Parashat Pinchas

Torah Portions

Pinchas opens with God’s promise of a “covenant of peace” for the zealot Pinchas, followed by a census. The daughters of Tzelofchad request and receive new laws regarding inheritance. God instructs Moses to prepare Joshua for leadership, and God describes sacrifices brought daily and on special occasions.

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The Story of Pinchas, Continued

TANAKH

Parashat Pinchas picks up in the middle of an incident that began at the end of Parashat Balak, in which men of Israel stray after the women and the gods of Midian, and Pinchas impales one of the men and one of the women. At the beginning of Parashat Pinchas, God responds to Pinchas’s zealotry.

“Phinehas, son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the Israelites by displaying among them his passion for Me, so that I did not wipe out the Israelite people in My passion. Say, therefore, ‘I grant him My pact of friendship. It shall be for him and his descendants after him a pact of priesthood for all time, because he took impassioned action for his God, thus making expiation for the Israelites.’”

Numbers 25:11-13

Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah

TANAKH

Parashat Pinchas takes place as the people of Israel are preparing to enter the promised land and expecting to divide the land according to patrilinial tribes, clans and families. One family of five sisters, the daughters of a man named Tzelofchad, bring their case to Moses, arguing that because they are all women, their family will be unjustly left out of the allotments.

The daughters of Zelophehad, of Manassite family—son of Hepher son of Gilead son of Machir son of Manasseh son of Joseph—came forward. The names of the daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. They stood before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the chieftains, and the whole assembly, at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and they said, “Our father died in the wilderness. He was not one of the faction, Korah’s faction, which banded together against יהוה, but died for his own sin; and he has left no sons…

Numbers 27:1-5

A Successor for Moses

TANAKH

As the people of Israel prepare to settle in the promised land after wandering in the wilderness, God reminds Moses that he will not cross over with them, but will die on the far side of the Jordan River. Moses asks God to ensure that the people have suitable leadership for their new life, and God instructs him to appoint Joshua as his replacement.

And יהוה answered Moses, “Single out Joshua son of Nun, an inspired man, and lay your hand upon him. Have him stand before Eleazar the priest and before the whole community, and commission him in their sight. Invest him with some of your authority, so that the whole Israelite community may obey. But he shall present himself to Eleazar the priest, who shall on his behalf seek the decision of the Urim before יהוה. By such instruction they shall go out and by such instruction they shall come in, he and all the Israelite [militia], and the whole community.”

Numbers 27:18-21

A Covenant of Peace?

COMMENTARY

Why does God reward Pinchas for his violent act with a “covenant of peace”? 19th-century commentator Rabbi Naphtali Tzvi Yehudah Berlin (Netziv) offers an explanation for the surprising phrase.

My covenant [of] peace. Pinchas was promised he would not become an agitated and angry person, for the nature of the act he did — killing a person with his hands — leaves a strong impression. However, since he did it for the sake of Heaven he received the blessing that he would always be in peace and serenity.

Haamek Davar on Numbers 25:12:2

Who Were Zimri and Cozbi?

MIDRASH

After the dramatic incident of the Israelite man and the Midianite woman described at the end of Parashat Balak, the man and woman are identified by name at the beginning of Parashat Pinchas. A midrash from the medieval collection Midrash Tanchuma tells their backstories and the significance of their names.

(Numb. 25:14:) “And the name of the slain man of Israel...” Just as the Holy One, blessed be He, is concerned with the praise of the righteous to publicize them throughout the world, so is he concerned with the disgrace of the wicked to publicize them throughout the world. He publicized Phinehas for praise and publicized Zimri for disparagement. About them is it stated (in Prov. 10:7), “The remembrance of a righteous one is for a blessing, but the name of the wicked shall rot.” (Numb. 25:14, cont.:) “Zimri ben Salu, the prince of a clan…

Midrash Tanchuma, Pinchas 2:1

Five Sisters Bring Their Case

MIDRASH

In Parashat Pinchas, the daughters of Tzelofchad argue for their right to an allotment of land. Sifrei Bamidbar, an ancient midrashic work on the book of Numbers, expands on their story, offering glimpses into their thinking, their family history, and the standing of women in the nation at the time.

(Bamidbar 27:1) "And there drew near the daughters of Tzelofchad": When the daughters of Tzelofchad heard that the land was to be apportioned to the tribes and not to females, they gathered together to take counsel, saying: Not as the mercies of flesh and blood are the mercies of the L-rd. The mercies of flesh and blood are greater for males than for females. Not so the mercies of He who spoke and brought the world into being. His mercies are for males and females (equally). His mercies are for all! As it is written (Psalms 145:9) "The L-rd is good to all…

Sifrei Bamidbar 133:1

Moses’s Death

COMMENTARY

When God instructs Moses to ascend a mountain before dying to view the promised land which he is not to reach, God compares Moses’s death to that of his brother, Aaron. Rashi, the renowned 11th-century northern French rabbi and commentator, offers explanations of this comparison, drawing on midrashic sources to discuss Moses’s death.

כאשר נאסף אהרן אחיך [THOU SHALT BE GATHERED TO THY PEOPLE] AS AARON THY BROTHER WAS GATHERED — From this it is evident that Moses longed for a death similar to that of Aaron (cf. Rashi on Numbers 20:26). — Another explanation: you will die as he died (in the wilderness) because you are no better than he (Midrash Tanchuma, Pinchas 9). — Such indeed is suggested by (Deuteronomy 32:50. 51): “[and die … as Aaron thy brother died …] because you sanctified me not”. Thus it follows, if ye (both of you) had sanctified me your time would not have yet come to depart this life and you would not have died…

Rashi on Numbers 27:13:1

Counting After Catastrophe

JEWISH THOUGHT

In Parashat Pinchas, God instructs Moses to take a census of the people of Israel. Contemporary scholar Erica Brown, in her study of leadership lessons in the book of Numbers, discusses the relationship of this census to the incidents that precede it and follow it.

The Israelites were counted several times before the end of Numbers. Every time such a count is made, we wonder what occasions it; indeed, our intrigue was shared by Bible commentators throughout the ages. In the wilderness, the survival of the morally fittest was worthy of observation. “When the plague was over, the Lord said to Moses and to Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, ‘Take a census of the whole Israelite community’” (Num. 26:2). Twenty-four thousand people had been killed in a plague in Shittim, the site of Israelite idol worship under the seduction of Moabite women…

Leadership in the Wilderness; Authority and Anarchy in the Book of Numbers, Part I, Chapter 1; Leadership in the Wilderness 10-11

Verses for Sacrifices

MUSAR

The last section of Parashat Pinchas details the daily and festival sacrifices. In the popular ethical treatise Kav HaYashar from the turn of the 18th century, Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Kaidanover explains how to access the original purpose of the sacrifices through the intentional recitation of Torah passages, now that we no longer have the ability to bring the offerings.

When the Beis HaMikdosh was standing, a person would bring a sacrifice and make confession over it, at the same time repenting for his sin. Then the kohanim would slaughter the animal and sprinkle its blood on the altar and burn its fat. All this was in place of the sinner’s own body and limbs, which had incurred a sentence of death through his sin. Thus the sacrifice served as the rectification for his limbs. Nowadays, however, the recitation of the sacrifices must take the place of offering them, as it is written…

Kav HaYashar 59:4