Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello, my friends, and welcome back to this week's episode of the Practical Parsha Podcast. This is Rabbi Shlemocon, and I hope you are well.
[00:00:08] This week we're going to jump right into the Parsha. It's Parshas Pinchas.
[00:00:13] But I got to give my usual spiel before we do. If you want to say hello, you want to introduce yourself, please don't hesitate.
[00:00:23] Introduce yourself. Do it. Send me email at Rabbi Shlomokon kohnmail.com I'd love to hear from you. This week's Parsha is Parshas Pinchas.
[00:00:34] Now, Parshas Pinchas is called Parshas Pinchas because of the person named Pinchas. And it really starts off as a continuation from last week's Parsha, where Pinchas stands up for the honor of Hashem, for the honor of G D by killing Zimri, one of the leaders of the 12 tribes. He's actually the leader of the tribe of Shim' on, and who basically is having immoral relations with Cozbi, one of the daughters of Midian.
[00:01:08] And last week, as you, as I mentioned, Bilaam, um, and I guess in his final desperation to try to entrap the Jewish people in sin, sends the daughters of Midian and Moab into the camp of the Jewish people.
[00:01:22] And he is successful to a certain degree until Pinchas steps in and puts a stop to this leader of the tribe, Zimri, who's doing this act, and he stops everything in motion. But really, this week's Parsha continues with the story of Pinchas because the people were upset at Pinchas because he just killed one of the leaders of the tribes, and people were angry at him. And this week's Parsha, Hashem, uh, rewards Pinchas. And this really shows everybody, all the Jewish nation, that what he did, this act of, you know, this, this act of murder was really an act, was the correct thing to do in this situation. He was standing up for the honor of Hashem, uh, to stop this sin from happening, from the immorality, from happening in public.
[00:02:14] And he's rewarded by becoming a Kohen for eternity. The Parsha continues with a census that God commands Moshe Rabbeinu to take a census of the Jewish nation. And there's different reasons that are given as to why a census is taken now at this point and just, uh, to give a little understanding, reason number one is that just like, uh, after a wolf attacks a shepherd's, uh, flock, you check to see what's left. So after the plague had affected The Jewish people, because of the sin, what you know, that they had sinned with the daughters of Midian. There was a plague that broke out. So now God is counting the Jewish nation to see who's left. And really it's done as an act of love to the Jewish people. You count things that are precious to you. Another reason is given is that now the Jewish nation is about to enter into the land of Israel, and the land is going to be divided according to the population of each tribe. So therefore, in order to give each tribe the proper amount of land in the land of Israel, they had to know who was in each tribe and how many people were part of each family so the land could be divided up properly. A, uh, third reason that's given is that additionally, the Jewish people are going to have to battle the nations of Canaan, the nations of the land of Canaan who are dwelling in the land of Israel.
[00:03:37] And in order to assemble an army of, uh, fighting men, they're going to have to take stock of how many men they have in order to be able to prepare properly. The Parasha continues with the story of the daughters of T'. Alafkhad. Now, the daughters of Talavchad, their father has passed away, and they're just sisters, there's no sons. And they come to Moshe Rabbeinu and they say, why don't we also get a portion in the land because of our father, right? But before this point in time, only, you know, men would get a portion.
[00:04:11] But the daughters of Tzalafkat speak up. And because of their speaking up, a halacha has learned out that, you know, they were the ones who merited to bring out this halacha, that the daughters also inherit their fathers, right? And that's. This story is, you know, brought down this week's Parasha. And it's also subsequently listed in the Parasha, the laws of inheritance. The Parsha continues with Moshe Rabbeinu with Moses asking for a successor, and Hashem showing the land of Israel to Moshe Rabbeinu. And finally, the Parsha concludes with the commandment of the Tumid offering. The offerings that were given on a daily basis called the tumid, one in the morning, one in the evening, the special Musaf offering for Shabbos that's given on Shabbos and on Rosh Chodesh, as well as we talk about the mitzvah, uh, the commandments of Pesach, the holiday of Passover, the holiday of Shavuos, the holiday of Rosh Hashanah. Yom Kippur Sukkos in this week's Parasha. The first idea I want to share with you today takes us to the beginning of the Parsha with the story of Pinchas. Now, the beginning of the Parsha tells us how Hashem tells Moshe Rabbeinu that Pinchas, as a reward for killing Zimri, for avenging the honor of Hashem, avenging the honor of God, he becomes a Kohen. And the verses read as follows. Hashem, uh, spoke to Moshe saying, pinchas, the son of Elazar, the son of Aaron, the Kohen, turn back my wrath from upon the children of Israel, when he zealously avenged me among them. So I did not consume the children of Israel in my vengeance. Therefore say, behold, I give him my covenant of peace, and it shall be for him and his offspring after him a covenant of eternal priesthood. Because he took vengeance for his God and he atoned for the children of Israel.
[00:06:08] So the verses, uh, are telling us that Hashem rewarded Pinchas by making him into a Kohen, that he became part that from him and his children going forward, they were kohanim, they were part of the priestly class. They would serve in the temple in the Beis Hamikdash.
[00:06:24] Now, there is a very nice idea I saw brought down from the Sevasemes.
[00:06:29] And it really ties in to a story in the Talmud and a concept that is, um, I think they really give us a very powerful idea.
[00:06:39] The Talmud relates that there once was a fellow by the name of Elazar Ben Dordaya. Now, this Eleazar Ben Dordaya is a very fascinating fellow. He did many, many sins. He lived his whole life in sin.
[00:06:55] And the Talmud relates that a certain moment in his life changed him forever. Right? And the Talmud tells us that he had a certain moment of awakening.
[00:07:08] And after going around and trying to blame everyone else for his problems, he came to the realization that everything is dependent in him, that it's up to him if he wants to do Teshuvah, if he wants to repent and return to Hashem, uh, he needs to do Teshuvah himself. And the Talmud tells us that he put his head between his legs and he cried and cried and cried to such a point and with such sincerity that his soul left his body, that he died, he died. And after he passed away, a bashkol, a heavenly voice came out from heaven and said, um, that Reb Olazar Ben Dordaya, ah, is coming into the world to come. That the heaven, uh, referred to him as Reb Rabbi Rabbi Elazar Ben Dordaya, right? This fellow who lived his entire life sin in one moment, he was able to turn his life around to a point where heaven was referring to him as Rabbi Alhazar Ben Dordaya. And Rebbe, who was another rabbi in the Gemara at that time, after hearing this story, said, yesh kayna oy lamay bisho achas.
[00:08:21] There are those who acquire their world in one moment, that they acquire their world to come in one moment, at one point in time.
[00:08:32] And he wept that from one moment in time, a person can define his whole eternity.
[00:08:39] And I think how this connects into the story of Pinchas is that Pinchas did an act at one moment in time. Everyone was sitting around, people did not know what to do. Even Moshe Rabbeinu was frozen.
[00:08:58] And Pinchas stood up and did an action that was unpopular, that he couldn't even been killed. It's brought down that the people wanted to kill him afterwards. He risked his life totally for the honor of Hashem, for the honor of God.
[00:09:15] And because he did that, he saved the Jewish people.
[00:09:20] And he himself and his descendants merited to be Kohanim. And the Talmud tells us that Pinchas, who's in this week's Parsha, is also Eliyahu Anavi, meaning to say, is Eli o', Hanavi, Elijah the Prophet. It's brought down that he went up to heaven alive. He never died. And Pinchas is Eliyahu. Pinchas is the same person as Elijah the Prophet. He became into an angel. He became into an angel, and he lives eternally.
[00:09:52] And I think the first. On the first level, what I want to bring out from this week's Parsha on the story of Pinchas and this concept of Yesh koine alamoi b' Sha' akhas, that there are some who acquire their world to come in one moment, that they. They could even. They could change the course of their lives, the lives of their descendants. And there's even moments where we could change the course of humanity. You know, not just our families and friends and our community, but the course of humanity could be changed by one action.
[00:10:26] And you just think about this for one second. You know, there are moments in history where one action, you know, caused a much bigger outcome than just that action. I mean, the first thing that comes to my mind is, you know, the. The start of World War I with that assassination.
[00:10:46] Um, I forget the exact person who was assassinated. Maybe that Duke was assassinated by that person, by the anarchist. And because of that moment, boom. Everything exploded.
[00:10:58] One action effected the whole humanity. But you don't have to get so big and make it so spread, uh, out so far. But even just regarding ourselves, we all could think of actions that we've had in our lives where we've made decisions that has affected us, who we are till today. I mean, I think of myself, you know, there's decisions I could have made of which high school should I go to? I remember there was one high school which both of them were good high schools, but one was a little bit different in their path, and I chose one instead of the other.
[00:11:33] How would I look today if I had chose the other one? You know, where would I be? How would my family look?
[00:11:39] And these are all, you know, it's one moment in time where you make a decision and it affects you for the rest of your life. And I think the lesson here is that yesh koine olama bisha ahas. We see from Pinchas that he determined the course of his life, and I guess not life he lived for forever. He's Elio Hanavi, you know, his whole eternity was changed from the action, from one moment which he decided to do the right thing. And I think this is a very powerful lesson for us that, you know, to keep this mindset that there's gonna be situations in life where we're gonna have to make a decision, and it could be we'll have to make a split, split second decision or in a moment. But we should always remember and like, you know, I think by.
[00:12:26] By learning and by doing mitzvahs and by, you know, training ourselves of, uh, what are the ideals we want to live with. So, God willing, so when that moment comes, we'll merit to make the right decision and to act appropriately. But I think it's something we need to think about now before that time approaches, that there will be times in our lives where we're gonna have to make a decision to stand up for what's right, even when it's maybe unpopular or we're going to get a, uh, lot of flack for it. But we want to do what Hashem wants. And that's what Pinchas did. He stood up for the honor of Hashem in the face of opposition, in the face that no one was necessarily even doing anything. Can you imagine? Moshe Rabbeinu wasn't even acting, and he stood up and did the right thing. And I think we need to think about that, that when the time comes, we'll be making that right decision for eternity.
[00:13:20] Now, on a Deeper level, the seph semis brings down this idea of yesh kayna elamui bisha achas, that there are those who acquire their world to come in one moment. That it doesn't just mean in one moment, but it also is meaning.
[00:13:38] It's also a reference to serving Hashem with misiras nefesh, that serving hashem with a certain level of, you know, giving of ourselves, you know, to channel all our energies and focus towards serving Hashem, that's messier as nevesh. It's sort of giving up of ourselves to serve Hashem. And maybe it's even more than that. It's sort of channeling all our power, all our emotion, everything we have towards the service of Hashem. And the svasemus brings a proof that this he brings from the story of Cain and Hevel, Cain and Abel, where the word sha means, you know, it means desire. It means putting our emphasis into one place.
[00:14:23] And over here, when it comes to pinchas, that pinchas, when he did that act of killing Zimri, of standing up for Hashem's, uh, honor, he put all his emphasis. All he wanted to do was serve Hashem with all of his being.
[00:14:42] And he put all of his energy and resources and his desires into totally fulfilling the will of God with no ulterior motives. That's the only thing he wanted to do, was 100% pure. And because he had that moment in time where his intentions were completely pure and it was totally lashem shemayim, totally for the sake of heaven, he was able to reach his shlemos. He was able to reach his perfection. And that's what it means as brings down. He explains to us that when it means brisi shalom, that because God is giving him this covenant of peace as a reward for his action, it can be also translated. The word shalom doesn't just mean peace, but it also means complete, that he reached his completion. That because he had his shah, because he had his moment where all his energy and his desire was focused towards Hashem, totally and completely, he was able to reach his perfection, his shlemos, his completeness. And because of that, it was appropriate for him to become into a malach, to become into an angel. Because an angel is a static, is static, right? Even though an angel is. Is a high spiritual level. But in a way, a human being is higher because we're always moving, we're growing. An angel is the place where it is. The way it's created is the way it'll always be. Because it was created in perfection. But a human being, we have to get to perfection. So therefore, when Pinchas did this act of killing Zimri, he reached his perfection, and he became Eli o'. Anavi. He became into this angel who's living forever. That's why it was appropriate for him to become into a malach, because he had that moment, he reached perfection, and therefore he lived forever as an angel. And I think the lesson for us is on a deeper level here is that, you know, maybe it's. It's always. It's hard for us to always put all our desires towards hashem, but I think the swasemas is giving us a very important insight that there will be times in our lives, aside from having a moment where that can determine the outcome of our lives, the lives of our children and family, and even bigger than that, more than that. But there's also will be moments where we'll have the opportunity to do something for hashem, purely for hashem, and without any ulterior motives. And I think, you know, we can relate to this, is that we all know that sometimes we're able to do a mitzvah and no one knows about it.
[00:17:29] And it's some. Those mitzvahs that we do where no one else knows about it, maybe no one sees us. Between us and G D, there's a certain level of satisfaction that we get more than doing mitzvahs. Um, at other times, I mean, we always get satisfaction. We do mitzvahs, but there's a certain extra level of satisfaction when we do a mitzvah purely L' shem shemayim, purely for the sake of heaven. And I think the semis is telling us that when we have those moments where we're able to. We have the opportunity to put all our essence and all our being towards hashem for the sake of G D, of doing a mitzvah or doing something totally L' shem shemayim, doing something totally for the sake of heaven. We should grab the opportunity because it's sort of maybe like even a, uh.
[00:18:15] It's a way for us to reach our perfection when we do a mitzvah. Even though all the time it's very challenging for us to do all our mitzvahs, to do everything 100% Lashem Shemayim, 100% for the sake of heaven. At times we're gonna have moments where we could do something purely for the sake of God, and we should grab those opportunities because when we do that, we're going to achieve the perfection that we're supposed to reach in our lifetime. Because when we channel all our energies into doing something, Lashem shemayim, it helps us. You know, maybe the way we understand it helps us. It's a shortcut to help us get to our perfection.
[00:18:54] That's. It's. It's a. It's a little bit of, uh, a quote unquote, a trick for us to become the most we can be, to become perfect, to become complete and God willing, to be like angels. And I think this is a very powerful idea from this week's parasha to remember.
[00:19:08] There will be those moments where we have to stand up and do what Hashem wants to think about it. How will we act? God willing, we'll do the right thing. And those actions can determine the outcome of how, you know, our lives. And also on a deeper level, to remember when those moments come, special moments, to do something purely l' shem shemayim, totally focused for the sake of g d. We should also use those opportunities and embrace it. Because through those moments, those shahs, those oneness, that oneness of doing something totally for hashem, we become. We get to our perfection. And this is a very powerful idea we see from this week's parasha. The second idea I want to share with you today takes us to the census that's listed in this week's parasha.
[00:19:56] So, as, uh, some of you know now, for the next couple of weeks, my family is in camp, and I'm actually back at home, at work. And for Shabbos, I've been going to West Virginia to be with my family for shabbos. And I have to say, just being a little personal over here that, you know, thank God, you know, my wife and I with our six kids, kna nihara. Uh, thank God the house is busy, it's noisy, it's lively.
[00:20:24] And at times it can be overwhelming. You know, kids, you know, different ages, different stages. Thank God the house is a noisy house, a lively house. And it could be a little, you know, it could maybe seem m it at times a lot.
[00:20:39] And I feel like over the last couple of weeks, coming back here, you know, while my family is in West Virginia and I'm home here in Pennsylvania. So I'm thinking, you know, coming back to a quiet house, and it's just so strange. It's so strange. My house is so quiet.
[00:20:54] And, you know, um, it has helped me realize and help me appreciate how much, you know, I love my family. I love my kids. I miss my wife and my kids. And, um, how much I appreciate the noise and the mayhem. And it really brought me and I, you know, to this week's partial. When I saw this idea brought down by Robbie Plissken, I felt like I had to share it because it's sort of, uh. You know, it's talking to me as well. It's talking to me personally, and I think I hope you'll appreciate it as well. The Parasha tells us about the census, and we know this is not the first time that the Jewish people are counted in Bamidbar. Earlier in the Book of Numbers, the Jewish people are counted, and now they're counted again.
[00:21:37] But there's a difference.
[00:21:38] Earlier when the Jewish people are counted, they were counted based on their tribe, right? There's 12 tribes, so each tribe was counted, but, uh, and there was no mention of families. But here at this counting, before the Jewish people are about to go into the land of Israel, the counting is not based on tribe, but rather by family, right? It's listed. It's more of a focus on the families. The question is, what's the difference here? What's the difference that earlier it's broken down more by tribe, and here it's broken down by family.
[00:22:15] And, uh, the Uznayim Lah Torah brings down that.
[00:22:22] It's teaching us an important lesson that the Jewish people now were about to enter into the land of Israel, and it would be a new existence, meaning beforehand, in the desert, the Jewish people all worked together. Sure, there was different tribes, but everyone was together.
[00:22:39] They all lived in, like, uh, a bungalow colony, right? It was a big, beautiful bungalow colony. Maybe there was some separation. Each tribe, but everyone was together.
[00:22:49] Now, as the Jewish people was about to enter into the land of Israel, there would be a new reality. Each, you know, tribe would have their own portion of land. Each family would have their own portion. There'd be different areas in the land of Israel, right? It would be broken down, different areas, broken down by tribe. So there would be more of a separation between the tribes of Israel. And the Parsha is giving us a little bit of a hint that even though they would be spread out throughout the land of Israel and they'd be more separated, they were counted here as a family, that it was a hint to them that they should keep the family ties. Even though each person will be living in their own area, you know, in their own, you know, uh, state their own different portion of Israel and have their own property, they should still keep their familial ties with each other. They should stay close with each Other, they should. They should still live in, you know, have the love for their family and care about each other and stick together. Even though they're geographically spread apart. The Torah is hinting to us and hinting to the Jewish people that, telling them that even though you might be spread apart, you should still feel together and keep those ties together. And I think this is a very powerful lesson for us when it comes to family.
[00:24:09] You know, sometimes they say blood is thicker than water, and you can't choose your family. The point is, is that we have to appreciate our families, and I would say our friends as well, you know, because the Jewish people, we're really one big family. That's the truth.
[00:24:26] But every level, you know, there's different levels. But the point is that we should appreciate the relationships we have with our loved ones, whether it be our family or, uh, our friends, even if it can be annoying at times. Right. Sometimes everyone has their package and the things they have to deal with their family, but the benefits of family outweigh the cons of family.
[00:24:50] Everyone wants blessing of, you know, being together with their loved ones, being with others. It's not good to be by yourself, right? It's not good to be, you know, all by yourself. We need to be with other people. We need to be with other Jews. We need to stick together. And it's a very important lesson that we have to have, you know, something just. I was thinking of myself, you know, how much I appreciate being in the mayhem of my family with all the kids running around. Thank God. I love it. It's great. And how much we should appreciate all these things, um, and the people that are around us, because it really, we have a lot more to gain to it than we have to lose. It's really much, much more to gain. People were meant to be together. And that's, I think, a very powerful lesson we see from this week's parsha. So with that, I'm going to finish for this week's episode. I hope you enjoyed. If you have any questions, comments, or would like to reach out, feel free to send me an email@rabbislamo kon k o h nmail.com have a great day.
