Pinchas

After failing miserably in his attempt to curse the Jews, Bilam seeks to drive them to ‎spiritual self-destruction. Their G-d does not tolerate immorality, he says to Balak. Therefore, entice them to act promiscuously. A Midianite woman succeeds in ensnaring Zimri, prince of the tribe of Shimon , into sinning in public, a catastrophe which demands an immediate, drastic response. Pinchas answers the call, and with spear in hand, kills the two. As a reward for his actions, Hashem blesses him with a covenant of peace and eternal priesthood. (Torah Treasury)

In describing Pinchas, the posuk tells us פינחס בן אלעזר בן אהרן הכהן‏, ‎Pinchas the son of Elazar, son of Aaron the Kohen. Rashhi explains that the reason the Torah had to trace him back to Aaron was because the people were humiliating him by saying, did you see this son of Puti whose mother’s father fattened calves for idolatry? Yet he killed a prince of a tribe of Israel!? Therefore, the Torah came & traces his ancestry to Aaron. 

‎The Bais Av says that this doesn't make sense. The people saw first hand that Hashem was angry at the people & that twenty-four thousand people died in a plague. As soon as Pinchas acted, the plague stopped. As well, even what they were saying about him was in no way a contradiction to what he did, so why were they humiliating him?

Reb Yonasan Eibschutz explains, really everyone agreed that what Pinchas did was correct.  However, in order to ‏placate their consciences that they stood by without acting, they said to themselves, “if one of us that's from a respected lineage would get up and avenge Hashem's honor, it wouldn't be that great a kiddush Hashem. However, when a lowly person goes against a prince to avenge Hashem's honor, that's a much greater kiddush Hashem & that was their intent.  He was from the lowly people & yet he did this, so a greater kiddush Hashem came out. 

The posuk tells us that he wasn't lowly a‎t all. Rather, he came from Aaron. Also, they were making a mistake for anyone can avenge Hashem’s honor; all of these calculations were just excuses for not doing the right thing. 

This teaches us that all the excuses we come up with for not doing the right thing, whether the excuse is: that I'm too good to help that person, it's beneath me; or I'm not good enough, for who am I to do such noble things? It’s all just an excuse. We have to realize that any one of us can do anything! I saw a story from Rabbi Yechiel Spero that exemplifies this point, how a simple man could do great things. This demonstrates that all of us can do whatever we put our minds to.

‎When Laibel was already an old man, he told this story that happened when he was a soldier in the Russian army. As Yom Kippur approached, he knew he was not going to get off from work, for only those that were incapacitated would be excused. Desperate to free himself from work on the holiest day of the year, he came up with a plan. 

Two days before Yom Kippur, he took a brick & smashed it into his mouth breaking his tooth. He bled profusely & his gums became swollen. He went to the medic who sent him to the dentist, who, with one look, knew that he would have to extract the tooth. Using no pain killers, the dentist just sat him down & tugged on the tooth until it came out. Laibel screamed in agony & nearly passed out from the pain. But when the dentist instructed him to rest for a few days he knew that it was all worth it. He did not have to work & was able to fast the entire day . 

Rav Chaim Kluft shared this story & added that after the elderly man told him this story, he smiled & revealed four gaps in his teeth , one for each year ‎he was in the army!

Balak

The previous parsha concludes with the victory of the Jewish people over the Amori ‎. This week, Balak, the king of Moav, fearful that the Jews will come to him next, hires Balaam to curse the Jewish people. ועתה לכה נא ארה לי את העם הזה, so now please come and curse this people for me. 

The Chafetz Chaim points out the stark difference between a Jew & non-Jew. When a Jew is in trouble, he goes to a Tzaddik to get a blessing & to have him pray ‎on his behalf that Hashem should help him. However, when Balak is in trouble, he doesn't go to get a blessing for himself, rather he goes to get his enemy cursed. 

The Ohr Hachaim points out that Balak knew that a blessing from Bilam would work, for the Midrash tells us that it was Bilam's blessing that helped ‎Balak become king to begin with. Balak knew that the blessing would work & yet he still asked that the Jews be cursed instead of having his nation blessed. 

Why would he not ask that his nation ‎be blessed? That would have a much better chance of success, for even if the Jews were cursed, there is still no guarantee that that would mean success for him; however, if he were blessed, all his adversaries would fall away.

The Beis Ramah explains that this is typical of the anti - Semitism that's displayed throughout our history. The gentile nations are more interested in our demise then their own success. The persecution of the Jew is a goal in itself. As we see throughout history, the curse boomerangs & they become its victims. 

In 1945, the situation of the German troops in Russia was desperate. The Russian winter ‎was wreaking havoc on the German army. Hitler, y"s, was nevertheless unwilling to divert the trains from transporting Jews to Auschwitz to save his own troops. 

The Chafetz Chaim told a story that drove home this point. Once, in a small village, there was an argument between the village supervisor & his neighbor. The neighbor threatened to report the supervisor’s shady dealings to the authorities. His wife begged him not to, reminding him it was the supervisor that arranged for our son to be absolved from military duty. If he is arrested, he will do everything in his power to have us arrested for draft dodging! The man, in his anger, shouted " it's worthwhile for you, me & our son to sit in jail as long as the supervisor is stripped of his power & goes down with us!"    

‎So blinding is strife, that even at the cost of our own success we need to see the failure of others. This was why Balak wanted the Jews cursed instead of his nation blessed, for his hatred was so strong, even to his detriment he wanted the Jews cursed. 

Perhaps the lesson we can take from this, is how Rav Shlomo Freifeld explained the verse "Who wants life‎? Guard your tongue from evil". Why is refraining from slander the key to life? He explained based on the Maharal, spring water is referred to in the Torah as מים חיים ,live water for the definition of life is independence. The spring is its own source of water & does not need to draw water from elsewhere. So, too, a person can build his self-image by focusing on his own intrinsic virtues or by focusing on the flaws of others. The Posuk is teaching us that if one wants to be really alive & independent, one must avoid at all costs bad mouthing others.   Focus instead on your own good points. Don't be like Balak, who only wanted to curse. Rather take the Chafetz Chaims's advice; don't be blinded by strife & only look to see the good!

Chukas

As the Jewish people continued their journey through the desert, they came to Sihon, the king of the Amorites, & asked him if they could peacefully pass through his land. He refused & came out to the desert to do battle with them. The Jewish people conquered him & settled in all the Amorite cities, in Heshbon and all its suburbs. The Torah then tells us the origins of this city of Heshbon, כי חשבון עיר סיחן מלך האמרי הוא, for Heshbon - it is the city of Sihon, king of the Amorite והוא נלחם במלך מואב הראשון ויקח את כל ארצו, and he had warred against the first king of Moab and took his land.   על כן יאמרו ‏המשלים , about this the poets would say באו חשבון, come to Heshbon.  

The gemara expounds this posuk as follows:  ‎על כן יאמרו המשלים, those that rule over their inclinations ‎say, בואו חשבון , let's make an accounting, how much we stand to gain from doing mitzvos & how much we stand to lose by doing avairos. The Chafetz Chaim says that the focal point of the yetzer hara is to make sure that we never sit down to make an accounting of where we are headed in life. Are we doing the right thing or the wrong thing. He ensures that we are too busy to ever stop & think about where we are headed. 

‎‏‎Rav Zacks (Chicago) wrote on באו חשבון , that we could never understand Hashems's chesbon, His reasons for doing what He does. The posuk prior to this informs us that originally the city of Heshbon was the city of Moav; however, since the Jews were commanded not to fight with Moav, they never could have gotten this land so Hashem had Sichon conquer Moav.   Now that the land belonged to Sichon, the Jews could conquer it. ‎Just think, when Sichon captured the land of Moav he thought he was expanding his kingdom. Little did he know that he was just doing it so that the Jewish people would be able to get it from him proving to us once again, that we have no idea why Hashem does what He does nor do we know what's the real cause of our actions. 

The sefer ברכי נפשי tells a story of a rabbi who had a cousin who was not religious.  No matter how much he tried to influence him, he refused to listen to anything & stayed as far away from religion as he could. The man's father passed away.  He sat shiva, said kaddish, but continued his life as before. A few years later, the man's mother passed away. The rabbi continued the story and said that a few months after that, he met his cousin again & now he was wearing a yarmulke.  He told him that he davens every day, keeps Shabbos, keeps kashrus & is on his way to keeping everything. Astonished, the rabbi asked his cousin what brought about the change? He said that when he was sitting shiva for his mother, one of his religious relatives came to visit.  As he was sitting there, he asked if I wanted to do something small & easy for my mother's soul.  Who wouldn't do small and easy for their mother?  So I said sure I'll do something easy. So he told me that on Friday afternoon before Shabbos, I should turn off the light in the fridge so that every time I open the fridge on Shabbos, I’m not turning on the light. That little part of Shabbos will be a merit for your mother's soul. That didn't seem too hard so I agreed. I did it every Friday toward evening. I turned off the light in the fridge. 

After a few weeks, I started thinking, if I'm not turning on the fridge light why am I turning on all the other lights in the house? I tried to ignore the question, but it kept bothering me ‏until I stopped turning on the lights in the whole house. After a few weeks, I started thinking, if I'm not using lights on Shabbos, why am I driving?  So I stopped driving & slowly I stopped all desecration of Shabbos. Then, one Friday night I thought to myself, I'm not using electric and I'm not driving, so what am I doing with my time? So I went to the shul where the rabbi greeted me warmly & invited me over to eat with him & his family. One thing led to another and I'm on my way to become fully religious. 

This is what it means when it says באו חשבון , take an accounting. Think about what we're doing. Sometimes we just have to look at what we're doing & ask ourselves the question. Are we doing enough? Is there a small thing we could change for the better? Can we help someone else? As we see, sometimes it's just a small suggestion that can make all the difference!

Korach

Immediately following the rebellion of Korach, the Torah tells us the laws of the offerings & all the gifts that the Kohanim receive. Rashi explains why these laws are presented here & not in Vayikra with all the other laws of the Kehuna. He explains that Korach came & protested against Aaron over the Kehuna, for  which the Torah gave Aaron the twenty four gifts of Kehuna with an eternal covenant.

I saw a fascinating p’shat from the Ben Ish Chai that could also explain why the laws of Teruma & Maaser are stated here, too.  ‎After the rebellion of Korach, Moshe took a stick from the leader of each tribe & put them in the Ohel‎. The Torah tells us that the next day Aaron’s stick blossomed ויצא פרח ויצץ ציץ, it brought forth a blossom, sprouted a bud & developed almonds. The Midrash tells us ויוצא פרח, is a hint to the sons of Aaron & ויצץ ציץ is referring to Aaron. 

The sefer זרע ברך questions the wording of the Midrash; why does it refer to the children of Aaron first? It should have  hinted to Aaron first, for the father always comes before the son. He answers that the main argument that Korach had wasn't against Aaron; it was really against his sons. He wanted to eliminate them from the possibility of becoming the Kohen Gadol so that he would be able to get it. Therefore, the Torah put the sons first to show that they, too, were worthy of being the Kohen Gadol. 

The Ben Ish Chai explains based on the words of Rabbeinu Bachya who says that the reason Aaron was chosen was because of the laws of Maaser, that the tenth one is holy. Just like when one separates masser from the animals, he brings all the animals into the pen & then, one by one he lets them out. As they leave the pen, the tenth one is holy. This way, the last animal in would be the first one out & so on until the first one in is the last one out. 

This is also why Shevet Levi became holy, for if you count from the last shevet up, Shevet Levi is number ten so they became the kohanim & Leviim. Now, continuing this way and counting from the children, Aaron would be number ten & that would make him the Kohen Gadol.  However, in this manner, Korach would be number twelve ‎. The two people in line before him were Aaron’s two children. So here was Korach’s argument. We know that when Nadav & Avihu were killed, the Torah informed us that really there was a judgment against all of Aaron’s children. However, the prayers of Moshe helped to save Elazar & ithamar. Korach’s  claim was that your prayers saved them but that shouldn't be on my back. If they weren't here, I would be the kohen gadol your prayers can't take away what's coming to me. It shows that Korach's whole claim was on the sons of Aaron, so that's why the Torah mentioned them first. 

We see something else from the Teruma that's mentioned here.  Perhaps that could demonstrate how we have to view leadership roles to begin with. The posuk says ונחשב לכם תרומתכם כדגן מן הגורן, your set aside portion shall be for you like grain from the threshing floor. Reb Zisha explains that the Torah is hinting that if a person is given a leadership role, one shouldn't think that it's because he is greater than other people. Rather, because it's impossible to have a nation without leaders, Hashem was forced to pick someone & the lot fell on him. Just like by teruma, even though now it's holy, the piece of grain that you separated is no different than any other piece ‎except that that's were your hand landed when you separated it. This is what the Torah is telling us.  Just because someone might have a leadership role, he shouldn’t let it get to his head.  He shouldn’t be like Korach trying any which way to get into a leadership position.  Rather, if it falls on him, it should be in his eyes just like the grain from the threshing floor, where no one grain is better than the next. 

‎We see that the other leaders understood this lesson, for it says that the next day all the leaders came back & took their sticks but only Aarons sprouted. So, what do we care, asks the רבי ממאגילניצא , that the other leaders took their sticks.  It was only Aaron’s that mattered.  He answers that to show their humility, they took their sticks & showed them to everyone to prove that they were not the ones that Hashem had chosen.  Rather, it was only Aaron who was chosen by Hashem. 

We have to take this to heart & realize that whenever we find ourselves in a leadership role, whether in business, family or community, we must act with the utmost humility & only then will we succeed! 

Shelaach

As the time draws near for the Jews to enter the land of Israel, their ‎lack of perfect faith causes them to send spies to survey the land. Unfortunately, the spies come back with a less than favorable report which furthers the nation's lack of faith in Hashem who had promised them that the land was good. As the spies are delivering their report, Calev gets up & counters their claims saying that we could go up & conquer the land. The spies retort back לא נוכל לעלות אל העם כי חזק הוא ממנו, we cannot ascend to that nation for it is stronger than we are. Rashi says that when they said it is stronger than us, they were saying that against Hashem. 

The Chafetz Chaim asks how is it possible that ‎they could say such stupidity? Is there anyone stronger in the world than Hashem? They, of all people, know of Hashem's might firsthand; how could they even think for a second that Hashem couldn't bring them into the land?

He answers by explaining how the yetzer hara works.  His job is to try to constantly outwit us; so what does he do? He plays us both ways. There are times when he has us feeling all proud & haughty that we’re doing the right thing, that we fear Hashem & He loves us. However, when the yetzer hara sees that we want to do something good to try to ‎strengthen ‎ourselves in a certain area that we may be lacking, he uses the opposite tactic. He makes one start to think, who am I to try to do this? These kind of improvements are only for the select few, the holy ones that are of pure spirit & mind, not for us regular people. Then he puts in our mind things that we might have done in the past that weren't good, to show us, how can we even think about being holy.  He convinces us not to take on the improvements we wanted to.    

In this instance too, when the spies came & saw the land with the people that they had to conquer, the yetzer hara came to them & said, “to conquer a nation like this you need to have great merit; however, your nation is a bunch of complainers. Not only that, they had made the eigel (although they had done teshuva). How can you expect Hashem to go to battle for them”?  This is what brought them down.  Then, they came to the nation & told them how powerful the people there were & that they just don't have the merit needed to have Hashem win the battle for them. 

The Chafetz Chaim explains what the answer of Calev & Yehoshua was. They said that that's not how Hashem works;‎ one doesn't have to be the greatest tzaddik for Hashem to go to battle for him.  In spite of all they had been through, Hashem would still fight for them.  All that Hashem asks is don't rebel against Him.  That's how they end their rebuttal by saying אך בה אל תמרדו, just do not rebel against Hashem & then He will do everything for you. 

Continues the Chafetz Chaim, this is what happens to us too.  We all believe that there will be great reward for those that keep the Torah. However, we feel that not everyone can do it; it's for the holy ones, the ones that set themselves apart from all earthly pleasures, not for people like us. However, that is entirely false! The Torah doesn't require the average person to learn all day & night & not take care of his business. Rather, Hashem wants him to work & set aside times for learning & to conduct his business honestly.  Then, as long as one doesn't rebel against the Torah, one has Hashem on his side & he can attain any heights that he wants. We need to learn not to let the yetzer hara get us down. Rather, we need to know that no matter what our level is, Hashem loves us. He will go to battle for us. We can ask for anything & He will help us to succeed!