Parshat Pinchas

PARASHAT PINCHAS – ARE WE ZEALOUS FOR GOD

Chaverim, welcome again to another week of an incredible Torah portion, much have we to learn from if we but learn intently. What excited me most is how HaShem is constantly interacting with the People through Moses and Aharon; but listen carefully how JUST God actually is; let’s not be furtive in reading into the justness that He exhibits. But it would do us some tremendous good to parse through each pasukh intently. It almost seems there are 2 standards of application of his justness, One for the Children of ISRAEL and the other for the nations. 

Humanity has chosen for the most convenient part to live in a democratic world, we take refuge in its strengths, its order and the opportunity it gives each of us, many have prospered because it has given us the freedom to choose how we want to live our lives, how we think, eat, wear, educate, plan our future. We know Democracy is good and progressive and in fact we are living in a time that the world has never seen such wealth and prosperity. But if we are talking about the Kingdom of God – that is hardly a democratic setup – why do I infer that there 2 levels in the exactness of God’s Justness with Humanity is because of this Torah Portion. When there is a covenant then His interaction is direct and the punishment and rewards are almost immediate and effective; in the case of the children of Israel. Whereas for the nations (gentiles) where He does not have a covenant his justness if also apparent but it’s a matter of playing out the fullness of times and its like your sin will find you out – it’s a long and winding road.

My question is how are we who believe in the God of the Bible fit ourselves into this world for we have to leave this world system and be not conformed to it –  Rav Shaul says in Rom 12:2 Be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God” and in verse 18 and 19 He Says If it be possible as much as lieth with you, live peaceably with all men, dearly beloved avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written, vengeance is mine; I will repay saith the Lord” Are we in covenant with God in personal level by which the relationship with its merits and demerits, rewards and punishments are like the children of Israel – Immediate or speeded up, or are we still in the nations whose judgement comes in when our sins find us out and we receives our due in some point of time.

Now there are incidents in the scriptures that can really astound a person, incidents that if carried out in our day and age will be criminal and punishable by all standards of democracy of the world we live in, but however HaShem looks on these incidents very differently. For example the Binding of Isaac, Lot and his 2 daughters, the annihilation of Sodom and Gomorrah, etc…. 

These are all incidents that would make any modern rational person sick to his stomach – so what is going on – either we are missing the point completely or HaShem demands a different standard of living completely – lets investigate.

In this story – Pinchas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aharon , the High priest is moved with a zealousness that imitates God himself, it’s almost akin to be in tune and in oneness with the creator Himself, taking the law into his own hands by murdering 2 people in an instant. Now, this would be a murder, and homicide in 1st degree and would merit immediate incarceration – without any doubt. But unexpectedly and strange HaShem awards Pinchas with an eternal priesthood and the covenant of Shalom (completeness)

לָכֵ֖ן אֱמֹ֑ר הִנְנִ֨י נֹתֵ֥ן ל֛וֹ אֶת־בְּרִיתִ֖י שָׁלֽוֹם׃

In the words of Nachmanides’  that the correct interpretation of the whole paragraph beginning with the words (verse 3) ויצמד העם, is that initially the debacle began with some of the people worshipping the idol known as בעל פעור. What is the meaning of Ba’al Peor – It literally translates as Husband/ Owner/ Lord of the Wide open spaces – the liberal spirit , the liberal mind, freedom for all of humanity and the spirit that was promulgating this was called Ba’al Peor, the Moabites practised a democratic lifestyle though they had a king, whereas Israel came to their borders with discipline, halakah, code of conduct, a elevated lifestyle in kashrut in God – both systems do not mix and can never be coupled together. Nachamnides says the word Vayistamid – means coupling, cleaving – so in other words the people cleaved to the Spirit of Freedom and open wide attitude to life. This was not only rebellion but a slacking in their spiritual condition – as we have studied earlier they lost their self-awareness and alacrity to worship their God, and wanted a way out for pleasure and excitement rather than the self-restrained, and disciplined life God had offered to them.

All this story started with Balak king of Moab hiring Bilam to curse the Israelite nation, however when he did not succeed, he advised the King of Moav to send in Women to entice the Holy people so God’s protection would be lifted from them, thus opening a chink in the armour of the Israelite nation enabling Balak to attack them and conquer Israel – this is spiritual warfare right here in the Old Testament.

This evoked G-d’s anger at the people of Israel and the plague began to take its toll among the people. G-d simultaneously told Moses to tell the judges to carry out their judicial duties in order to ensure that the innocent would not fall victim to the plague, which did not distinguish between the loyal and the disloyal Jews. Once the whole community had been assembled at the entrance to the Tabernacle in order to carry out Moses’ instructions, and it was found that the plague continued to kill Israelites, 

Now Zimri from the tribe of Simeon came and presented the Midianite princess using her to incite a rebellion against Moses. by, among other things, challenging Moses who had himself had a Midianite woman, Tzipporah as a wife,  This caused both Moses and the elders to commence weeping, seeing that Moses did not have an answer that would have sounded convincing, So Pinchas took the signal taking the law into his own hands in order to put a stop to the plague. We know that he succeeded as the Torah reports that as an immediate consequence of Zimri and Cosbi being stabbed to death the plague ceased. (verse 8)

There had not been enough time to convict a single member of the people by court of law as G’d ordered them to be incriminated, seeing that they had to be convicted legally. Hanging after execution is called תליה not הוקעה Hashem uses the word Hokiah – a legal process ending with incarceration or death. Moses ordered the Judges to bring them forward before the light of day and according to the law and hang them – and then This is the reason why the Torah does not report that Moses’ instructions to the judges had been carried out. Before they even started the proceedings, Zimri comes with his act of rebellion.

It is possible that the intention of the sages in the quoted earlier was to inform us that if the order to execute the guilty people had indeed been carried out, each of the judges would have had to execute two Israelites. The vast majority of them were saved by the courageous deed of Pinchas. They survived at this point, but they did not cross the Jordan into the Holy Land as the Torah testifies that G’d destroyed all the persons that had been actively involved in this sorry affair. Hashem seen that Pinchas acted in intelligence and slaughtered 2 souls rather than Israelites on that day would have been legally incarcerated and impaled for the paring with Ba’al Peor. 

פִּֽינְחָ֨ס בֶּן־אֶלְעָזָ֜ר בֶּן־אַהֲרֹ֣ן הַכֹּהֵ֗ן הֵשִׁ֤יב אֶת־חֲמָתִי֙ מֵעַ֣ל בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל בְּקַנְא֥וֹ אֶת־קִנְאָתִ֖י בְּתוֹכָ֑ם וְלֹא־כִלִּ֥יתִי אֶת־בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל בְּקִנְאָתִֽי׃

וְהָ֤יְתָה לּוֹ֙ וּלְזַרְע֣וֹ אַחֲרָ֔יו בְּרִ֖ית כְּהֻנַּ֣ת עוֹלָ֑ם תַּ֗חַת אֲשֶׁ֤ר קִנֵּא֙ לֵֽאלֹהָ֔יו וַיְכַפֵּ֖ר עַל־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

But more important than anything is we need to look at the coupling with the system that represents and how does it effect our walk today in this modern world. Do we have the Spirit of Pinchas in each one of us? Are just called believers of Yeshua but long and pine for Pleasure and freedom like in this story. Ultimately it is our choice – is our commitment now so acceptable in the sight of Hashem that it is almost like an unspoken covenant between Him and us. ARE WE ZEALOUS FOR GOD

Kingdom of God requires SELF AWARENESS, ALACRITY, PURITY, patience, discipline, training, learning, commitment,  one needs to be self-motivated to achieve the best of what God has made you for, not let go in a callous attitude. Carelessness about life is something we need to watch out for, satan will attack us so swiftly and fast we will not even realize that we are going down a slippery slope. We need to find our personal relationship and covenant with the Almighty and have the maturity to follow through right to the end.

Let’s look also further – in chapter 27 – the daughters of Zelophehad come before Moses and Eleazar and the council to request them to get the allotment and inheritance of their fathers because there was no male in the family. See how God is showing his justness – for all those skeptics out there who say that Women have no inheritance or no rights in this this world system is just plainly wrong. In fact long before even the civilized world came about to usher in universal suffrage for women rights and equality – the Jewish nation already gave a tremendous amount of rights to the Jewish womanhood. In terms of inheritance, marriage rights etc…. nothing is left unattended to before they enter Eretz Israel. And why is this introduced here because at the end of chapter 25 – God tells Moses to annihilate the Midianites – and then in the next chapter of 26 – he instructs them to get an army together of 20 years and above amounting 601,730 souls in whom the allotment of the land will take place – because of which the daughters of Zelophehad come and put in their request.

An now Finally when all matters are settled at the end of instructing Moses about the inheritance issue the Lord tells Moses to be prepared to ascend Mt Abarim and see the Land that He promised the children of Israel, and hen he was to have seen it – Moses will be gathered up to his people just as his Brother Aharon. Moses is fading away into history and he will pass on the authority of the leadership to Joshua Ben Nun.

Lets conclude what God Means by conferring Pinchas and his seed after him a covenant of Priesthood for the eternity because of his zealousness for God and for a covering on the sons of Israel.

וְהָ֤יְתָה לּוֹ֙ וּלְזַרְע֣וֹ אַחֲרָ֔יו בְּרִ֖ית כְּהֻנַּ֣ת עוֹלָ֑ם תַּ֗חַת אֲשֶׁ֤ר קִנֵּא֙ לֵֽאלֹהָ֔יו וַיְכַפֵּ֖ר עַל־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

Joshua and the Israelite army is marching into the land for war, armed and ready to bring down all the strongholds in Canaan, which will carry on for the next 3500 years till date and here God is making a Covenant of peace with Pinchas – where and what is this Peace about – it is about the Flesh. Lets think of this as an allegory of slaughtering the flesh and bringing peace to the Physical body – because this is where the urgent need of rectification and peace is required – Yeshua died on that cross and his body was broken therefore bringing peace to all of us – this is a great mystery. Pinchas slaughtered the Flesh and God gave him the covenant of priesthood and Peace. How is it that Joshua is warring into the Land and Pinchas has got the priesthood of Completeness (Shalom).

Shalom means (Wholeness – completeness) indirectly referring to peace

Have a wonderful Shabbat Weekend Chaverim