In this week’s parshah, we read the following: “And the Lord spoke unto Moses saying: Pinchas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned My wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for My sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in My jealousy” (Numbers 25:10-11). We must remember that at the end of last week’s parshah, the Israelites debased themselves and committed harlotry with the daughters of Moab. Pinchas took it upon himself to stab and kill Zimri – an Israelite man, and Kosbi, a Midianite woman who were together engaged in this sinful behavior. The following question is asked on the above verse: Why did the Torah have to give Pinchas’ full genealogy here when it had been recorded only 4 verses previously? The Or Hachayim comments that perhaps the Torah wanted to give his ancestors an honorable mention in this way. Moreover, he explains, it is likely that God wanted to heal the residual bad feeling that might have existed against Aaron who at the time when he made the golden calf had inadvertently become the cause of many Israelites dying prematurely. Now, a grandson of Aaron had come and saved many more Israelites’ lives that Aaron had ever even indirectly caused to be lost. This is why God goes on record saying: “I have not consumed the children of Israel in MY jealousy.” In order to make all this clear, Aaron had to be mentioned by name. We have been told in Tanna de bey Eliyahu chapter 13 that Aaron rehabilitated himself through teaching the Israelites Torah and performing good deeds. From this you see that in the eyes of the Israelites Aaron had been considered as responsible for the death of those Jews at the time of the episode of the golden calf. Therefore, the Torah tells us here that Aaron’s grandson completed this task of Aaron’s rehabilitation posthumously.
The Alshekh gives his point of view on this subject. He teaches that if one goes back to parshat Balak where the deed of Pinchas is recorded (25:7), we read Pinchas saw… arose from amidst the congregation, and took a spear in his hand. Pinchas had reason to fear that just as his cousin Chur, son of Miriam, had died when trying to restrain the people serving the golden calf, so his zealousness too would prove ineffective. Even though his own merit would not be diminished if he died thus on Kiddush Hashem, while engaged in sanctifying the name of God, he was aware that he had the merits of his ancestry going for him. This is why the Torah notes that he saw that he was the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest. The numerical value of the word romach, or spear, equals 248, the same number value as the name Avraham. Pinchas felt that he was armed with the merit of Abraham, and was therefore likely to succeed in his undertaking. After all, Abraham, according to the Midrash, had survived the furnace that Nimrod had thrown him into. It is interesting to note that when Pinchas was born, his own father had not yet become a priest. Priesthood, therefore, could not be bestowed upon him automatically. He therefore decided to risk his life, and armed with the mitzvah of killing Zimri, hoped to wipe out what appeared to be a stain on his character; namely not being a priest though his father was a priest. He was rewarded in that though normally only the actual limb performing a mitzvah is elevated to a higher level, in this case, his entire body was elevated to the level of priesthood. This is why God, at the beginning of the parshah, tells Moses to tell Pinchas that he had indeed achieved such elevation, i.e. that he had conferred merit on his father and grandfather by his courageous, zealous deed. This means that through his deed he had become a new person – as if he had been born to Eleazar ONLY AFTER Eleazar had achieved priesthood himself and Pinchas therefore became a priest due to his father having been a priest.
Devorah Abenhaim
