Pinchas

At the end of last week's parasha, we were introduced to Pinchas, whom this week’s parsha is named after. Last week Pinchas, the grandson of Aaron, skewered a defiant Israelite and the Midianite woman which whom he biblically took in front of Moses’s tent and the entire community. Their deaths stopped the plague which God had sent as a punishment for the behavior of the Israelites.

G-d says to Moses "“Phinehas [aka Pinchas], son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the Israelites by displaying among them his passion for Me, so that I did not wipe out the Israelite people in My passion. Say, therefore, ‘I grant him My covenant of peace. It shall be for him and his descendants after him a pact of priesthood for all time, because he took impassioned action for his God, thus making amends for the Israelites.’”

G-d then also commands Moses that the Israelites must maintain a state of enmity with the Midianites because they allured the Jewish People to sin.

The parasha continues with the rise of a new generation and its preparations for entering the Land of Israel. At the border of Moab near Jericho, God instructs Moses and Eleazar, the priest, to conduct a census of all male Israelites over the age of twenty, and thus eligible for military service. They count a total of 601,730 eligible male Israelites. After the people were counted, God told Moses, “The land shall be apportioned as an inheritance according to the number of names. To the numerous, you shall give a large inheritance, and to the few, a small inheritance. By lot this land shall be divided and it shall be received as a possession according to the names of the tribes of the fathers.” Now during this counting and apportionment of land, the five daughters of Zelophehad, came before Moses with a problem. They said, “Our father died in the wilderness. He was not among the company that banded together against God. He was not among Korah‘s allies, but he died because of his own sin, and he had no sons. Why should the name of our father disappear from the midst of his family, just because he did not have a son? Please give us a possession too.”

Moses brought their legitimate claim before God. And God responded, “The daughters of Zelophehad speak justly. Certainly you shall give them, according to the legal right of males, a hereditary possession, and you shall cause their father’s inheritance to pass to them. And to the sons of Israel, you shall say: if a man dies and he has no son, you shall cause his inheritance to pass to his daughter. If he has no daughter, you shall give his inheritance to his brothers. If he has no brothers, you shall give his inheritance to his kin that is closest to him from among his family. This shall remain for Israel as a legal norm.”

God then orders Moses to ascend to the top of Mount Abarim, there to view the Promised Land that the Israelites will soon enter. He informs Moses that he will not live to enter it. Because Moses disobeyed G-d’s command in the desert of Zin about the waters of Meribah (which we learned about two weeks ago), he will instead be gathered to his people, just as Aaron his brother was gathered.

Moses suggests to G-d that someone be appointed over the community to that the Lord's community may not be like sheep that have no shepherd. God designates Joshua bin Nun as his successor. Moses invests Joshua with God's authority in front of Eleazar and the whole community.

The parasha concludes with God's instructing Moses yet again about all the offerings (which now include libations) of the service in the Sanctuary during the various holidays in the yearly cycle. On Shabbat, an extra sacrifice was to be brought (Numbers 28:9-10). This offering was called "musaf" (additional), and in shul the Musaf service on Shabbat replaces it.

Summary Sources:

https://www.sefaria.org/Numbers.25.10-30.1?lang=bi

http://www.mishkantorah.org/rabbi-jonathan-cohen/pinchas

http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/pinhas-a-summary-of-the-parsha/

www.chabad.org/parshah/torahreading_cdo/aid/2495776/jewish/Pinchas-Torah-Reading.htm

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Now you may think you know what I’m going to talk about. I can be pretty loud when it comes to my feministic and equality for all views. Five women asked for to be granted their father’s inheritance, Moses presented the case to G-d, and G-d agreed. Of course they should get their father’s inheritance, they are still people. No big deal. And so that’s all I’m going to say about it. No big deal. Just as it should be.

When researching the weekly parsha and summarizing the week’s happenings, I utilize many online resources. One resource I often refer to is a website called MishkanTorah.org. This week, this site had a very interested commentary about the midrash in regards to this portion. And if you can’t remember how the midrash differs from the text of the torah, wikipedia reminds us that the Midrash is an ancient commentary on part of the Torah, the earliest Midrashim coming from the 2nd century, although much of the content is older.

What the commentary says is that although in the Torah text, Moses takes the news of his exclusion from the promised land and impending death quite matter of factly, the midrash indicates that Moses argued and pleaded with G-d to be allowed to live, to keep his role within the community, and to enter the promised land. It even goes so far as to say that Moses protested by drawing a small circle around himself and staying there for six days.

This commentary from the midrash, makes you realize how devastated Moses must have been to realize he really wasn’t going to enter the promised land, and he had to move on from both his position as a leader and his life.

All the good he had done, the many years he had led the Israelites, the battles he had helped win, the instructions he had passed onto his people, and now he couldn’t relish in the fruit of these endeavours?!

Now I think there are many ways to look at this. By this time, Moses was almost one hundred and twenty years old. Everyone he grew up with had died. Everyone he had left Egypt with had died. His job, was to deliver the Israelites to the promised land and he did that. His purpose was ended and it was time to join his brethren. Maybe it was a kindness on G-d’s part. To let Moses see the promised land from afar, but not have to live through the pain of arriving there without his loved ones.

But in that moment, when it dawned on Moses that he really wasn’t going in, I’m sure the pang of regret was far more than he had anticipated. 120 years to die just within reach of the goal. And this fate all because he lost faith and made a rash decision, a foolish mistake.

But he did make a mistake. And like us all, when you make a mistake, you have to live with the consequences.

But it’s hard. Everyone has made a mistake, broken a rule when they knew they shouldn’t have, made a rash decision based on fear. I learned this lesson when I was a tiny little thing. We had one rule in our house. Just one. You must to wear underwear to the dinner table. Apparently at this young age, I decided I wanted to break our one rule. I put on my pajama dress before dinner and went commando. Later that evening when I confessed in a puddle of tears to my parents, I would realize how you can’t take back some mistakes.

Now this is a silly story now. But I will tell you that I debated telling this tale tonight, because I still feel a little embarrassed of it. But it was an important lesson to learn. Your actions have consequences, and once that action is taken, you can not take it back.

This has happened to us all, and we all know our actions, even the small ones, can make a huge impact on others and our own lives. But again- how do we live with the mistakes we make, the regret we have for the actions we have chosen to take.

And the answer is time, positive action, and self-forgiveness.

In the upcoming parshas over the next few weeks, I believe that Moses is doing this. He gives three giant speeches to the Israelites through the book of Deuteronomy and through these speeches, I believe he is also making his peace. He’s forgiving himself for his detrimental mistake and doing what he can before he must die.

Forgiving ourselves isn’t easy though. It’s actually rarely easy. We are our harshest critics and that speaker of negativity is loudest between our ears. But we are human and we are meant to learn from our mistakes. Sitting in regret is exhausting and it keeps you from moving forward. You can not expect to make better choices, if you don’t address a situation, ask forgiveness, whether that be from someone else or G-d, and then forgive yourself. It does no good to walk around with the burdens of the world heavy on your heart.

As Jews, we even have an entire holiday dedicated to the importance of forgiveness. On Yom Kippur (mark your calendars for sundown Friday Sept 29th) we are told to ask for forgiveness in order to start with a fresh, clean year. But we are also asked to forgive and that includes ourselves.

So this week, as we anxiously await to see what happens in next week’s d’var, think about what regrets and mistakes you are holding in your heart. Sit with them, honor them, and if you need to ask for forgiveness from another, do it. No need to wait until Yom Kippur. Take the time to understand why you made the mistake you did, and how you would like to handle a similar situation in the future. And then let it go. Allow yourself to move forward and release the weight upon your chest. Know that you did your best with the circumstances, the knowledge, and life experience you had. We will do better next time.

And a friendly reminder so that you may learn from one of my mistakes; always wear underwear to the dinner table.

Shabbat Shalom.