PINCHAS
The Power of Tokens?
Pinchas, the text tells us, created a kaparah, a protective coating, for all the people.
But how can G-d’s wrath be appeased for all of the sins of the people through only one act by only one man?
Is it possible that the Torah is teaching us of the power of “mere” gestures? That somehow, “it is the thought that counts”?
Might this also explain sacrifices: are not sacrifices also “merely” gestures? If so, why does G-d accept them, just as He did Pinchas’ act?
Is what the priests, Cohanim, do, really all about how small and considerate acts build holy relationships?
Going beyond this to other relationships: is the Torah teaching us that if a kaparah is created for all the people by one act of one person, then the same should or could be true for the small acts that we do for each other in our relationships? That merely showing consideration can protect us from the consequences of even huge mistakes?
Or is it wrong to extrapolate Pinchas’ act to human relationships? We know that flowers can heal emotional wounds. Birthday cards show thoughtfulness. Offering a box of chocolates never hurts. Is Pinchas’ act really like this?
Impenetrable Wall, or Careful Interaction?
In the wilderness, the people had protective walls. But as we left the wilderness, those walls came down, exposing us to foreign influences, including the daughters of Midian.
We know that the people were unable to resist being contaminated through that interaction.
Isn’t it odd, then, that G-d does NOT tell the Jewish people to erect our own version of the clouds of glory, to find new ways to buffer and insulate ourselves from the outside world? Instead, he tells the Jewish people to go to war against Midian, and destroy them, men, women, and male children. Yet the virgins and chattels are kept!
Is the Torah teaching us how to interact with non-Jewish people and influences?
If so, is the lesson of the Torah that we must engage with the enemy, to counter the negative elements that they bring?
And still, in the end, as with the Midianite girls and chattel, we are supposed to assimilate those items that we can harness to our purposes, both sacred and mundane?
Units?
The Torah has volumetric measurements: the hin for fluids, and the ephah and the omer for dry goods. But note what is actually measured: with the arguable exception of the manna, in every case the thing quantified by the Torah is a processed food product: olive oil, wine, grain and flour.
Why? Why are the only volumetric units of measure only for processed foods? Are we supposed to consider foods, the result of investment both from G-d and man, somehow more complete than anything measured using our arms, an amah?
Is there a lesson in this on the value of human involvement in improving, uplifting and refining nature?
And if there is a value in improving nature, is it meant to be important to us, or important to G-d? In other words, does G-d value when we work with the natural world to make processed food, or does G-d just want us to value our efforts? Which one? And why?
Foodstuffs are somehow unique in the Torah: although people make houses that are in fact three-‐dimensional, the Torah never gives a volumetric measurement of something built with amahs, cubits! Even when a volume can be computed, such as in the example of the length (times) the width (times) the height of Noach’s Ark, the Torah does not do so. Why not?
Similarly, is it not interesting that no offerings are measured in amahs (a man-‐centered metric)?
Why not? Could it be that unlike foodstuffs, a measurement of our body is not necessarily elevated or refined?
Might it be because mankind’s task is not to offer ourselves, but instead to be the middlemen who bring heaven and earth together?
Resisting the Herd?
The Torah clearly praises those who do what they believe is right: Avraham, Isaac and Jacob were alone in the world, but they resisted the pressure of all around them to conform.
So did the daughters of Tzelofchad. And Pinchas, of course: acting decisively when everyone else is paralyzed is very praiseworthy.
Are there lessons applicable today? Are we still supposed to do what we believe is correct, even if everyone else is doing otherwise? This is not hypothetical: during Covid did you seek to conform, to avoid rocking the boat? Or did you do what you were sure was right, even if it meant acting alone?
In other words: today are we supposed to be inspired by Pinchas’s actions, resisting instinctively following the herd (or the mob)? Or are we instead supposed to consider Pinchas’ exceptional decisiveness to be the exception that we should avoid emulating?
Moshe was a shepherd. The people are compared to flock or herd animals. Is that the ideal we should aspire to now? Or was being a flock animal merely an earlier developmental stage of the people in our journey from slavery to freely choosing a holy relationship with G-d?