Shabbos Parashas Pinchas - 5776

Shabbos Parashas Pinchas - 5776

Rabbi Hal Miller

And it shall be for him and his offspring after him a covenant of eternal priesthood,

because he took vengeance for his G-d, and he atoned for the children of Israel.

[Bamidbar 25:13]

Why did Pinchas get rewarded specifically with the priesthood instead of something else?

Was it just because he was Aharon's grandson and he did something good?

Rashi tells us, "For even though the priesthood had already been given to the offspring

of Aharon, it had been given to none but Aharon and to his sons who were anointed

with him, and to the progeny whom they would beget after their anointing. But Pinchas,

who was born before then, but had not been anointed." Thus, at the time Moshe anointed

Aharon and his sons as priests, it included only those five men, not any grandsons already

in existence. Pinchas was then the only male descendant of Aharon who was not a priest.

But is that reason good enough?

The Zohar and others point out that a kohen who has killed is not eligible to perform the

service and bless the people. The fact that G-d appointed Pinchas, a killer, to this

position is to teach us that there are exceptions to that rule.

Meschech Chochma says that Pinchas was willing to give up his portion in the World to

Come by becoming a murderer, because he found it more important to zealously guard

G-d's Name. This zealousness had to be rewarded, but couldn't there be some other

reward fitting? On this, Rav Moshe Feinstein points out that Pinchas had no animosity

toward Zimri, but acted solely for the glory of G-d.

Ramban points out that Pinchas' act was enough to stop the deaths by plague and thus

save the rest of the children of Israel.

Sforno makes an interesting case. Zimri's act of defiance was public, yet nobody

protested or spoke up against it, thus the entire people shared in some of the guilt. Sforno

says, "Seeing that he did what he did in full view of his peers so that they would obtain

expiation for not having protested Zimri's behavior, he proved himself fit to become a

priest whose primary function it is to secure expiation for the sins of their Jewish

brethren." What Sforno is telling us is that Pinchas' public act is doing atonement on behalf

of the entire nation.

Aharon's role in the incident of the golden calf led to the beginning of the death of part

the nation, which was stopped only by the atonement achieved by Moshe. At the end of the

incident of Korach, Aharon stepped in the middle of the plague and atoned for the people,

stopping the spread of death. Pinchas here is accomplishing the same thing, perhaps in

part to rectify Aharon's role from the calf, in part to duplicate Aharon's role in Korach,

and in part strictly to save the people from G-d's wrath. He had no personal stake in

his action, at least nothing that would benefit him, only endanger him. This is the

definition of what the priests were to do for Israel. His selflessness earned him and his

descendants the right to join his grandfather as Kohanim, and in fact most of the later

Kohanim Gedolim came from Pinchas.