Pinchas

After Pinchas avenges Hashem's honor by slaying Zimri & the Midianite princess, Hashem tells Moshe; צרור את המדינים והכיתם אותם, antagonize the Midianites and smite them. The בן איש חי asks, why does it have to say צרור את המדינים antagonize the Midianites when it says והכיתם אותם smite them. Is there any greater antagonizing than killing them?

Additionally, the next posuk gives the reason as כי צררים הם לכם , because they antagonized you. The real reason is because they caused them to sin. Shouldn't it have said כי החטיאו לכם, because they caused them to sin ?

The Midrash says that we learn from here that one who causes his friend to sin is worse that one who kills his friend. The reason for this is that one who kills his friend removes him from this world, but one who causes his friend to sin removes him from this world & the world to come. There were two nations who tried to physically destroy us: Edom & Egypt, & two who tried to destroy us spiritually: Ammon & Moav.
Regarding Edom & Egypt the Torah tells us לא תתעב do not abhor them, but regarding Ammon & Moav it says 'לא יבא עמוני ומואבי בקהל ה, the Ammoni & Moavi can never be part of the Jewish people for it's worse the one who causes others to sin than the one who kills us. Therefore it says צרור את המדינים, antagonize them.

The sefer Zichron Meir says that we really see this concept from the pesukim themselves. The Midianites did two things to the Jews. First, they caused them to sin & second the caused thousands to die in a plague. The sin that they committed is stated explicitly in the pesukim, however the plague where thousands died is only hinted at, showing that the Torah's viewpoint is that spiritual devastation is worse than physical devastation. However, by people it's usually the opposite. If someone caused physical harm to someone he won't be forgiven & whomever he damaged will try to get retribution. On the other hand, When if someone caused someone else to sin its usually forgiven with great benevolence.

There's a story told about הגאון רב משה פיינשטיין. When he was a Rav in Russia there was a Jew in town who was disenchanted & would make tremendous problems for the other Jews in town. He would constantly run to the government to tell them what they Jews had done wrong. One day this man got very sick & was about to die. On his deathbed he gave a note to the chevra kadisha that said he regrets all the trouble he put everyone through & wants forgiveness for his wrong doing. He asked that they bury him like an animal outside the graveyard in disgrace, & that way he will have some atonement for his sins.

The chevra kadisha came to Reb Moshe to ask what to do. He answered that according to halacha one is not in charge of his body, therefore he cannot control what happens to his body after his death. Therefore, we must do like the halacha requires & give him a regular Jewish burial. They were bewildered. Here the man wants us to disgrace him so that he can get forgiveness for his sins, so why can't we do it? Rav Moshe answered, our job is to do what the halacha states & not what a person wants. Therefore, we have to bury him like tha halacha states & that is a regular burial. So they did as he told them.
Some time goes by & the caretaker of the graveyard sees people from the government are coming to check up on this mans grave even going so far as to open up the grave to see what's inside. The caretaker went over to them to see what was going on. They told him that this man had sent them a letter before he died saying that the Jews hated him because he would snitch to the government & that they would bury him like an animal in disgrace, so they were checking to see how he was buried. If it was in fact true, the whole town would suffer. When the caretaker told the people of the town what happened they all saw how right Rav Moshe was by sticking to the Halacha.

Maybe that's why it says צררים הם לכם, because they antagonized you, instead of because they caused you to sin, to teach us this lesson. If someone causes you to sin it should be antagonizing to you & you shouldn't just brush it off.
The reason why it also says to antagonize them when it says to kill them, is to teach us a lesson. Killing them was only able to be done at that time, not in today's times. Therefore it says to antagonize them to teach us that when someone tries to get you to sin you have to antagonize them & get them away from you & not be nice & forgiving, for when it comes to Torah values we have to be strong & unyielding.
If we can strengthen ourselves to avoid temptation we will be one step closer to the coming of Moshiach in our day!

Balak

When Bilaam finally came to Balak to aid him in his quest to curse the Jews, he blessed them, instead. He began by saying כי מראש צרים אראנו ומגבעות אשורנו , for from its origin, I see it rock-like, and from the hills do I view it.

Rashi explains that he was saying, I look at their origin, their roots, seeing them entrenched & strong like the אבות & אמהות. The Midrash says that  צרים, rocks, refer to the אבות while מגבעות , hills, refer to the  אמהות.

The בן איש חי brings our attention to an anomaly that we find by the Patriarchs & Matriarchs of our nation. Avraham, as we know, was unable to have children until Hashem performed a miracle for him. All the  אמהות , as well, were barren until Hashem healed them. Why was that? It can't be that it happened by chance. What was the reason for this inability to naturally have children?

He explains as follows. When a person brings a child into the world, he is also considered to have fathered his grandchildren & great grandchildren throughout the generations. After all, he is the one who empowered his son to have children as well as his son after him. What Hashem wanted to do here was sever the ties that the כלל ישראל would have had with the ancestors of our  אמהות & אבות; that Terach, Lavan, Besual etc should not have any connection to our nation. Therefore, Hashem made them all barren so that their power to conceive came not from their parents, but rather from Hashem Himself.

This, says the בן איש חי, is how we can explain what Hashem said to Bilaam: לא תאור את העם כי ברוך הוא , you shall not invoke curse upon the people, for it is blessed! You have no possibility to curse the children of the אמהות & אבות for they are blessed. If you should think that you can curse them as the children of Terach or Lavan for they aren't blessed, know that because the אמהות & אבות were barren, there are no ties to those people anymore so the curses can't  take effect.

Why was it so important for Hashem to sever all ties to the fathers of our forefathers ?

The end of that posuk says, הן עם לבדד ישכן ובגוים לא יתחשב, behold! It is a nation that will dwell in solitude and not be reckoned among the nations. The Bais Halevi says that Bilaam recognized the destiny of the Jewish nation; that as long as they dwell in solitude & don't mingle with the other nations, they will dwell in peace & no one will be able to have power over them. This is how he reads the posuk: הן עם לבדד , if they will be in solitude, then  ישכן , they will dwell peacefully. However ובגוים, if they will mix with the nations,   לא יתחשב , then Hashem will cause that they won't be reckoned among them, rather they will be scorned by them.

This scorn that the nations have for us which helps keep us apart from them, is exemplified by this story. Once the Besh"t was on his way back from the mikva when he saw a group of gentiles standing around. He thought to himself, I hope none of them touch me rendering me impure. As he walked by, he heard one of them say to his friend, “be careful; don't let that Jew touch you & contaminate you.” When the Besh"t would relate this story, he would explain that this is the meaning of Bilaam's words. We are able to remain a nation that dwells in solitude because the gentile looks down on us

Perhaps this is why Hashem had to sever all ties with our forefathers’ fathers. In order for our nation to truly live alone, we must not have any ties to the outside world. If we were still considered descendants of Terach, etc, then we would still be connected to that world. The only way our nation can survive is by being a nation alone. Hashem had to sever all ties for us to remain unique & alone ensuring the survival of the Jewish people!

Chukas

The gemara in Sanhedrin Daf 111A relates a story that רבי אלעזר ברבי יוסי once was in Alexandria in Egypt and an old Mitzri said to him, “come, let me show you what my forefathers did to your forefathers. He showed him places where they drowned them, where they killed them by sword & even places where there were Jewish bones & hair still embedded in the buildings.

The gemara continues saying that it’s because of those atrocities that Moshe Rabbainu was punished. Once Moshe saw what was happening to the Jewish people, he began to question Hashem saying , למה הרעתה לעם הזה why did You do bad to this nation? Since I came to speak to Pharaoh for this nation, things just got worse. Why did You send me?

Hashem says, “Woe to the ones that are lost for I can't find followers like the Avos who never questioned me. The gemara then goes on to list instances where, seemingly, the Avos were mistreated by Hashem yet they never questioned. It ends off with Hashem saying to Moshe, “You will see what I will do to Pharaoh; the war against Pharaoh you will see, but the war against the thirty one kings that will be waged to enter the land you won't see because you will die before the people enter the land.

Our Parsha says יען לא האמנתם בי להקדישני לעיני בני ישראל לכן לא תביאו את הקהל הזה אל הארץ , because you didn't believe in me to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you will not bring this congregation into the land. Moshe can't enter the land because he hit the rock instead of speaking to it.

Did he lose the right to go into the land because he questioned Hashem or because he hit the rock?
Also, asks the Midrash why was Aaron also punished? He didn't hit the rock nor did he question Hashem?

Rashi says that the sin of הצאן ובקר ישחט can cattle & flock be slaughtered, was a worse sin since it appeared that Moshe was questioning Hashem’s ability to provide food for the nation. However, there was no punishment because it was done in private. Here, where it was public, Hashem punished him. Maybe that's why, even though Hashem had said that Moshe wouldn't go in because of למה הרעתה לעם הזה ,the Maharsha says he could have still changed the verdict because it was done in private. Once he disobeyed Hashem in front of the entire nation, his fate was sealed. The question, though, remains: why does Aaron deserve punishment?

There's a story told about רבי ישראל מריזין who saw one of his sons getting angry at one of his disciples. When the son saw that his father knew what he did & didn't say anything, he continued to get angry at the disciple. Then רבי ישראל said to his son, “we see by Moshe that he hit the rock twice which was considered a grave sin. One time it’s possible to lose yourself but if you do it again, then you let your anger control you. Moshe, who hit the rock twice, let his anger control him; therefore he was punished.  

Perhaps this is where Aaron’s punishment comes in. Aaron was known to make peace & calm peoples anger. When Moshe questioned Hashem, he could have tried to talk to him & explain that Hashem has a plan. Then, after Moshe hit the rock the first time, too, Aaron should have calmed him down not allowing him to do it again. Because he didn't, he was punished too. It’s not enough just for us not to do the wrong things. If we have the power to stop people around us who are doing the wrong things, we can’t stand idly by; we have to be able to influence & teach them the proper way!

Korach

In relating the story of Korach's rebellion, the Torah tells us his lineage: ויקח קרח בן יצהר בן קהת בן לוי , Korach son of Izhar son of Kehus son of Levi separated himself.

Rashi explains why the Torah stopped his lineage at Levi & didn't mention Yaakov for Yaakov had asked for mercy that his name not be mentioned in the dispute.

All the commentators ask of what benefit would it be to Yaakov not to have his name mentioned when everyone knows Korach was his great grandson?

One answer given by רבי אליהו לופיאן is that normally, when one references a person, it doesn't go further than his father unless one recounts a story. In such a case, one will reference until the person from whom that person inherited the trait. For example , the story of Pinchas says פנחס בן אלעזר בן אהרן הכהן stating his lineage until his grandfather.

Rashi comments that since the shevatim were embarrassing him, the Torah made a point of showing from where this trait came; from a place of purity like Aaron Hakohen. In another example, the lineage of the daughters of Tzelofchad is listed until Yosef. Rashi, therefore explains it was because they loved the land just like Yosef.  

Since that's the only time we reference people past their father, Yaakov's prayer was that Korach wouldn't be referenced after him implying that this trait of Korach's came from him, Yaakov. Therefore, he tried to remedy whatever this deficiency was that would ultimately cause this מחלוקת, rightfully taking the blame off himself.

The question that immediately comes to mind is, how could we blame Korach's rebellion on Yaakov? What character trait of Yaakov's could possibly have caused Korach to rebel?

Maybe we can answer this question based on the אזנים לתורה's explanation of why Yaakov didn't want his name mentioned. He answers by explaining what Yaakov meant when he said he didn't want his name mentioned. He didn't want Korach to mention his name in his arguments, saying that Yaakov also tried to usurp his brother to get the bechora, which at that time was the Kehuna. He also risked his life to overcome Eisav. So Korach could have said, I'm just doing what Yaakov did. Had he used that argument, he might have gotten many more followers. Yaakov's prayer was that Korach shouldn’t get the idea to use his name.  

Rav Sholom Schwadron told over a story that happened when the state of Israel was first established. All the men had to go into the army but official rabbis were exempt.
There was one man who was a teacher in the local Talmud Torah who would have had to go to the army, however he didn't want to. In order to get out of going, he looked to become the rabbi of a shul. He found a small shul in his neighborhood & soon became the rabbi. However, the Rav of the city was not happy that he took over that shul.

The man went to the Chazon Ish & told him what was happening, how he took over the shul & was giving classes & boosting the shul. The Chazon Ish told him that if there is a Rav in the city & you go & take over a shul you cause him pain so don't step foot in that shul again.

The man walked out dejected. The Chazon Ish had never treated him so harshly before. After some time he went back in & asked, why did you give me such a tough p'sak?
The Chazon Ish answered him, had you told me you wanted to become rabbi in that shul in order to make a living because you had no parnasa then you would have had a valid shaila. However, to make" מחלוקת.ל "שם שמים is unacceptable & one of the worst things you could do.

Perhaps this is how we could answer the question we had on רבי אליהו לופיאן. One can always find a way to twist the actions of the previous generations to suit one’s needs. One can always come up with some convoluted reason why what he’s doing is correct basing it on some לשם שמים argument. Yaakov's prayer that he not find a way to blame his rebellion on him teaches us not to try to rationalize the Torah to turn it to our way of thinking!