פרשת פינחס

בס''ד

והיתה לו ולזרעו אחריו ברית כהנת עולם...

And it shall be onto him, his children, and to his grandchildren a covenant of an everlasting priesthood…

            In this week’s Parsha, Pinchas kills Zimri and Cuspi. When he did this a vicious plague that was wiping out Bnai Yisroel was halted and things went back to normal. One of the rewards of Pinchas’s actions led to his receiving the Kahuna. The question is, why did Pinchas need to “earn” the Kahuna? Wasn’t he the son of Elazar HaKohen? And the grandson of Aharon HaKohen!

            Rashi answers, that the reason is because by the time Aharon was given the kahuna, Pinchas was already born, therefore, he was not included in it.

            There is another answer I would like to suggest. Aharon was one of the biggest tzadikkim the world has ever known. He was also the world’s biggest Rodef Shalom. He would do anything to keep the peace. Unfortunately, this personality of wanting to keep peace caused him to make a mistake. During the time of the Egel Hazahav, the nation came and asked him if they could do it. His answer was, “If I say yes, they will kill me, but if I say no I may be able to make peace with them and make sure that they don’t do it”. Unfortunately they listened to him, and they did the sin.

            This was not the way Pinchas thought. Pinchas knew that sometimes in order to get to peace, there needs to be war. Look at what happened in World War Two, the American’s didn’t want to join because they wanted to “keep the peace”. However, the peace didn’t come until they helped to defeat the Nazi’s.

            By killing Zimri and Cuspi, Pinchas was able to stop the plague, and quell Hashem’s anger towards the Jews. He knew that sometimes it is appropriate to fight to defend the name of Hashem.

Have a Great Shabbos

Yoni Spigelman

Adapted from: Rabbi Shimon Schwabb and Moshe Hammelman