במדבר פרק כה, יב לָכֵן אֱמֹר הִנְנִי נֹתֵן לוֹ אֶת-בְרִ יתִי שָלוֹם:
“Therefore say, ‘behold I give to him My covenant of peace”
In Torah Temimah we asked, why did Pinchas merit this reward of becoming a Cohen more than Moshe. We find that Moshe also removed G-d’s anger from Israel, both at the time of the golden calf and at the time of the spies. It is written in the verse after the Golden Calf, after Moshe’s prayer – “And G-d relented on the evil which He had spoken to do to His people” (Shemos 32, 14); and after the Spies – “I have forgiven” (Bemidbar 14, 20). Despite this, Moshe never received a covenant of peace from G-d as a reward, unlike Pinchas. This needs explanation.
We explained on another occasion that Moshe did not remove the anger totally and forever. He only affected a temporary forgiveness, but did not remove the root and cause of the anger. We find this after G-d has forgiven the sin of the calf, “On the day that I will visit (punishment) I will revisit their sin” (Shemos 32, 34). In the Gemara (Sanhedrin 102a) it say that every tragedy that befalls the Jewish people contains within it part of the punishment for the sin of the Calf. So, we see that the sin was not erased completely and things were not like they were before. Similarly, with the Spies, after G-d says “I have forgiven”, He adds “Nevertheless, I swear that none of these people will see the land...” (Bemidbar 14, 23). On the verse that says “the people cried on that night” (14, 1), the Sages say that G-d said, they cried for no reason, I will give them a reason to cry for all generations (referring to the ninth of Av, the date of the destruction of the Temple (Ta’anis 29a)). We see that in both cases, the Calf and the Spies, the anger still remains, though muted and restrained. Pinchas, however, removed the anger entirely. He uprooted it completely so that there was no trace left for the future. Therefore Pinchas merited this reward.
Based on this explanation we can understand the wording of the prayer ‘Avinu Malkeinu’ in which we say ‘forgive us and pardon us for all our sins’. We also say ‘destroy the evil decree against us’. It is not clear why we need the repetition of the same idea. Forgiving and pardoning is the same as destroying the evil decree. Through forgiving everything should return to its original state (with no decree).
Based on our explanation, even after the forgiveness and pardon, it is possible that there still remains a trace of the sin for the future. This is what we find in the forgiveness for both the sins of the Calf and the Spies, as we explained. Therefore, we pray that not only should we receive forgiveness and pardon, but we also request that the decree should be destroyed, like a loan document if the lender forgives the borrower the loan, as long as the document still exists the mind of the borrower is still concerned that the money can still be claimed. Once it is ripped up it loses its validity forever. This is the meaning of the prayer – we ask that G-d tear up the decree against us even after He has forgiven us for the sin.
