by R. Yosef Serebryanski
(Numbers 25:11) “Pinchas son of Elozer son of Aharon the kohain.” Aharon the High Priest was known for his intense love of Hashem and for each individual Jew. Pinchas inherited his grandfather’s depth of love which guided his life.
(Song of Songs 5:8) “I adjure you, daughter of Jerusalem, if you will find my beloved, what will you tell him? that I am sick with love.” The Zohar (1, 122a) explains that the Divine presence makes all Jewish souls that come into this world swear (empowering them) that they will tell Hashem about how sick they are in their love to Him. With love sickness, a person also becomes blind to many other matters.
We find that the love that Yitzchok had for his son Esav made him blind to the negative behavior of his son. Yitzchok was reincarnated into Pinchas while Esav was reincarnated into Zimri. Pinchas killed Zimri to correct the blindness of Yitzchok.
Initially in creation everything was whole with the Divine presence clearly visible everywhere. Following the time when Adam and Eve brought imbalance into existence, the Divine was no longer clearly visible everywhere. A person who truly loves the Creator yearns for the day when the Creator’s presence will be clearly visible once again.
Despite the existing imbalances in society, the Jewish people continuously proclaim their intense love for Hashem. All of the suffering and challenges that they have constantly experienced has not stopped their yearning for the Divine Presence (their beloved). that it should have full expression in our world.
Because of his complete love for Hashem, Pinchas could not contain himself when confronting a public figure who was desecrating the honor of Hashem. Thus, he simply reacted. (Psalms 106:30) “Pinchas, who was concerned about Hashem’s honor, rose and acted (executed judgement) and thus the plague was halted.” It does not say he first prayed. Instead, he made a judgement to act to defend the honor of Hashem. His pure love of Hashem made him act as a zealot. Hashem accepted his action, stopped the plague and even rewarded him.
(Zohar, Pinchos 237b) The name “Pinchas” is a name made up of two words, pnei – face or internal and chos – mercy, affection, kindness, concern. “Chos” is numerically sixty-eight the same numerical value as the word Chayim – life. (Proverbs 16:15) “In the light of the King’s face is life.”
(Numbers 25:11) “He turned back (in Hebrew heishiv) my anger from upon the Children of Israel, when he zealously avenged my vengeance from among them, and I did not destroy the Children of Israel with My vengeance.” The Torah does not use the word api for my anger but “chamosi”. “Chamosi” is composed of four letters. The two middle letters are “mem and tav” that form the word “met” – death. The two end letters “chet and yud” form the word “chai” – life. The verse can also be understood as “he restored (heishiv) by rearranging the letters of the word “chamosi” to read “chosomi,” to set my seal on the children of Israel.” The letters can also be read as “chai tom” – “life, simple, pure” meaning that he responded with pure simplicity thus stopping the plague.
The Zohar (in the portion of Pinchas) states that he took the spiritual energy of the letter mem from the word met (death) which is numerically forty and added it to his name which has the numerical value of two hundred and eight. The total is two hundred and forty-eight. This is the same numerical value as the word romach – spear. In other words, he took vibrational energy from the plague of death that was killing people and connected it with his frequency. He utilized that combined energy to kill two people in one move.
The letters in the name Pinchas have the same numerical value as the letters in the name Yitzchak – 208. Just as Yitzchak was willing to give up his life for Hashem at the akeida, so too, Pinchas was willing to sacrifice his life in order to stop the plague. The kindness of Abraham is reflected in the name Pinchas. As stated previously the second part of the name of Pinchas – chas denotes mercy, affection, kindness, concern. These are all the attributes of Abraham.
Zimri “knew” that Kosbi was supposed to be his mate since the beginning of creation. He did not know that their union was supposed to take place in the future, when he reincarnated into Rabbi Akiva and Kosbi into Rabbi Akiva’s wife (She was previously the wife of Turnusrupus and then she converted). Zimri acted upon a misinterpretation of the information that he possessed. He did not seek to know the fine details about his situation. Thus, he believed that he could act in the way he did. See note #1below.
Moshe also saw that they were destined to be together as decreed from the beginning of creation. Yet he also knew that this was not the correct time. Thus, he was unsure about how Hashem would want him to respond. Pinchas, who did not see this spiritual connection, only saw what they were doing in the present. He simply responded to what he saw as an act dishonoring Hashem, and so he responded accordingly. See note #2 below
(Numbers 26:11) “And the sons of Korach did not die.” In every generation we have people who like to create division among people. Sons of Korach also reflects those who continue the rebellious conduct of Korach, which has not stopped.
May the Creator continue to sustain those of pure heart and soul as they seek to quell the violence and destruction caused by those of turbulent nature. May the lovers of the Creator grow exponentially as others decrease and diminish until they have totally disappeared.
Interesting connection to the above story in this parsha.
Note #1 We find a similar matter (Genesis 39:7) with the wife of Potifar who saw in the stars that Yosef was supposed to be her husband. She did not understand that what she saw was about something that would happen in the future. She was reincarnated into Rochov and Yosef into Yehoshua.
Note #2 In Shechem, Shimon killed twenty-four thousand people after they circumcised themselves. That is the reason that (Numbers 25:9) twenty-four thousand of the tribe of Shimon died in the plague. Zimri, who was a leader in the tribe of Shimon, reincarnated in Rabbi Akiva, Kosbi reincarnated into his wife. Twenty-four thousand students of Rabbi Akiva died. The name Akiva is made up of the same letters as the name Yaakov reflecting that he had an incarnation of Yaakov. This reflects that he had a part of Yaakov within him. He also had a part of a reincarnation of Shimon. Hashem told Yaakov (Genesis 35:1) “Rise go up to Bais El”. The acronym for the first letters of those words in Hebrew is Akiva.