Parshat Pinhas

In last week’s parsha Pinchas killed Zimri and Kozbi. In this week’s parsha Pinchas is rewarded with Hashem’s covenant of peace, briti shalom. One way to understand this blessing is the Netziv’s. Pinchas performed a necessary act of religious zeal, but there was a risk that this would leave a mark on his personality. Pinchas was in need of a Divine promise that he would remain a peaceful person.

There is another way to understand shalom. Shalom is achieved when apparently irreconcilable differences are resolved. The Rav zt”l made this observation in a shiur on parshat Toldot At the end of Shmone Esrei and Kadish we say Oseh shalom b’mromav Hu ya’aseh salom aleinu… What sort of shalom does Hashem make in Heaven? The Rav zt”l said that the prayer refers to Hashem’s reconciling the middot of chessed and gevura (which I suppose could be translated as Hashem’s ruling the world with charity and justice). In our eyes these two attributes seem contradictory and not in keeping with our understanding of a consistent G-d. But Hashem understands that mercy and justice are compatible, and before Him there is shalom between these two ideas. The Rav zt”l quoted the Kabbalists who said that the imperfection of this world is due to the lack of unity between these middot. He quoted the Ramban who said that the middah of tifferet is the beauty of having opposites brought together harmoniously. It is this shalom that we ask Hashem to bestow upon us.

The Malbim explains that Pinchas achieved this sort of reconciliation within his soul.

The Malbim uses an enigmatic story in the Gemara (Shabbat 89a) to make his point. The Gemara says that when Moshe Rabbeinu went up to receive the Torah he saw Hashem attaching the taggim to the letters of the Torah. He beheld Hashem and Hashem saw him. Then Hashem asked Moshe, “Isn’t there shalom in your town?” The simple pshat (which isn’t simple at all) is that Hashem expected Moshe Rabbeinu to extend to Him a greeting. The Malbim says that shalom here means the bringing together of disparate items to form a unified whole. Hashem was gathering letters and creating the Torah. Hashem was telling Moshe Rabbeinu that he should have appreciated this creation of unity from many different parts as the creation of shalom.

A person’s nature is determined by how he manages his conflicting drives and desires. Even a rational person who knows what has to be done at a given moment, can allow competing desires to interfere so he does what has to be done reluctantly and in a half-hearted fashion.

Pinchas overcame this. At the moment of crisis he took all his energies and acted. He created shalom in his personality by merging all his drives and desires into a single desire to serve G-d.

Hahshem rewarded Pinchas who achieved shalom with His covenant of shalom. What form did this covenant of shalom take? There are many midrashim that say Pinchas enjoyed an extraordinarily long life. And when we see the midrash that identifies Pinchas with Eliyahu it seems that Pinchas never died. The Malbim says that this long life was Hashem’s blessing. Death is the ultimate act of separation. The body separates from the soul. But for Pinchas who achieved perfect unity within his being did not deserve to die and so was blessed with long life.