Last week’s Parasha ended off with the children of Israel following after the daughters of Moav, and sinning. Zimri, the head of a tribe, was sinning with a Moavite girl named Kuzbi. Our hero, Pinhas came and killed them both.
This week’s Parasha starts off with G-d’s reward for Pinhas. The pasuk calls him פִּינְחָס בֶּן אֶלְעָזָר בֶּן אַהֲרֹן הַכֹּהֵן
Pinhas, the son of Elazar, the son of Aharon the Kohen.
Rashi says he is traced back to Aharon, who was a man of peace, because although it looked like Pinhas committed an act of aggression, it was actually an act of peace because, as the pasuk continues,
הֵשִׁיב אֶת חֲמָתִי מֵעַל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
He removed My (G-d’s) anger from the Jewish people
בְּקַנְאוֹ אֶת קִנְאָתִי
When he was a zealot for My zealousness
בְּתוֹכָם וְלֹא כִלִּיתִי אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּקִנְאָתִי:
And (because of him) I didn’t wipe out the whole Jewish people
It was 24,000 people that died but it would have been many more.
So Pinhas was a man of peace because he brought peace between G-d and the Jewish people. Therefore G-d says,
לָכֵן אֱמֹר הִנְנִי נֹתֵן לוֹ אֶת בְּרִיתִי שָׁלוֹם:
He is going to get the “peace award.”
Like the Nobel Peace Prize
וְהָיְתָה לּוֹ וּלְזַרְעוֹ אַחֲרָיו בְּרִית כְּהֻנַּת עוֹלָם תַּחַת אֲשֶׁר קִנֵּא לֵאלֹהָיו וַיְכַפֵּר עַל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל:
He and his children afterwards will have the covenant of Kehuna,
and not just the Kohanim, but it says that the Kohanim Gedolim will come from Pinhas as well.
And as we know, eventually Pinhas lived on to become Eliyahu HaNavi, so he’s literally --בְּרִית כְּהֻנַּת עוֹלָם an everlasting Kohen, one that lives on forever, Eliyahu HaNavi.
All this,תַּחַת אֲשֶׁר קִנֵּא לֵאלֹהָיו וַיְכַפֵּר עַל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל:
Because of his act of zealousness, which was a kaparah for Bnei Yisrael.
It’s a beautiful story.
Rashi is bothered by a question. As we said, Pinhas is the son of Elazar, the son of Aharon HaKohen. So, if a man’s father and grandfather are kohanim, he’s also a Kohen. So why does Pinhas need the new gift of Kehuna if, in essence, he was already a Kohen?
It’s an interesting question and a nice riddle.
Rashi explains that Aharon became a Kohen when he was anointed as a Kohen. His four children were also all anointed. But the grandchildren that were underage, (below the age of 13), were not anointed. Nadav and Avihu didn’t have children.
Elazar’s oldest son was Pinhas, who was already born, but underage so he was not anointed when everyone else was. His future brothers and cousins were born after their fathers became kohanim, so they were automatically kohanim. But here Pinhas was, stuck in the middle. He was already born, but too young to be anointed on his own. Therefore, Pinhas was not destined to be a Kohen. The only reason Pinhas became a Kohen was because he killed Zimri. The act of killing Zimri made him into a Kohen, and gave him the gift of Kehuna.
Prior to that, he wasn’t a Kohen, for all those years in the desert, he must’ve watched his younger cousins serving in the Mishkan, while he wasn’t involved, because he wasn’t a Kohen. But G-d gave him the opportunity to rise to greatness. Pinhas, on his own, merited the honor of being a Kohen.
Why did G-d work it out this way?
We can never know the ways of G-d, but it’s interesting. Pinhas was left on the sidelines, and only later in his life, was given the opportunity to become a Kohen through killing Zimri.
The commentaries say, based on a Gemara in Masechet Sanhedrin, that
כהן שהרג את הנפש לא ישא את כפיו:
A Kohen who kills someone can not perform the services, because a Kohen is supposed to be a man of peace.
So, if Pinhas had been born a Kohen, and then later put into this situation (where he killed Zimri), which was his life’s mission, he would have no longer been able to remain a Kohen. That would have been a shame. So, look how G-d worked this all out!
He worked it out that Pinhas was not yet a Kohen, and therefore the fact that he killed Zimri didn’t disqualify him from being a Kohen.
Only afterwards did G-d make him a Kohen.
That is a beautiful Emunah and Bitachon lesson. In life, G-d sets up situations perfectly for what our jobs and our missions are. We might be scratching our heads, looking around, not understanding what’s going on, but it’s all planned perfectly, to bring out our greatness. And Pinhas was no exception; he was actually the rule. Pinhas is teaching us this lesson, that he reached greatness. What’s more, we can add a little Kabbalistic touch to see that it wasn’t just simple greatness: The Zohar says that Pinhas was called Ben Elazar, Ben Aharon HaKohen (son of Elazar, the son of Aharon). The Zohar asks isn’t it obvious that he was the grandson of Aharon, because Elazar was the son of Aharon.
The simple explanation, is as we mentioned, to trace him back to the peace-loving attributes of Aharon HaKohen.
But the Zohar says that Pinhas was Ben Elazar, meaning his physical father was Elazar, but spiritually he Ben Aharon HaKohen as well. How so?
Nadav and Avihu, his uncles, died. It says that when Pinhas killed Zimri, the souls of Nadav and Avihu entered into him. Why? Because Nadav and Avihu wanted to come close to G-d, and they came close, but without getting permission. They were, so to say, zealous without permission. They brought a fire without permission because they wanted to come close to G-d. So, their souls left them, in an act of holiness.
Pinhas had zealousness, but he asked Moshe Rabbenu first. He told Moshe, “You taught us that when something like this happens, they’re supposed to be killed.”
And Moshe told him that if that’s the case, and he remembered it, he should do it.
Rashi asks how Moshe could have forgotten this law? And Rashi says that G-d made Moshe Rabbenu forget, in order to give Pinhas the opportunity to reach greatness. In doing so, Pinhas corrected the sin of Nadav and Avihu. He was zealous, but he asked first. And therefore the souls of Nadav and Avihu went into Pinhas and that’s how Pinhas became a Kohen. He didn’t break the rules. He became a Kohen because the souls of his two deceased uncles entered him.
We have no idea how Hashem is setting things up for us!
One final tidbit- as we said, Pinhas became Eliyahu. Our rabbis tell us that when we say the words
אנא ה׳ הושיעה נא
אנא ה׳ הצליחה נא
Hashem should save us,
Hashem shouldn’t bring us protection,
The word אנא stands for
אליהו
נדב
אביהוא
Which are the three souls that joined together in Pinhas.
In the merit of Pinhas, Eliyahu HaNavi, Nadav and Avihu, we should be saved and see success
Have a Shabbat shalom.