375. HE RESPONDS: It is just that so many people are naked without it. Some of them say that he was a gatherer of wood, ZELOPHEHAD, because it says, "But he died in his own sin" (Ibid.). Some say this way and some say that way. I learned on the day my father fell on his sickbed; they taught me this, and I saw that which I saw, which my father forbade me from revealing. AND I WAS TAUGHT that there were many, many who died in the desert, and not on account of the sins of Korah or on account of the sin of the spies, when the decree was pronounced THAT ALL WILL DIE OUT IN THE WILDERNESS. But THEY DIED prior to the giving of the Torah and after those who misled the world, MEANING THE MIXED MULTITUDES, and those who followed them, made the golden calf. ZELOPHEHAD COULD HAVE BEEN AMONG THOSE, BUT THERE IS NO PROOF FROM THE VERSE: "BUT HE DIED IN HIS OWN SIN," THAT HE WAS THE GATHERER OF WOOD.

376. However, the plea that these daughters pleaded was that he died in the wilderness. He, who was Zelophehad, a chief in the house of Joseph, and who was not properly versed in the manners of the Torah, was not THEREFORE a prince. And he was the one who did not watch his lips and speech against Moses, AS IT SAYS, "AND THE PEOPLE SPOKE AGAINST ELOHIM, AND MOSES..." (BEMIDBAR 21:5). ZELOPHEHAD WAS THE SPOKESMAN and about him, it is written: "And many (Heb. rav) people of Yisrael died" (Ibid. 6) BECAUSE HE WAS a man that was not versed in Torah. He was a chief (Heb. rav) of a family, a chieftain from the descendants of Joseph and an offspring of Menashe. Because he sinned in the wilderness by speaking against Moses, HIS DAUGHTERS thought that Moses harbored hatred AGAINST HIM. Therefore, they brought forward their complaints before Moses and Elazar and all the tribal heads and family chieftains. They did not speak with Moses alone but in their presence, because they were jealous of him.

379. The child said, I am returning to the earlier topic, to talk about this pausal note, MEANING THE 'ZARKA', THAT IS ON THE WORD OF "OUR FATHER" IN, "Our father died in the wilderness." ITS SHAPE is comparable to a snake that hangs on his back and pulls his tail into his mouth. AND THIS DRAWING THAT IS on the musical note OF ZARKA that is drawn over THE WORD "OUR FATHER," CAUSED ZELOPHEHAD TO die "in the wilderness" through the words of his own mouth. The child hurried up quickly and held on to the back of the neck of his father, cried and said, This Zelophehad died through talking and you, my father, returned to this world through talking, MEANING THROUGH THE WORDS AND TEARS OF THE CHILD. His father hugged and kissed him again. Rabbi Elazar and the friends all cried, and the father cried along with them. They all took him and kissed him all over his lips, over his head and over his eyes, and his father was crying with him.