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 are also brought the grievance of Tzelafchad’s daughters who request a share in the land despite the fact that they had no brother’s and their father had died in the wilderness, therefore usually leaving them in a position absent of inheritance as only the men were counted in preparation for the division of land. This request was of course granted with Hashem showing through this action that his compassion is for both males and females alike. Moshe is then famously shown the Land of Israel from Mount Avarim and reminded that he will not enter because he “rebelled against (Hashem’s) word in the wilderness…” [27:14]. In this week’s sedra we also see Moshe request a successor to lead the nation into the Land so that they will “not be like sheep that have no shepherd” [27:17] and this request is granted by Hashem with Yehoshua being assigned to take over the task when Moshe dies. Parashas Pinchas concludes with two chapters dedicated to the ‘mussaf’, additional offerings, that were brought in the Beis HaMikdash on Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh and Yom Tovim… hence why we still have the mussaf service today which replaces these offerings. Since these were to be brought as an addition to the normal daily offering, the tamid, the Torah first describes that basic offering but then goes into a detailed account of the exact offerings and their measurements for Shabbat Mussaf, Rosh Chodesh, Pesach, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, each day of Succot and of course Shemini Atzeres.
If we rewind our minds all the way back to last week we will remember that Bilaam (and his talking donkey… mentioned on request of my father ;-)) were unsuccessful in cursing the nation. What we did see however was that he was successful in his plot which is mentioned right at the end of Parashas Balak to corrupt Israel with sexual immorality through the use of the Moavite and Midyanite women. The Jewish men were fatefully enticed into debauchery with the daughters of these desperate nations who knew that sexual morality is a foundation of Jewish holiness and it’s absence would therefore provoke Hashem’s anger. Zimri, prince of the tribe of Shimon took things one step further and attempted to undermine Moshe publicly by entering the camp with Kozbi (the daughter of King Balak) and then proceeded to lead the Midyanite woman to his tent before everyone’s eyes. It was at this point that a plague began to afflict the people and seeing this, Pinchas, the grandson of Aaron, took a spear in his hand and made a human shish-kebab of the two sinners. This week’s sedra starts with Hashem stating that “Pinchas… turned back My wrath from upon the Children of Israel” [25:10] due to his brave act and we learn that he managed to halt the plague which was killing the guilty offenders and effectively save K’lal Yisrael from destruction, chas veshalom. Twenty four thousand people died in the plague which was nearly ten times the amount which were executed following the Sin of the Golden Calf. The sin of the people involving themselves with the Moavite and Midyanite women was arguably much graver than previous sins in the wilderness as it involved both immorality and idolatry (as they were seduced into worshipping idols in order to lay with the women). We therefore see from this how great an act Pinchas performed in order to restore G-d’s honour and prevent the desecration of his holy Torah through illicit behaviour. Further to this he ignored the fact that Zimri was the prince of a tribe and Kozbi was the daughter of King Balak, putting his trust fully in Hashem and demonstrating that the fear of repercussions from these powerful people was far less important than preventing the desecration of G-d’s name. We must learn from the example of Pinchas to act comparably and therefore spear all the Jewish people who commit immoral acts with non-Jews… ONLY JOKING!… well partly ;-). But seriously… in today’s society of accepted immorality and debauchery we really must distance ourselves from even the fringes of this culture and certainly disconnect fully from their way of life when it comes to sexual immorality. As Jews we must make a stand and act leshim samayim (for the sake of heaven) to retain Jewish holiness and speak out against Jews who find themselves involved with goyim. Pinchas’s achievement, in technically saving the whole Jewish nation exemplifies the powerful results which can be achieved even by one individual when such stands are made.
As mentioned in our summary, following this incident Hashem spoke to Moshe and commanded him to “Harass the Midyanites and smite them” [25:17] which we see contains two commandments; “צרור/to harass” which according to Rashi implies an ongoing state of mind in which we are to consider them enemies and to express this by harassing them and causing them distress, and the second commandment “והכיתם/and smite them” which implies actual warfare. Rather than simple revenge, the Or HaChaim explains that there was a deeper intention to these commandments from Hashem. The Midyanites had installed a lust for immoral pleasure and a desire towards idolatry within the Jewish people, as any Baal Teshuvah will inform you, such lusts are very hard to eradicate as there is always a danger of re-emergence. The only way to successfully fight such a desire was to make the people understand that what they thought of as a tempting pleasure was in fact an enemy and more importantly a genuine threat to their existence. Although the Midyanites required punishment for their actions against the Jewish nation, a constant state of warfare was not necessary and we therefore see that these commandments were a call for a continual spirit of hostility as a direct form of rectification to themselves. According to Midrashim, although Hashem proclaimed a state of war against Midyan immediately after Zimri’s death, he did not actually order the Jewish army to mobilise until the Jews were counted in the census which followed. We actually see that although Moshe is given these commandment to harass and smite the Midyanites it is not until next week’s sedra [31:1-20] that the war against the Midyanites is actually carried out. Even if we were to go on the explanation given in Midrashim that they needed to be counted first, why does the Torah separate the commandment to attack them and the actual war with nearly six chapters in between the two events? An interesting answer to this question is brought down by Rambam… In order for Bnei Yisrael to be able to fight the Midyanites both physically and mentally they needed to first work up to this level, for example; an alcoholic doesn’t quit drinking and then walk into a bar the next in order to fight off his desire for booze… months, even years of preparation will have to be put into place before he is at the level where he will be able to fight his temptation fully through being in such an environment and succeeding in withholding from drink. Israel are therefore told three things between the command to fight Midyan and the actual war; firstly that they are to be counted in a census, second are the korbanos/offerings which are given over at the end of our sedra and thirdly is the law that a father/husband can uproot the vows of his daughter/wife, given over in Parashas Mattos. These three stages of preparation match up to the three stages of spiritual growth, only after which Bnei Yisrael were spiritually strong enough to fight off the Midyanites and their idolatry. Although the reasons why these three particular mitzvahs were necessary is beyond the scope of this discussion we can learn an important life lesson from this. The tactic of the Midyanites and in fact our own Yatsa Horra is to get us to act on a spur of the moment decision… during this episode the Jewish men bowed down to idols whilst involving themselves with the Midyanite girls, which was a prime example of this tactic being used effectively against them. To conquer this philosophy Hashem showed the nation that real achievement in life is based on long-term working and we should make sure that we never make short term, spur of the moment decisions which ignore the future consequences of these actions. In order to rectify these errors Hashem made sure that the nation worked on themselves for a long period of time and then finally once this was done they were able to wage war on the Midyanites and defeat them once and for all. We too must work on ourselves, slowly and meticulously so that we can soon be fully prepared to successfully wage war against our own negative desires and defeat them!
I hope that we are all zocha to successfully work on ourselves and be able to grow for the long term, ignoring whatever short term inclinations try to hold us back.
Wishing everyone a peaceful and happy Shabbat!
Daniel Sandground, (student at Ohr Somayach Yeshivah, Jerusalem)
