Numbers - 2510-3001 - Pinchas - Cycle 2

Pinchas doesn’t hesitate. He sees what needs to be done to serve God and does it. Looking at Genesis, Abraham doesn’t hesitate either. God tells Abraham to offer up Isaac and Abraham hops‐to. But while God stops Abraham, God doesn’t stop Pinchas. So, you might say that Pinchas gets a bum deal. Abraham gets to be witnessed for millennium as holy. Pinchas is the eternal zealot who skewers the nice Jewish boy and the goyim girl.

It makes you wonder, how would Abraham be seen if he actually set that fire on Isaac? A man sacrificing his son for God? Now, that’s zealotry.

And what if instead of skewering the virginal couple, Pinchas was shown some frightening little object, a rat maybe, a mosquito, the seed of the plague. Pinchas would destroy it and suddenly be a hero. His name would be sacred.

This is what I’m getting at. Impaling the name of Pinchas exclusively because of the literal not only blocks binah (the flow of human understanding) but supports doing the same to those in Torah (like Abraham) who have clearly become through time the stronghold of our religion. We end up impaling ourselves. Further, if Torah was meant to be literal, then God, who gives us an utterance against murder, would not support such a crime by honoring the perpetrator. So, there’s more here than meets the eye (or maybe the groin) just like there’s more than a man who can be down‐to‐earth in the sacrifice of his son. And the ability to see this more with (even) Pinchas is not a futile act. It enables us to have equanimity, compassion, wisdom, a universal understanding and even love when that shocking grotesque moment hits us in the face. In short, flying over the p’shat helps us to soak the p’shat in God’s radiance in the now moment…in a world in which there is war, tragedy and horror…in a world that needs all the radiance possible.

So then, how do we see this more? First, we want to set the metaphor of the murder. Next, we want to understand the transformation of the meaning of the word kina (zealotry) as it repeats itself the three times in line 11. Finally, we want to see the whole parasha as a mirror of these transformations.

What is a metaphor? It’s when something takes on the attributes of something else. This way, greater texture is brought to that which seems stuck. You can build a metaphor around an emotion, an object, an action, even a Hebrew letter. For example, in this parasha the vuv in shalom (line 12) is broken…in two pieces. This is unique in Torah. The vuv, after all, is seen as the backbone. Perhaps the break represents a complete split between malchut and keter (the lower and the higher). Perhaps that break is in the heart. The covenant of peace therefore will include this disconnection, this break. It’s important to note though that in creating metaphor we are not making the original meaning small. A vuv is a vuv is a vuv. And murder is murder.

Therefore, when Pinchas spears the couple we are shocked…but we have to look at it in context. We have just been gifted with the perspective of the Moabite Balak. We have learned that while we are all equal to God, we can’t allow idol worshippers to be our witnesses. We can’t mix idol‐vision with God‐vision. The “plague” of blindness and darkness will be fed if we attach ourselves to the Moabites.

Not surprising, immediately after the words of Balaam (referring to the purity of the Israelites) we are celebrating Baal Peor, a pagan holiday. By joining with their vision (no matter how glorious) we join with their bodies. Pinchas is the one who acts to end it. In so doing, he puts an end to the plague. The tragedy of the two dead is outweighed by the tens of thousands saved. The specific detail around the dead (lines 14 to 15) is there to encase them away from the rest of the Israelites. And if you look at midrash, there’s lots of encasing.

Next, let’s look at the word kina. I’ve seen it translated as jealousy, zealotry, fanaticism, the spirit of competition, anger. The English language can’t really express it. Perhaps it’s the unrestrained engine of belief and dedication, the stuff that burns deep and (in pure form) is the essence of earthly destruction as well as the finest spark of radiance. In Torah it is mostly used around the idea of purification (Numbers 5:14,15,18,25,29) In line 11 we watch as it grows from man to a seeming link between God and man (…while he was zealous in my zeal) and finally to God alone (in my jealousness). We feel the force of the growth, the energy taking us from one level to the next.

And, in truth, once in a small microcosm, the same transformation can be seen in the parasha. First, Pinchas is honored. Then, there is a tallying of the tribes in order to figure the inheritance. If we see land as the manifestation of God’s light we can easily see how the idea of inheritance is a link, God to man. Finally, we have the offerings for all the holidays. Now, the idea of zealotry is purified to God’s radiance. God really brings the light home. It is my fire, my sweet incense, my offering (line28:2). Here, kina is at the level of keter, of consciousness, purification, the beauty of our divine sparks.

The service to God therefore begins at the gut, in the most bloody place, the disgusting, frightening, humiliating, demanding, that place where we judge others…that we don’t even like admitting to ourselves… and carries us in a continuum of flow to the most sacred and divine. We do it every day. The light begins in thoughts we don’t want to think, in places in our bodies we can’t define. And slowly, in meditation or yoga or prayer we consolidate the force, purify it, and raise it to higher levels, reaching to God. This, in my opinion, is why Abraham is so sacred. He personifies that process over and over again. Pinchas is at the most basic level, the one (for the most part) we usually must restrain. Even if there is a malchut/keter break here, his action is holy. Please remember. He doesn’t kill just anyone. He kills those sewing the seed of the yetzer hara. And he sacrifices his very name for an eternity to do so.

Of course, we can think, look, these are just two people making love and love is beautiful and so what if one isn’t Jewish and what a despot. How mean. And, I completely agree. However, we don’t grow by taking that perspective. We lose our ability to witness…to have an intense awareness of the experience. We just squirm. And honestly, though it is written, we don’t know if the exact scene happened or not. In short, if we want history let’s read history books. Torah is here to make us accept even the darkest threads within ourselves and to force us to grow, male or female, rich or poor, towards God.

So, may we honor those of us who understand the path of radiance and who have the courage to follow it. May we accept in ourselves and others the Pinchas…the one who has the urge and the fire to act…the one who holds the most frightening parts of ourselves….the one who is broken. May we have the wisdom to heal our hearts and transform our Pinchas to our Abraham. And may we avoid jumping to conclusions during the process (and it is always in process). And may we jump with the divine sparks during the holiday offerings and during the tamid…the two daily sheep…the earthly and the divine…the love for which we reach.