For his great act of zealotry, Pinchas ben Elazar ben Aaron the Kohain
was rewarded with both a bris shalom (covenant of peace) and inheritable
kahuna (he and his offspring were now part of the priesthood). Pinchas
was the only descendant of Aaron that was born before Aaron and his sons
were anointed as kohanim, thus making him the only Aaronite who was not a kohain.
Reviewing this parsha and this commentary in particular led me to a
question: Would the reward have been the same if Pinchas had not been a
descendant of Aaron?
To understand the question, let me first present a brief review of the priesthood. Initially, the firstborn of Israel were meant to form the priesthood. However, one of the repercussions of the incident of the Golden Calf was that the firstborn lost that mandate. It was given, instead, to the Levites, who not only refrained from participating in the Golden Calf but who zealously responded when Moshe declared “Whosoever is on God’s side, let him come to me” (Exodus 32:26). Later, God specified the kahuna to Aaron and his sons and all that would be born to them.
Zealotry, passion, seems to be a necessary factor in attaining the priesthood, at least in the original generations. Yet one must ask, could Pinchas have been given a place in the priesthood if he had been a zealous man from any tribe other than a Levi and if he hadn’t been a descendant of Aaron?
It must have been hard growing up as the one Aaronite who wasn’t going to be a kohain. First there was all the fanfare around the dedication of the priests and then there was the necessarily detailed training of the upcoming generation. By the time Pinchas’ father took over the role of Kohain Gadol, were some of Pinchas’ young cousins already starting to serve in the Mishkan? How must Pinchas have felt during Korach’s rebellion, when so much of the argument seemed to revolve around the “special treatment” of his family?
These reflections on Pinchas’ state of mind are significant because it makes it easy to understand why his intentions might have been misunderstood - why anyone could have dared to have thought “Have you seen this grandson of Puti, the father of whose mother used to fatten calves for idolatry (referring to his other grandfather, Yitro!), and he has dared to slay a prince of one of Israel’s tribes!” (Rashi, citing Sanhedrin 82b). The commentaries explain that God’s statement that “Pinchas ben Elazar ben Aaron Hakohain has turned back My wrath from the Israelites by displaying among them his passion for Me…” was a Divine intervention to make certain that no one doubted the purity of Pinchas’ zealotry.
What else could they have thought? With a background like Pinchas, they could easily have suspected him of being a man out to prove his worth. He could very well have been misunderstood as an outcast who had no definite place. Nechama Leibowitz noted that the sages were ready to excommunicate him, as she cites from the Torah Temimah (Rabbi Baruch Epstein):
“Such a deed must be animated by a genuine, unadulterated spirit of zeal to advance the glory of God. In this case, who can tell whether the perpetrator is not really prompted by some selfish motive, maintaining that he is doing it for the sake of God, when he has actually committed murder? That was why the Sages wished to excommunicate Pinchas, had not the Holy Spirit testified that his zeal for God was genuine. “
One could say Pinchas came by his passionate nature honestly. After all, this was a known character trait of his great-great grandfather, Levi. Some commentaries even suggest that this is one reason for the Torah mentioning that Zimri, the man whom Pinchas slew, was a prince of the tribe of Shimon. Shimon and Levi started out as a pair of zealous brothers willing to decimate Shechem after the immoral treatment of their sister Dinah. Levi, however, took that fire and passion and, over time, transformed it into a zealotry for God. The tribe of Shimon, thousands of whom died for their sins at Baal Peor, remained passionate people who never fully channelled that energy in the right direction. (Idea from the Tzena U’rena).
The factors of Pinchas’ life – being born before the kahuna, being born with the passion of a Levite, being a student and nephew of Moshe, and, even, perhaps, being just a tad bit of an outsider – were all important factors in Pinchas’ ability to be a true zealot.
It is written in the commentary of Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch:
Until now, Pinchas did not bear the character of a priest. But just like the tribe of Levi by their coming to the fore at the Golden Calf attained the rank of “Levites,” which made them worthy of their then being expressly chosen, so did Pinchas by his rescuing deed…truly act as a kohain, showing the way, and achieved the atoning devotion which the avodah of the priests in the Sanctuary symbolically performed.”
One further interesting note. In this week’s parsha, Pinchas is also granted a Bris Shalom, about which Nechama Leibowitz quotes the Netziv:
In reward for turning away the wrath of the Holy One, blessed be He, He blessed him with the attribute of peace, that he should not be quick tempered or angry. Since It was only natural that such a deed as Pinchas’ should leave in his heart an intense emotional unrest afterward, the Divine blessing was designed to cope with this situation and promised peace and tranquility of soul.
Had someone else other than Pinchas done such a deed they would probably have received a different reward. But as that is true, it must also be stated that the very factors that made it the right reward for him are the factors that led him to be the man that he was.
To understand the question, let me first present a brief review of the priesthood. Initially, the firstborn of Israel were meant to form the priesthood. However, one of the repercussions of the incident of the Golden Calf was that the firstborn lost that mandate. It was given, instead, to the Levites, who not only refrained from participating in the Golden Calf but who zealously responded when Moshe declared “Whosoever is on God’s side, let him come to me” (Exodus 32:26). Later, God specified the kahuna to Aaron and his sons and all that would be born to them.
Zealotry, passion, seems to be a necessary factor in attaining the priesthood, at least in the original generations. Yet one must ask, could Pinchas have been given a place in the priesthood if he had been a zealous man from any tribe other than a Levi and if he hadn’t been a descendant of Aaron?
It must have been hard growing up as the one Aaronite who wasn’t going to be a kohain. First there was all the fanfare around the dedication of the priests and then there was the necessarily detailed training of the upcoming generation. By the time Pinchas’ father took over the role of Kohain Gadol, were some of Pinchas’ young cousins already starting to serve in the Mishkan? How must Pinchas have felt during Korach’s rebellion, when so much of the argument seemed to revolve around the “special treatment” of his family?
These reflections on Pinchas’ state of mind are significant because it makes it easy to understand why his intentions might have been misunderstood - why anyone could have dared to have thought “Have you seen this grandson of Puti, the father of whose mother used to fatten calves for idolatry (referring to his other grandfather, Yitro!), and he has dared to slay a prince of one of Israel’s tribes!” (Rashi, citing Sanhedrin 82b). The commentaries explain that God’s statement that “Pinchas ben Elazar ben Aaron Hakohain has turned back My wrath from the Israelites by displaying among them his passion for Me…” was a Divine intervention to make certain that no one doubted the purity of Pinchas’ zealotry.
What else could they have thought? With a background like Pinchas, they could easily have suspected him of being a man out to prove his worth. He could very well have been misunderstood as an outcast who had no definite place. Nechama Leibowitz noted that the sages were ready to excommunicate him, as she cites from the Torah Temimah (Rabbi Baruch Epstein):
“Such a deed must be animated by a genuine, unadulterated spirit of zeal to advance the glory of God. In this case, who can tell whether the perpetrator is not really prompted by some selfish motive, maintaining that he is doing it for the sake of God, when he has actually committed murder? That was why the Sages wished to excommunicate Pinchas, had not the Holy Spirit testified that his zeal for God was genuine. “
One could say Pinchas came by his passionate nature honestly. After all, this was a known character trait of his great-great grandfather, Levi. Some commentaries even suggest that this is one reason for the Torah mentioning that Zimri, the man whom Pinchas slew, was a prince of the tribe of Shimon. Shimon and Levi started out as a pair of zealous brothers willing to decimate Shechem after the immoral treatment of their sister Dinah. Levi, however, took that fire and passion and, over time, transformed it into a zealotry for God. The tribe of Shimon, thousands of whom died for their sins at Baal Peor, remained passionate people who never fully channelled that energy in the right direction. (Idea from the Tzena U’rena).
The factors of Pinchas’ life – being born before the kahuna, being born with the passion of a Levite, being a student and nephew of Moshe, and, even, perhaps, being just a tad bit of an outsider – were all important factors in Pinchas’ ability to be a true zealot.
It is written in the commentary of Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch:
Until now, Pinchas did not bear the character of a priest. But just like the tribe of Levi by their coming to the fore at the Golden Calf attained the rank of “Levites,” which made them worthy of their then being expressly chosen, so did Pinchas by his rescuing deed…truly act as a kohain, showing the way, and achieved the atoning devotion which the avodah of the priests in the Sanctuary symbolically performed.”
One further interesting note. In this week’s parsha, Pinchas is also granted a Bris Shalom, about which Nechama Leibowitz quotes the Netziv:
In reward for turning away the wrath of the Holy One, blessed be He, He blessed him with the attribute of peace, that he should not be quick tempered or angry. Since It was only natural that such a deed as Pinchas’ should leave in his heart an intense emotional unrest afterward, the Divine blessing was designed to cope with this situation and promised peace and tranquility of soul.
Had someone else other than Pinchas done such a deed they would probably have received a different reward. But as that is true, it must also be stated that the very factors that made it the right reward for him are the factors that led him to be the man that he was.
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