Things are not how they appear!
Sort Term Pain Vs Long Term Gain
By Rabbi Yoseph Kahanov Jax, Fl
During a stopover in Sacramento, on a flight from Seattle to San Francisco, sat a blind man with a guide-dog lying quietly underneath the seat in front of him.
It became obvious to the passengers on board that the man had flown this very same flight before when the pilot approached him and calling him by name said, “Keith, we’re in Sacramento, would you like to get up and stretch your legs?”
The blind man replied, “No thanks, but perhaps the dog would like to stretch.”
Picture the scene at the gate when travelers waiting to board the flight, looked up and saw the pilot, who happened to be wearing sunglasses, coming down the gangplank lead by a guide-dog!
Not only have the passengers scattered within seconds, scrambling to change planes, many insisted on not flying the same airlines!
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“Shema binie mussar avicha, v’al titosh toras imehcha – Listen, my son, to the rebuke of your father, and forsake not the teaching of your mother,” (Proverbs 1:8)
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“Discipline doesn't break a child's spirit half as much as it breaks the parent's heart”
“The opposite of discipline is not flexibility, the opposite is chaos.”
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Every good parent, teacher and leader is only too aware of the short term strife resulting from an act of discipline. If not for one’s true love and commitment vis-à-vis the recipient and his long term benefit, who in their right mind would ever consider the use of discipline? Still, discipline is most often confused with heartlessness, spitefulness and cruelty. No wonder it is so despised.
On the other hand, we’ve all been in the company of parents who sit around and do nothing as their kids go bouncing off the wall in over-the-top roughhousing and boisterousness – be it at a social event, doctor’s waiting room, or other unacceptable surroundings, sometimes even involving hazardous circumstances – because they “Don’t have the heart” to discipline the child; because they fear “Hurting the child’s feelings.” (If only you could see my facial expression as I describe these flaky sentiments).
But is the latter really the result of love? Is the inability to ever say no to a child, or for that matter an adult, a sign of kindness or weakness? Is it the product of wisdom or indifference and inertia?
To broaden the question, are all acts of compassion necessarily good and are all acts of severity necessarily bad? This fundamental conundrum is precisely what the story of Pinchas, as related in this week’s Parsha, is all about.
At the end of last week’s Parsha, following G‑d’s instruction to eliminate the Israelite men who were led astray by the Moabite women, we read about an Israelite Prince from the tribe of Shimon, by the name of Zimri, who acted in a particularly brazen and immoral manner.
Claiming that since Moshe was allowed to marry the daughter of the Priest of Midian, he too should be allowed a Midianite woman, he proceeded to consort with a Midianite woman named Cozbi in front of the Tent of Meeting in defiance of the express Heavenly order. By bringing the Midianite woman into the camp “Before the eyes of Moshe and before the eyes of all the congregation of the children of Israel,” Zimri publicly flouted Moshe's authority hoping to unlock the floodgates of illicit relations. He sought to abolish the Divine barrier between the holy and the mundane; the separation between Israel and the nations.
While the humble Moshe stood amidst the entire Jewish leadership in a state of shock and consternation over the public scandal, the young unassuming Pinchas swung into action, unhesitantly killing the Prince and the Midianite woman at the entranceway to the Tent of Meeting.
His bald-faced vigilantism gave rise to civil unrest. A highly charged dispute raged among the people as to whether his actions were justified or murderous. According to the Talmud the Elders of Israel sought to excommunicate Pinchas (Yerushalmi Sanhedrin 9:7). The tribe of Shimon was particularly irritated over Pinchas’ self styled justice, since Zimri was their leader.
G‑d puts a decisive end to the simmering restlessness, in the beginning of our Parsha. The Almighty establishes Pinchas’ righteousness for all time, by tracing his lineage to Aharon the Kohen. Pinchas is further credited with halting the plague that had broken out as a result of the lewd conduct on the part of the Israelites. Finally, he is rewarded the covenant of Peace and eternal Priesthood:
“The Lord Spoke to Moshe, saying, Pinchas, son of Elazar, son of Aaron the priest has turned back my wrath from the Israelites by displaying his zealousness for me, so that I did not wipe out the Israelite people in my zealousness. Say, therefore, I grant him my covenant of Shalom. It shall be for him and his descendants after him a covenant of priesthood for all time, because he took impassioned action for his God, thus making expiation for the Israelites." (Numbers 25:10-13)
The Torah's description of Pinchas' action, Moshe’s inaction, and G‑d's reaction raises some intriguing questions: Why for example, was it Pinchas of all people who rose up to take vengeance into his own hands? Was he animated by selfish malice or by high conscience?
Rashi, citing the Midrash, asserts that damming aspersions were in fact cast upon Pinchas by the Tribe of Shimon, with regards to his true motivation for slaying their prince. Pinchas, they sullenly alleged, was the maternal grandson of Yisro. This same Yisro, they noted, had once been an idol-worshipper who was in the habit of fattening calves for sacrifice – an act of supreme cruelty.
After all, bemoaned the Shimonites, what can be crueler than to appear to be acting for someone’s benefit – feeding him well – only for the sake of the ultimate slaughter? It was irrefutably the streak of cruelty that he inherited from his grandfather Yisro, which was the motivation and source of his zealous behavior.
In light of these accusations, asserts the Midrash, we can appreciate why the Torah traces Pinchas’ genealogy back to Aharon: “Son of Elazar, the son of Aharon the priest.” As Rashi tacitly points out, the crucial emphasis here is on Aharon’s character. For aside from his priesthood, Aharon is remembered as one who “pursued peace and caused love to descend between contending parties.”
The Torah’s intent is to establish that in his act of zealotry, Pinchas was not the “grandson of Yisro” but the “grandson of Aharon.” He was not driven by cruelty but by a burning religious zeal. When strife set-in between Israel and their heavenly Father, Pinchas the lover of his Jewish brethren and the lover of peace took it upon himself to turn it around, as the verse states, “Pinchas . . . has turned My wrath away from the children of Israel.”
It was his particular nature which he inherited from his grandfather Aharon that led him of all people to remove the cause of the bitterness between G‑d and His people
Pinchas did not even consider the danger to himself. Given Zimri’s tribal support, he could have easily been killed. “Pinchas expounded” says the Midrash, “A horse goes to war risking his life for his master, how much more so should I risk my life for the sanctification of the name of the Holy One Blessed Be He! He began to ponder: ‘What shall I do? Alone I cannot prevail. Two can overpower one; can one overpower two?’ While he was pondering, the epidemic raged among the Israelites,”(Shemos Rabbah 33:5).
His concern for the spiritual and physical danger facing the Jewish people was so great that he was willing to risk his life in order to eliminate the threat. For this he is awarded G‑d’s "Covenant of peace."
Does this mean that the Torah condones zealousness? Is murder permitted when performed in the service of one's personal sense of G‑d's will? Are there no limits to what the Torah believes can be done in the name of God?
Does Moshe’s silence and G‑d's “Covenant of Shalom” imply that zealousness and murder have no consequences? Is Pinchas the model for Jews through the ages to emulate?
The author of the Torah Temimah, Rabbi Baruch Epstein, states the obvious: “Such a deed must be animated by a genuine, unadulterated spirit of zeal to advance the glory of G‑d. In most cases, who can tell whether the perpetrator is not really motivated by some selfish interest while maintaining that he is doing it for the sake of G‑d? That was why the Elders wished to excommunicate Pinchas, had not the Holy one testified that his zeal was genuine."
The Rabbis in Talmud Yerushalmi understand Pinchas' act as singular and acceptable only with the testimony of G‑d. No matter what the provocation, zealousness such as Pinchas' requires immediate excommunication.
The above notwithstanding there are pertinent lessons from the story of Pinchas relevant for all time and place. The overriding lesson of Pinchas’ zealous actions and its Divine glorification is that things are not always the way they appear to be and what you see is not what you get. Not everyone that makes you feel comfortable is necessarily your friend and not everyone that makes you feel uncomfortable is necessarily your enemy.
In fact more often than not looks are deceiving, hence assert our sages, “Do not look at the vessel, but rather at what it contains; there may be a new vessel filled with aged wine, or an old vessel in which there is not even new wine,” (Pirkei Avot 4:20)
The fact is that not all discipline is bad and not all kindness is good. There is a time for revealed love and a time for a deeper concealed love, i.e., discipline. While discipline, also known as Gevura, may seem harsh, it is not necessarily the case, or rather necessarily not the case.
This notion is as timely as it is profound. It is very relevant to the three week period in which we now find ourselves, known as “Bein Hamtzarim” – between the straits. It is the time of year when we mourn the destruction of the Holy Temple and the events that led up to it, which mark the beginning of the long and arduous Golus – exile in which we find ourselves today.
Golus is agonizing, it is extremely challenging, but it is not bad. G‑d creates no bad. Golus is G‑d’s Gevura – discipline. Much as Gevura appears bad on the surface, it is good on the inside. Such is the case with exile as well. It is a matter of short term suffering versus long term benefit – the era of “Complete Shabbos and rest for life everlasting,” which is conceived and born amidst the pangs of Golus.
The Talmud tells us that Pinchas is Elijah. This is to say that the Profit Elijah is a reincarnation of Pinchas. We know that Elijah is the harbinger of the final redemption.
It is Pinchas who stopped the plague and brought down peace upon Israel, and it is Pinchas and his incarnation Elijah (and all those who occupy themselves with the work of Elijah – the heralding of Moshiach) that will put an end to this dark exile and hasten the final and ultimate redemption, may it be speedily in our day!
