When we stood this week at the foot of the ancient Jewish village of Devoraya in the Golan, we saw the extraordinary way the caper bush scatters its seeds:
The closed fruit splits into three equal parts that peel back, exposing its seeds to the birds, which spread them into every hole and crevice. This phenomenon gave the plant its Hebrew name: tzalaf, from a root meaning splitting.
The Sages called the caper bush “the boldest of the trees,” for it is brazen and bold. It flaunts a strong green amid the yellow of summer, and grows everywhere: from the Eilat mountains to the Hermon. It reaches even harsh, soilless crevices: from the stones of the Western Wall to scorching desert cliffs.
Right above us, in the ancient Jewish village of Devoraya in the Golan, lived a Jewish sage named after the caper bush:
Rabbi Elazar HaKappar.
The name “Kappar” denotes his trade: producing foods and remedies from caper buds, which were called kaprisin (and in his time the caper itself was also called kappar). To this day delicacies are made from caper buds and caper fruit, and pickled capers are a delicacy fit for kings.
And in the ruins of Devoraya an especially moving find was discovered. Among the remains of the Jewish settlement from the Mishnaic period, an inscription was found:
“This is the beit midrash of Rabbi Elazar HaKappar.”
The inscription is remarkable in itself — it is the only ancient inscription in which the name “beit midrash” appears explicitly — but what makes the matter nothing short of astonishing is a saying of Rabbi Elazar HaKappar himself, from 1,600 years ago:
“Do not be like the upper lintel, which no human hand can reach… but be like the lowest threshold, which everyone treads upon; and in the end the whole house is destroyed — and it remains in its place.” (Avot deRabbi Natan)
It is a wonderful parable, easily grasped by anyone who knows the doorways of the ancient synagogues of the Golan, with their upper lintel stone. The moral, in effect, warns you not to be an unreachable sage in an ivory tower, but to mingle with people — and thus your Torah will endure.
The famous man of the capers warned that woe to the trait of boldness if it turns into unwanted pride. Even if you are bold as a leopard, be like the lowest threshold, mingling with people.
And here is the thing: Rabbi Elazar HaKappar’s name ended up engraved on an upper lintel. The very opposite of the parable in which he warned against pride. But when the ancient Jewish village of Devoraya was destroyed in an earthquake, the lintel fell to the ground — and in the end it was preserved only because it had become the lowest threshold….
The bold and brazen caper is also connected to the daughters of Zelophehad, who return to star in this week’s portion as well. Parashat Masei.
The daughters of Zelophehad were bold. They knew how to stand their ground. When they realized that, being women, they might be dispossessed of an inheritance in the Land of Israel, they stood before Moses and demanded: Give us a holding! We too want a hold in the Land.
These daughters — Hoglah, Milcah, Noah, Mahlah and Tirzah — are named after their father: Zelophehad.
Who was this Zelophehad, and what is the meaning of his unusual name?
The Sages said that Zelophehad was the famous wood-gatherer of the book of Numbers. The man who heard an explicit decree not to desecrate the Shabbat and nevertheless, despite all the warnings, went out to gather wood.
And why was he named Zelophehad?
The Chida, a man of the Land of Israel in every fiber of his being, who was active in the Land in the eighteenth century, writes:
“Zelophehad: the caper tree (tzalaf) is hinted at in his name — tzalaf chad — and the discerning will understand.”
Zelophehad is named after the caper plant!
Perhaps even the wood he gathered on Shabbat was from the capers common in the desert (the Egyptian caper and the cartilaginous caper).
But what is the discerning to understand?
The caper symbolizes boldness and brazenness. Zelophehad was like that — he saw nothing in front of him and did what he did in the face of Moses and all who warned him. His daughters inherited the trait of boldness from him, but channeled it for good: to demand a hold and an inheritance for women in the Land of Israel.
In Parashat Pinchas we read God’s response to their request: “The daughters of Zelophehad speak rightly!”
The boldness was in its place. You are right!
But in Parashat Masei there is an interesting sequel to the story. It becomes clear that the request of the daughters of Zelophehad could create a problem: if they marry men outside their family, part of the inheritance of Manasseh would in practice pass to other families. Here lies no small test of the boldness of the daughters of Zelophehad. Would their boldness also know how to yield where needed? To accept the new conditions in light of the changing reality?
And precisely here these wonderful daughters reveal their greatness:
“As the Lord commanded Moses, so did the daughters of Zelophehad. And Mahlah, Tirzah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married unto their father’s brothers’ sons. They were married into the families of the sons of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of their father.”
They know not to bang their heads against the wall. They know how to be bold where needed and to give way where needed.
And so they merit to inherit, to multiply, to split apart like the fruit of the caper, and to receive one of the greatest and most blessed inheritances in the entire Land of Israel: northern Samaria.
Their names attest to the boldness within them. All of them carry movement and momentum: Noah from the word for motion, Mahlah from the word for dance, Hoglah from the word for circling, Milcah from the word for walking, and Tirzah from the word for running.
Indeed they were worthy of being called after the caper’s trait: the daughters of Zelophehad.
