"My Covenant of Peace"

"My Covenant of Peace"

(Numbers 25:12)

Tammuz 23, 5778/July 6, 2018

As this week's Torah reading opens, the hitherto unknown Pinchas receives a generous reward for his daring act of zealotry and integrity which he displayed at the conclusion of last week's reading, literally spearing the sinners Zimri the son of Salu, of the tribe of Shimon, and his consort, "Cozbi the daughter of Zur, a national leader of a paternal house in Midian." (Numbers 25:15) G-d is so pleased with Pinchas' virtuous zealotry on His behalf, that G-d grants him, "Pinchas the son of Elazar the son of Aharon the kohen" immediate entrance into the priesthood and further rewards him with "My covenant of peace." (ibid 25:12)

Pinchas, the hero of the moment, was, according to tradition, also granted immortality, as his soul merged with that of the prophet Eliyahu (Elijah), who, later in history, displayed a similar zealotry for HaShem's honor, and who has been assigned the role of harbinger of the final redemption.

Just what was the crime that Pinchas' on-the-spot act of daring quelled? Clearly, it was the sin of licentiousness that the tribes of Israel were engaging in. But these egregious acts of depravity were merely the outward manifestation of a far deeper and more perilous process that was taking place in the final days of the forty year desert exile: assimilation. The Israelites were not merely hooking up with the Moabite and Midianite women. They were also adopting their idolatrous cult of Baal Peor. In the light of this disastrous national meltdown, what was the response of the people when confronted with the act of Zimri and Cozbi, the most flagrant display of the epidemic of assimilation?

"Then an Israelite man came and brought the Midianite woman to his brethren, before the eyes of Moshe and before the eyes of the entire congregation of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting." (ibid 25:6)

The entire community, Moshe included, wept! Their weeping was not directed at Zimri and Cozbi. Their contemptible act was worthy of anger and disgust. Our sages teach us that they were weeping because they had forgotten the words that G-d had told then concerning the potential of a crisis like this arising. In other words, a massive assimilation was taking place at an accelerated pace, and no one, the responsible leadership included, knew what to do. So they wept.

There is only one other time in Torah's account of the forty year desert sojourn that the people are described as weeping: when they heard the evil report that the spies delivered concerning the land of Israel. This weeping took place on the Ninth of Av, and for their senseless weeping on that day, G-d declared that the Ninth of Av would become a day of weeping for many generations. And indeed, the Ninth of Av is the day that both the first and second Holy Temple were destroyed by the enemies of Israel and the G-d of Israel. Fascinatingly, the Torah portion of Pinchas is read each year at the beginning of the three week mourning period leading up the the fast of the Ninth of Av.

A paralysis of purpose and an inability to find a way forward describes both the crisis of assimilation which took place in the desert and the ongoing crisis of prolonging the absence of the Holy Temple on Mount Moriah seventy years after the independence of the State of Israel marked the end of two thousand years of exile, and fifty years after Israel reunited Jerusalem and liberated the Temple Mount in the 1967 Six Day War. Today, Jews are second class citizens on the Temple Mount, place of the Holy Temple, here in the land of Israel, while in the diaspora the Jewish people are being devastated by the plague of assimilation. The two crises are inexorably bound together, as is their mutual solution.

Pinchas put a quick end to the crisis in the desert, and it may be that his spiritual descendants are the prodders and spearheaders of the growing groundswell of Temple Mount and Holy Temple consciousness which is gripping the children of Israel today. Will this movement of the people ultimately overcome the paralysis of our leadership? We can only pray so.

But Pinchas was not the only sign of a new spirit among the children of Israel. In this week's Torah reading, following the conclusion of the Midianite crisis, Moshe is commanded by G-d to take a new census of the people, for the purpose of creating an army ready to conquer the nations of Canaan, and specific instructions for the apportionment of the tribal inheritances in the land. One might have expected, after all the previous outbursts when things went wrong in the desert, that this new sign that Israel's entry into the land is imminent, to hear a rousing cry of joy and anticipation from the nation. But no such resounding response is recorded.

With the exception of the five daughters of Tzelaphchad.

These five sisters, whose names are all recorded in Torah, approached Moshe saying "Why should our father's name be eliminated from his family because he had no son? Give us a portion along with our father's brothers." (ibid 27:4)

These five women saw the future and wanted it! Their response to the upcoming settling of the land was no less profound and no less zealous of G-d's honor than Pinchas' earlier action. And their demand for a part in what HaShem has promised is likewise being reprised in today's spiritual Holy Temple awakening. Pinchas and the five daughters of Tzelaphchad are the sons and daughters of a new generation, a generation that sees the future and is marching steadily toward it.

Is the reestablishment of the Holy Temple the answer to the nation of Israel's ongoing diaspora-based assimilation crisis? Is the proximity of the annual reading of parashat Pinchas to the Ninth of Av, the day of the destruction of the Holy Temple sending this very message?

Will the spirit of Pinchas' defense of G-d's honor and the spirit of the forward looking daughters of Tzelaphchad lead to the speedy rebuilding of the Holy Temple and renewal of the Divine service? 

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Don't mistake his zealotry for jealousy, or the violent nature of his act which defended G-d's honor, and simultaneously put an end to Israel's licentious behavior and the plague that was decimating the nation, for the sign of a violent nature in his soul. G-d Himself testifies to the purity of Pinchas' motives and to the peaceful, loving nature of his soul, saying "I hereby give him My covenant of peace. It shall be for him and for his descendants after him as an eternal covenant of kehunah, because he was zealous for his G-d and atoned for the children of Israel." (Numbers 25:12-13)

Article Source: The Temple Institute – https://youtu.be/uc_40--61RA