Pinchas: From the Wilderness To the Future and Beyond!

From the Wilderness To the Future and Beyond!
D’var Torah for Parashat Pinchas: Numbers 25:10-30:1
By Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman

In honor of Hannah's 15th bat-mitzvah anniversary, with love and admiration from her Abba.


With this, the nearly last portion of the book of Numbers (next week’s will be a double-portion), proper closure to the book is set up.

As B’midbar commences, Moses is ordered to take a census of the Israelites. Now, 39 years later, he is commanded to take yet another census. The two censuses form bookends, a framework for what happens within. The main purpose of each census is to form an army. Yet there are also essential differences between them. To begin with, with the exception of Moses himself, and of Joshua and Caleb—the two faithful spies from an earlier portion (Sh’lach Lecha)—this latest count includes only the Israelites who were born in the Wilderness. As foretold in Sh’lach Lecha, the generation that was born in Egypt has died out by this point.

Secondly, whereas in the beginning of the book, the Israelites are physically arranged around the Mishkan—the Tabernacle—here the focus is not inward but rather forward. The purpose of this second army is not merely spiritual or defensive; its goal now is going forward and taking possession of the Promised Land.

Many commentators have pointed to these differences and remarked on the transformation that the Israelites had undergone in the 39 years. The thrust of the book’s teaching has been the infusion of holiness into ordinary life. Its lessons were hard-learned. Plagues, fires and other catastrophes befall the Israelites whenever they fail to learn the appropriate lesson. Now they finally may be ready.

Yet the fact that these morals are learned and internalized does not ensure their continuity. Each generation must learn and relearn them for a specific time and place. Transmission of the Torah’s teachings cannot be taken for granted. Memorization is not good enough, and brainwashing is no substitute for questioning and redefining. In three separate sections, this week’s Torah portion, Pinchas, deals with this very issue, the ever important subject of continuity.

First to be addressed is the question of spiritual leadership.

The story of Phineas—in Hebrew, Pinchas—is the one in which the role of the High Priest is ordained by God as hereditary. It is a troubling story. In his zeal for God, Pinchas, Aaron’s grandson, murders a couple for engaging in a public act of fornication. His murderous act, no matter how religiously motivated, is hardly a peaceful one. Yet God and the Torah praise Pinchas, and God rewards Pinchas by granting him a “covenant of peace,” and a promise that his descendants will always be priests.

The rabbis are not so happy with this conclusion to a violent story. Zealotry for God is not a harbinger of peace. It never was; it never will be. Even the Torah itself seems subtly to comment on this truth. The story of the vengeful Pinchas is broken between two portions (it begins in last week’s parasha, Chukat, and ends with this week’s reading). Additionally, in the Torah scroll, the term for “covenant of peace,” brit shalom, is traditionally scripted with a broken letter vav in the word shalom (Num. 25:12). These two breaks are commonly interpreted as teaching that peace, when brought about by an act of violence, is never a whole peace—it always has brokenness in it, always carrying within it the potential to break out into violence once again. Eventually, of course, the role of spiritual leadership held by the priests will come to an end, terminating not only hereditary succession to the position but also bringing closure to what many see as the perpetuation of wrongful behavior.

As the story of the parasha continues, Moses obeys God’s command to count the Israelites and organize them into a victorious army. At the same time, however, he is told to ordain Joshua as his follower as leader of the People of Israel. Joshua is not a spiritual man. He is a general, a warrior, hardly the gentle visionary that Moses is. Yet Moses, placing both his hands on the younger man, transfers to him all of his abilities—the ordinary as well as the sacred. Joshua may be an ordinary man, but he will be the one to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. It will also be Joshua who will initiate the practice of reading the Torah publically among the Israelites. Continuity in this case is not hereditary; rather, the best qualified individual is chosen for the position.

The last transition described in this portion revolves around the laws of inheritance. The story is told of five women, daughters to a man named Zelofehad. Their father had died leaving no sons. Now, as the Promised Land is about to be apportioned among the tribes, would his share be lost? The rightful alternative, as Zelofehad’s daughters point out to Moses, would be to include them in the tribal inheritance, rather than reduce them to dependence or homelessness.

Though the rights of women to inherit property do not originate in the Torah—similar laws appear in law codes 500 years or more prior to the Torah—in this portion the women’s claims are based on previous laws issued by Moses and God. In other words, their question is one of precedent and interpretation. As they see it, the laws of the surrounding nations already guarantee them their rights of inheritance; now would God’s law—the law of Israel—do the same? Their intent is not to force Moses to comply with pre-existing customs of other nations. They only request that he widen the reach of God’s law, extending it more equitably. Their hope is that Moses will interpret its meaning in such a way that it would pertain to women as well as to men.

The contribution of Zelofehad’s daughters—who are named in the Torah, sign of their importance and eternal value to our tradition—goes beyond ensuring the rights of women within the Jewish tradition. Their actions establish a process that makes it possible for Jewish law to continue to evolve. The continuity of the law thus becomes the responsibility—“the porterage,” in the words of Torah—of each of us, men and women alike. It isn’t merely through obeying the Commandments that we establish God’s holiness. It is through the process of adapting and interpreting the word that we give it on-going life.

Zelofehad’s daughters thus establish a new precedent in our religion, one that continues to this day.

With these stories, the book of Numbers both closes and opens a new chapter in Jewish history. Authority has been transferred to a new generation. Through the three examples of Pinchas, Joshua and Zelofehad’s daughters, the evolution of our values, ideals, customs and laws is established as an ongoing process. Perhaps a glimpse into the future results of this process would be valuable at this point.

Pinchas’s violent act of zealotry will be praised by the rabbis (they can’t contradict God and the Torah!) but at the same time, the rabbis of the early 1st century will embark on a process that will result in the complete elimination of the death penalty. Moreover, zealotry will no longer be accepted by mainstream Judaism as a social norm, let alone as an act deserving of God’s blessing. Likewise, war will also be curtailed. Many laws will ensue that will limit both the types of warfare Jews may engage in and the behavior of Jewish soldiers in war—laws that are the basis to this day of the extraordinary moral code followed by the Israel Defense Force, taharat haneshek, or “purity of arms.”

Pressing on into the future, taking with us ancient laws and customs, infusing the ordinary world with a sense of the sacred —these are the lessons of the book of B’midbar, “In the Wilderness.” Within this forward surge, the contribution of Zelofehad’s daughters cannot be overstated. What they taught us is that, in addition to carrying forward our traditions, it is also just as essential to interpret God’s laws for an ever-changing present. These five women established for all time a process which empowers people to understand God’s word in terms they can comprehend and live by. Memorizing and quoting isn’t enough. Since those ancient days so long ago in the desert, it has been the right and responsibility of each generation to interpret God’s word for its own time. We do not live in the past, nor do we abide by outdated laws that may have been right for past generations. The 21st century, like every new day, brings its own requirements and conditions. We carry past traditions with us, but we make them proper and suitable for our needs today. That is the legacy of Pinchas, Joshua and Zelofehad’s five daughters.

©2010 by Boaz D. Heilman