Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Bamidbar
- Pinchas
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?
Both Pinchas and Noach were righteous men. Both, in effect, saved the nation through their noble actions; Noach by building an Ark that preserved all of humanity, & Pinchas by stopping a devastating plague that had already killed 24,000 (some say ten times that many) people. Both faced hostile mobs: Those who sought to forcibly prevent Noach from boarding the ark; & those who wanted to lynch
Pinchas for having killed Zimri, an Israelite prince.
Both also received unparalleled rewards: Noach & his wife Na’ama would be the progenitors of all future human beings; and every Kohen Gadol to subsequently serve in the Bet HaMikdash would descend from Pinchas alone.
But for all these similarities, there was one major difference in their personalities: Noach was a reluctant hero who, like Moshe Rabbeinu - whose life was also saved by a tayva, a (miniature) ark! – did not seek glory or rush to action. He took a full 120 years to build that ark, perhaps hoping that, in time, the skies would stay cloudless and his mission would be aborted.
But Pinchas was quite the opposite. He was a man of action, who took matters – not to mention a spear! – into his own hands, who immediately rushed into the breach when the situation called for it. He even bypassed his own mentors, Moshe and Aharon, who hesitated when Zimri staged his perverse version of the "Cozbi Show."
The Torah notes Pinchas’s alacrity when it says, "B’kano et kinati….v’lo chiliti et Bnei Yisrael b’kinati." The same word, "Kina," is used 3 times in the pasuk. Now, we usually translate "kina" as "jealous," but Chazal change just 1 letter & say it means "zealous." The difference?
When the object of your desire is yourself, it is jealousy, a negative trait. But when you act to defend Hashem’s honor, it is zealousness, or z’rizut, an admirable quality.
Pinchas, in effect, was a tikun for his ancestor Noach. His quick, instinctive reaction, praised by G-d, assured that both men earned the highest reward and title possible: An eternal Shem Tov.
Rabbi Stewart Weiss
Was ordained at the Hebrew Theological College in Skokie, Illinois, and led congregations in Chicago and Dallas prior to making Aliyah in 1992. He directs the Jewish Outreach Center in Ra'anana, helping to facilitate the spiritual absorption of new olim.
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Various Events FOR WHOM NOT TO VOTE
Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook stressed that Israeli politics is G-dly, so I have no problem answering this common question on a Torani blog. Also, Free-Will is a G-d-given right and obligation, to "destine one's fate" (R. Soloveichik, Kol Dodi Dofek, 67), so I obviously don't tell others how to vote. But once not a few (especially young) have already asked, a couple of personal words from experience and thoughts from chazal & Rav Kook which may be of help to others, mainly for whom NOT to vote.
P'ninat Mishpat Fallout from Failure to Install Elevator – part II
based on ruling 85007 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
