Bava Batra 118a (קיח.) — the Talmud in English

But according to the one who says: “For those who entered the Land”

the Land was apportioned

, what is the meaning of “to the more numerous you shall increase his inheritance,”

? Surely it cannot be explained to mean that for whoever is numerous now, you shall increase his inheritance, and for whoever is few in number now, you shall decrease his inheritance, since that is logical and does not require a verse?

A difficulty.

And

further,

Rav Pappa said to Abaye: Granted, according to the one who says: “For those who came out of Egypt,” this is why

the daughters of Zelophehad

cried out, “Why should our father’s name be diminished from among his family?” That is, from the portion he had inherited in the Land of Israel, “for he has no son”—as, had he had a son, that son would have inherited his portion.

But according to the one who says: “For those who entered the Land,”

the Land was apportioned

, why did they cry out? He was not

Zelophehad was not among those who entered the Land

to take

a portion in the Land?

And

even had he had a son, that son would not have taken anything on behalf of his father; and even on his own behalf he would not have taken anything had he been under twenty when he entered the Land?

Rather,

one must say that the one who says, “

For

those who entered the Land the Land was apportioned,” also holds by the law of

“return,”

meaning that they return to their parents everything they had taken, and then inherit again according to the law. [As stated by Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar above.]

And

if so, Zelophehad too had a portion in the Land: If the sons of Hepher’s sons had entered the Land and taken a portion, they would have returned it to Hepher, their grandfather, and then the sons of Hepher would have inherited from him and divided it equally among themselves. It follows that Zelophehad, too, would have taken a portion in the Land.

Therefore his daughters also demanded

to take from the property of Hepher

, their grandfather, as is the law regarding a daughter of a son, who inherits together with the brothers.

We raise another difficulty:

Granted, according to the one who says: “For those who came out of Egypt,” this is why the sons of Joseph cried out.

As follows:

As it is written

(Joshua 17:14–15),

“And the sons of Joseph

spoke to Joshua, saying: Why have you given me one lot and one portion as an inheritance, while I am a numerous people, seeing that until now Hashem has blessed me?”

And Joshua said to them: “If you are a numerous people, go up to the forest and clear a place for yourself there in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim, since the mountain of Ephraim is too narrow for you.”

And according to the one who says, “For those who came out of Egypt,” this is well explained: Perhaps at the time of the Exodus from Egypt they were few, and they increased when they entered the Land, so their inheritance was small in proportion to the number of their people.

But according to the one who says: “For those who entered the Land,” what are they crying out about?

Surely

all of them took

a portion in the Land at the time of their entry?

The Gemara answers:

Because they had many dependents.

That is, there were many orphans among them who had not been twenty years old when they entered the Land, and they had no father who had entered the Land and taken a portion. Nor did they have any inheritor who had come out of Egypt, from whom they could receive a portion by means of the law of return.

Abaye said: Conclude from this that there was not a single person who did not take a portion.

[There was not even one orphan in all Israel who did not take a portion in the Land],

for if it entered your mind that there was even one who did not take a portion, he should have cried out

as did the daughters of Zelophehad and the sons of Joseph.

And if you would say,

indeed there were orphans who did not take a portion in the Land and cried out about it, but their outcry was not recorded in the Torah, since

only one who

cried out and benefited

—whose cry helped him—

and helped him

the verse recorded,

but one who

cried out but did not benefit, the verse did not record.

But the sons of Joseph cried out and did not benefit,

[and when Joshua said to them, “If you are a numerous people, go up to the forest and clear a place for yourself there,” the meaning is not that he gave them land from the inheritance of another tribe, for he had no authority to take anything at all from another tribe’s inheritance; rather, it was necessary for the exposition below].

And

nevertheless

the verse recorded them!

This proves that, apart from the sons of Joseph, there was no orphan who did not take a portion in the Land—either on his own behalf or through one of his ancestors, who had bequeathed him a portion by means of the law of return, as stated above.

We reject this: In fact, one may say as we said above, that the verse did not record one who cried out but did not benefit.

And as for what we raised from the sons of Joseph, whom Scripture recorded even though their outcry did not benefit them,

one may say that

there the verse is teaching us good advice: A person ought to take care not to expose himself to the evil eye.

[A person must beware of the evil eye]

And this is what Joshua said to them. As it is written: “And Joshua said to them: If you are a numerous people, go up to the forest,”

he said to them,

I cannot increase your inheritance. However, I have good advice for you: If you are a numerous people,

go and conceal yourselves in the forests, so that the evil eye will not prevail over you.