Pinhas

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A D’var Torah for Parashat Pinhas
By Rabbi Jill Hammer

In Parashat Pinhas, five daughters, the daughters of one man, Tzelofhad, appear before Moshe, bringing a case. Their father has died. Each Israelite family is to be allotted land in Canaan when the people enter the land. However, because Tzelofhad has no son, he has not been allotted land. The women present the case that their father deserves a portion in the land: “Let not our father’s name be lost to his clan because he had no son! Give us a holding among our father’s kinsmen!” (Num. 27:4) Moshe brings this case before YHWH, and YHWH declares that “the plea of Tzelofhad’s daughters is just” and rules that if a man has no sons, his daughters may inherit, provided they marry men from within their own tribe (Num. 27:7-11). This caveat about the daughters’ marriage is put in place so that, when the women have Read More >

Pinhas: Hero or vigilante?
A D’var Torah for Parashat Pinhas
By Rabbi Irwin Huberman (’10)

It may be strongly argued that within Judaism, there is no room or tolerance for committing murder in God’s name.

We view with distain fanatical groups such as ISIS or Boko Haran killing others for failing to adhere to a specific type of religious practice. Teenage girls have been kidnapped or enslaved for the perceived crime of receiving an education.

Within Judaism, we have witnessed in recent years numerous examples of religious zealotry – including the murder of Muslims in Hebron in 1995, or the stabbings at the 2005 Jerusalem gay pride parade, or the assassination in 1995 of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

All of this has been universally condemned by the modern Jewish world.

So then, how can we embrace the text to be read this Saturday in synagogues throughout the world – named after Pinhas, grandson of Aaron the priest, Read More >

A D’var Torah for Pinhas 
by Rabbi Bruce Alpert (AJR ’11)

Merely to have survived is not an index of excellence,
Nor, given the way things go,
Even of low cunning.
Yet I have seen the wicked in great power,
And spreading himself like a green bay tree.
And the good as if they had never been;
Their voices are blown away on the winter wind.

Those familiar with the old Reform mahzor, Gates of Repentance, will recognize these lines from the poem Words for the Day of Atonement by Anthony Hecht. They remind us that, even if lacking in other virtues, survival itself is the necessary component and, in times of distress, a lofty enough goal.

Mere survival is the underlying theme of this week’s parashah, Pinhas. The various threats to that survival that have arisen over time – the sin Read More >

 By Rabbi Isaac Mann

The beginning of Parashat Pinhas seems out of place. We have here some details of a story that is basically recounted at the end of the previous parashah of Balak, and instead of finishing the story there, some of the details are left out and only filled in at the beginning of the next parashah. Why the need to spread the rather brief story over two parashiyot?

To elaborate, at the end of Balak, we are told of the Israelites engaging openly in an orgy of idolatry and immorality with Moabite/Midianite women with whom they had recently come into contact as they were approaching the Land of Canaan. Among the offenders was the head of a prominent family (nasi bet-av) of Shimon. The brazenness of their sinful activity sparked God’s anger against His people and resulted in the outbreak of a devastating plague. 24,000 people were killed until Pinhas, the Read More >

By Peter Levy

Parashat Pinhas

My wife, Amy, and I just returned from opening day at the URJ Eisner Camp in Great Barrington,  Massachusetts. It was wonderful to see kids gathering together and greeting each other after months of separation. They had kept in touch via Facebook and other social media over the winter, but the physical proximity was what made it special. It was heart-warming to see the campers hugging each other in greeting.However, we also learned about something called a “sideways hug.”  Apparently this is the proper way for counselors to hug the campers in order to avoid physical contact that might be construable is “inappropriate.” Yes, physical contact is potentially taboo and needs to be handled delicately.

This is in contrast to our parashah this week, Pinhas.  Here, in Numbers 27:18, Moses is told to ordain Joshua, “v’samakhta et yad’kha alav“, “and lay your hand on him.” The Read More >