Pinhas

By Julius Rabinowitz

Pinhas, the son of Elazar the son of Aaron, got up and took a spear in his hand and ran it through Zimri, the son of a chieftain from the tribe of Simon, and Cozbi, the daughter of a leader of the Midianites. What was their heinous crime that deserved such punishment: a public sexual act of undefined nature?

This week’s Torah portion is called “Pinhas” and you would be excused if you couldn’t find this gory depiction in the reading. Because it was in last week’s reading. This week we only read about God’s rewarding Pinhas with the “covenant of peace” for eternity – the only person to receive this reward from God. But if you didn’t read last week’s Torah portion you wouldn’t have a clue as to what he did to deserve the unique reward as the only indication we have this Read More >

How Do We Settle the Holy Land?
By Jaron Matlow

Whenever a new nation settled in a land, it took great wisdom on the part of the leaders to ensure that the land was settled equitably. Parashat Pinhas provides the initial instructions for how the land is to be distributed to the nine and one half tribes who will settle in the Holy Land.(Reuven, Gad and Menasheh settled in the Trans-Jordan, as previously arranged with Moshe.) There is always an additional issue to contend with, which is how to deal with the existing land holders. God gave Moshe instructions for dealing with the Canaanites in other parashiot.

In our parashah God says that the land shall be divided by lottery. (Bamidbar 26:55) In order to prepare for this, God told Moshe and El’azar to take a census of all of the Israelites who are 20 years and older, according to their father’s houses, all those Read More >

By Bruce Alpert

Our parashah this week begins in a curious place. The affair of Baal-Peor is related in Chapter 25 of Bemidbar – a brief 18 verses. Yet the story is broken in half by the division of the parashiot ‘ nine verses last week in Balak and the final nine in this week’s parashah, Pinhas. Certainly it would seem more logical to read this story in its entirety, within a single parashah.

Pinhas, of course, is a problematic character ‘ one who has troubled us at least since Talmudic times. His rash act in killing Zimri and Cozbi seems to define religious zealotry at its very worst. Yet that act ends a plague that took the lives of 24,000 Israelites and, we learn this week, earns him and his family God’s eternal favor. How are we to reconcile our own natural abhorrence at Pinhas’s actions with all the good and favor Read More >

by Cantor Marcia Lane

There are five basic sections of this week’s
parashah: The brief conclusion of Pinchas’
slaughter of those who were deemed sexually
immoral, a census and geneology of all the tribes, the
plight of the daughters of Zelophehad, the
designation of Joshua as new leader of the people,
and the long recitation of sacrifices and offerings to
be made at each of the holidays.

I’ve had trouble writing something coherent about
this parashah, mostly because there’s too
much. Too many names, too many events that don’t
seem to go together into a unified whole, too much.
But, given the need to make sense out of it (and,
frankly, not wishing to talk about the violence of
Pinchas and the brit shalom ‘ the covenant
of ‘peace’ which was bestowed to him!), I remain
intrigued by names, and Read More >