Parashat Pinchas 5782

by Rabbi Margie Cella

At the end of Parashat Chukat the men of Israel were being drawn into idolatry and immorality by the women of Moab. The plague was finally stayed when Aaron’s grandson Pinchas ran a spear through a couple who were fornicating in the tabernacle. As a result, God said that the priesthood would be established through his descendants.

God then commanded Moses and Eleazer to take a census of all those aged twenty or older. The names of all the families in all the tribes are given; not one of them was counted in the previous survey thirty-eight years earlier—those men had all died in the wilderness, except for Joshua and Caleb.

Next Moses was approached by the five daughters of Zelophchad, whose father had died without having any sons. The women petitioned Moses to give them their father’s inheritance; God instructed him to grant their request.

Next God instructed Moses to go up to the mountain, from where he would be able to see the land before he died, as he was not permitted to enter the land. At Moses’ request, God designated Joshua to be his successor.

The final chapter delineates the various sacrifices that God requires for all the different days of the year. 

This week’s haftarah is connected to the calendar rather than the parashah. It is the first of the three haftarot of admonition that are read in the three weeks between the 17^th of Tammuz (July 17^th this year), which marks the day the Babylonians first breached the walls of Jerusalem in 586 BCE, and Tisha B’Av (August 7), the day on which the Temple(s) were destroyed. It tells the story of God calling Jeremiah to be a prophet, instructing him to say everything that God puts into his mouth. Jeremiah is to foretell the impending doom of the nation when they will be invaded by a foreign nation because they have been unfaithful to God. Nevertheless, the prophecy ends on a positive note, affirming the holiness of the people; the relationship between Israel and God is portrayed as a bride and her groom.

May we use this time to examine our own relationships with God and commit ourselves anew to observance of the mitzvot. May we as women also be like the daughters of Zelophchad, claiming our inheritance and our place in the nation.

Hazak v’Ematz—be strong and courageous.