Parashat Pinchas

summary

Parashat Pinchas (Numbers 25:10 - 30:1) elaborates on the incident at the end of last week's parasha: Pinchas kills an Israelite and the Midianite woman with whom he enters a tent to have sex. Pinchas's zealousness saves the Isrealites from a plague. God rewards him with a covenant of peace and his descendants with the office of the priesthood for all time. Moses tells the people to crush the Midianites for their "trickery" in seducing the Israelites into idolatry and whoring around with their women.

After the plague, Moses and Aaron take census of the entire Israelite community. The total is 601,730. Moses also announced the division of the land, providing the tribes with holdings proportionate to their number. The Levites are not allotted land but are compensated financially.

During the taking of the census, the case of the five daughters of Zelophehad is brought. Their claim is that they inherit their father's land after his death as he had no sons. God supports their claims.

Now, Moses is told to climb to the top of Mount Abarim to see the Land of Israel, and he is informed that he will die there. When Moses requests that his successor be chosen, God tells Moses to appoint Joshua. Moses is to instruct Joshua to present himself to Eleazar the priest, who will consult the Urim for important decision and instructions of the offerings to be presented daily, on Shabbat, the new moons, Peasch, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, for each of the days of Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret, the eighth day of Sukkot.

commentary

During these sad times, the story of Pinchas seems a particularly difficult passage for Liberal Jews to understand. Pinchas is rewarded for his violent zealotry, ironically being given a covenant of peace and a legacy through the generations as his descendants were to be priests - then a position of privilege. Then, God instructs the Israelites to attack the Midianites, accusing them of leading the Israelites astray.

This passage can only be understood in its original context and the conclusions one would logically draw if one applied it to our situation today, too awful to contemplate. Rather, let us play our part in the dialogue of these times. Of dialogue, William James suggested:

"The first thing to learn in intercourse with others is a non-interference with their own peculiar ways of being happy, provided that those ways do not assume to interfere by violence with ours. No one has insight into all the ideals. No one should presume to judge them off-hand. The pretension to dogmatise about them in each other is the root of most human injustices, and the trait in human character most likely to make the angels weep."

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