פִּינְחָס בֶּן אֶּלְעָזָר בֶּן אַהֲרֹן הַכֹהֵן הֵשִּיב אֶּת חֲמָתִּי מֵעַל בְנֵי יִּשְרָאֵל בְקַנְאוֹ אֶּת קִּנְאָתִּי בְתוֹכָם וְלֹא כִּלִּיתִּי אֶּת בְנֵי יִּשְרָאֵל בְקִּנְאָתִּי: (כה :יא)
Pinchas son of Elazar son of Aharon HaKohen turned back My wrath from upon the Bnei Yisrael, when he zealously avenged My vengeance among them, so I did not consume the Bnei Yisrael in My vengeance. (25:11)
We see in the previous parsha how after the people stumbled with ‘Baal Peor’, Moshe was commanded by HaKadosh Baruch Hu to remove the sinners, for they were liable to stoning. Just then, an elevated man of the people appeared before Moshe, Zimri the prince of the tribe of Shimon, and demonstrated his strength to permit his actions, even though there was no truth to his words at all. Still, this was to cause a great commotion to the extent that through these words, when Moshe Rabeinu heard expressly from HaKadosh Baruch Hu that all those who stumbled with this sin deserved to die. Still, he was not able to pronounce and express an opinion against Zimri, and as Rashi brings down (25:6) that the halacha was hidden from him, ‘Whoever has relations with an Aramean woman, avengers will harm him’. Surely, it was not for nothing that the clear halacha was hidden from him. Zimri was not a ‘reed cutter in the swamp’ (Sanhedrin 33a), and when he came before Moshe he showed him his strength in Torah, and he began proving 150 reasons there was no prohibition, until he succeeded with his words to create doubt that perhaps this was not a case of ‘having relations with an Aramean’, that is, even though there is a law ‘whoever has relations with an Aramean woman, avengers will harm him’, perhaps that was not said regarding this situation in which Zimri stumbled.
That moment was a difficult time for the upright in Israel, when they saw that even Moshe was in doubt, to the point that they began crying when they saw how bad the situation was. True, it was not for nothing that HaKadosh Baruch Hu caused all this to happen, as Rashi explained there, this was so that Pinchas would come and take what he was entitled to.
From these words of Rashi we see that Pinchas was already fit for that mitzvah and the reward preceded it, the merit stood for Pinchas, and the way things worked out he saw it was the right time to earn his reward, and He brought it about by hiding the halacha from Moshe, so that Pinchas should come and act and take the merit that was fitting for him. It is incumbent on us to know what this particular merit was that stood for Pinchas until he was ready to act. The Torah does not just tell stories unless it wants to teach us how to act, so it wanted to teach us ways of life from the action of Pinchas.
Perhaps this is the reason the Torah saw fit to repeat in the posuk before us the ancestry of Pinchas, ‘Pinchas son of Elazar son of Aharon HaKohen’, and even though in the previous parsha (25:7) when the Torah began its narrative it had already mentioned his lineage. Yet, the Torah repeated it to reveal to us the merit that caused his mitzvah. This was because he walked wholeheartedly in the ways of the fathers, without changing an iota from what he received from his father Elazar and from his grandfather Aharon, for this is a person whose ways of his fathers was a light unto his feet, and they were before him ironclad rules, and he was not smarter than them at all. This person knows that what was prohibited in his father’s house is always prohibited! This person who holds onto the traditions of his fathers is very dear in the eyes of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and since HaKadosh Baruch Hu knew that Pinchas was one of those who held onto this principle, and through it he merited his reward that was reserved for him. (See Rashi in the beginning of our parsha who resolves the matter his way, there are seventy facets to Torah.)
This is what Rashi mentioned above (25:7), ‘Pinchas saw – He saw the incident and was reminded of the law.’ His intent was to point out what was the difference between Pinchas and the rest of the people, for Pinchas was there at the incident as were his brothers who heard Zimri’s opinion, but no one came within a hairsbreadth of him [Zimri]? He ‘saw the incident’ and it reminded him of what the law is ‘who does’ this. He was not at all interested in the ‘what’ or ‘why’ Zimri saw fit to do what he did. He only knew this, this is what he received from his father Elazar who received it from his father Aharon, and Aharon from Moshe, that for a sin like this, the sinner deserves to be stabbed with a sword by an avenger of Hashem. He is the one who ultimately went and clarified the matter by telling Moshe, ‘I have received from you, one who has relations with a non-Jewish woman, zealots may kill him.’
In light of these things, it is understood quite well why he merited the Kehunah as a reward for generations, since this was in the merit that he held onto what he received from the generations before him, therefore he was meted out the same measure, and he merited a spiritual elevation that carried for generations. Even though the nature of a person is not to reach the level of the deeds of his fathers, still, the sanctity of the Kehunah continued for all generations.
We can also say that in the merit of going in the ways of the fathers, Heaven bestowed on him the ‘Kehunah’ from which he was able to go in the ways of the fathers for all matters, for until that point even if he went in the ways of the fathers, he was not fit to literally serve his Creator like his fathers served Him, but once Heaven saw that he so yearned to walk in the footsteps of his fathers, and whatever he was able to do to follow in their footsteps he did, and even devoted himself with the killing of Zimri, therefore, Heaven bestowed on him that he would have the ability to follow in their footsteps also with the service of the Kehunah.
This is an illustration of what Chazal said (Shabbos 104a), ‘One who comes to purify, [Heaven] helps him’, for sometimes when a person wants to go in the ways of the Torah, the yetzer tries to hold him back by saying that the thing is not realistic to accomplish. Then the answer to it is even though it is not realistic, it is incumbent on us to do what we can, and then HaKadosh Baruch Hu will complete His portion which is not possible for the person to do on his own. As we see here, even if the desire of Pinchas was strong to go in the footsteps of his fathers in every detail, he could not do it, and he was even prohibited to do it halachically. However, he did what was incumbent on him without thinking that the reality could change. When Heaven saw that he did this, it was proven from Heaven that Hashem would not hold back from helping him until the reality changed.
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