Weekly Reading Insights: Pinchas 5778

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Moshe Rabbenu is the eternal symbol of the Jew who possessed all knowledge - nothing in the universe was hidden from him. The first verse that we are commanded to teach our children is "Moshe taught us the Torah!" Therefore it is a bit confusing to read one of the central stories of this week's Torah portion, Pinchas, where we are told that Moshe forgot a law!?!? Moshe was asked a straightforward Jewish legal question that he was expected to answer with a straightforward answer. In fact Moshe was unable to remember what he heard from the Almighty. This is even more difficult to understand as this is the second time such a thing has happened, the first time being in our portion of two weeks ago.

The story of Pinchas comes at a very special time for the Jewish people, just before they are about the enter the holy land. After forty years of journeying in the desert, the land of Israel is being allocated to each tribe according to its size. One day five sisters appear at the study hall and request to speak to Moshe. They explain that they are the daughters of Zelofchad. He passed away without sons and they are asking for his portion of the land. Otherwise his name will be lost and he will have no perpetuation in the land. To further convince Moshe, they explain that their father died because of a personal sin, and was not part of the rebellion of Korach and his followers.

The answer should have been a simple one. Rashi emphasizes that Moshe should have answered them immediately but in fact "the answer was hidden from him", he could not remember what Gd had told him and he was forced to ask. He was told that they merit to receive their hereditary portion from their father. This event is joined to something similar that chronologically happened not long before and is mentioned at the end of last week's parsha, Balak. It was the height of the drama of the sin with the daughters of Moav and Midyan. The daughters of Midyan came to the Jewish people's encampment and seduced the men to have intimate relations with them and worship their idol. People began dying one after another from a plague and in the middle of this chaos, a leader of the tribe of Shimon, Zimri the son of Salu, draws Kosbi the Midyanite to the center of the camp and sarcastically asks Moshe, "Is this one permissible or forbidden? And if you will say forbidden who permitted the daughter of Yitro (Moshe's wife) to YOU (she was also a Midyanite)?" Instead of commanding that he be killed on the spot, the law was hidden from Moshe and he did not know how to respond. By a stroke of luck, a young man by the name of Pinchas the son of Elazar remembered the law that he had learned himself directly from Moshe, that a person who has intimate relations with a non-Jewess, someone who is "jealous of Gd's honor" can kill them.

Pinchas slays Zimri and Kosbi, and Gd's anger was quelled. The question is, what was the common denominator of these two events that created the need for Moshe to forget the laws? And further why wasn't Gd wary that some mistake could have occurred, like Pinchas being held back from fulfilling his mission and Zimri escaping his rightful punishment? There is a story in the Talmud (Ketubos 105/b) that the Talmudic scholar and judge, Rabbi Yishmael the son of Rabbi Yussie, would every Friday receive a basket of figs from a local farmer. One Thursday the same farmer arrives early with the basket of figs. When Rabbi Yishmael asks why he came early, he answers that he has a court case with another farmer the next day with Rabbi Yishmael and does not want to come to court with the basket of figs. Rabbi Yishmael replied that under the circumstances he would remove himself from the tribunal and choose another judge in place. Since it was his courtroom, he decided to watch as a spectator. Each claimant began shouting his claim. All of a sudden, Rabbi Yishmael begins to feel an inner turmoil. He feels himself siding with his farmer friend and helping him argue his case. Rabbi Yishmael stops himself and says, "See how just is the Torah.I, who did not even take a bribe, am anxious for the success of my friend. How much more so a judge who takes a bribe. His mind is crooked and he is unable to judge with a clear head."

If we read the two stories carefully, we immediately realize that in both, Moshe had a personal agenda. This is the reason the law was hidden from him! A person cannot judge in a balanced manner when he has an interest in the case.. The Torah is teaching us that even Moshe, the most humble of men and the chariot for divinity, even he cannot hide from a personal agenda. In the first case of Zimri, no answer that Moshe would have given would have been easily received. And in the second case of the daughters of Zelofchad, in their attempt to push Moshe for a decision, they said that their father died from a personal sin and were not part of Korach's rebellion. Again Moshe had a personal interest since Korach's rebellion was against him. Any answer could be surmised as faulty. From this and, and for all future generations, we learn a clear message. A person can not judge justly when he has a personal interest. This is how the Talmud explains the word in Hebrew for bribe, shochad- they become one.

The giver and the receiver of a bribe have one heart. The briber confuses the mind of the receiver. A man came once to a rabbi and complained that another rabbi made judgements in his own interest rather than those of the community. The rabbi smiled and said that he wanted to share an interesting law. It was customary at the end of the winter to gather the Sanhedrin law making council to decide whether or not to make a leap year, by adding another month to the year and pushing off the month of Nissan. The reason for doing this was perhaps the harshness of the winter had made the roads impassable, making it difficult for the Jewish people to travel to Jerusalem for Pesach. The two people who were not invited to help make the ruling were the King and the High Priest. The King because he had to pay the army annually. If they pushed off the month of Nissan he was given a month's reprieve for the due date of payment. As for the High Priest, if they pushed off Nissan, the high holidays would be a month later. And the mikveh he had to immerse in 5 times on Yom Kippur would be a bit cooler.

See what is written here, says the rabbi. The High Priest is the most holy person in the Jewish nation and the benefit we are talking about is the temperature of the mikvah's water in six month's time, something all would agree is totally inconsequential. But when you are talking about personal interests, even this minor fact was inescapable. You cannot hide from it. Everyone is affected by their agenda. What do we learn from this? Rabbi Yehoshua the son of Parchia is quoted in the Mishna Pirkei Avot, "Find for yourself a Rabbi". No one can be objective when it comes to himself, even when he is convinced that he is. No one is free from his conscious, or sometimes subconscious, agendas. Everyone has to have an objective "other", an advisor with whom to take counsel in taking the right direction in life. Having an advisor is also a vessel for divine guidance to merit to receive the heavenly blessing for good. (Translated from an essay by Rabbi Shneur Ashkenazii).

Shabbat Shalom , Shaul


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For last year's essay by Rabbi Leiter on this week's Reading, see the archive.