When it comes to the Dor Hamidbar, the Generation of the Wilderness, we imagine that we are familiar with the names of all of the great people of our nation who lived then. Moshe Rabbeinu, Aharon Hakohen, Miriam, Yehoshua, Kaleiv, the Nesi’im and so on. And the more one studies the Chumash, the more he becomes acquainted with—and connected to—these great people of our past.
But the truth is that as many names as we are familiar with, we understand right away that it's not a complete list; because we know that there are many names, names of great people, that were never recorded. After all, the shivim zekeinim, the seventy elders who led the nation, we don’t know their names. We know Eldad and Meidad, that’s all. They happen to be part of a story being told so they’re mentioned in passing. But the others are anonymous; the rest of the shivim zekeinim were great men; at that time they all became nevi’im—temporarily at least—and still we don’t know their names.
And the truth is that besides for them, we know that there were many tzaddikim, many very great talmidei chachamim. After all, we’re talking now about the greatest generation in our nation’s history. They witnessed all of the miracles of Yetzias Mitzrayim. The Yam Suf split for them! Ah! If I could choose to go back in time and live in the past with the Am Yisroel, that’s the generation I would choose. They stood at Har Sinai and heard the Voice of Hashem and lived for forty years in the Wilderness with the Mishkan and the mann and the ananei kavod.
A Glorious Kollel Life
And what did they do for forty years in the Midbar? They sat all day long in the kollel and learned the Torah that Moshe taught them. They had the best rosh kollel! A rebbi who comes down from Har Sinai to teach you; he speaks to Hashem when he has questions. You can’t ask for better than that. And so they sat in this kollel for forty years and they learned; and they were transformed because of that.
Not only the men—the entire family was transformed. Even today, a kollel home is a different home. When a girl marries a young man who sits in the kollel and learns, you have to know that home is not an ordinary home anymore. It’s a kollel home; it’s influenced by the spirit of Torah. And eventually, even when he’ll take over the earning of the livelihood, the family will be established on a kollel basis. The children will already be established as kollel children and they have the attitude of kollel life. It’s a beautiful beginning, a strong foundation.
But in the Midbar it was more than a beginning. It was forty years! You know what it means to be in the kollel for forty years?! It’s remarkable! And it wasn’t one family or two or even a thousand. It was a kollel nation! Everyone was holy (Bamidbar 16:3). You can believe Korach when he said that. And therefore don’t mind what your rebbe told you in cheder about the Dor Hamidbar. They were all tzaddikim and talmidei chachamim.
Honorable Mention
And so you can be sure that there were thousands, hundreds of thousands, of people worthy of being mentioned in the Torah. Only that it would be impossible to name everyone — hagbah would be very heavy. You’d need to bring a crane into the shul every Monday and Thursday for such a massive scroll. And so, only the most conspicuous names are mentioned. But all the rest of the great men? No, their names are not recorded at all. Their identities, as great as they were, are hidden away.
But suddenly, in our sedrah, we’re hit between the eyes with a very big surprise. Five little girls, the daughters of Tzelafchad, are named openly in the Torah: These are the names of Tzelafchad’s daughters: Machlah, Noah, and Choglah, and Milkah, and Sirtzah (Bamidbar 27:1).
A remarkable thing! A few girls who had a certain question about the Torah laws of inheritance came to Moshe and their names are recorded in the Chumash! It wasn’t even necessary to mention their names. It could have said, “The daughters of Tzelafchad came and they put their case before Moshe”, and that would have been enough. But the Torah is not stingy with its words here; it spells out their names! And later (ibid. 36:11) the Torah repeats their names again!
The Funded Amendment
You know what it means to have your name recorded forever in the sefer Torah? Suppose you have a frum Jewish millionaire, and he’s a tzaddik too, and somebody would come to him today and say, “I’m coming to you as a messenger of all the roshei yeshiva and all of the gedolei Yisroel. They made me a shaliach to come to you and we’re making an offer to you. If you’ll give fifty million dollars for the cause of building yeshivas, we’ll add your name to the Chumash. We’re going to make an exception and we’re going to add your name into the sefer Torah that’s read by Jews all over the world – a permanent addition.”
Immediately from all sides other people will offer more! “Fifty million dollars?! I’ll give a hundred million dollars!” Absolutely. Some people would give their lives; they’d mammesh kill themselves to have their name in the Torah. It’s worth it! To have your name in the Chumash?! Hashem’s sefer?! It’s a kavod that has no equal! And these five girls were zocheh to it; they merited to have their names mentioned openly in the Torah. It’s a remarkable thing that five young girls should deserve such an honor.
Now, exactly what these girls did to deserve such a thing, I cannot tell you. The truth is I’m not so interested right now in what exactly it was but there's no question they were tzidkaniyos. They were quite young, that’s true, but they were brought up properly and they were righteous; they had yiras Shomayim and good middos, no question about it. And so they deserved the honor, absolutely.
The Unexpected Great Ones
But we have to know that the Torah is demonstrating something very big here. Because so many great ones, so many tzaddikim, their names aren’t recorded. Why should the Torah go out of its way to enumerate the names of these girls? There’s something doing here.
And the answer is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants us to know that it’s not like we think down here below that if we have a long beard, a black hat and a long kapote, that’s the only one who’s important. “Oh no!” Hashem says. “Black hats and long coats are very good. Very good. But don’t forget that even a little boy or a little girl is also important in My eyes.
Moshe Rabbeinu, excellent! Aharon Hakohen, absolutely! But as much as the public tzaddikim are in My thoughts always, I’ve chosen to record the name of these five girls so that you should know who else is important in My history. If a little girl, a young woman, has good character and is devoted to Me, she can be just as important as Moshe and Aharon; just as important as Yehoshua and Kaleiv and Miriam.”
Out of The Headlines
Now, we can say those words but actually it’s a surprise to us. A frum little girl is so important? We appreciate her, but — “No buts!” Hakadosh Baruch Hu says. “I’m showing you now that these girls are important to Me. And even though down below, when you talk about important people, you never think of young girls as being in the headlines, but I chose to yes put them in the headlines so that you know that with Me, I don’t care what people think. I have My own yardstick of measuring character and greatness.”
Now, that’s an important rule in understanding the history of the Am Yisroel. Don’t be fooled by the headlines! And I’m not talking about the New York Times. That you know on your own. If someone’s name is in the headlines of the New York Times, we know right away that he’s probably a nothing, a lowlife. But I’m talking about the Jewish newspapers, the good headlines, the Torah headlines. Even there, many times great people remain in the background. And very often it’s the anonymous ones, the ones who stand in the background serving Hashem as best as they could, they’re the ones who are written in the headlines of Hashem’s eternal history book.
The King and the Maid
Now, we’ll take another example of this phenomenon just to better introduce the subject. You remember when Dovid Hamelech spoke in tefillah to Hakadosh Baruch Hu he said the following. He said “Please Hashem answer me, because I am your servant; I am your servant the son of your maidservant.” (Tehillim 116:16).
Now, we say that so frequently that it pays to know what Dovid was saying there. It seems like he’s giving two reasons why his prayers should be accepted. First he says, “Because I am Your servant.” It means “I belong to You; everything that I have is for You and therefore hearken to my entreaty.”
And then it looks like he’s adding a second consideration: “I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant.” It means “I had a mother who served You too.” So it seems like he’s saying “For the sake of me and also for the sake of my great mother, You should hearken to my prayers.”
But that’s not pshat. Dovid is not invoking his mother's zechus – you see that he’s invoking his own merit because in both cases he emphasizes ani avdecha, I am Your servant. That’s the only consideration: “I am Your servant.”
So the question is why mention “My mother, Your maidservant”? Mentioning his mother is not necessary here at all.
Making of a Gadol
And the answer is that Dovid was saying like this: “Do you know why I am Your servant? Because of Your maidservant who served You—that's my mother. She did a good job on me. She’s the one who made me into Your servant.” And therefore when Dovid was entreating Hakadosh Baruch Hu, he said, “Please answer me because I am Your servant. And I’m not just any servant of Hashem. I am an eved Hashem that was made with very much care by my mother.”
Like when you’re describing a tool, an exceptional tool. So you say “Look at this remarkable tool!” And then you repeat, “It’s a remarkable tool that’s been produced by this and this factory that puts out only the best.” Ani avdecha – I’m your servant, ben amasecha – my mother was an expert and she trained me; and that's how I became Your servant.”
Now, it doesn’t mean that we can overlook his father. Dovid had a great father too. Yishai, the father of Dovid, was one of the very great Torah teachers. The Gemara tells us that Yishai, when he came to preach Torah he was followed by six hundred thousand disciples. And after his lecture they wanted to follow him home too. So Yishai was a very great man. And yet here we see that Dovid is mentioning his mother; ani avdecha ben amasecha.
Invisible Superheroes
Now, Dovid’s mother, most of us don’t even know her name; she’s hidden away in the background of our history. If not for Dovid mentioning her, we would have forgotten about how important her role was in creating the Am Yisroel. We would have not realized the greatness of this woman whose service of Hashem included creating a Dovid. She trained him to serve Hashem; she trained him in character, in outlook on life. She trained him to be great. Not only she gave birth to Dovid but she made him who he became.
It’s a very important lesson we’re learning here. By ‘chance’ – because of a few words that Dovid said – we get a glimpse behind the curtain and we hear a hint about someone who would have remained more or less anonymous, someone whose name wasn’t recorded. And that’s intended as a model for us; like the Bnos Tzelafchad, the mother of Dovid is picked out of anonymity in order to serve as an example of what Hashem is really interested in. And it means that whether recorded or not, to Hakadosh Baruch Hu there are millions of tzaddikim and tzidkonyos—‘plain’ people—who are the true heroes of the nation.
