Congregation Agudas Israel
Parshat Pinchas July 14, 2012
We can have this conversation again with certain parshiot, but as a rabbi, I believe that every single parsha in the Torah has words that can inspire and uplift. This week’s parsha is no exception. In trying to decide what to discuss today, I spent a lot of time looking at commentaries. Some I have translations of, but others, like the Ba’al Shem Tov, Z’L, the first Hasidic Rebbe, and the Netivot Shalom, Z’L, the recently departed Slonimer Rebbe, I was looking at the Hebrew. In the end all these commentaries, including our own Etz Chaim, the URJ’s Women’s Torah Commentary, got me thinking and I cannot tell you from which sources my thoughts arrive from.
Within this parsha, my favorite vignette is of the daughters of Zelophed, Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah. When their father dies, they are concerned that they will have no place in the land of Israel, since traditionally only sons inherited. What should they do? How do they gain their father’s portion in the Land of Israel, they ask Moses. Moses does not know the answer and goes to Gd, who says, “Hmm, they are right!” If there are no sons, the daughters must inherit. Although this right is amended in parshat Ma’sei, the fact that these women are named and encouraged Gd to change Torah law is a beautiful instance of the relationship between humanity and the Divine. It is an important lesson on how women did shape the biblical tradition in incredibly powerful and long-lasting ways.
While not my favorite part of the parsha, I am moved greatly by the opening scene. It follows directly from last week when Pinchas impaled with a spear a couple falsely worshiping at the entrance to the Mishkan in the desert. One might even say it was middah kneged middah, that the method of killing was perhaps parallel to the crime, but in a shul setting, we shall leave the sexual analogies unexplored. After this incredibly violent act, Pinchas is praised by Gd. Pinchas’ actions appease Gd’s wrath, ending a plague that killed 24,000. Pinchas is given a Briti Shalom, a pact of peace or friendship, and is allowed to remain serving as a priest, even though killing someone, in all other cases, forces a priest to step down, permanently, from his duties.
In the RA/USCJ Chumash, Etz Hayim, on p. 918, they discuss the rabbinic ambiguity and discomfort with Pinchas’ actions. Some mystical and Hasidic commentaries see Pinchas’ action as a sign that he is actually Elijah, and that he will herald the coming of the Messiah. Etz Hayim mentions that in the Talmud, Sanhedrin 82a, that if Pinchas had entered a rabbinic court to ask if he was permitted to execute Zimri and Cozbi, the court would have said “The law may permit it, but we forbid it!.” Moses of Coucy, a French Tosafist of the 13th century, said that we ended last week’s parsha on the horrible note of the death of the 24,000, just so Pinchas’ reward would be separated from his actions. The division of the parsha was altered from its normal formula, for the pedagogical and spiritual reason that we, as Jews, are uncomfortable with causing death, EVEN when it is necessary. War may be necessary, but we do not revel in it. We understand that there is always collateral damage and even if by some miracle, only combatants are killed, before they were soldiers, they were human beings, too.
The Etz Hayim, as written by Rabbi Harold Kushner, notes two particular unique Masoretic comments in these first verses of the parsha. The Masorites, who added all the dots and vowels, punctuation and eventually troph into Torah manuscripts, decided that the Yod in Pinchas’ name would be reduced in the second verse of this parsha (25:11) and that the Vav in Shalom (25:12) would be broken in every Torah scroll from then until eternity. In those two changes, we learn much.From the smaller Yod, we learn that when we do violence, no matter how justified, Gd’s presence is reduced within us. The Yod in any name with a Yod is representative of both Gd and Judaism, two words that begin with the letter Yod. To any Harry Potter fans out there, JK Rowling’s Horcruxes, seem based in this week’s parsha. Voldemort split his soul through acts of murder/violence, and with each act was diminished. In the same way, Pinchas’ was diminished by these acts--EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE NECESSARY and APPEASED GD!
From the broken Vav, we learn that peace that requires the complete destruction of the opponent will be a flawed peace. Yes, at times the Torah demands this, saying that evil must be wiped out completely, but even with evil incarnate, there are challenges to its destruction.
A prayer for Pinchas and for us:
You spear saved us,
But what did it do to your soul?
What kind of covenant was it?
You created Shalom, but were you Shalem?
Can you ever be whole again?
I pray that your Covenant brought you peace.
I pray that our covenants and treaties will create peace.
May we see a day when war and bloodshed cease.
May we see a day when guns become plows.
May we see a day when respect and love are more important than winning.
May we create a Brit of true Shalom, without broken letters or broken people.
Shabbat Shalom.
Graphic of Broken Vav from: http://rabbibrant.com/2007/07/06/broken-peace/
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