Numbers - Cycle One - 2510-3001 - Pinchas

The portion Pinchas is about the expansion and contraction of divine consciousness, the breathing, the exhale and inhale. In Pinchas, light pulses, reaches, dives back within itself and in this temporary stage, appears to human eyes as physical death. What Pinchas teaches us though is that death is not an end, simply a consolidation, one that flowers to greater divinity with every cycle and/or repetition, with every moment of our evolution. It is our work not only to have trust but to actively take part in that process.

The man Pinchas is the grandson of the high priest, Eleazar. It would seem strange that he would be rewarded for throwing a spear through both the Israelite man and the womb of the Midianite woman (Balak, 25:7). However, let’s step back. The Midianites take part in idol worship or Baal Peor (Balak, 25:3); they value their physicality more than God. As the Israelites start to follow this idol worship (Balak, 25:1) God’s light becomes unclean. The process of Baal Peor creates a darkness, a grip that does not allow expansion or breath. The action of the man Pinchas, therefore, can be seen as one of consciousness. He is a divine spark that shines bright enough to conquer the darkness, that plague that slows evolution. The announcement of the names of those killed ( Pinchas 25:14) serves to label the darkness and the lack of faith, to therefore place it in a bottle, enclose it, keep it out of reach of children. It’s not surprising that God now orders the Israelites to attack all the Midianites and kill them. This is expansion after the enabling of expansion. I’m not referring to victory and carnage, simply to the pulsation outward of divine consciousness once the light has been purified.

The many tallies in Torah also reveal the inhale and exhale of divine consciousness. I’d like to refer to three tallies; one in Genesis (Va Yigash) the other in Leviticus (Bemidbar) and the third in this Torah portion (Pinchas). In Va Yigash, the number of individuals who come to Egypt with Jacob is 70. In Bemidbar, the Israelites have already been freed from Egypt and the number climbs to 603,500. In Pinchas, the number drops to 601,280. The big picture is great expansion and then slight contraction. What we also see is that the story of the Israelites or the growth of consciousness is not measured by week, month, year (as we measure our lives now). Rather we are recorded through tallies, this type of pulsation, this exhaling and inhaling, expansion and contraction. It’s a whole different way of looking at our lives and deaths, as a manifestation of breath to breath, breath to contraction, contraction to contraction, contraction to expansion and once again, to breath. It’s a vision that goes beyond time and only time makes death seem like a termination. Once again, because evolution in Torah revolves around tallies and divine sparks, not around the year or month, we are gifted with the importance of that extraordinary vision of a breathing and expanding consciousness.

Now let’s look closely at the tally in Pinchas. It refers directly to inheritance, property, a piece of the earth. In Pinchas, the more men in a family, the greater the plot of land. There is a direct relation between the growth of our divine sparks (our light) and the potential to manifest it. The more light we each carry, the more we are grounded. The more spiritual we see ourselves, the more we are firm and strong and tangible. The derogatory image of the woozy silly light-seeking irresponsible hippy is slapped down in Pinchas because here, the vibrational energy is not only reflected in the earth but earns and deserves that reflection. The passing of this inheritance is so important that it goes beyond gender and direct relation. It must be passed, whether from man to woman or man to cousin. Finally we see that when we are gifted with great expansion, it is our work to bring it to the land, to the pulsing and breathing and behavior of our physical bodies. The more light, the more we bring to this place, to these people around us, to this conflict, to this word. God is all about giving light.

Finally, in Pinchas expansion and contraction is clear when God says that Moses has to die. This is because he does not sanctify God for the water from the rock (Chukath 20:7). He actually can not because his powers have been compromised in Korach (18:25) during the priestly offerings when a piece of ego (malchut) had been blended with the divine (keter). This announcement of the impending death of Moses of course prepares us for great contraction. Consciousness will turn inward, one might think. The beauty though, is that we immediately get the rules and details for sacrifices during Shabbat, the new moon, Passover, Shavuouth, the New Year, Yom Kippur, the seven days of Succoth as well as the Shemini Azereth offering. You can almost see it, one sacrifice after the next, one spark being let to the sacred, and then another and another. These are God’s fireworks, a grand finale, great flowers of light rising to the divine. May we always be able to gift divine sparks to God not only during expansion but as in Pinchas, at the hint of contraction. May we always have faith during times of contraction that expansion will follow. May we act on this faith. May we know prayers, and gratitude and may we know to breathe through death and life so that we can rest eternally, with love, in the pulse of God’s radiance.