"HaShem said to Moshe and to Elazar, son of Aharon the Kohen, saying: Take a census of the entire assembly of the children of Israel from twenty years of age and up, according to their fathers' house, all who go out to the army in Israel."


The time had come, after being in the desert for the past 40 years, to once again count the Children of Israel. This

The Torah traces the daughters of Zelofchad to the tribe of Manasseh, the son of Joseph.

census takes place right when the Jewish people were poised to enter the Land of Israel in order to determine who was entitled to a portion in the Land. The portions were to be distributed only to those who had reached the age of twenty at the time of the census.


The division of the land was done miraculously, through the Divine Sprit; each tribe would draw a lot, and then the lot itself would actually call out which portion in the Land the tribe would receive. When all was said and done, the Land was divided between the tribes. All seemed in order.


But then the daughters of Zelofchad - Mahla, Noa, Hogla and Tirza - approached Moshe with the request that they also receive a portion in the Land for themselves, as their father had died and left no sons. Baffled, Moshe receives the Divine word that they be given an inheritance in the Land.


From where did this great love of the Land come? The Torah traces the daughters of Zelofchad to the tribe of Manasseh, the son of Joseph. It was Joseph's great love for the Land that made him command his descendants to carry his bones out of Egypt, the land of tumah ("spiritual uncleanness), and bring them into the Land when the Children of Israel would enter it.


It was Joseph who, as a young lad first taken to Egypt, when asked where he was from, time and time again did not hesitate in replying: from the land of Cana'an. It was this great love for the Land that the daughters of Zelofchad inherited.


On the other side of the coin, we find by Moshe, who was told in our parsha to anoint Joshua, for he, Moshe, would not be entering the Land. And at this point, some commentaries are quick to point out the stark difference between Moshe and Joseph. While Joseph did not miss an opportunity to point out that he was an Ivri - from the other side of the river (the Land of Israel) - in the case of Moshe, the Torah states: "An Egyptian man saved me." For this reason, these commentators point out, because Moshe did not connect himself to the Land, he did not merit to enter it.


There was no greater commitment to the Land of Israel than among the women of the Jewish people. For we find that none of them rejected the Land, as the men did when the spies returned with their false report. In fact, the decree to wipe out that generation during the forty years in the desert did not take effect on the Jewish women. They held fast to their belief in the redemption and to love of the Land.


On the other side of the coin, even after that generation was wiped out and a new generation of Jews blossomed in the desert and were ready to enter the Land, we find that when Aharon the Kohen died, the clouds of glory, which

A generation which is disconnected must be connected to the Land.

protected the Jews in the desert, departed from them. At that point, the king of Cana'an planned to attack the Children of Israel; and many of the Jews, out of great fear, decided to return to Egypt. The tribe of Levi ran after them to prevent this Chilul HaShem from happening and ended up having to kill off seven whole families from Israel because they refused to return. We see that many people even in the next generation of Jews continued in the ways of the spies and disconnected themselves from the Land.


It is for this reason that our parsha lists the holidays and the sacrifices which one must bring to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. For a generation which is disconnected must be connected to the Land. How is this done? Through the holy work in the Temple. The Torah goes on to list the holidays during which every Jew is obligated to come up to Jerusalem and be seen before HaShem. It is through G-d's great love for His people that they should rejoice in Jerusalem before Him and connect to the Land.


Each one of us must decide where he is holding, on which side of the coin is he or she. Does he follow in the path of Joseph and his granddaughters and cherish the Land; or does he go in the way of the spies, which time and time again can only mean certain death?