Torah Reading – Pinchas
This week’s Torah Reading – Pinchas, is a natural continuation from last week’s Parsha which told of the zealousness of Pinchas in fighting against the Chillul Hashem which was happening.
Torah Reading – Pinchas
In this week’s Torah portion, Pinchas, at the beginning of the Torah Reading, the Torah tells us the name of the Midianite lady who was killed by Pinchas, Kosbi the daughter of Tzur. Tzur was one of the Midianite leaders. Rashi says that this verse reveals the deep hatred that Midian had for the Jewish people, that even a king was willing to debase his daughter in order to make the Jews sin, intending thereby that the Divine Presence would depart from them. Rashi goes on to say that Tzur was one of the five Midianite kings, and that originally he was considered number one, but since he disgraced himself by sending his daughter to do what she did, they moved him down to number three.
It would seem that one may ask, why did they move him down to number three? If he was disgraced, let them move him down to number 5, or force him to resign, why number three? True, the Sifsay Chachamim asks the question in the opposite direction, why number three and not number two, dethroning him from the top would have been enough, still I found my question asked by the Maskil LeDovid, why number three and not number five, and he answers what he answers.
I wish to add my own novel approach, and that is that the Midianites had a doubt regarding how to consider Tzur’s actions. On the one hand, he brought upon himself scorn for sending his daughter to break down the walls against promiscuity that were still extant until that time, [Source: Rashi (22,5)]. On the other hand, he did a great job, accomplishing exactly what Billam the wicked advised them to do, and indeed 24,000 Jews died in the Divine punishment that the Almight’y exacted because of this event. So since there were two sides of the coin, and they themselves couldn’t decide which was more significant, therefore they listed him as number three, right in the middle.
Breaking Down New Barriers
What does a person do when he lives in a society when even breaking down new barriers doesn’t seem to bother anybody?
Like for example, when a high ranking government official who is daily in the limelight, a person who his supporters look up to as a personal example, gets caught in the most terrible of acts, deeds that break down the basic fiber of the family, his family, which is of course a microcosm of the national society as a whole, because when people see that he doesn’t refrain from acting out his crazy imaginative fantasies why should the next person exert himself to refrain, and yet amazingly enough people can’t figure out whether he should resign or not. They have a side to say that maybe it relates to his own personal life, which has nothing to do with what he was elected for?!?
I would say that a person has to strengthen himself to understand what is correct, and to live that way even though the mainstream are dropping like flies. Like the character trait of Avram HaIvri, which the Medrash tells us that the Torah calls Avraham “Ivri” because he considered himself like on the other side (aiver) of the river, that even though everyone was doing otherwise, idol worship (and idol marketing), he clung to his beliefs to worship the Almight’y alone.
Boruch Rappaport
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