Profiles in Courage "Tzelaphchad's daughters speak justly!" (Numbers 27:7) Tammuz 16, 5779/July 19, 2019 This week's Torah reading, Pinchas, could easily bear the subtitle "Profiles in Courage." Every individual who appears in the parasha exhibits profound courage rooted in their uncompromising belief in the G-d of Israel, the Torah of Israel, the land of Israel, and the people of Israel. And this is most propitious as this is the generation and these are the people who are about to enter and inherit the land of Israel. The Korachs and Datans and Avirams, the complainers and malcontents are no more. Not fit to enter the land they long ago perished in the desert. Parashat Pinchas opens in the aftermath of the illicit relations between the sons of the tribe of Shimon and the daughters of the idolatrous Moabites, a result of the evil brainstorm of the parting heathen prophet Bilaam, who, frustrated in his repeated attempts to curse Israel on behalf of Balak, hatched the plan that ensnared the children of Israel. While Moshe and "the entire congregation of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting," (Numbers 25:6) stood petrified and unable to act in their horror at what was transpiring before their very eyes, Pinchas took bold action, ending the dissolution in one single swift stroke, staying the plague that was consuming Israel and assuaging G-d's anger. The lack of decisiveness which gripped Moshe and the elders in the moment was in essence more dangerous than the brazen licentiousness being exhibited before them. Our sages teach us that they had all forgotten the commandment that they had learned at Sinai which deals with such an extreme circumstance as that taking place before them. But was their forgetfulness simply a 'senior moment' or was it a symptom of a momentary disconnect from G-d, a momentary lack of ironclad conviction and implacable faith in G-d and Torah? Had Pinchas similarly hesitated before he acted, he might have been guilty of acting out of an impure motive. Had he equivocated, even for an instant, and questioned his own motivations, he too might have frozen in the moment, like the others. His true act of courage was in his solid rock conviction that he was performing G-d's will, and not his own. There is no way that any other human being can peer into Pinchas' soul and determine unequivocally that his motives were pure, and indeed, the people began to murmur, alleging blood-lust to Pinchas' action. Therefore, in the opening of this week's parasha, G-d Himself testifies to the purity of Pinchas'motives and the righteousness of his deed: "Pinchas the son of Eleazar the son of Aharon the kohen has turned My anger away from the children of Israel by his zealously avenging Me among them, so that I did not destroy the children of Israel because of My zeal. Therefore, say, 'I hereby give him My covenant of peace. It shall be for him and for his descendants after him an eternal covenant of kehunah, because he was zealous for his G-d and atoned for the children of Israel.'" (ibid 25:11-13) The second act of courage which occurs in our parasha was performed by the five daughters of Tzelaphchad - Machlah, Noa, Choglah, Milchah and Tirtzah. Their father had died without a son, and as things stood, that is, as Torah had stipulated, he had no one to inherit his portion in the land of Israel. The five sisters approached Moshe and challenged this law, saying to Moshe, "Our father died in the desert, but he was not in the assembly that banded together against HaShem in Korach's assembly, but he died for his own sin, and he had no sons. Why should our father's name be eliminated from his family because he had no son? Give us a portion along with our father's brothers." (ibid 27:3-4)The five sisters exhibited courage simply in standing before Moshe, as this was unprecedented. We have not heard of such a thing in the patriarchal society of the desert encampment. Had Miriam been alive they might have first enlisted her support, but Miriam was no more. They went directly to Moshe. But even more courageously, they appealed directly to G-d, via Moshe's good offices. Like Pinchas, the five sisters, Machlah, Noa, Choglah, Milchah and Tirtzah, were of the unassailable conviction that their desire was G-d's desire, that what they were asking for was what G-d wanted for them. And, as in the case of Pinchas, G-d testified directly to their righteousness: "Tzelaphchad's daughters speak justly!" (ibid 27:7) And so it was. In response to their query G-d dictated to Moshe an entire addendum to the Torah laws of inheritance, which, like Pinchas' entry into the kehunah, would, from that day forth, stand forever. The third act of courage in our parasha, or, more precisely put, a reward for a lifetime of unimpeachable acts of courage, was G-d's designation, at Moshe'sbehest, of Yeshoshua bin Nun, as the successor to Moshe, the leader who would bring Israel into the land, lead their battle to conquer the land, and assign their tribal inheritances: "Take for yourself Yeshoshua bin Nun, a man of spirit, and you shall lay your hand upon him." (27:18) G-d's choice of the word "spirit,"(ruach, in Hebrew) was a direct reference to the courage which Yehoshuadisplayed, when he risked his own life by dissenting with the evil report of the spies, saying, (with Calev ben Yefuneh), "The land we passed through to scout is an exceedingly good land. If HaShem desires us, He will bring us to this land and give it to us, a land flowing with milk and honey." (ibid 14:7-8) Yehoshua, along with Calev, possessed "another spirit," the spirit of conviction, born of their unwavering faith in G-d's word and G-d's will. The final act of undaunted courage displayed in parashat Pinchas, was that of Moshe, himself, who, upon being told by G-d to "Go up to this mount Avarim and look at the land that I have given to the children of Israel," but not to Moshe, who would not be allowed to enter, did not think for an instant of his own demise or of the pain of being denied entry into the land, but asked of G-d "Let HaShem, the G-d of spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation, who will go forth before them and come before them, who will lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of HaShem will not be like sheep without a shepherd." (ibid 27:16-17) To see beyond ones own self, beyond ones own mortality, and to dwell only on the destiny of G-d's eternal people, the children of Israel, whom Moshe himself had shepherded for forty years, is the ultimate distinction of courage, born of surrendering ones own will to G-d's and acting in the moment, and in the fullness of one's love for G-d. |
