Parshas Pinchas
Tempered Blessing
Pinchas is a tainted hero. Rashi records for us that the tribes of
Israel, especially the tribe of Shimon, complained that someone who is a
descendant of “one who fattened calves for paganism and dares kill a head
of a tribe in Israel” should not be entitled to any honors. The Lord, so
to speak, comes to his defense and grants the gift of the priesthood to
him and his descendants and also the supreme blessing of peace. The Torah
records his genealogy as being from Elazar and Aharon and not from the one
who “fattened calves for idolatry.” Yet, even this restoration of status
and Godly confirmation of the Rectitude of Pinchas is also somewhat
reserved. In the word “shalom” that marks the covenant of peace granted to
Pinchas by God, the letter “vav” in this word, as it is written in the
Torah, is split and cracked. He is not granted the full blessing of peace
but rather a diminished portion of it. Our rabbis taught us that this is
because his heroics involved violence and the taking of human life, albeit
in a just and holy cause. Nevertheless, peace obtained through violence
and the death of others, even if those deaths are unavoidably necessary
and completely justified, is always somewhat tarnished, cracked and split.
Pinchas is completely vindicated and rehabilitated by the Torah, but a
lingering resentment against his act of boldness and zealotry remains
present amongst the Jewish people.
Pinchas reappears later in Jewish history in the book of Shoftim/Judges.
There he is the High Priest and according to some opinions, the leader of
the Sanhedrin as well. The Talmud records for us that in the tragic story
of Yiftach and his daughter, in which Yiftach vowed to sacrifice the
living creature that would first confront him when he returned home after
the successful war against Bnei Ammon, was first greeted by his daughter
upon his return home. The Talmud is of the opinion that Yiftach’s vow
could have been annulled legally by the court of Pinchas. But Pinchas
insisted that Yiftach come to him to obtain such an annulment while
Yiftach felt that this would be an affront to his position as
the “shofeit” judge and temporal leader of Israel So nothing was done, the
vow remained, and the innocent life of Yiftach’s daughter was snuffed out
on the altar of pride. So Pinchas is slightly tarnished in this story as
well.
The eventual complete redemption of Pinchas occurs when the Talmud equates
him with the prophet Eliyahu. It is therefore Pinchas/Eliyahu who
accompanies the Jewish people throughout the ages and the troubles. He is
present at every brit milah and at every Pesach seder. He is the harbinger
of our complete redemption, the one who will bind the generations together
and is the symbol of hope and the glorious future of Israel and humankind.
It is as Eliyahu that Pinchas receives the undisputed heroic stature that
the Lord grants to him in this week’s parsha. May we see him speedily in
our days.
Shabat Shalom.
Rabbi Berel Wein
Text Copyright © 2005 by Rabbi Berel Wein and Torah.org
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