[00:00:00] Hello, my friends, and welcome back for this week's episode of the Practical Parasha podcast. This is Rabbi Shlomo Cohen, and I hope you are well for this week. I'm still coming to you from West Virginia, and I'll be honest, I almost wasn't going to do an episode this week as there's just challenges when you're in a camp, finding a quiet place, having, uh, some peace of mind to get your thoughts together.
[00:00:26] But I actually received the email today from a listener who expressed to me how the podcast helped him overcome something.
[00:00:38] And I guess he knows who he is.
[00:00:41] And I want to thank him because it pushed me to go the extra mile to find somewhere to gather my thoughts and to deliver this week's episode.
[00:00:52] So, as always, if you have any questions, comments, or would like to reach out, please feel free to send me an email at gmail dot com. I'd love to hear from you.
[00:01:05] This week's Parasha is Parshas Pinchas.
[00:01:08] Now, Parshas Pinchas is a continuation from last week's Parsha. Last week's Parsha we finish off. Pinchas, the son of Elazar bin Arn, the grandson of Aron Hakohen, sees Zimri, the leader of the tribe of Shim', on committing an immoral, uh, act with the princess of Midyan.
[00:01:28] And he stands up when no one else is standing up, and he acts and he kills Zimri and Kazbi. Zimri is the leader of the tribe of Shimon, and Khazbi is the Midianite princess who's having immoral relations with, in the middle of, you know, in, uh, front of the Jewish people.
[00:01:52] And he puts an end to the plague that is striking the Jewish nation because he stood up and acted in a situation where no one else was doing anything. The Jewish people get saved and Pinchas gets rewarded. And that's how the Parasha starts this week, with Hashem clearly telling Moshe Rabbeinu that Pinchas acted for the correct reasons, he did the right thing, and therefore he's going to get the reward of being a Kohen, that him and his descendants will be Kohanim forever.
[00:02:26] The Parsha continues with the Torah telling us a new attitude towards the nation of Midian.
[00:02:33] And we have a census in this week's Parsha, there's a census where Hashem, uh, commands Moshe to count the Jewish people, to take an accounting of exactly how many people are in the nation. And there's different reasons that are given as to why. Now, specifically, again, the Jewish people are counted.
[00:02:52] And just two reasons that are given is number one is, you know, just like a shepherd takes stock of his flock after something happens. So after the plague, Hashem wanted to take stock of his nation, the Jewish people.
[00:03:04] And similarly, we know that the Jewish nation was about to enter the land of Israel, and the land was to be divided according to the size of each one of the tribes. So they had to know how many people were in each tribe. Additionally, they were about to fight to have to go to war with the nations of Canaan, with the nations that inhabited the land of Israel. And therefore they had to take stock of their fighting force before they would enter the land. The Parsha continues with the story of the daughters of Tzalafkhad. Tzalafkad had daughters. He passed away. And the daughters came to Moshe Rabbeinu with a grievance that why should they lose out in the portion of the land of Israel? And through their desire and love for the land of Israel, through them comes out the laws of inheritance. Additionally, the Parsha concludes with, uh, Moshe Rabbeinu seeing the land of Israel, as well as Moshe appointing his successor, Yeshua, to take over the nation. When they're going to cross into the land of Israel, the Parsha finishes off with the commandment of the tummy sacrifices, the daily offerings that were given in the Mishkan in the temple, and as well as the offerings that were given on Rosh Chodesh and all the different holidays, Pesach, Shavuos, Rosh Hashanah, Yom um Kippur, Sukkis and Shmini Hazeras.
[00:04:35] The first idea I wanted to share with you today takes us to the beginning of the Parsha.
[00:04:42] Now, as I mentioned before, the name of the Parsha is Parshas Pinchas.
[00:04:50] Now, Parsha's Pinchas is named after Pinchas, what he did and how he acted when no one else acted.
[00:05:01] And, um, the first idea which I want to share about this is that it says in the posse as Olam um Tacha Asher kine leloikav vayecha per Abenei Yisroel.
[00:05:19] 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. Now, if you look at the verses, there's something very interesting here because it says in the posse because he was zealous for his God, right? What does that mean? For a second it says, what does that mean?
[00:05:55] He was zealous for his God.
[00:05:58] You know, you think about our relationship with Hashem, you know, is it just. It's a personal thing. It's his God.
[00:06:06] And I want to talk about that a little bit today.
[00:06:08] The first idea and lesson which I want to take from Pinchas.
[00:06:13] And specifically this wording that he was zealous, that he, uh, took care for the honor of his God, right? It says this wording of his God like a singular.
[00:06:24] It's teaching us something that Pinchas, when it came to him acting, he did it totally lashem shamayim.
[00:06:34] And that's what Rablaib Chasman says.
[00:06:37] That when Pinchas acted, when he saw that Zimri was doing something wrong.
[00:06:44] And no one else was doing anything.
[00:06:46] And he realized something had to be done, he did it totally lashem shamayim, for the sake of heaven. And that's what's implied, that he did it for his God. Meaning there was no ulterior motive for Pinchas when he did this strong act. When he did even maybe this act, which maybe could even seem irrational.
[00:07:12] It was totally, 100% lashem shamayim. It was totally for the sake of Hashem. No other motivation whatsoever, but just to do the will of the Almighty. It was something strong. It was a strong action. And we see that even the other tribes sort of mocked him even after he did it. And that's why this week's Parasha Hashem was. Was telling Moshe Rabbeinu, no, he did the right thing. He did it for my honor.
[00:07:36] And really, the lesson here is that, you know, many times you hear people say, you know, it's not about the money. It's about the principle, right? They're in an argument with somebody. Or maybe this is. We could relate to this. I'm sure we could, right? We're in some type of argument or dispute.
[00:07:51] And we'll say to ourselves, it's not about the money. It's not about the honor. It's about the principle that we want to show. We want to stand our ground because we want to show them what's right or wrong.
[00:08:02] We want to make a statement.
[00:08:05] We need to teach them a lesson.
[00:08:08] And we see from Pinchas that when it comes to having this zealousness of trying to show others what's the correct thing or what's not the correct thing. Or taking a stand for our principles or trying to teach people a lesson, we have to be very careful that we're not mixing other things into that equation.
[00:08:29] For example, doesn't have to do with our honor. Doesn't have to do with our ego. Maybe we're looking for financial gain. I don't know. But the point is that it's very hard to know for sure if our actions are truly l' shem shamayim. It's, uh, an important term to remember that they're truly for the sake of hashem.
[00:08:48] And I think this is something we should think about when it comes to us dealing with other people having that zealousness. You know, zealousness is a word maybe we don't relate to so much in the 21st century. We think of zealots, but there's aspects of zealousness within ourselves and in the way we deal with other people as well. So the point is when we maybe before we act strongly to somebody, before we want to teach someone a lesson, before we want to stand on our principles, we should think two times, three times, four times to really examine within ourselves to see, is it really all principle? Is there any ego in there?
[00:09:26] Do I feel that I was slighted, possibly, and that's why I'm having such a harsh stance? Do I want to get even? Do I want to teach this guy a lesson to get ahead of him? Because if that's the case, that is not a reason to do something that should not be a motivation for a person to, uh, act zealously and to teach someone a lesson. If we have any trace of honor, ego, desire to get ahead of someone else, to put down someone else, then we know that the action we're trying to do or the lesson we're trying to impart to teach is not really the right thing for us to do at this time. And the lesson from Pinchas, what the Torah teaches us about Pinchas is that his act, what he did, this strong act of putting down the plague and putting and really stopping this immoral act in its tracks, was 100% for the sake of God. There was not one trace of his own honor in it at all.
[00:10:28] And that's what the Torah teaches us about Pinchas. And the lesson for us is that when we have to act strongly or to give that lesson or we're standing on our principle, we have to make sure that there's no trace of it involved. Because if there is, we need to reassess on what we're doing.
[00:10:45] A second point I want to bring out about this question that it says in the singular that he was zealous for his God.
[00:10:54] You know, it's such an interesting wording that it's his God singular. It's Our God. Or he was zealous for Hashem. He was zealous for the honor of God.
[00:11:03] Why does it tell me again that it was his God? And I saw a beautiful answer that was brought down from the Khoyma seish.
[00:11:14] You know, there's a famous, um.
[00:11:19] There's a famous concept in psychology that. And I looked this up before. Maybe someone out there could, uh, inform me a little more, give me more information about this. I'm not so familiar. I looked it up a little bit online, but it goes as follows, that if people see someone starting up with someone else, and there's many people around, so there's a instinct to not do anything because you assume that the other people around will act instead of you. This is a phenomenon in psychology that, you know, there's documented cases of people in. You know, there's even famous cases of people who even got killed. And no one did anything. No one even called 911, because everyone had this, you know, mentality that someone else gonna take care of. And it's referred to as bystander syndrome, that people think that since there's many people here, uh, you know, uh, someone else will deal with it and someone else will call 911, and I don't have to worry about it. And what happens is that everyone just assumes that and nothing happens. And unfortunately, this could have terrible outcomes.
[00:12:31] And the Torah is telling us something very interesting about Pinchas. The way of people sometimes is that we act also like this bystander syndrome, or maybe even this herd mentality.
[00:12:45] And we think if someone else is doing something, it's okay, you know, especially when it comes to averos. Ah. When it comes to sins, when will say, oh, if this. And this person does this, it must be okay. I remember I was in a place once and people said a certain ice cream store was okay to go to.
[00:13:03] And I went to the ice cream store, and I saw people there, and I just. And I asked for the certification, and they didn't really have a certification.
[00:13:13] It seems like other people thought there was this misunderstanding because everyone else is doing something.
[00:13:19] It must be okay.
[00:13:21] And, um, it's interesting. It's brought down that we know that the aseris, adibros, the Ten Commandments, are all in a singular form. You know, this really takes us back to our question. It's singular, that speaks to the person individually, that each person has to look as if the Torah was given to them specifically. And we know Pinchas, that when he acted, he could have said to himself, you know, I see Moshe's here. He's not doing anything. I see Aaron's here. He's not doing anything.
[00:13:59] So maybe I shouldn't do anything as well. Maybe this is okay.
[00:14:03] But no, he looked at the situation that it was only as if he was the only one around, and there was no one else there.
[00:14:15] He could have told himself, you know, Moshe is greater than me. Aaron's greater than me. The 70 elders are greater than me. Surely everything's okay here. But he looked at it as if it was just him and Hashem at that moment. He saw someone doing something wrong.
[00:14:34] And he looked at the situation that it's only him here, and he has to act for the honor of Hashem right now. And that's why it says Hasher kine lelokav. It was his God. That was his God, because he looked at the situation around him as if there was no one else, and the obligation was just on him, you know? Similarly, when we go back to the bystander syndrome for a second, we would definitely look at a scenario where someone's having an emergency and just, you're around for sure. You'd call 911 for sure. You'd act, because, you know, I'm the only one around. I have to do something. And that's how Pinchas looked at the situation in front of him. And I think the lesson that we can get from this is that, you know, there's an expression that was very popular after 9, 11. If you see something, say something.
[00:15:23] Now, obviously, if you use our seichel doesn't mean. I'm not saying literally, but the point is, if we see an injustice, if we see something being done wrong, you know, we shouldn't just assume other people are going to take care of it.
[00:15:37] You have to use your saychel, you have to use your seichel, your common sense, to do things in the proper way.
[00:15:46] But you can't just assume someone else is going to deal with it. You should look at it as if you're the only one around, and it's your responsibility to fix the injustice, to fix it.
[00:16:00] Because if not, maybe it'll be just like bystander syndrome and nothing will get done at all. You know, surely there's ways of doing things, and there's ways of doing things. But the point is that we shouldn't be complacent and assume that everything else or everybody else will take care of it. You know, And I myself, you know, it's. I feel like I can relate to this bystander syndrome. You know, because we pass things on the highway. We pass something and we'll just assume someone else took care of it. And I think, you know, I've tried to process in my mind, say, no, I should call 911 if I see a situation where something happened or there's a tire on the road, for example, don't assume someone else is going to take care of it. Call, call the authorities. Let them, you know, let. Let them know. So what will be so bad if someone else dealt with it? Someone else called, you'll be the second guy, the third guy. It's fine. But the point is that we shouldn't just assume that other people are taking care of things.
[00:16:55] It's not just for, like, when tires are on the road and calling 911, but it means maybe standing up for people when you need to be stood up for. Or maybe it's even, you know, trying to fix something that's incorrect, to assume that you're the one and it's your responsibility.
[00:17:13] Now I just want to give that warning again to do it in the right way, to not overreact, to do it properly. But that's a very important lesson that we see from Pinchas in this week's Parsha. The last idea I want to share with you takes us to Moshe appointing Yeshua, ah, Joshua as his successor to lead the Jewish nation into the land of Israel. Now, the commentaries tell us that originally Moshe Rabbeinu, Moses wanted that his own sons should be his successor, that his son should take over and be the leader of the Jewish nation.
[00:17:44] But Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu that it was to be Joshua Yeshua to lead the Jewish people into the land of Israel. And Moshe accepted that happily. Now, the Parsha tells us here that how Moshe Rabbeinu appointed Yeshua as his successor. Hashem said to Moshe, take to yourself, Yeshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom there is spirit, and lean your hand upon him, right? The Torah tells us, take Yeshua and give Himicha to put his hands on him to do this mikha process, which has a significance in itself.
[00:18:19] That's the term when a person becomes a rabbi. Even nowadays it's referred to as smicha. It's not the same as it was putting the hands on they did in earlier times, but nonetheless, Yeshua was being appointed the next leader of the Jewish people.
[00:18:36] Now, Rashi tells us when the Parasha tells us, when Hashem says to Moshe to take Yeshua, it says vayoma, Hashem Hamosha Kachlocho es Yeshua benun asher uh, ruach bov samachta es yadecha. Olav says this wording of kahlekha that take to yourself. And Rashi tells us on the words, kach lecha kachnu bidvarim.
[00:19:05] Take them with words. He's telling Yeshua, it's almost as if it's giving advice to Yeshua to take him with words. Uh, praiseworthy is you that you have the ability to lead the Jewish nation. What a special opportunity that you have now to be the next leader of the Jewish nation.
[00:19:28] And this is what M. Hashem tells Moshe to tell Yeshua. Now, we all know that Moshe Rabbeinu was the greatest leader the Jewish people ever had. And at the same time, Moshe Moses had challenges in being the leader of the Jewish nation. He had many challenges. It wasn't something that was easy for him. It was something that was extremely challenging at times that he even got frustrated, he got angry, and even he got upset and hit the rock because of, you know, the back and forth that he had with the Jewish people. And that caused him not to go into the land of Israel.
[00:20:04] But yet we see that Hashem tells Moshe, tell him what a merit he's going to have to be the leader of the Jewish nation.
[00:20:11] And the Chavitz Chaim brings down a parable of how an outlook we should have, you know, not just for Jewish leaders, but when it comes to dealing with. With, you know, mitzvahs, especially mitzvahs that are dealing with the rabim, with the public, with the Jewish nation, with people. When you do things for the Tzibor, for the congregation, and we know that when you do things for people, many times it comes with aggravation. And the Mashallah, the Chavitz Chaim gives is that if a store owner has a store and people come in to browse, he knows that there's going to be people who come in and they don't buy anything. They just look around and maybe they even make him a little crazy. What's this? And how much is that? And then they'll walk out with nothing. But the store owner is okay with it, because he knows that even though this guy's not going to buy anything, the next guy is going to, uh, buy a huge order and it's going to be worth it. And the idea is that when it comes to dealing with the Tzibor, to dealing with the congregation, with people, you know, dealing with, uh, the needs of the Rabim, of the Public, right, doing mitzvahs that people benefit from.
[00:21:23] Right. You have to keep this outlook in mind that it's a merit. And although there are challenges at times that could be annoying and you might want to give up something, you can't, you got to keep pushing forward. Obviously, there's time and place for things, for people to put things on the side. But the point is, as long as we have the ability to do something for the public, to be in a position of leadership where we could help other people, we should do our best to fulfill it happily, to realize that it's a merit for us and it's a special thing that we're doing to be able to help other Jewish people, to be in that position, to help others. And this is something we should try to think about when we have those aggravations and we have those frustrations where we want to just stop in our tracks and not try to do this project, to deal with the public, with people, different people, different opinions. Everyone says this, do it this way, do it that way. But the point is that if we're getting resistance and we're getting that frustration, that means we're doing the right thing.
[00:22:27] And when we're dealing with the public, we should know that it's a merit to help others, to help others do mitzvahs, to help others accomplish, to help another Yid, to help another Jewish. And this is what Hashem told Moshe to do to Yeshua, to tell him, tell him it's a merit to remember.
[00:22:45] And Moshe knew how a challenge it was to have that in mind, to know what a special mitzvah he had, to be able to lead the Jewish nation, something we can keep in mind when we deal with others and we have those communal responsibilities or those communal ideas and goals that we want to accomplish, to not be frustrated and not let those things hold us back. So with that, I'm going to finish for today's podcast. I hope you enjoyed. If you have any questions, comments, or would like to reach out, please feel free to send me an
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