This week’s parasha marks the end of our ancestor’s trek across the wilderness. According to the rabbis, the generation that left Egypt died over the forty years of wandering, and a new generation rose that is loyal and courageous.

The most loyal and courageous amongst them -- the ones our tradition says deem the entire generation worthy of entering the Promised Land -- are four women -- daughters of a man named Tzlofchad.

They have no brothers and do not stand to inherit their father’s property because they are women. So they daringly come before Moses, and the nation’s leadership, and request to inherit the property of their father.

The daughters’ plea is unprecedented. Moses does not know how to rule. The Torah tell us he asks God, and God says, “The daughters of Tzelofechad speak rightly! – transfer their father’s share to them.”

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Many of us, too, have reckoned with the demands of these unprecedented times. Our eyes have been opened to the realization of the many ways our society continues to fail our Black and brown brothers and sisters.

As a new generation rises, and demands justice, its declaration “Black Lives Matter” demands our policies and institutions root out racial injustice in order to authentically uphold the value of human life.

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This week’s Torah portion gives us a three step model for how to respond to this historical moment: when our God is confronted with injustice, The Holy One responds: the daughters of Tzelofechad speak rightly! It’s time for things to change!

The first step, according to our tradition is to be willing to side with those with less power, in order to make a change to the way things have been up to that point.

In the next verse, God instructs Moses to share this ruling as a new law that applies to all women in a similar situation from that day forward: the second step, according to our tradition is to change the whole system in order to protect others from this injustice then, and in the future.

Finally, the rabbis interpret this seemingly new law as a piece of Torah that God withheld at Mount Sinai -- until these four women, through their bold action, demonstrated the people were ready to finally receive it: the third step, according to our tradition is to invest this new law with ultimate authority.

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Standing up for yourself is a difficult feat: it means defending oneself against the attacks of others; it means asking for what one needs at the right time; it means overcoming ones doubt one deserves what one is requesting.

And at this historical moment, it means supporting others who are asking for what they need. This is what we need to do to enter a Promised Land, to create a better world; to be ready to receive the piece of Torah that’s been withheld from us until now.

May it be so.