Bemidbar

At times and as proven by Pinchas, an act of violence or war is justified and necessary, to make peace. If the Allied Forces had not intervened and declared war against Nazi Germany and Japan, can anyone imagine our lives today, if at all we would have survived?

Who can truly console us? Who can truly provide words and deeds of comfort? No mortal can truly comfort us, not even the greatest or wisest of men. Only Hashem our G-d can do so!

Most of the p’sukim in the early sections of Sefer Yirmiyahu, which make up the first two haftarot of the Three Weeks, consist of rebuke and prophecies of doom. Yet, they also contain sections of Nechama.

There are those amongst us who abhor violence at all costs, in all circumstances. Apparently, these murmurings against Pinchas,were so strong that the Lord had to "intervene" to defend Pinchas and highlight the justification and necessity of his act.

The name of this week’s protagonist, Pinchas, is quite fascinating, for it contains within it another well-known name: Noach. What is the connection between the two?

The Parsha of Pinchas contains a masterclass on leadership, as Moses confronts his own mortality and asks God to appoint a successor. In the case of Moses, the Sages sensed a certain sadness at his realisation that he would not be succeeded by either of his sons.

The story of the mekosheish, the man caught gathering wood on Shabbos, in Parshas Shelach, contains a host of conflicting and unusual midrashim. The story also serves as a springboard for many halachic and hashkafic issues.

The daughters of Tzlofchad, discussed in the parasha, are symbols of righteous women, in whose merit Bnei Yisrael left Egypt and arrived in Eretz Yisrael. One of the five daughters was Tirtza. Tirtza was also the name of the capital city of the northern Kingdom of Israel.

Is leadership a set of skills, the ability to summon and command power? Or does it have an essentially moral dimension also? Can a bad person be a good leader, or will their badness compromise their leadership?

If you look at this Parsha in a Sefer Torah, you will immediately notice that Bilaam’s narrative is written in “block form” without the usual open spaces (parsha “breaks”) that are found in most Parshiyot.