Achieving Perfection – Pinchas
פִּינְחָס בֶּן אֶלְעָזָר בֶּן אַהֲרֹן הַכֹּהֵן הֵשִׁיב אֶת חֲמָתִי מֵעַל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּקַנְאוֹ אֶת קִנְאָתִי בְּתוֹכָם וְלֹא כִלִּיתִי אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּקִנְאָתִי. לָכֵן אֱמֹר הִנְנִי נֹתֵן לוֹ אֶת בְּרִיתִי שָׁלוֹם (במדבר כה, יא – יב).
There is a halacha (רמב"ם, הלכות תפילה וברכת כהנים, טו, ג) that a Kohen who takes a life is forbidden to do Birkat Kohanim, לָשֵׂאת אֶת כַּפָּיו, even if he does tshuva.
If so, the immediate question is – if Pinchas killed Zimri ben Saluh and Kozbi bat Tzur, where is the midah keneged midah in HKB"H's reward to him, that he became a (fully functioning) Kohen?
Firstly, the question is whether Pinchas was already a Kohen before he killed them or not?
According to the Gemara (זבחים, קא, ב), R' Chanina says that Pinchas was not a serving Kohen before he performed this act of zealotry. By lineage he supposedly was a Kohen - he was the son of Elazar, the son of Aharon. Rashi (במדבר כה, יג), however, says that the promise of Kehuna was given to Aharon and his sons and to their descendants who would be born only after Aharon and his sons were anointed as Kohanim. Since Pinchas was born before Elazar was anointed, he was technically not a Kohen.
According to the Chizkuni, the ריב"א and the Abarbanel however, Pinchas was already a serving Kohen before this incident. If so, the reason that HKB"H had to (again) give him the reward of Kehuna, was because one might think that since Pinchas had taken a life, he was no longer fit to serve as a Kohen.
HKB"H's reward to Pinchas was בְּרִיתִ שָׁלוֹם. In this shiur I would like to explore the meaning of the word שָׁלוֹם.
If you look carefully at the word שָׁלוֹם in passuk 12 above (in the Torah or in a Chumash), you will notice that the letter "vav" is broken in the middle, ואו קטיעא (in Ashkenazi and Sefardi sifrei Torah. The Teimani minhag – according to the shita of the Rambam – is to write a complete vav). The Sifri says that in the two Batei Mikdash there were a total of 380 Kohanim Gedolim - 80 during Bayit Rishon and 300 during Bayit Sheini and they were all descended from Pinchas. R' Meir Margaliyot (a talmid of the Ba'al Shem Tov), in his sefer כתנות אור, quoting the Sifri, says that by breaking the vav in two, the word שָׁלוֹם becomes שלים, which, in gematriya is 380. Pinchas' reward was that all the Kohanim Gedolim would be descended from him.
Shalom is one of HKB"H's names. HKB"H has many different names, each reflecting His different attributes. For example, the name yud keh vav keh reflects HKB"H's מידת הרחמים, the name א-לוקים reflects HKB"H's מידת הדין, etc. HKB"H's name שָׁלוֹם reflects completeness, perfection - from the derivation of the word שלם.
Seven of HKB"H's names –
י-ה-ו-ה (א-ד-נ-י), א-ל, א-ל-ו-ה, א-ל-ה-י-ם, א-ה-י-ה, ש-ד-י, צ-ב-א-ו-ת
are of the highest status. It is forbidden to erase these seven names. If you have a printed page with these names and you want to dispose of it, the page must be placed in geniza. There is a whole sugya regarding how to deal with these seven names on a computer/cell phone, in terms of copy / cut / paste / delete / etc., but this is the subject of an entire shiur on its own, and not the purpose of this shiur.
The name שָׁלוֹם has a lower status than the above seven, but must still be treated with respect. For example, it is forbidden to say the word Shalom in the bathroom or when not fully dressed (Gemara, Shabbat, 10b). This applies both to Shalom the greeting and to addressing someone whose name is Shalom. The name Shalom is not listed amongst those names that are forbidden to erase, however it should be treated with extra respect. The Mefarshim say that talmidei chachamim write the word שָׁלוֹם in print as שלו' just in case, for example, when writing a letter (or email) and this is a good practice to follow.
This is the origin of the word Shalom – it is HKB"H Himself, one of His names, one of His attributes.
The next level of Shalom is in reference to a place. If the pinnacle of perfection is HKB"H Himself, then the physical location on our physical earth that comes closest to achieving perfection also has the name "Shalom". Chazal (Yoma 54b) say that when HKB"H created the earth, it emanated from one starting point and proliferated until it resulted in the entire planet. That origin was the אבן השתייה, so called because, ממנה הושתת העולם. This point on earth is located inside the Kodesh Hakodashim of the Beit Hamikdash, where the Aron Habrit (in Bayit Rishon) was placed.
The Beit Hamikdash is a "building" that embodies שָׁלוֹם. The gematriya of מִקְדָּשׁ is יִבְנוּ שָׁלוֹם.
The person who builds the Beit Hamikdash also has to embody שָׁלוֹם, that person was שְׁלֹמֹה הַמֶּלֶךְ.
The city in which the Beit Hamikdash is located is given two different names in the Torah. The first is יֵרָאֶה, the name given by Avraham at the Akeida. The second is שָׁלֵם, the name of the city of king Malkitzedek (who was Shem ben Noach). HKB"H combined these two names to get the name יְרוּשָׁלִַם, the holy city, which is derived from the word שָׁלוֹם.
The people working in the Beit Hamikdash, doing the avodah, also have to embody שָׁלוֹם. These are the descendants of Aharon, the Kohanim. The gematriya of שָׁלוֹם is מֵאַהֲרֹן הַכֹּהֵן.
The Beit Hamikdash is a conduit between our physical world and the spiritual world in Heaven. There are 50 levels of purity. When Bnei Yisrael left Egypt, they were at the lowest level. HKB"H raised them (over a period of 49 days – Sfirat ha'Omer), one level each day, until they were at the 49th level of purity so that they could receive the Torah on the 50th day. At Matan Torah on Har Sinai, Bnei Yisrael achieved the 50th level, because they were equivalent to angels, to the level of Adam Harishon before the sin. However, following חֵטְא הָעֵגֶל they were "demoted" once again. As a result, according to the Mefarshim, a living human will not attain the 50th level again until he/she dies, or when HKB"H brings the Geulah. This is why Moshe was buried on הַר נְבוֹ the mountain שֶׁ-"נ" בּוֹ, he achieved the 50th level only after his death.
On a scale of 1-50, the Beit Hamikdash is the middle point, the gateway between the physicality and the spirituality, on the 25th level of the scale. This is why another name for the Beit Hamikdash is כֹּה, as Avraham said on his way to the Akeida וַאֲנִי וְהַנַּעַר נֵלְכָה עַד כֹּה. This is also why a Kohen is called a כֹּהֵ-ן, because he elevates the avodah from the 25th level to the 50th level so that it forms a connection with the מִקְדָּשׁ שֶׁל מַעֲלָה. There are seven layers in Heaven and the 4th layer is called זְּבֻל. In this layer resides יְרוּשָׁלַיִם שֶׁל מַעְלָה and מִקְדָּשׁ שֶׁל מַעֲלָה in which the angel מִיכָאֵל offers korbanot.
The Levi'im also serve in the Mikdash, amongst other things singing שִׁירָה. It will come as no surprise then that the gematriya of שָׁלוֹם is הַלְוִיִּם שִׂמְחָה. The Kohanim, through their avodah, raise the level of spirituality to the 4th layer in Heaven. The שִׁירָה of the Levi'im that accompanies the avodah, raises it one level higher, to the 5th layer in Heaven called מָעוֹן. It is in this layer that the angels sing שִׁירָה and is also the layer from which שִׂמְחָה originates.
The "broken" vav in the word שָׁלוֹם in the passuk above hints to the essence of the concept שָׁלוֹם. שָׁלוֹם means taking two disparate parts, two diametrically opposed poles and bringing them together in symbiosis.
When someone makes שָׁלוֹם between rival parties, what does that mean? It does not mean eliminating one of the parties so that there is no longer any rivalry (with the exception of Amalek, who is not the opposite pole, he is "anti-pole", the antithesis to HKB"H's and His Creation). It means finding a way for the two opposite poles to coexist peacefully with each other.
This is why one of HKB"H's names is שָׁלוֹם. As it says - יוֹצֵר אוֹר וּבוֹרֵא חֹשֶׁךְ עֹשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם וּבוֹרֵא רָע אֲנִי ה' עֹשֶׂה כָל אֵלֶּה (ישעיהו מה, ז). HKB"H produces light, creates darkness, makes שָׁלוֹם and creates evil.
If you notice, the positive things in this passuk are terms of producing something from something that already exists - יוֹצֵר אוֹר, עֹשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם. יוֹצֵר and עֹשֶׂה are taking raw materials that already exist and turning them into something more elevated. The negative things in the passuk, on the other hand, are "created" - וּבוֹרֵא חֹשֶׁךְ, וּבוֹרֵא רָע. Creating means creating something completely new from something that does not exist.
HKB"H's intention for creating this world was for light and peace. These are the "blueprint" for our world and are encoded into its very fabric. To make light and peace therefore is not so difficult, the basis already exists, all we need to do is connect the dots that are already there. Darkness and evil on the other are not part of the embedded fabric of our world, for them to come into being (chas vechalila) we need to "create" them, we have to work extra hard to create a "mutation" that was not originally intended.
It seems counterintuitive. Common sense suggests that - if more evil exists in the world than peace (which it appears to), then evil must be the default and "easier" to achieve. In truth, however, it is the opposite. In order to create this evil, much more work is actually required and it is working "uphill", against HKB"H's natural "gravity" for the world. This is כֹּחִי וְעֹצֶם יָדִי, deliberately working against the balance of the Divine plan to achieve something. Ultimately, however, when the Geulah comes, the world will revert back to its equilibrium state, which is light and peace and all the darkness, evil and כֹּחִי וְעֹצֶם יָדִי will disappear.
שָׁלוֹם is taking diametrically opposed poles and connecting them. Taking the physical world and connecting it to the spiritual world. Connecting earth to Heaven via the Beit HaMikdash, with its epicenter at the core of Creation. שָׁלוֹם is taking a physical body and a spiritual Neshama and enabling them to coexist in symbiosis and harmony.
שָׁלוֹם was the character trait of Aharon HaKohen, who made peace between people with a dispute, between husband and wife. When Aharon died, 80,000 children – named Aharon (probably also Aharona) – accompanied his coffin. These children were so named because they were the product of the שָׁלוֹם Aharon made between husbands and wives in Am Yisrael. There are no two more diametrically opposed poles than a man and a woman. The purpose is to combine them symbiotically, עֵזֶר כְּנֶגְדּוֹ. The default – the blueprint for the world - is עֵזֶר, symbiosis, combining the "י" in "אִישׁ" with the "ה" in "אִשָּׁה", comprising HKB"H's name י-ה. This is the official stamp of a successful marriage, the letters י-ה. When our parsha lists all of the tribes and the families of Am Yisrael (במדבר פרק כו), the names begin with a "ה" and end with a "י" – מִשְׁפַּחַת הַחֲנֹכִי, הַפַּלֻּאִי, הַחֶצְרוֹנִי, הַכַּרְמִי וכו'. However, if you do not follow the blueprint, instead of עֵזֶר, you have כְּנֶגְדּוֹ, working against "gravity".
In this sense, the minhagim of the Ashkenazim/Sefardim on the one hand and the Teimanim on the other are not so different after all. The "broken" vav of the Ashkenazim/Sefardim is the state before the Geulah, the situation that requires remedy. The complete vav is the state after the Geulah, where the שָׁלוֹם is complete.
Just like the above seems counterintuitive, so does the reward for Pinchas. Taking a life is the opposite of שָׁלוֹם, it is counter to everything that all the above aspects of שָׁלוֹם stand for. The Beit HaMikdash had to wait for שְׁלֹמֹה הַמֶּלֶךְ to be built, because David, his father, had "blood on his hands", he had taken life (not personally, but he sent Am Yisrael to fight a מִלְחֶמֶת רְשׁוּת because they were short of money, instead of giving them access to the reserve wealth David had put aside for building the Beit HaMikdash. Many died in these wars). No iron is allowed to be used for preparing the stones used to build the Mizbeach, because weapons of war are made from iron and they shorten life, while the purpose of the Mizbeach is to lengthen life.
So, although killing Zimri and Kozbi might be justified, how did Pinchas deserve the reward of בְּרִיתִ שָׁלוֹם?
The answer is that often it is the counterintuitive things which are the real truth. Intuitively, taking a life is counter שָׁלוֹם and it is in most cases, but not this case of Pinchas. Chazal fill in some of the blanks that are not visible to the naked eye.
Two things that HKB"H hates more than anything are עֲבוֹדָה זָרָה and גִּלּוּי עֲרָיוֹת. Pinchas saw that as a result of Am Yisrael sinning at Ba'al Pe'or, with both these sins, that HKB"H was intent to wipe us out, like He was after we had sinned with the עֵגֶל. After the sin of the עֵגֶל, it was Moshe who stood up and prevented the decimation of Am Yisrael, but here this did not happen – Moshe was powerless. Zimri taunted Moshe "Is it acceptable to sleep with a Midyanite woman? And if you say no, then who gave you permission to marry Tziporah, daughter of Yitro, a Minyanite!" Pinchas was in a similar conundrum, because his mother, wife of Elazar, was also a Midyanite – one of Tziporah's sisters. In a case like this talking doesn't help – there are no words to solve the problem, whatever you say you lose. This situation called for action.
So why was it not Moshe who acted? It should have been Moshe who killed Zimri and Kozbi. There was a problem however, Sefer Baruch Yomeiru says that the reason Moshe separated from Tziporah is because he needed to be on call, in a state of טַהֲרָה 24/7 in case HKB"H wanted to speak to him. If he was living the family life this could complicate things and cause him to have to wait a day or more until he was טוֹבֵל in the mikvah. This meant that Moshe would no longer be available 24/7 to hear the word of G-d. Similarly, if Moshe had killed Zimri and Kozbi, he would have to wait a week to become pure again (Bamidbar 31, 19). Moshe would be unavailable to speak with HKB"H for a week, something he was forbidden to do וְאַתָּה פֹּה עֲמֹד עִמָּדִי וַאֲדַבְּרָה אֵלֶיךָ אֵת כָּל הַמִּצְוָה וְהַחֻקִּים וְהַמִּשְׁפָּטִים וכו' (דברים ה, כז).
Pinchas had the same familial conundrum as Moshe did with the Midyanite women, but unlike Moshe, Pinchas was not shackled by וְאַתָּה פֹּה עֲמֹד עִמָּדִי. If Pinchas had not acted, the plague HKB"H unleashed would have wiped out all of Am Yisrael. By killing Zimri and Kozbi, Pinchas in fact making peace – between HKB"H and Am Yisrael!
Pinchas' act of zealotry was not breaking the vav, it was joining it. He saw a situation that was equivalent to and of the magnitude of the sin of Adam Harishon (the gematriya of שָׁלוֹם is הִשִּׁיאַנִי, as in הַנָּחָשׁ הִשִּׁיאַנִי וָאֹכֵל). Pinchas thus deserved the reward of בְּרִיתִ שָׁלוֹם, he became a fully functioning Kohen who was allowed to do Birkat Kohanim, לָשֵׂאת אֶת כַּפָּיו. Not only was he given the gift of Kehuna, he also merited that all of the Kohanim Gedolim in the two Batei Mikdash were descended from him. Not only that, Pinchas, who is Eliyahu HaNavi, was elevated to the status of an angel and it is davka Pinchas/Eliyahu who will herald the Geulah. For making the ultimate שָׁלוֹם, between "husband" and "wife", between HKB"H and Am Yisrael, Pinchas was rewarded with the ultimate שָׁלוֹם, all aspects of it.
This principle has far-reaching repercussions for how we perceive the world. It defines a new set of rules for every type of relationship, the relationship we have with the different parts of ourself (our yetzer tov and our yetzer harah, how to enable them to coexist in the same body), the relationship with our spouse, our competitors, even our enemies!
It applies not only to Kohanim, but to every one of us. Kohanim are required לָשֵׂאת כַּפַּיִם, the rest of us are required לִיגַע כַּפַּיִם, as it says יְגִיעַ כַּפֶּיךָ כִּי תֹאכֵל אַשְׁרֶיךָ וְטוֹב לָךְ (תהילים קכח, ב). The concept of שָׁלוֹם is all about symbiosis between disparate parts and it involves כַּפַּיִם. In sefer Meir Panim I bring the principle that כַּפַּיִם, or כַּף in the singular, has a double meaning – it means both "hands" and "smiling mouth". Both are essential in creating שָׁלוֹם.
It is שָׁלוֹם and symbiosis between HKB"H and Am Yisrael, between the Kohanim and Levi'im (the Levi'im prepare the Lechem Hapanim, the Kohanim switch them on the Shulchan), between the Shulchan and the Menora (the עוֹלַם הָעֲשִׂיָּה and the תּוֹרָה), between the 12 loaves on the Shulchan (the Twelve Tribes), between Yissachar and Zevulun, …. and the list continues.
As we approach the three weeks before Tish'a Be'av, we need to place special emphasis on the concept of שָׁלוֹם and by so doing, we will hasten the ultimate שָׁלוֹם, the Geulah בבי"א.
