פִּ ינְ חָ ס בֶּ ן אֶ לְ עָ זָר בֶּ ן אַ הֲרֹ ן הַ כֹּ הֵ ן הֵ שִׁ יב אֶ ת חֲמָ תִ י וגו' בְּ קַ נְ אוֹ אֶ ת קִ נְ אָ תִ י בְּ תוֹכָם וְ ל ֹא כִ לִּ יתִ י אֶ ת בְּ נֵי יִ שְׂ רָ אֵ ל בְּ קִ נְ אָ תִ י (כה, יא)
Pinchos son of Elazar son of Aharon the Kohen turned back My anger from upon bnei Yisroel by his zealously avenging Me among them, so that I did not destroy bnei Yisroel because of My zeal. (25:11)
The Plague Ended in Pinchos’s Merit:
The Medrash Rabbah (20:25) compares the story of Pinchos to a moshol of a group of men who saw the king riding through the city. One of the men opened his mouth and cursed the king, who was greatly insulted. He became full of anger and wanted to kill the entire group until one of them stood up and killed the one who had uttered the curse. This stilled the king’s anger and he allowed the rest of them to live. So too, the sin of Zimri caused Hashem to be full of rage, and He wanted to destroy Klal Yisroel for remaining silent and not protesting. Pinchos then arose and risked his life to kill Zimri. This still Hashem’s anger and saved the nation.
With this in mind, Sefer Toldos Yitzchok explains the pasuk as saying that after Klal Yisroel was struck with a plague that killed 24,000 people, they could have claimed that Pinchos’s zealous act of killing Zimri did not benefit them at all, as they still were greatly punished. Accordingly, the pasuk says that Pinchos was the one who turned back Hashem’s anger and if not for him, the entire nation would have been destroyed.
The Kana’us of Levi:
Medrash Agadah relates in the name of Rav Yirmiya: “The shevet of Levi was always kannaim. During the story of the eigel, it says (Shemos 32:26) that Moshe stood in the camp and said: ‘Whoever is for Hashem, come to me’ and all of Shevet Levi gathered around him. This sin (of Zimri) was worse than the sin of the eigel. During the sin of the eigel, Levi stood up, and Levi also stood up now.
“When Pinchos saw the actions of Zimri, he said, ‘My grandfather (Levi) and this one’s grandfather (Shimon) stood up and repaired the breach of Shchem (Shimon and Levi killed the residents of Shchem after the abuse of Dina) but this one (Zimri) has breached a fence created by the Zekeinim. Is there no one in Yisroel who will kill him? He will be killed by my hand! Where are the lions (a reference to Shevet Yehuda and Dan who are compared to lions in Bereishis 49:9 and Devarim 33:22)? Where are the wolves (a reference to Shevet Binyomin who is compared to a wolf in Bereishis 49:27)?’
“Since he saw that no one was doing anything, he immediately got up from his Sanhedrin, took a spear in his hand, went and killed him. By doing so, he turned back the anger against Klal Yisroel...”
We see from here that the act of kana’us performed by Levi in Shchem left a great impression that remained with his descendants for generations. This influence came to the fore during the story of the eigel, when the entire Shevet Levi gathered around Moshe and killed the sinners, and during the story of Zimri, when Pinchos was aroused by the influence of Levi to zealously avenge Hashem’s honor.”
The Kana’us of the Chasam Sofer:
This concept of holy zealotry being passed down from one generation to the next is clearly seen in the following story (related in Sefer Meir Einei Yisroel):
The Chofetz Chaim zt”l once needed to plead to the government to annul a bitter decree against the yeshivos of his time, which had been enacted as a result of the mosdos haTorah being maligned and libeled by the maskilim. Before leaving on his mission, the Chofetz Chaim asked a member of the Kornitzer family, a descendant of the Chasam Sofer zy”a, to come with him. This individual was confused. He didn’t understand why the Chofetz Chaim chose him to accompany him on this mission but he reasoned that perhaps he wanted him to act as his spokesman and to speak on his behalf.
However, he soon saw that this was not the case. When they had their audience with the ministers, the Chofetz Chaim spoke on his own and beseeched them to annul the decree. His heartfelt pleas were accepted and the decree was cancelled.
On the way home, he asked the Chofetz Chaim why he needed him to accompany him. The Chofetz Chaim answered, “Your ancestor, the Chasam Sofer, exerted himself greatly to zealously battle for Hashem’s honor against the maskilim who wanted to uproot Yiddishkeit. I wanted his descendant to come with me so that the zechus of the Chasam Sofer would be with me as I fought against the blasphemy of the maskilim.”
Kana’us that Emanates From the Heart:
It is related that a chasid of Karlin once visited the city of Vienna. When he arrived, he went to see Rav Yisroel of Tchortkov zy”a and told him that he planned on davening in his bais medrash on Shabbos. He asked the Rebbe if it be alright for him to scream during davening, as is customary in Karlin. Rav Yisroel told him, “Our minhag is to daven quietly and solemnly. We do not scream here.’
The chasid tried to obey. He kept reminding himself during davening to stay quiet and not to scream. However, when he reached the tefillah of Nishmas, he became so enthused that he could not contain himself and he screamed out the words from the depths of his heart.
After Shabbos, he went to take leave of the Rebbe and to apologize for breaking the rules. Rav Yisroel told him, “Don’t worry. That is how you should daven. After all, tze’akah (screaming) is one of the forms of tefillah!”
The chasid was confused. Hadn’t the Rebbe told him that he should not scream during davening? Why was he now telling him the opposite?
Rav Yisroel recognized that the man was bewildered, so he explained, “You came to me before Shabbos to ask permission to scream. I did not agree to this because you cannot plan in advance to scream. It has to come from the depths of the heart. If one feels the tefillos so strongly that he screams without even planning to do so, that is one of the forms of tefillah!”
This idea can be used to explain the pasuk in Tehillim (106:30): “And Pinchos stood and he prayed (vayefalel).” Rashi explains that the word “vayefalel” has two connotations. It can mean “to kill” or “to pray”. The comparison between an act of zealotry and prayer teaches us that just like tefillah must emanate naturally from the depths of the heart, so too kana’us is only appropriate if it is a natural reaction to a breach in Hashem’s honor.
For example, if someone walks outside on Shabbos and sees cars driving in his neighborhood (with Jewish drivers), and this shameful display affects his heart so much that he spontaneously screams and protests, that is a proper display of kana’us. However, if one begins to plan on Wednesday or Thursday how he will go out and look for cars to scream at on Shabbos, it is a sign that his kana’us is not l’shmah and is not genuinely emanating from his heart.
This is why Chazal say (Sanhedrin 82A) that kana’us is “a halacha but we do not rule that way for the public.” This is because if someone asks a shailoh whether or not he should perform an act of kana’us, it is a clear sign that he shouldn’t do it. Genuine kana’us must be spontaneous. It must be a natural reaction to feeling extreme pain from witnessing a wrongdoing. A true kanai will become so fired up that he will be unable to hold himself back from protesting a chilul Hashem, and he will immediately take action, even if he doesn’t have time to ask a shailoh.
This is what Pinchos did. He couldn’t tolerate the chilul Hashem that he witnessed and he felt the burning need to take action. His heart led him to respond with zealotry, so he did what needed to be done. And this act of pure kana’us turned back Hashem’s anger against His people.
Revenge Through Kindness:
In the Shabbos zemiros, we sing the words: “Mishoch chasdecha l’yodecha Keil kana v’nokem. Extend Your kindness to those who know You, Hashem who is zealous and vengeful.” With these words, we ask Hashem to show kindness to Klal Yisroel, but then say that He is strict and takes revenge.
The Mezeritcher Magid zy”a explains by telling a story of a minister who is beloved by the king and treated with much kindness. One day, he decides that he no longer likes the king and insults him in public. Of course, it is a serious crime to embarrass the king, and the minister is placed on trial. The royal court rules that he should be severely punished – either with the death sentence or with painful torture.
The king, who is overcome with compassion for the minister that he loves, disagrees with the verdict. He says, “I cannot allow my good friend to be punished so harshly. What will be gained by this anyway? If we kill him or beat him, this won’t make him feel sorry about what he did. It won’t bring him to understand why what he did was wrong and won’t make him change his attitude. At best, he will only behave in the future because he is scared of being punished again. That is not what I want.
“What I do desire is to forgive him for his crime and to let him go unpunished. Just the opposite, I want to treat him even better than I did before. I want to provide him with a place of honor right next to my throne and to show him even more love than ever. He knows exactly what he did, and he will be tremendously embarrassed by all the honor I will give him. He will be very ashamed of what he did and that shame will be worse than any punishment I could give him. He will see how kind, nice and forgiving I am being to him, and his heart will be pained by what he did against me. This strike to his heart will hurt more than many strikes to his body. He will come to regret his actions and he will return to me with genuine love.”
The Magid uses this lesson to explains that when we say, “Extend Your kindness, Hashem”, we are asking Him to act towards us with love and compassion. We request that this kindness itself should be Hashem’s way of punishing us. We say that we will learn our lesson from Hashem’s kindness, and He should not punish us in any other way.
This idea can also be used to explain the posuk that says (Tehilim 106:30) that “Pinchos stood and davened.” The Gemara (Sanhedrin 82B) says that this means that he “created judgment with Hashem.” He spoke to Hashem and asked Him to remove his anger, forgive Klal Yisroel and allow them to remain unharmed. In this way, Pinchos said, they would become ashamed of their actions and embarrassed of the aveiros they committed against Hashem, who is so kind and compassionate to them and only shows them love. This, he said, would be the best form of revenge.
The Yitav Lev says that this is the meaning of the words “he turned back My anger from upon bnei Yisroel by his zealously avenging Me.” Rashi explains that this is talking about the time “when he took My revenge against them.”
What was this revenge? What type of revenge did Hashem against Klal Yisroel? It was not revenge through harsh punishments or anger. It was through “not destroying bnei Yisroel because of My zeal.” The revenge was through forgiving them and acting kindly to them. This kindness was a great cause of shame to those who had sinned. It made them feel terrible. It caused them to regret their aveiros and promise to never again disobey Hashem.
He Was Shamed so that he Would Remain Humble:
Rashi states: “Pinchos son Elazar son of Aharon the Kohen. The shevatim were making fun of him, saying, look at this man whose mother’s father fattened calves for idols and who killed a leader of a shevet in Yisroel. For this reason, the verse traces his lineage to Aharon.”
How people could make fun of and insult the very same man who saved them from destruction!?
A wonderful answer to this question is offered in Sefer Bamidbor Yehuda (written by Rav Avrohom Yehuda Wertheimer zt”l, founder and leader of the Bais Hillel bais medrash in Bnei Brak). He explains that those who insulted Pinchos actually intended to help him. They shamed him so that he would not become haughty as a result of his great act of strength and courage that saved the entire nation. They knew that haughtiness can cause a person to lose all the reward of a mitzvah, and they wanted to save Pinchos from having that happen to him.
He says a second, similar answer based on a story involving the Damesek Eliezer of Vizhnitz zy”a. The Damesek Eliezer once became very sick. He was taken to the Babad Hotel in Yerushalaim, where he lay on his sickbed. At that time, he asked those close to him to go out to the streets and speak negatively about him in order to decrease the honor people had for him. He explained that he learned this behavior from the Shinever Rov zy”a. The Shinever disagreed with several minhagim of his holy father, the Divrei Chaim of Sanz zy”a, and disregarded them. Before his passing, he told those near him that he had been given an extra 13 years of life because he disregarded those customs of his father. He explained that there had been a Heavenly decree that the tzadik of the generation should die. Since he had disobeyed his father’s customs, the Shinever said about himself, he was no longer considered to be the biggest tzadik of the generation, and the decree did not apply to him.
Based on this story, it is possible to say that Pinchos himself asked the people to make fun of him so that he should not become haughty and lose all the benefits of his great mitzvah.
Atonement for Sins:
Sefer Agra D’Pirka (Ois 146) quotes Rav Shlomo of Karlin zy”a as quoting a Medrash that says that When Hashem commanded Eliyahu Hanavi to attend every bris milah, Eliyahu said: “You know that I act with passion to sanctify Your name. If the father at the bris is a sinful person, I won’t be able to stand being there!” Hashem, therefore, promised him that the father of the baby would be forgiven of his sins and would be cleansed of all his aveiros!
Eliyahu continued, “What if the mohel is a sinful person“? Hashem then promised that the mohel would also be forgiven for his sins.
Eliyahu persisted, “What if one of those in attendance is sinful?” Hashem finally promised that He would forgive anyone who attends a bris of all of their sins.
The Agra D’Pirka adds that this is hinted at in the verse (ibid:13): “Because he was passionate for Hashem and atoned for bnei Yisroel.” This indicates that because he was a passionate person, and could not stand being in the presence of sinners, all of bnei Yisroel had to be forgiven.
Revelation of Eliyahu:
Rav Eliyahu Lopian zt”l once approached the Imrei Emes of Ger zy”a and requested a bracha for children. The Imrei Emes told him, “Does a Yid who merited meeting Eliyahu Hanavi need a bracha from someone like me?”
Rav Lopian responded, “If you know that I saw Eliyahu Hanavi, then you are exactly the person I want a bracha from!”
Praised is he Who Saw His Face in a Dream:
The Imrei Chaim of Vizhnitz zt”l related that his grandfather, the Toras Chaim zy”a, asked the following question: In the song “Eliyahu Hanavi”, which we chant on Motzoei Shabbos, we say, “Fortunate is one who sees his face in a dream.” What does this mean? How would anyone know how Eliyahu Hanavi looks? How would we know it was him if we saw his face in a dream?
The Toras Chaim then proclaimed: If I would see him in a dream, I would recognize him because I saw him when I was awake in the home of my father, the Ahavas Shalom zy”a! He went on to relate: When I was a young child, I used to sleep in the same room together with my father. One night, I awoke from my sleep to hear my father speaking with someone. I saw an old man with a shining face sitting on a chair, with my father seated at his side. I became very upset and wondered who would have the nerve to enter our private bedroom and sit on my father’s chair!
Suddenly, I heard my father say to his guest, “Eliyahu. This is my Chaim’l. Please give him a bracha.” I became very frightened and covered my head with the blanket. I felt two hands being placed upon my head and heard Eliyahu blessing me. I built up the courage to lift the blanket off my head and I saw his holy face. Therefore, if I would see him in a dream, I would recognize him! (Sarfei Kodesh, page 429)
A Shepherd for Klal Yisroel, Not for Oneself:
אֲ שֶׁ ר יֵצֵ א לִ פְ נֵיהֶ ם וַאֲ שֶׁ ר יָב ֹא לִ פְ נֵיהֶ ם וגו' וְ ל ֹא תִ הְ יֶה עֲדַ ת ה' כַּצּ ֹאן אֲ שֶׁ ר אֵ ין לָהֶ ם רֹ עֶ ה (כז, יז)
Who will go before them and come before them, who will lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of Hashem will not be like sheep without a shepherd. (27:17)
The Kesav Sofer zt”l explains that when most shepherds tend their flocks of sheep, they are really worried about themselves. Their actual goal is to earn money by selling the wool and meat of the sheep. If they would find themselves and their flock in danger, they would abandon the sheep and just try to save themselves.
A “shepherd of Yisroel”, however, is not like that. A Jewish leader must be prepared to sacrifice himself for the good of the people. He must not abandon them in the face of danger. Rather, he must protect them at all costs – even if it places his own life at risk.
Moshe was saying that Klal Yisroel should not be like sheep who do not have a shepherd when times get tough, because the shepherd runs away to save himself and leaves the sheep alone. Rather, their shepherd should stay to protect them even when they are threatened by danger.
Moshe Rabenu Considered Himself a City Worker:
The Chasam Sofer zt”l explains that Moshe Rabenu was such an anav that he didn’t consider himself any greater than anyone else. He simply thought of himself as a worker on behalf of the community. He viewed himself like a city worker or like a shamash in shul – doing a job that anyone else could do just as well. Therefore, he thought he could easily be replaced.
For this reason, when he spoke about leaders of the nation, he merely asked for people who could “go before them and come before them”, meaning they would do jobs on behalf of the public. Hashem, however, told him that this was not how He viewed him. He said that a leader must be a man who possesses the spirit of G-d. He must be an exalted person like Moshe Rabenu truly was.
וַיּ ֹאמֶ ר ה' אֶ ל משֶׁ ה קַ ח לְ ךָ אֶ ת יְ הוֹשֻׁ עַ בִּ ן נוּן אִ ישׁ אֲ שֶׁ ר רוּחַ בּוֹ וגו' (כז, יח)
Hashem said to Moshe, “Take for yourself Yehoshua the son of Nun, a man of spirit...” (27:18)
Going Against One’s Character:
Rashi explains: “A man of spirit”: As you requested; someone able to go against the character of each one.
The Yitav Panim explains that a true leader does not always deal with each person according to the way they are. He doesn’t always act like them in order to connect with them. Rather, at times he must work against the character of some individuals and deal with them in a manner that may not be natural for them.
First For Hashem and Then For People:
Someone once asked the...
