ב"ה Parashat Pinchas, Tamuz 24 5772

The Wonders of Your Torah Choice Excerpts from the Teachings of Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh Shlit”a

Sacrifice and self-sacrifice sacrifice himself to God. The Zohar’s point of view This week’s Torah portion is named after Pinchas stresses that whereas the physical objects with which whose zealous act retracted God’s anger and atoned we perform other mitzvot (for example, the hide used for the Jewish people’s sins of promiscuity. The final to make tefilin, or a Torah scroll) are important in passages of parashat Pinchas relate to the different and of themselves, when it comes to sacrifices, the types of animal sacrifices that we are commanded to entire purpose of the physical object being brought as bring to the Temple. It is well known that the name a sacrifice is to provide a vessel, an instrument, with given to a Torah portion, in some way, reflects upon which to awaken one’s own feelings of self-sacrifice. the essence of all that is included within it. How then So every individual who brings a sacrifice should is Pinchas and his zealotry connected with the incorporate Pinchas’ sense of self-sacrifice at some sacrifices? level in order for the sacrifice to have an effect Above. The most obvious connection that we find between The Zohar further teaches that the angels alone reap pleasure from the physical the two is that, like Pinchas’ action, Pinchas’ zealotry was itself an the sacrifices in the Temple also part of the sacrifice. However, what example of sacrifice atone for our sins. Another, more is happening in the soul of the —self-sacrifice—placing him in profound connection is that person bringing the sacrifice a position where he might have Pinchas’ zealotry was itself an manifests in the aroma of the example of sacrifice—self- paid with his life for protecting sacrifice and it is enjoyed, as it sacrifice—placing him in a position the Almighty’s honor. were, by the Almighty Himself. The where he might have paid with his aroma reaching God is the fine life for protecting the Almighty’s honor. fragrance of the individual’s willingness to sacrifice himself to God, as the verse states, “to sacrifice to Short and Tweet Me” (Num. 28:2) So, according to the Zohar, the critical Pinchas atoned for Zimri’s sin. Similarly the aspect of a sacrifice is the heartfelt intention of the sacrifices atone for us and free us of the burden of individual bringing the sacrifice, while the body of the our transgressions. animal is only a vessel for his or her inner intention. Pinchas returns as the Prophet Elijah: they both The sacrifice also acts reciprocally on the acted zealously in God’s honor. R. Isaac Luria (the individual bringing it by granting them the highest Arizal) says that Pinchas is Mashiach. level of Divine service known as “complete service” There are two general types of communal .(עבודה תמה) is Mashiach ben Yosef from (פנחס) First Pinchas and the (תמידים) are the final letters of sacrifice: the daily sacrifices פנ]חס[ .the tribe of Benjamin additional sacrifices offered up on Shabbat and .(בנימין) and Benjamin (יוסף) Joseph The initial letters of these two words .(מוספים) festivals he [חיים] Mashiach ben David prays to live, “Life Indeed, the .(תם) ”spell out the word, “complete requests from You, You give him long days” [Ps. sacrificial service is described as “complete service” ”.life“ ,חיים = 68 = ]פנ[חס .[21:5 Yoma 24a) which Rashi on the Talmud ;עבודה תמה) The soul of Elijah preceded Pinchas as Chanoch, explains to mean, “Service [of God] that has no other son of Yered, who walked with God (Gen. 5:24). service after it.” By performing his act with total self- God took him away to be an angel in heaven. sacrifice, Pinchas achieved the highest level of The Zohar explains that as a mitzvah, a Divine complete and earnest service of the Almighty and commandment, bringing a sacrifice is unique because was thus deserving of the Divine blessing, “I hereby the fundamental intention of the individual offering give him My covenant of peace” (Num. 25:11). the sacrifice should be that he or she is prepared to From Harav Ginsburgh’s class, Tamuz 19, 5772 The new leader of the generation priests have the talent to work quickly (BB 90a), but Pinchas was particularly outstanding in his alacrity. Following a plague that wiped out many of the However, acting too eagerly is liable to lead to chaotic Jewish people, which came as punishment for their results, which in Kabbalistic terminology are referred to licentious behavior, God told Moses to take a census as “shattering the vessels.” of the entire Jewish people. He then commanded him In contrast, despite Joshua’s success as a warrior to divide the land of Israel into tribal territories, prior who triumphed over the nation of Amalek when they to entering the Holy Land. Knowing that he would attacked the Jewish people, the sages teach us that not be privileged to enter the land of Israel himself, Joshua was negligent in conquering the land of Israel. Moses asked God to appoint a suitable leader to lead This negligence resulted from Joshua’s patient nature, the Jewish People into the land after his death. which caused him to be somewhat slow in carrying Short and Tweet out God’s command. Man is defined by his wisdom but wisdom is a Thus, the character of these two men was power of the soul and not the soul itself. completely different. In fact, at first glance they even Freud said that man is motivated by physical seem antagonistic – a person can either be swift and pleasure but in reality, man’s wisdom is motivated agile or slow and determined, but not both at the by the superconscious pleasure of the soul. same time. Yet, the Ba’al Shem Tov taught that serving Wisdom is an intermediate between the God properly requires us to combine these two qualities superconscious soul and the conscious mind. and act with “patient alacrity” by directing the force of A true Rebbe is like wisdom, he intermediates our eagerness through patient judgment. between God and man. It follows then, that the ideal leader would have Since this Torah portion begins with the great been a combination of Joshua together with Pinchas. blessing that God bestowed upon Pinchas for his However, what we learn from God’s selection of Joshua zealous act, we might have expected Pinchas to be as leader is that if faced with a choice between a leader chosen as the next leader of the Jewish people. Like who is zealous and a leader who is patient, it is better to Moses, Pinchas was a Levite and his zealotry is select the person who has patience, like Joshua. clearly reminiscent of Moses’ own self-sacrificial act, Nonetheless, Joshua’s appointment appears in killing the Egyptian who had raped the wife of a Jew parashat Pinchas, which begins with praise for Pinchas’ (Sh. Raba 1) and then went on to attack him with the swift act. This is meant to provide inspiration to intention of killing him (Ex. 2:12). Both Pinchas and Joshua’s patient temperament, suggesting that he Moses acted out of a fierce sense of responsibility for integrate the eagerness and agility of Pinchas in order to God’s people. Taking responsibility during a crisis refine his own tendency to bide his time. situation at the expense of one’s own welfare is a sure This idea of a leader who has integrated and refined sign of a true leader. It may therefore strike us that both patience and alacrity until they unite as one, relates the individual most suited to lead the Jewish people closely to the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s teaching that after Moshe Rabbeinu would be Pinchas. Mashiach will come when we succeed in containing the Yet, in answer to Moses’ prayer that the new leader volatile, swift and eager lights of the World of Chaos will be one whose spirit can adjust to the needs of anyone within the patient, steady, and refined vessels of the who asks for his guidance, God -tells Moses to appoint World of Rectification. Joshua (Num. 27:18) who had served as his personal From Harav Ginsburgh’s class, Tamuz 19, 5772 assistant for 40 years. Since Joshua’s appointment Distributed by Gal Einai appears in the Torah portion that bears Pinchas’ name, Live shiur every Monday night 8:30pm (Israel time) let’s contemplate the difference between the two. http://malchuty.org/live-broadcast Patient alacrity Site: inner.org Pinchas’ swift act brought an end to the plague that Blog: www.rabbiginsburgh.com wiped out 24,000 Jews for which God blessed him with Twitter: @Rabbiginsburgh a covenant of eternal peace and priesthood. In fact, all To join our mailing list,

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