The Daughters of Zelophehad Were Wise Learned and Righteous

The school of Rabbi Yishmael taught: the daughters of Zelophehad were all equally weighed, as it is written, "and they became" - one identical "becoming" for all of them (Numbers 36:11). It is taught: the daughters of Zelophehad were wise, they were expositors of Scripture, they were righteous. They were wise, for they spoke at the fitting moment, as Rabbi Shmuel son of Rabbi Yitzchak said: that very day Moses our teacher was sitting and expounding the passage of levirate marriage. They said to him: if we are like a son, let us inherit like a son; and if not, let our mother undergo levirate marriage. Immediately "Moses brought their case" (Numbers 27:5). They were expositors, for they were saying: had he had a son, we would not have spoken. They were righteous, for they married only those fitting for them. It is taught, Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov says: even the youngest of them was not married at less than forty years old. Is that so? But did not Rav Chisda say: a woman married under twenty bears children until sixty, married at twenty bears until forty, and married at forty bears no more? Rather, because they were righteous, a miracle was performed for them as for Jochebed, who bore a child at one hundred and thirty years.