Masei: Was Any Daughter of Tzelophchad Smarter Than Another? The Machlokes Rashi vs. Rashbam

In the previous post, I discussed a Rashi and gemara in Bava Batra 120a that appears to assume a practice of marrying off older daughters first.

However, there is one point that still merits discussion, and was left unresolved. Was any daughter of Tzelophchad smarter than any other? It depends on how you read the gemara in Bava Batra, and Rashi reads it differently that either Rabbenu Gershom or Rashbam, on the daf.

To the point, we read {Bemidbar 36:11}:

יא וַתִּהְיֶינָה מַחְלָה תִרְצָה, וְחָגְלָה וּמִלְכָּה וְנֹעָה--בְּנוֹת צְלָפְחָד: לִבְנֵי דֹדֵיהֶן, לְנָשִׁים.

11 For Mahlah, Tirzah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married unto their father's brothers' sons.

Yet the order of these daughters is different than the other three places in Tanach where the names of these daughters occurs. Why?

Rashi explains:

Here it enumerates them according to seniority over each other in age, and they were married in the order they were born. But throughout Scripture (26:33, 17:1, Josh. 17:3), it lists them in order of their intelligence and informs us that they were all equal. — [B.B. 120a]

Yet there are actually two statements here, the first from Bava Batra and the second from the same daf in Bava Batra as well as from the Sifrei.

The first statement is:

Further on, Scripture enumerates them according to their age and here according to their wisdom.

where "further on" is this statement in Masei.

Meanwhile, the second statement is

The school of R. Ishmael taught: The daughters of Zelophehad were [all] alike, for it is said, and they were [implying], 'all of them possessed the same status'

What is meant by "the same status?" I might say the same level of wisdom, or else I might say e.g. the same status of righteousness.

According to the Rashbam's reading of the gemara, the two statements in Bava Batra are opposed to one another. The first statement supports an opinion by Rabbi Ammi that in certain situations {yeshiva} you go after wisdom while in other situations {mesiba} you go after age. Rashbam considers the statement from the school of Rabbi Yishmael as opposed to this statement of Rabbi Assi. That is, he states מלמד ששקולין היו ולא תסייע לרבי עמי, that they were equal to one another and thus this reordering does not support Rabbi Ammi that in certain cases you go after greater wisdom or greater age.

Similarly, Rabbenu Gershom, also on the side, also believes that the statement from the school of Rabbi Yishmael is at odds with that of Rabbi Ammi, and states explicitly that כולם שקולות בחכמה, they were all equal in wisdom.

Meanwhile, Rashi cites both statements. Once again, Rashi stated

Here it enumerates them according to seniority over each other in age, and they were married in the order they were born. But throughout Scripture (26:33, 17:1, Josh. 17:3), it lists them in order of their intelligence and informs us that they were all equal. — [B.B. 120a]

Thus, he is of the opinion that sometimes it lists them by age (which is their order of marriage, relevant to this particular pasuk), and all other times deliberately in a different order, namely that of their wisdom. Why not stick to one ordering? To inform us that they were all equal -- in some other, unspecified midah.

I don't know if I prefer Rashi's pshat as best in that gemara, over that of Rashi's grandteacher Rabbenu Gershom and that of his grandson and student Rashbam. Regardless, it carries a great homiletical lesson:

All too often, we tend to measure greatness in some quality such as wealth, or intelligence. Yet here, according to Rashi, one sister was older than the next, and one sister was wiser than the next, yet all five sisters were equal to one another. May we all judge others as our equals in worth, rather than being biased by the specific qualities we perceive as valuable.