I just can’t decide whether the Daughters of Tzelafchad get cheated.
They know their Dad should get a patch of the Promised Land, but he’s dead and they have no brother to represent the family. God agrees: daughters can inherit land. That was two weeks ago (Num. 27:1-11).
Last week, women’s rights were shrinking. Unless they are independent, women can’t make vows without their man’s consent (Num. 30:2-17).
This week, the Old Boys’ Network gets together and engineers more restrictions on women. Now, the Daughters of Tzelafchad can’t marry outside their tribe lest their land should go to another tribe (Num. 36:1-12).
(Some say there’s a lesson here about freedom: it’s not a license to hurt others.)
And what little patch of land are they worried about? Moses was bringing everyone to a land west of the Jordan, but two-and-a-half tribes want to be east-siders (Num. 32), living outside the original Promised Land. This is where the descendants of Machir, who include the Daughters of Tzelafchad, seem to get their land (i.e., Gilead: Deut. 3:15).
Did they get cheated out of their patch of Promised Land? Did the Promise expand to include east-side land? Were the Israelites supposed to think beyond their desire for land, since God says: “All the land belongs to me, and you are foreigners and settlers” (Lev. 25:23)?
Sharing Jewish Tradition 
I did think that was unfair that the girls were restricted to marrying within their tribe (even though that still meant choosing from 10,000+ suitors); but I can see the obvious discord that would result from having one, let’s say, “outsider” living right smack in the middle of tribal lands. I think this ruling means “Family first.”
Women often have to choose between our passions and our inheritance. And we usually run after our true heart’s desire. We have the right to do that; but we do not have the right to place our whole tribe in a submissive or uncomfortable position. The men aren’t allowed to do it, either. If a man marries a woman from some other tribe or other tradition, the land stays within his tribe and their unified household takes up his halacha. They blend their family into the neighborhood.
It seems to me that this solution for the Daughters of Tzelafchad was brilliant. (Excuse me for questioning Hashem.) And it establishes firm rights of inheritance for daughters. Gamzu l’tovah.