This past Tuesday was the 17th of the Jewish month called Tammuz and was a fast day.  It was the day the walls of Jerusalem were breached.  It begins a mourning period that culminates three weeks later on the 9th of the month of Av, the day that Jerusalem actually fell.  A lot more happened on these two days, and perhaps those events will be fuel for another email.  I hope all of you that fasted had an easy and meaningful fast.

This week’s parsha (Torah portion) is called Pinchas (Phineas).  If you remember from the end of the previous parsha, he was the grandson of Aharon and he ended a plague by spearing a member of the tribe of Shimon who was shacking up with Midyanite woman.

Our parsha begins by telling us who he skewered and what his reward was for doing the deed.  After tying up those loose ends, the parsha provides a new census of the tribes which is followed with haShem (god) instructing Moshe (Moses) on how to divide the land for inheritance purposes.

Suddenly, we read of five sisters who request of Moshe that they receive their father’s inheritance because he had no son to inherit from him.  Moshe consults with haShem who says that they are right in bringing up the issue and they inherit their father’s portion.  This also leads us to a few new rules concerning the passing on of the inherited lands.

God then tells Moshe to climb a mount Avarim to see the land that god is giving the children of Yisrael, and then prepare to die.  Moshe asks of god to appoint a new leader and god chooses Y’hoshua (Joshua), and tells Moshe how to transfer leadership to him.  We then end with god telling Moshe to tell the people about the daily sacrifice, as well as the shabbat sacrifices, and the new moon sacrifices, and the major holiday sacrifices.

A very strange parsha this is, especially if it is taken on its own.  Last year, what struck me was that this parsha was about continuity in transition from generation to generation.  This year, I see something a little different.  I see in it a teaching that started four parshas earlier with Korach.

If you recall, Korach was a Levi meaning he was from the tribe of Levi and not a cohen (priest).  Our tradition describes him as a tzadik (a righteous person), and yet, when he was not given the priesthood, his reaction was not very righteous.  He complained against Moshe and led a rebellion.  With his death, the Torah seems to leave us asking:  How should Korach have handled the situation?

To answer this question, let’s jump back to our parsha.  Just like that parsha is called Korach, our parsha is called Pinchas.  Perhaps there is a connection between the two.  Both are from the tribe of Levi and neither one is a cohen.  However, if Korach has a claim to the priesthood, I would think Pinchas has a better claim:  he is the grandson of Aharon, the first cohen and the Torah says that all Aharon’s male descendants will also be priests.

So what happened to Pinchas?  Well, if we look a little more closely, we will see that when god decided to create the priesthood, he said the priests would be Aharon, his sons, and all who are born after them.  Pinchas, was already born to Elazar before god gave this command.  Since Pinchas was not Aharon nor one of Aharon’s sons, and his father was not a priest when he was born, he is not a priest.  Imagine how embarrassing and uncomfortable he must have felt because of that.  It seems so unfair!  And it certainly seems like Pinchas has a much stronger claim to the priesthood than Korach.  Yet, while Korach made a claim to be priest, Pinchas did not.  Why not?

To understand this, we need to look at the text from the p’shat (simple) level and the remes (allusion) level.  If you recall from last week, these are two of the four ways of looking at the Torah.  At the p’shat level we look not just at the simple meaning of the words, but also on how the words are written.  We see that at the beginning of the parsha, the yud in the name Pinchas is written small.  Why?

This is where the remes level comes in.  The yud is one of the letters of the 4 letter name for god.  Hence, it symbolizes godliness.  Why is it small?  First to draw attention to it.  Second to show that while it is there, it is somewhat hidden.  To draw attention makes sense, but why does it need to be somewhat hidden?  I think this yud is telling us that Pinchas was connected to haShem, though, it wasn’t obvious to everybody.  However, he knew he had the connection, and to him that was what was important.  Hence, Pinchas was content just to do whatever haShem asked or needed of him, and he had no need to seek or push for the priesthood.  It was through this selfless desire to be connected to haShem that led Pinchas to act as he did which led to him not only becoming the only Jew to ever get added to the priesthood, but also to be given a brit (covenant) of peace.

Very cool!

Now, if we look at how Pinchas dealt with not being a priest, and how Korach dealt with not being a priest, we can see the answer to the question I asked earlier:  How should Korach have acted?  The answer to that is:  Like Pinchas.

Now all this sounds sweet and fine, but can one really make this connection between the two and how they acted?  I say yes.  Why do I say yes?  Well I wasn’t sure if I could until I decided to look at the names of the last four parshas.  They are:  Korach, hukat, Balak, and Pinchas.  After I sat with these words and thought about what they mean and how they fit into their relative parshas, I saw a connection.  Let me see if I can give it over.

Korach and Pinchas we know.  Hukat means laws of.  Balak, I described as the yetzer hara (evil inclination).  Now the ultimate purpose of the yezter hara is to strengthen our connection to god.  In the parsha Balak, if not for Balak, Bil’am would not have had his eyes opened, done t’shuva (repentance), and blessed Yisrael.  Hence, I see parsha Balak, or the yetzer hara, being about t’shuva.  So, reading into the four names, I read: Korach, through the laws of the yetzer hara/t’shuva, becomes Pinchas.  In other words, Pinchas is a tikun (fixing or healing) for Korach.

This is a pretty intense email, with a lot going on in it, so let me see if I can summarize it a little.  Last year, I noted that this parsha was a teaching for the future generations to continue with the lessons and teachings of the previous generation.  This year, I see it going one step further.  It is not only telling us to take with us the good of the previous generation, it is also telling how we can also fix or repair the mistakes of the previous generation:  by connecting to god and doing what is right in her eyes, and not in the eyes of our own egos.

This of course begs the question:  How do we connect to god and let go of our egos?  As much as I would like to answer this question, I am afraid that our time is up for this email. All I ask is that you don’t be afraid of the question or the answer, because deep down, you all do know the answer.  And if you don’t, drop me a line and we’ll talk about it. 

If you care to read what I wrote about this parsha last year, click here.