Parshat Pinchas 5782
Rabbi Jablinowitz
We read in the beginning of this week’s parsha that Pinchas was the son of Elazar and the grandson of Aharon Hakohen. Rashi, quoting the Gemara in Sanhedrin 82B, teaches that the Torah emphasizes this because everyone was demeaning Pinchas and his lineage. How could someone whose grandfather was Yisro, an idolater, kill the head of a tribe of Clal Yisrael! Therefore, the Torah responds that Pinchas was a Meyuchas himself; he had excellent lineage, being the son of Elazar Hakohen and the grandson of Aharon Hakohen.
Rav Tzadok asks some pointed questions about this teaching of Chazal. Firstly, why were the other tribes putting down Pinchas because his grandfather sacrificed animals to Avodah Zarah. All of Clal Yisrael descend from women, Rachel and Leah, who were the daughters of Lavan the idolater. As Chazal teach in Baba Metzia 59B, מום שבך אל תאמר לחברך; don’t taunt your friend about a blemish that you have yourself! And further, when the Torah tells us about Elazar’s marriage, it states (Shemos, Chapter 6, Pasuk 25) ואלעזר בן אהרן לקח לו מבנות פוטיאל. The Torah refers to Elazar’s wife as the daughter of Putiel, and Rashi teaches that this name of Yisro refers to him as fattening calves to sacrifice to idolatry. Why does the Torah itself mention the shame of Yisro? Yisro became a Jew and the Torah seems to be reminding us of his dishonorable past!
The Gemara in Shabbos 88A teaches that when Bnei Yisrael recited נעשה ונשמע they received a crown for each one. Rav Tzadok teaches that the crown for נעשה was the result of taking the power of Eisav, as the pasuk says (Bereishis, Chapter 27, Pasuk 22) והידיים ידי עשיו, and applying it for holy purposes. And the crown for ונשמע they received by taking from ישמעאל, which means to listen to Gd, the ability to hear and using it for Kedushah.
Similarly, Yisro was known as (Shemos, Chapter 18, Pasuk 1) כהן מדין. After he was מתגייר, he married off his daughter to Elazar and his grandson, Pinchas, became Kohen. He was not part of the bris with his grandfather Aharon which only included all future descendants, but achieved it as a result of his own actions, of being zealous in the honor of Gd. Yisro, who rejected a false notion of Kohen, merited to have a grandson who would be part of the Kehunah of Clal Yisrael.
The Gemara in Sanhedrin 39B asks why did Ovadiah prophesy about the evil of the nation of Edom? The Gemara answers that since he was a Ger from Edom, he was the one to prophesy about their downfall. And the Gemara brings a metaphor; the wood from the tree in the forest is put in the handle of a hatchet to chop down other trees. Similarly, the Gemara teaches about Dovid Hamelech that he fought and defeated Moav, since he was a descendant of Ruth, who was a Moaviyah. And the Gemara uses this metaphor by King David as well; we use the wood from the forest to chop down the tree.
The Gemara brings another metaphor why Ovaidah specifically prophesied about Edom and Dovid specifically defeated Moav. ירך מתוכה מסרחת; the thigh rots from within. When a piece of meat rots, it begins with the inside part, the thigh. Hence, the punishment came from within, from a person who used to be part of the greater whole.
Rav Tzadok teaches that Pinchas being a descendant of Yisro, had a greater sensitivity to the rotten nature of Avodah Zarah, just as Ovadiah and Dovid had a greater sensitivity to the evils of their former nation. And the reason the Torah tells us that Elazar married the daughter of Putiel, is not, heaven forbid, to mock Yisro. Rather it is an explanation for why Elazar’s son Pinchas was able to merit Kehunah. Being the grandson of a Ger Tzedek who was מפטם עגלים לעבודה זרה, made him more sensitive to the evil of idolatry and enabled him to respond to the devastation at Pe’or .
The members of Clal Yisrael mocked Pinchas. They thought he was an angry young man whose actions were a result of poor stock; perhaps the bad genes of being a descendant of a former priest of Midyan. Therefore, the Torah teaches that Pinchas’s actions came from a good place; he was the son of a Kohen, the grandson of Aharon. Aharon was a man of love and of Chesed. Pinchas killed Zimri because of a Halacha called קנאים פוגעים בו. It is not written in the Torah; it’s Torah Shebe’alpeh. It was precisely due to the sensitive nature and pure heart of Pinchas that he remembered this teaching of Moshe. The heart is the parchment of Torah Shebe’alpeh, and Pinchas had this teaching inscribed in his heart. And the reason he maintained the awareness to this teaching was the fact that he was particularly sensitive to the stench of Avodah Zarah. And this was an inheritance he should be proud of, as the Torah emphasizes, but not mocked for, as the people thought.
Good Shabbos
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