5770 פרשת פנחס

 In this week’s Parsha, the Torah discusses how the Bnos Tzalafchad went to Moshe to ask since their father had only daughters and no sons and passed away, could they inherit his portion in Eretz Yisroel?

 The Torah tells us that when they came to ask their question of Moshe Rabbeinu they stood in front of Moshe and Elazar and all of the heads of the shevatim and the entire congregation. The Torah then continues and explains that the daughters of Tzalafchad said to Moshe that their father died in the Midbar due to his sin and he was not part of the congregation of Korach.

 Many commentaries ask the following question. Why did the Bnos Tzalafchad feel the necessity to explain to Moshe the circumstances surrounding their father’s death? Why should this have any impact on the judgment of Moshe Rabbeinu regarding whether they are entitled to receive their father’s portion in Eretz Yisroel?

 The Ohr Hachayim explains that the Bnos Tzalafchad felt the necessity to tell this to Moshe Rabbeinu in order so that Moshe Rabbeinu should not think that the Bnos Tzalafchad thought about him that he would corrupt justice and rule against them. They were saying that our father died for his personal sin which was speaking against Moshe Rabbeinu and he was punished with death so you should never think that we would think anything bad about you.

 If we look at this Ohr Hachayim a little bit closer we can ask the following question. If they felt that Moshe Rabbeinu had a valid reason to think that they thought badly about him then why would the fact that their father was punished for talking about Moshe Rabbeinu cause Moshe Rabbeinu to now suddenly view their actions in a different light? During the time that Bnei Yisroel were in the Midbar they tested God 10 times and each time resulted in a punishment of death for the people involved in the rebellion and nevertheless another group of people sinned and got punished with death. If the knowledge that others got punished for rebelling against God did not prevent Bnei Yisroel from making the same mistake, why would the Bnos Tzalafchad feel that Moshe would assume that just because their father died for talking about Moshe that his daughter’s would never come to that sin?

 The answer could be that the difference is that when something occurs to someone close to a person, he will automatically focus on the situation and learn not to do what caused his loved one to get a punishment. However, when something occurs to a stranger, we naturally do not focus on it and it will be difficult for us to learn the lesson. This is what the Bnos Tzalafchad understood was that since it was their father who was punished they would have learned the lesson and not come to do the same sin.

 In truth however, when things occur to people we aren’t close to we don’t automatically fall into the situation that we won’t learn from them rather if we do focus on the occurrences going on in the world we can see the hand of God in the world and repent and change our actions.

5769 פרשת פנחס

 In the beginning of this week’s Parsha the Torah describes the reward that Pinchas received for killing Zimri who was transgressing a great sin whose punishment was death. The Torah tells us that due to his action he merited that he and his descendents would also be Kohanim like their father and grandfather. The Torah describes the aspect of his action that was so special was that through his action he caused God to remove His anger from Bnei Yisroel.

 The Rabbeinu Bechai asks how is it possible to say that the action of Pinchas removed the anger of God from Bnei Yisroel when 24,000 members of Bnei Yisroel died for their sins?

 The Rabbeinu Bechai answers that the 24,000 people who died were all from the tribe of Shimon while due to the action of Pinchas no other members of Bnei Yisroel died.

 If we look at this Rabbeinu Bechai a little more closely the following question arises. What was different about the tribe of Shimon that only their members died during the plague and after the action of Pinchas no other members of Bnei Yisroel died? We must say that the members of the tribe of Shimon were the only ones who actively sinned and therefore they were punished. If this is true that the rest of Bnei Yisroel did not sin then why did they need the actions of Pinchas to prevent them from being punished?

 In order to answer this question, let us look at the way the Torah describes the action of Pinchas. The Torah uses the language of Kin’ah – that Pinchas was protesting the desecration of God’s honor by the public transgression of this great sin by Zimri. What it seems from this is that the greatness of Pinchas’s action is that he felt the need to protest the desecration of God’s name.

 With this idea we can now understand what it was about the actions of Bnei Yisroel that would have enabled a plague to run through them if not for the action of Pinchas. In truth Bnei Yisroel did not actively sin rather they did not respond to the desecration of God’s name through the public sins of the tribe of Shimon. They did not feel the great tragedy that was occurring.

 What we learn from the Rabbeinu Bechai is that God does not only expect from a person not to sin it is also expected that people should feel bad when other members of Bnei Yisroel are sinning.  This means that a person should feel bad when he sees someone else sinning and he should respond to it. He could respond to it by davening to God and asking Him to help the person stand up to his Yetzer hara or it could be by committing himself to improve his own service of God which could impact other people to better themselves or he can involve himself in bringing people closer to God. Whatever the response, the most important thing is that it should be done totally for God’s sake and there should be recognition that a sin transgressed by any Jew desecrates the name of God which should hurt each and every one of us.

פרשת פנחס 5768

 In this week’s Parsha, the Torah describes to us the story of the Bnos Tzalafchad. The daughters of Tzalafchad came to Moshe and told him that their father died and did not have any sons only daughters. They requested to know if they can inherit their father’s portion in Eretz Yisroel.

 In response to their question, the Torah tells us:

 Moshe brought their case (question) to God to get the answer.

 The Midrash asks why Moshe had to ask God this question and couldn’t tell them the Halacha himself.

 The Midrash gives two different answers. The first answer is that in truth Moshe Rabbeinu did not know the answer and had to ask God what the law is.

 The second answer is as follows:

 Moshe really new the Halacha, however when the Bnos Tzalafchad first had their question, they took it to the lowest level of judges who responded these are the laws of inheritance, they are not for us rather they are for people greater than us. The Bnos Tzalafchad worked their way up the judicial ladder with each one saying this is not for us it is for someone greater than us. The reason each group said this was that they saw the judges below them “honoring” them by not responding to the question, they felt the need to do that also. By the time the question got to Moshe, he said each level honored the level above them, if I answer the question, I will take all the greatness, therefore he said even I have someone greater to ask.

 On the surface this Midrash is perplexing. If we look back at Parshas Yisro where the judicial system of Bnei Yisroel for the years they lived in the Midbar was set up, we see that there was a specific reason for setting up different levels of judges. The reason was that Moshe could not answer every question that Bnei Yisroel had himself, so he gave over to different groups of Torah Scholars different cases to preside. There were the lower level judges who would answer the most basic questions. The questions that they could not answer would be brought to the level above them and so on until the most difficult questions would come to Moshe.

It must have happened on a daily basis that there were questions that could not be answered by the lower level of judges that were sent up the line to the higher levels of courts. The second level of judges who received the question would not hesitate to answer the question if it was in their sphere of knowledge. If with every question, each level of judges wanted to honor the judges who were greater than them, all the questions would end up back at Moshe which would have defeated the whole purpose of setting up the different levels of courts in the first place. It is obvious then that this didn’t occur and each level of judges would answer the questions that were in their sphere of knowledge.

 This being the case why would Moshe feel that it would look like he was taking the greatness to himself, it would be logical and expected of him the person who was the teacher of Torah to Bnei Yisroel to answer the question that no one else answered. It was something he had done before and it would not have been considered to be boastfulness.

 The answer can be found in the words of the Midrash themselves. When they first came to the lowest level of courts they said this is the laws of inheritance, we should not be deciding Halacha in this area.  They did not say we do not know the answer to the question. This implies that they could have answered the question, but in this area of law they felt that their level of court should not be the decisor. The reason could be because it was an area that was not yet needed to judge, since the Bnei Yisroel did not yet own land to inherit to their children. That would only be once they entered Eretz Yisroel. Each court felt that this honor of the first court decision should go the court above them.

 With this idea we can begin to answer the question.  We see that here each court was doing it only to honor the other courts above them [not due to their lack of knowledge] and therefore by Moshe answering the question it could be viewed as him taking the glory over all the judges.

 However, this doesn’t totally answer the question, since all of Bnei Yisroel realized that Moshe was the one that taught them the Torah from God. They wanted to honor him since he was their leader and teacher, so why would Moshe feel that it is taking the glory of Bnei Yisroel, that is inherently what each level of judges wanted.

 The answer is that this is what true modesty is all about. Moshe did not feel that just because he taught Torah to all of Bnei Yisroel that he was due any more honor than any one else. He also received the Torah from God.

 We see from here a very important lesson of how we must view ourselves. Even when a person is in a position where there is no one higher than him, whether it is running a company or any other position of power a person must always realize that what he has really comes from God and therefore his standing does not make him worthy of honor. This is what enables a person to have true humility and will always keep him thanking God for everything in his life.

5767 פרשת פנחס

 In this week’s Parsha the Torah continues where it left off at the end of Parshas Balak and describes the reward Pinchas received for stepping up and killing Zimri for his sin. In the second Pasuk the Torah says the following:

 Pinchas who was the son of Elazar and the grandson of Aharon Hakohein removed my anger from Bnei Yisroel.

 The Ohr Hachayim on this Pasuk asks the following question:

 Why was it necessary for the Torah to list the lineage of Pinchas all the way up to Aharon Hakohein. Usually, if the Torah wanted to show someone for praise or for shame they went all the way back to the Shevatim. For example by Korach the Torah says 3 generations back, why here did they stop by Aharon two generations back, either go all the way back or just the father?

 The Ohr Hachayim gives 2 answers, however I would like to concentrate on his second answer which is as follows:

 The Torah was telling us that this action of Pinchas was to bring Bnei Yisroel to be complete (or at peace) with Aharon Hakohein since through Aharon many people from Bnei Yisroel, 3000  to be exact) died when they worshipped the golden calf as the Torah tells us that Bnei Yisroel were killed since they worshipped the calf that Aharon made. So Pinchas the grandson of Aharon came and redeemed from death all of Bnie Yisroel. The Ohr Hachayim then brings a Midrash that says that Aharon got up and was fixing the break by teaching Bnei Yisroel Torah and good deeds. We learn from here that Aharon considered the sin that caused the death of much of Bnei Yisroel by the golden calf to be his and Aharon wanted to fix what was broken.

 There are two questions that can be asked on this Ohr Hachayim.

1. We know from Chazal that when the Torah describes the sin for which a person dies it is to tell us that this was the only sin they had. We see by the death of Aharon that the Torah tells us why he died and did not go into Eretz Yisroel was due to the sin by the Mei Merivahof not speaking to the rock. If this is the case it means that Aharon did not do any sin during the situation with the golden calf (see other commentaries who also say that Aharon did not sin by the golden calf). If this is the case then why was Aharon blaming himself for the death of Bnei Yisroel he did nothing wrong?
2. The Midrash on Parshas Tzav tell us that the reason Aharon told Bnei YIsroel to build the golden calf was as follows: 

At the time that Bnei Yisroel  wanted to make the golden calf they first went to Chur and when he said no, Bnei Yisroel killed him, next they went to Aharon and he was immediately worried. Aharon thought what will I do they already killed Chur who was a prophet and if they kill me, the Kohein Gadol, they will immediately be exiled.

We see that Aharon made the golden calf only to protect Bnei Yisroel not to harm them. Again this being the case, why did Aharon feel that he was responsible for the death of the people who worshipped the golden calf?

In order to answer this question, let us first try to analyze who Aharon was. We know about him that he was someone who loved peace and chased after peace. He was constantly involved with making peace between people and between husbands and wives. In order for a person to do this, he must really feel for every person in Bnei Yisroel. This was Aharon Hakohein.

Now if a person really feels for other people, when ever something bad happens to them it hurts him, then he will take the responsibility upon himself when something bad happens to them even indirectly through him. This is why Aharonן considered the death of Bnei Yisroel at the golden calf to be his fault even though he did it for their good and even though he did nothing wrong.

We just began the 3 weeks that lead up to Tisha Be’av the day on which wecommemorate the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash. We also know that the second Beis Hamikdash was destroyed because of baseless hatred. We also know that Mashiach will come when we feel for other people baseless love. If we can take a lesson from Aharon and really try to feel for all of Bnei Yisroel we should merit the reemption in our days.