Lotteries, conflict of interest and integrity
Shabbat Shalom to all our readers.
There is a story of a guy who won $20 million by placing a bet on a horse with the number 48. A friend asked him how he managed to pick the right horse to bet on. He answered that it was a combination of “sechel” (sense) and “mazal” (luck). The “sechel” arose from the fact that his favourite number is 7 and 7×7 is 48. The friend replied that 7×7 does not equal 48! He smirked and said the “mazal” is I have never been good at arithmetic.
We have different kinds of lotteries in our portion this week, Parashat Pinchas. Lotteries are used to allocate the land of Israel to the different tribes. We have the famous petition that the daughters of Tzelafchad make to Moshe regarding the inheritance of the land. As passionate lovers of the Land of Israel, they wished to inherit the land. Despite the incredible courage and inspiration of these women, there is another part of the story that deserves to be highlighted. Their request is taken to Hashem by Moshe.
In response to their request, Hashem says the laws of inheritance will be changed in accordance with their request. However, why didn’t Moshe know the answer at the onset? Why did he have to go to Hashem with it?
There are two answers provided by Rashi. In the past, Moshe had said he would only answer difficult questions, and Hashem was dissatisfied with this type of attitude, so he concealed the matter from Moshe. Also, Rashi says it was done to bring merit to the daughters of Tzelafchad by taking their questions directly to Hashem.
A third explanation examines an earlier similar story.
In Parashat Balak, Moses appears to forget the law regarding Cozbi and Zimri who were having physical relations in public in violation of the Torah’s prohibition.
The truth is that this third explanation suggests Moshe wasn’t blind to the laws. Because of a conflict of interest, Moshe opted out. As a result, he preferred not to give a ruling, believing that he might have been swayed by his own bias. Moshe himself had married a Midianite woman, so he was conflicted!
In this week’s parasha, Pinchas, if one examines the words the daughters of Tzelafchad had used when speaking to Moshe, they told Moshe that their father didn’t sin by the debacle of the spies. Possibly a throwaway line, but Moshe said, this is already making me conflicted, for if he rules in their favour, it might be construed that it was because their father was good to me. I cannot be seen to have had any ulterior motive, Moshe declared.
True leadership looks like this. Unfortunately, integrity and honesty seem to be lacking in our world today.
A dayan (religious judge) was asked to hear a case between two prominent families, who were engaged in a major financial dispute. The dayan agreed to hear the case, but gave one party an expensive bottle of wine when he arrived. Everyone was shocked at first – what is this dayan doing? The other party was about to leave when the dayan explained what was happening. Ten years earlier, the dayan and his wife welcomed a baby, and one party gave them an expensive bottle of wine.
He explained that if he was to adjudicate this case, he wanted to ensure that there was nothing that might appear to be bribery and so he returned the wine.
Having such a high level of integrity is not easy, but it is something we should strive for. Moshe always wanted to help his people but any time his motives could have been seen as ulterior, he was humble enough to walk away.
Daniel Rabin is senior Rabbi of Caulfield Hebrew Congregation and immediate past president, Rabbinical Council of Victoria.
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