Lili Little
Parashat Pinchas offers a wealth of stories and information to choose from in preparing a D'var Torah. It begins with Pinchas, in a rage, having killed an Israelite man and Moabite woman because their immorality profaned G-d's name. What right did Pinchas have to take the law into his own hand? His actions ostensibly stave off a far more severe plague than the one the Israelites would soon suffer. But most postbiblical commentators criticize Pinchas' fanaticism as a dangerous precedent. The Talmud says that, had Pinchas asked the rabbinical court for permission to kill Zimri and Cozbi, it would have said "the law may permit it but we do not follow that law". Rabbi Elkin's Torah Thought in this week's Narayever Net sheds more light on this difficult story of fanaticism vs. passion.
Then there is the census commanded by G-d and the next story, which involves Moses learning that he will die in the wilderness after viewing the promised land from the mountain outside it. He is to be replaced by Joshua who will inherit Moses's authority. After all Moses had been through as a faithful servant to G-d, was this punishment warranted? Perhaps not, but Moses' greatness shows in his response to this edict, a concern for his people's future rather than any self-pity.
And there are the daughters of Zelophehad - Mahlah, Noa, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah, whose case defined the law of succession. Their father has died, leaving behind no sons and they want to inherit their father's property rather than have it go to their male relatives, the legal norm at the time. Moses brings their case to G-d's attention, and G-d responds by saying that the daughters should receive a share of their father's inheritance, along with his other relatives. Moreover, the law in general was to be changed so that if a man has no sons, his daughters are to inherit. The daughters were treated more justly than they might have been during those times, but still did not really inherit their father's land, rather they transferred it from father to grandson, therefore keeping the ancestral land in their father's line.
The bulk of this rich parasha is taken up with the establishment of the religious calendar that will prevail when Israel is established. The Etz Chaim Chumash says that "the Israelites first duty upon settling in their land was to institute the proper lines of communion with the Lord, through the medium of the sacrificial system".
However what I found particularly interesting in researching Pinchas, and would like to discuss with you this morning, are the connections drawn between the torah portion and its associated Haftarah by Rabbi Susan Fendrick in the Women's Haftorah Commentary. She says that one thematic connection between the two stands out clearly. Elijah the prophet is on a divine mission, sent to turn the Israelites from their idol worship to the worship of the One G-d. While Pinchas acts on his own initiative, the rabbinic tradition walks a fine line between praising his intervention and warning that it is not to be imitated or repeated. Elijah, on the other hand, is demoralized at the difficulty of the task before him and G-d has to strengthen his (Elijah's) resolve. His retreat to Mount Horeb is one of forty days and forty nights, echoing Moses' journey up Mount Sinai. This association further reinforces Elijah's greatness by connecting him to the greatest of our Prophets.
So, as Rabbi Fendrick suggests, Haftarah Pinchas might easily be known as the story of a great man taking up a difficult task in defense of G-d. But its teachings are greater and deeper, its lessons less dramatic but no less profound.
On Mount Horeb G-d appears to Elijah, asking him "mah l'cha po, Eliyahu - why are you here"? When asked twice Elijah responds with the identical answer - "that while the Israelites have forsaken G-d, I have been true to you and they now seek my life". Why does G-d ask Elijah the same question twice, even though he gets the same response each time? The reason that the question must be asked a second time is because of the weakness of even the great prophet Elijah in offering an identical answer, and hinting at a path of listening and responding that Elijah implicitly rejects, but that we must embrace and teach as a Jewish response. The first time Elijah describes why he is in retreat, demoralized by the difficulty of the work and daunted by the task before him G-d responds, in First Kings, Chapter 19.
" and behold, G-d passed by, and a great and strong wind split mountains, and shattered rocks before G-d: but G-d was not in the wind. And, after the wind, an earthquake, but G-d was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire, but G-d was not in the fire: and after the fire a kol d'mama daka - a still, small voice. And so it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entrance of the cave".
The first time it was the word of G-d that came to Elijah (v'hinei d'var YHVH elav) and then with a small change it is simply "a voice"(v'hinei elav kol) -a "still small voice" or a "sound of gentle stillness"
Elijah appears not to differentiate between the two responses. Most likely he, like Pinchas, favoured grand gestures over subtle action, - they felt the great wind and the splitting of the mountains and the shattering rocks. Elijah experienced the earthquake and lived through the fire and perceived G-d in these dramatic actions. But he missed entirely the fact that G-d was not in the wind, earthquake or fire, but in a voice of quiet and stillness. It is as if G-d wants Elijah to understand that there is a time for great gestures and there is a time for gentle voices. So G-d's message to Elijah was that G-d was not known only by mighty acts but also in the quiet after the greatness.
Elijah's identical responses indicate that he has not been changed by his experience. And G-d, recognizing the limitations of even one of G-d's greatest prophets, realizes that it is time for Elijah to also have a successor. G-d tells Elijah to anoint Elisha and Elijah, perhaps relieved, does so without hesitation.
So who or what is the gentle voice that Elijah didn't hear or understand as the voice of G-d? This brings us back to Parashat Pinchas and to the story of women raising their own voices - seeking justice - the daughters of Zelophehad.
It may seem that they gained only a little. It affected only one family and the results were hardly revolutionary. Yet when we see the similarity between G-d's next instruction to Moses and G-d's last instruction to Elijah in the Haftarah we know what Elijah missed - that the voice of G-d is heard not only in the grand gestures of those zealous on G-d's behalf, but wherever we take seriously questions of justice and ethics, where the claims of even a few are heard as so important that G-d might care about them and where change is possible even if it does not achieve everything in a moment. Moses understood this and appointed Joshua as his successor - a recognition that a person's life work can reach its pinnacle not just in the great moments but in small moments of listening and responding. Elijah was only comfortable in the dramatic and grand mode - Moses' greatness lay in his ability to lead in different ways in response to different needs, to act as G-d's emissary in the smaller moment, which was more than Elijah could do.
Learning from the story of the daughters of Zelophehad, Rabbi Fendrick feels that contemporary Jewish women may long for swifter change and transformation but, to succeed, must listen to quieter voices pressing for justice and change in small ways, and recognizing in them the voice of G-d. This challenges us to act in the Divine image as it appeared to Elijah, to hear and sometimes to speak with a "kol d,mama daka", a gentle, still, passionate voice.
SHABAT SHALOM