe, tribal, tribalism... The word has a nice primitive ring to it, and words with nice-primitive rings are very much in style these days. We're all celebrating our tribal identities, researching our tribes' histories and incorporating a tribal ritual or two in our lives.
But styles come and go, so it's safe to assume that within a half-decade or so tribalism will be as passé as the Marlboro Man. (Remember when he was cool?) We need a more timeless frame of reference.
Looking at the Torah (which is as timeless as it gets), we get a mixed message. On the one hand, Torah seems to be quite pro-tribal from the get-go. From the beginning, Jacob's twelve sons are slated to father the twelve tribes of Israel. On his deathbed, Jacob blesses each one individually, imparting to each the qualities and gifts that will define his tribe's distinct role within the people of Israel; Moshe does the same when blessing the twelve tribes two centuries later, on the eve of the people's entry into the Holy Land. In their travels through the desert, each tribe had its own leader or "prince," its own encampment in its designated place around the Tabernacle, its own color and flag, its own representative stone on the ceremonial breastplate worn by the High Priest. The Midrash even tells us that when the Sea of Reeds split for the Children of Israel it provided twelve different openings, so that each tribe could travel its own designated path.
But the most significant delineator of tribal identity is what happened when the people of Israel entered the Holy Land. The land was divided into twelve territories, and each tribe was allotted the portion that suited its particular vocation as shepherds, vintners, seafaring merchants, soldiers, scholars, olive growers, and so on.
The extent to which the Torah goes to preserve the integrity of the tribal territories is evidenced by an incident recorded in this week's Parshah, in the closing verses of the Book of Numbers. Several chapters back (in Numbers 27) we read about the daughters of Tzelafchad, who approached Moshe with a petition to receive their father's portion in the Holy Land. Under biblical law, only sons inherited the ancestral estate. Tzelafchad had five daughters but no sons;
