This week’s portion, Pinchas – named after the grandson of
Aharon the Priest, Moshe’s brother – is, in a way, a mirror image to the
portion of Korah that we have read several weeks ago. There, if you recall,
Korah dared to have challenged Moshe’s leadership in quite sophisticated a
manner. That attempt, unfortunately, did not go so well - the earth “open its
mouth” and swallowed” both Korah and his followers. (Interestingly, but not
coincidently, a reminder of that story appears in this week’s potion as well –
see Numbers 26:9-11).
The “mirror image” of this week’s portion is also a bit
nuanced. Here, we first learn – by
reading the last verses of the last portion – that the Children of Israel were
no longer wondering in the desert, but rather “sitting” or parking, as it were,
at a place called Shittim (perhaps a play on words on “shotim,” fools). Next
thing we learn is that they begin to “go out with” – or, in the biblical
language, to “whore with” – the daughters of Moab, a local people from the
other side of the Jordan. And soon thereafter, the Israelites begin worship
those people’s gods. That, of course, makes our own God extremely angry (not
for the first time, may I add); but rather than instructing Moshe, as he done
in the past, to kill the entire people, God instruct him to take only
the “ringleaders” and kill them. Moshe, in turn, instructs the Judges to do so
(I am emphasizing this seemingly trivial fact in order to illustrate the fact
that the notion of separation of powers was not quite developed yet: the judges
were also executioners, or at leas so it seems.).
But the Israelites – who had “chutzpa” long before Alan
Dershowitz were born – refuse to take the hint: A man – later known as Zimri, a
president of some family of the Tribe of Shimon – goes out in public, and in
front of Moshe himself and the entire people he “brought the Midianite woman
closer to him”; the people of Israel, in response, began weeping. (Num. 25:6)
And here comes the act that defines this week’s portion:
And Pinchas – the son of Elazar, the [grand]son of Aharon,
the [Chief] Priest – saw this and he stood out of the community and he took a
spear in his hand. … And he came after that man [Zimri]and he stabbed both of
them: The man from Israel and the woman to her stomach, and the plague ceased
to attack the Children of Israel. (Num.
25:7-8)
Thus, at first glance, in
Pinchas we have the exact mirror-image of Korah: Not only that he does what God
ordered Moshe to do, he even “jumped ahead” of Moshe and killed the sinners
even before Moshe – through his “judges,” in this case – was able to lift his
hand.
A more careful
examination, however, may demonstrate that the picture – as indicated earlier –
is a bit more nuanced. Recall the story
of the (other) sons of Aharon, Nadav and Avihu, who were put to death for (what
I referred to) as “Rosh Gadol” – too much of a good thing, if you will. They
sacrificed, without a specific permission, another fire – a “foreign fire” – to
God; that time, their punishment was harsh and swift – they were put to death
immediately. (See Leviticus 10:1-3).
Just like Pinchas, they wanted to show that they are “holier than thou”
in the sense that they practiced a tradition – the providing of sacrifice –
that demonstrates a great devotion to God, above and beyond what God
ordered them. For that they were
punished (by death). Pinchas, in essence, did the same: He jumped ahead of
Moshe and his men (judges) and pro-actively approached the sinner and the woman
with him and killed them both. The response by God this time, however, was the
complete opposite of punishment:
And God spoke to Moshe and Said: …
I would provide him [Pinchas] with my covenant in peach; and he would have it
for him and his posterity after him – a covenant of eternal priesthood for he
was jealous to his own God and repent the sins of the Children of Israel.
(Num. 10-13)
What is the cause to this stark
difference? How come the first generation of Aharon’s sons, after trying their
best to show their devotion to God were punished by death, while the grandson
was blessed with eternal covenant with God for doing quite the same thing?
Obviously, one answer is
that the two deeds are not the same. Sacrificing a “foreign fire”
without permission is nothing like killing a sinner after God specifically
instructed Moses to do so. But this is not a satisfactory answer. Recall the
largest point made by both stories of Korah (“opposition equals death”) and the
Sons of Aharon (“too much of a good thing” also equals death”). Brought
together, these two stories should suggest that Pinchas’ act – as noble and
pro-God as it may have been – was still in direct violation of Moshe’s
authority and of God’s instructions (who told the Judges to kill the sinners).
How come his life was not only spared, but blessed – and by God himself, for
good measure?
To be honest, I
don’t have a good answer to that. (I’d
be delighted to hear one from you, the readers.) But I may surmise that these two former stories – Korah (who is,
again, mentioned in this portion as well), and Aharon’s sons’ death – created a
sense of awkwardness, not to say a sense of injustice by some readers. The
overall impression was that it’s “Moshe’s word or death,” a tough pill to
swallow, even for the most ardent of believers. Hence, we needed a story where
Moshe was instructed to do X, but someone “jumped ahead” of him, executed God’s
wish, and won an eternal award. Pinchas’ story provides just that. Now Moshe
can rest assure, and nominate his successor – Joshua – without fear of too much
resentment.
Shabbat Shalom.
Doron
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