Numbers Cycle 6 Pinhas

Pinhas

Pinhas and Love

Chava Lion

The first thing we need to know about Pinhas today (2013) is this:

On a p’shat level, some disgusting things happen in Torah.

However, as far as I know there isn’t one modern rabbi of any denomination who could back up the action of Pinhas on the p’sha t level. To cut to the chase, it’s obvious that if two people are making love outside the temple (one Jewish...the son of a priest… and the other a non-Jewish follower of Baal Peor or any cult) that we don’t run a spear through their genitals. We don’t kill them on the spot literally. We don’t even need to spend time on proving why we can’t. The hours we spend arguing against it, in my opinion, would best be spent on finding a reason why God rewards Pinhas for his action. Not only does Pinhas become a priest that moment but this status is guaranteed to his offspring l’olam…forever. How can God see this notorious action of Pinhas as so holy?

This is hard to understand.

Our sages seem to get it. Even our liturgy emphasizes the significance of the action of Pinhas. Right before we open the Torah every Shabbat we chant a line from Deuteronomy 4:4. You who cleave to Hashem, your God, are alive, all of you, today. What we might realize is that this line is grammatically, semantically and logically tied to the action of Pinhas. Like it or not (in the scripture) this line immediately follows a direct reminder of what God did at Baal Peor (Deuteronomy 4: 3).

To clarify, right before we enter the heart of God on Shabbat (second soul and all) we are to remember the plague created by our own idolatry and the heroic action of (yes) Pinhas who (on some level) stopped our self-annihilation by cleaving to God so much that he could spear the exact tiny vulnerable festering central-core-of-darkness metaphorically.

But let’s step back a moment. There is a basic tenet of Torah. It’s called Love. As my teacher likes to remind me, the last letter of Torah is a lamed and the first is a bet. When we cycle Torah we attach the end to the beginning and we get lev or heart. Heart is what connects the end to the beginning, puts motion into the spiral of life, of God. Torah is Love.

Another teacher of mine tells this story: The Baal Shem Tov, known for his ability to see Torah as Love, decided to smoke a pipe one day to prepare for meditation. He started to bring the lit candle to his pipe and realized he was using non-kosher fat …and all to prepare to pray to Hashem! He was horrified. He thought about it, struggled for quite a while. Then finally he screamed out that for then on he would always light his pipe with non-kosher fat. End of story.

Why mention this? I'll get there soon. Meanwhile though, we do need to see that boundaries upon boundaries can be limitless, choking, so severe they fail to serve their purpose. In other words, the Baal Shem Tov felt and knew the connection of boundaries with the sitra achra…evil…that the former can transform into the latter in the blink of an eye

This is the way my teacher (liberal) finished the story: He stopped it, my teacher exclaimed in referring to this decision of the Baal Shem Tov. He stopped the continuous growth of the boundaries. He turned it. His exclamation reminded me of one made by another teacher in reference to Pinhas: He stopped it, the orthodox rabbi exclaimed. With that brilliance, exact aim and depth, he went right in and clinched it.

Of course, deciding to light a pipe with non kosher fat is quite a different action on one level from using a sword like a giant acupuncture needle. But you could say that both actions recognize the unhealthy danger of extremes at two opposite poles…hesed and gevurah. You could say that the two actions are on the same coin, just on opposite sides.

Of course, I don’t support even smoking a pipe. And ancient swords are fun museum pieces but not mine to use. But how lovely if we do it right, if we clinch the madness caused by intermittent un-balanced growth (a human fallacy) and if we can then count ourselves in and know who we are. How lovely if we can raise our sparks up to God as offerings of devekut, if we can build a fence around Torah that can allow us to open ourselves completely…in absolute safety…when we dive into the sacred white fire on black fire…into Torah…on Shabbat.

How to apply this to today? See ourselves as holy. See people next to us, on the subway, in the car that just cut you off, as holy. On the literal level, the world can seem outrageously evil. And when it does, apply teachings of Torah learned through metaphor. Don’t escape through metaphor. Learn from it. Reach to your fellow man. Reach to God. Understand that one exact deep reach and touch can bring peace to the world. Know who you are

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