Parashas Pinchas – The Real Battle against the Midyanites
This week's sedra is bursting with detail starting with the aftermath of the incident which was described at the end of last week's sedra in which Pinchas slayed Zimri and his Midyanite partner during their public illicit relations. The resultant commandment to “Harass... and smite” [25:17] the Midyanites is then given over to Moshe to seemingly conclude this dark episode, which will be discussed more below. Parashas Pinchas then gives over a census of the remaining members of the nation which was undertaken towards the end of the nations time in the desert. Some very interesting facts can be learnt out from comparing this census to that of those at the beginning of the book of Bamidbar, in which we can determine how many people died following all the disturbances during the wilderness years (the Sin of the Golden Calf, the Spies, Korach's rebellion and the incident with the Midyanite women) and also from which tribes these casualties mainly took place. The laws for the inheritance of the land according to each tribe are then given over, in which the land was distributed based on both size and fertility. With this we
We are told that the result of Pinchas’s heroic act was that he was awarded with the Kehunah. What does the Kehunah have to do with what Pinchas did? One idea here is that, as the Maharal says, the key facet of the Kohen’s job is the creation of shalom. It is via the korbanos that the Kohen ‘makes shalom’ between HaShem and Klal Yisrael, and even the Sotah offering - which brings a husband and wife back together (if it goes well!) - is done via the Kohen. Thus, since Pinchas’s act both stopped the plague in Klal Yisrael and stopped the warring factions against Moshe, Pinchas was rewarded with ‘a covenant of peace’ (25:12) in the form of the Kehunah.
The Yom Tov of Shmini Atzeres makes an appearance at the very end of our sedra. Chazal tell us that HaShem instituted Shmini Atzeres because He declared ‘your separation is hard for me.’ In other words, HaShem wanted us to stay and celebrate ’with Him’ one day longer. But how exactly does one day make a difference here; after this day we will still have to separate from HaShem, so to speak? One idea is that ‘your separation’ here refers to our rushing away from Sukkos. HaShem wants to make sure that we ingest and digest all the themes and messages of Sukkos, as opposed to rushing back to our ‘normal’ everyday lives. Thus, He gave us an extra day called Shmini Atzeres to internalise and develop everything that we gained from Sukkos. Alternatively, ‘your separation’ refers to the unity amongst Klal Yisrael. For for the entire duration of Sukkos we have been offering 70 cow offerings corresponding to the 70 nations of the world (amongst other offerings); we were offering korbanos on their behalf too. And when we are ‘on show’ for the other nations of the world it is very easy to preserve unity and act in a unified way. But HaShem feared that after the Sukkos korbanos were over then we’d sink to national disunity, and so said ‘your separation (from each other) is difficult for me’ and instituted Shmini Atzeres for us to celebrate together purely as the Jewish People and forge unity with each other.
“This is the census of Moshe and Elazar the priest (to apportion the land of Israel) who numbered the children of Israel in the plains of Moav by the Jordan at Jericho. But among these there was not a man of the (earlier) census of Moshe and Aharon the priest who numbered the children of Israel in the Sinai desert. For God had said of them: ‘They will surely die in the desert’. The only remaining ones of them were Calev ben Yefuneh and Yehoshua bin Nun. Then TZelofchad’s daughters … drew near …” (BeMidbar 26:63-27:1).
The Torah teaches here that the only men who merited to be kept alive for the whole journey from Egypt to Israel were Calev and Yehoshua. Well, what about the women?
When Moshe Rabbeinu entreated Hashem to appoint a leader to succeed him, Hashem answered, \"Before you command Me concerning My children, command My children concerning Me.\" Moshe proceeded to a command the Jewish people concerning the laws of the daily and holiday sacrifices.
In order to understand this Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni Bamidbar 228), we must first understand the function of a Torah leader. When the Jewish people feared that Moshe would not return from Har Sinai, they beseeched Aharon to make them a leader who would walk before them. They viewed a leader as one who goes \"before,\" accomplishing what his followers cannot. Thus when Moshe delayed they felt helpless and in need of a new intermediary
(Adapted from the Ma'ayanah shel Torah) :
"And he said, I was zealous on behalf of Hashem ... , for B'nei Yisrael have forsaken His covenant, they have demolished Your altars and slain Your prophets by the sword".
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G-d complained, says the Yalkut, that Eliyahu seemed unable to put in a good word on behalf of Yisrael. He accused him of showing nothing but zealousness with regard to them. At Shitim (in the episode of Zimri, where he was better known as Pinchas), he displayed zealousness, and again in the Haftarah (as Eliyahu), he grumbled that Yisrael had forsaken Hashem's covenant, demolished the Mizbei'ach, and killed the prophets by the sword (Melachim 1 18:19). That is in fact, why G-d took Him away and had Elisha anointed in his place
"Pinchas ben Elazar ... diverted My anger (heishiv es chamosi) from on the B'nei Yisrael ... " (25:11)
Citing the G'ro, the P'ninim mi'Shulchan ha'G'ro explains the words "heishiv es chamosi, which literally means 'turned my anger round', with the adage of Chazal that Tzadikim are called 'alive', even after their death, whereas even during their lifetime, Resha'im are called dead. What they mean, says the G'ro, is that whilst in the case of the former, it is only their bodies that have died, but their Souls remain alive, in the latter case, it is only their bodies that live; their inner souls have already died. Take the word "chamosi", and you will find that its inner letters (denoting the Neshamah) spell 'meis', its outer letters (the body) 'chai'. What Pinchas therefore did was to turn the word "chamosi" round, from its current format (where the Neshamah is dead, and the body alive), to 'michyas', whose inner letters spell 'chai'
