Dvar Torah Pinchas: Love Peace and Chase Peace

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  • #1880389
    abukspan
    Participant

    Pinchas – Love Peace and Chase Peace:
    פינחס בן אלעזר בן אהרן הכהן – Pinchas son of Elazar son of Aharon the Kohen (Bamidbar 25: 11).
    We all understand that heritage has an impact on character, and certain traits are naturally inherited; the mingling of two family bloodlines can result in a mixed bag of mannerisms. It is also true that a refined person is himself an amalgam of various characteristics and behaviors, and it is up to him to orchestrate the proper coordination of the correct action at the correct time. As Shlomo HaMelech writes in Koheles (3:1): “La’kol zeman va’eis le’chol cheifetz tachas hashamayim – To everything there is a season, and there is a time for everything under the heaven.” Aharon HaKohen and his grandson Pinchas embodied this notion.
    Rashi explains why the pasuk traces Pinchas’ ancestry to Aharon: The shevatim were disparaging him by saying, “Did you see the son of Puti, whose grandfather (Yisro) fattened calves for avodah zarah? Now he goes and kills a nasi?” Therefore, the pasuk is emphasizing that when Pinchas killed Zimri, he was following in the footsteps of his grandfather Aharon, who was known as a peace-monger.
    Having the blood of Aharon the peacemaker coursing through his veins doesn’t seem to change the fact that he still appeared to be taking after his mother’s side of the family. What is gained by stressing that he was the grandson of Aharon, especially when he seemed to be acting contrary to Aharon`s loving and kind behavior?
    Aharon was known as the “oheiv shalom ve’rodeif shalom oheiv es habriyos u’mekarvan laTorah– one who loved peace and pursued peace; loved people and brought them close to Torah” (Pirkei Avos 1:12). Aharon always sought to bring about reconciliation between bickering parties.
    A novel interpretation from the Ksav Sofer shows us that at times true love and concern for another necessitates breaking people apart. Not making friendships but ending them. Not making peace but even making war.

    The Ksav Sofer (first piece in Parashas Emor) writes that while Aharon, acting as an oheiv shalom, attempted to make peace between people, he also acted as a rodeif shalom, as someone who chased away peace! That is why the Mishnah in Avos does not say, “rodeif achar ha’shalom – who chased after peace,” but “rodeif shalom – who chased peace.”
    As the Mishnah in Sanhedrin (8:5) writes: “Dispersal of the wicked brings benefit for them and for the world, but dispersal of the righteous brings misfortune for them and for the world. Convening of the wicked brings misfortune for them and for the world, but convening of the righteous brings benefit for them and for the world.”

    As much as Aharon went out of his way to promote unity, even telling the “little white lie,” this was to the righteous among the people, whose unity promotes the greater good. But for the wicked, he was just as zealous to break up their friendships and gatherings, much like a parent who will forbid his child from befriending someone whose character leaves much to be desired. Aharon’s motivation was not “world peace.” He was inspired, as the Mishnah in Avos tells us, by his love of people: “oheiv es habriyos,” and his ultimate goal was “u’mekarvan laTorah – to bring them close to Torah.”
    At times, he was loving and kind, using the right words to reconcile the righteous. At other times, he was loving and kind, using a hurtful word to break apart inappropriate friendships. All this from one person. Not a sign of an unbalanced character, but of a healthy one who harmonized both traits in the pursuit of true good.

    This, then, could be the pshat in our parashah regarding Pinchas. Pinchas had acted with violence in the killing of Zimri and Cozbi, and the people understandably berated him. To counter this, the Torah reminds us that he was also the paternal grandson of Aharon, to whom unfriendly or even violent behavior was not inimical. Like his grandfather, Pinchas was oheiv es habriyos, one who loved people, who was interested in the spiritual and Torah life of a person. And when called for, he would demonstrate the same passion to destroy as he would to build, to make war as he would to make peace.
    There is no dichotomy in either Aharon the peacemaker or Pinchas the zealot. Both are examples of the highest principle – of loving his fellow man and bringing him close to Torah.

    There is a machlokes in Zevachim (101b) as to when Pinchas became a Kohen. In Parashas Pinchas, Hashem said, “Lachein emor lo hineni nosein lo es brissi shalom – Therefore, say: ‘Behold, I give him My covenant of peace’” (Bamidbar 25:12). According to Rabbi Elazar, Pinchas became a Kohen after killing Zimri and Cozbi, though Rav Ashi says that he did not become Kohen until he made peace among Bnei Yisrael. As proof, he brings a pasuk in Yehoshua (22:30), which says, “Vayishma Pinchas HaKohen… – And Pinchas the Kohen heard…” At the time, the rest of Klal Yisrael planned to wage war against the tribes of Reuven, Gad, and half of Menashe, who were on the other side of the Yardein. Pinchas succeeded in making peace between the two sides, and that was when the pasuk calls him Pinchas the Kohen.
    The Gemara then asks: How can Rav Ashi say that he was not a Kohen till later? What about the pasuk quoted above from Parashas Pinchas? The Gemara answers cryptically: “That is referring to the blessing.”Tosafos explains that Hashem blessed Pinchas that he would be a Kohen. And he could have been a Kohen immediately, but first he had to be dressed with the priestly garments, anointed with the oil, and initiated in bringing the chavitin flour-offering. But perhaps there were some people among the Jews who were still upset with him because he had killed Zimri. Only once he successfully eased the tension among the shevatim in the time of Yehoshua, did he earn the trust and support of the people and become a full-fledged Kohen.
    The upshot of this is that Pinchas became a Kohen in two steps, through two separate events, which necessitated contradictory actions. In the first, he slayed evil-doers, an act of one who is “rodeif shalom – chases away peace.” In the other, he brought about peace and calmed controversy among the people, an act of one who is “oheiv shalom – loves peace.”
    These dissimilar roles represent the dual responsibility of a manhig. On the one hand, an effective leader must make harsh and sometimes unpopular decisions to uphold the Torah. On the other hand, the leader bears the responsibility of arbitrating between conflicting parties in an effort to maintain peace among his charges. Both roles – fighting against a Torah violation and bringing peace among the people – are indispensable to effective Torah leadership, and it is precisely this duality that made Pinchas worthy of becoming a Kohen.

    This notion is borne out from a perhaps novel way to understand the first Mishnah in Shekalim: “Be’echad ba’Adar mashmi’in al hashekalim ve’al hakilayim – On the first of Adar, they announce about bringing the machatzis hashekel and about uprooting forbidden mixtures.”
    Much ink has been used to explain the connection between the machatzis hashekel and Purim. The Alshich famously explains that the half-shekel teaches us that each person must realize how he cannot do it alone, but he needs the other person to complete the whole. By giving the machatzis hashekel on a yearly basis, beginning in the midbar, the Jews incorporated this facility into their very beings.
    At the same time that they announce about the machatzis hashekel, however, they also announce about uprooting forbidden mixtures, kilayim.
    Perhaps the message is that as important as achdus is, there are times that the opposite must be implemented. In some cases, we need uprooting rather than mixing, excising the malignancy rather than allowing its growth to harm the whole.
    We need Aharon and Pinchas, who both loved peace and chased peace, sowing yet also weeding in the process.

    #1880639
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    Rashi explains that Pinchas deserves his just rewards. The Dubner Magid gives a mashel for Hakoras Hatov. There was a wholesaler who hired a young apprentice stipulating that he only gets room and board without a salary, Once, a retailer came on Purim in the middle of the sudah. The proprietor pushed him away telling him come tomorrow as we are in the middle of a sudah, The young man offered to help him. The wholesaler asked afterwards the young man, what do I owe you for your salary? Didn’t we agree that I don’t get paid just room and board, he asked. He told him, until now I thought that food is valuable to you but as you were willing to give it up for my business, I have to give you something that you will appreciate. The nimshal is, we are unable to thank Hashem enough for our healthy life without worries but Pinchas sacrificed his life for the name of Hashem, so he deserves a reward valuable to him.

    #1880641
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    The Rav Abarbanel explains that Pinchas required the two rewards. Since he did not inherit the kehuna gedola as he was alive when his father Elozor became one, he had to be promised that his children will inherit it. Also, if one kills, the gaol hadom can revenge it, so he had to be protected.

    #1880646
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    In SA O’CH 128,35 says the Mechaber that a Kohen who killed someone even beshogeg and did teshuva should not duchen. So Pinchas required permission to do the Avodah.

    #1880793
    Toi
    Participant

    @abukspan- I’m floored, I made the same tzu shtell from the Ksav Sofer in Emor to Pinchas to explain that he was rewarded with Kehuna for demonstrating the middos of a manhig by going against his inborn middos, just as Aaron did, when the situation warranted that. I can’t believe someone else did to. Shkoaich!!!

    #1880752
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    There iwas a question by rhe Maharam Shik by the reform movement, what comes first, peace or truth? It says to love truth (first) and then peace. However. I heard from the Meharal, that peace is the name of Hashem but truth is the stamp and the name comes before the stamp.

    #1880804
    abukspan
    Participant

    Happy to join the Toi fan club.
    I looked today but could not find the ksav sofer in emor. Many websites mention that it is there but i saw it not. do you know where it is?

    thank you

    #1880889
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    abukspan, the Ksav Sofer right there in the beginning of Parashas Emor that sometimes, when it comes to rashoim, you work on breakng up peace, be radef shalom, as I mentioned from the Maharam Shik above to trump peace by truth.

    #1880890
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    When it comes to ztadikim love peace but for rashaim hate peace.

    #1880928
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    Peace strenghtens tbe rashaim, so we must chase it and break it up whereas by the ztadikim it brings love and unity so we must strive to create it.

    #1882002
    abukspan
    Participant

    Reb Eliezer, thank you for the address of the Ksav Sofer and the comments

    #1882000
    abukspan
    Participant

    Reb Eliezer, Thank you for the address and the comments

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