Pinchas

The posuk states that, after Pinchas avenged Hashem's honor, the plague that was destroying the nation stopped. פִּינְחָס בֶּן אֶלְעָזָר בֶּן אַהֲרֹן הַכֹּהֵן הֵשִׁיב אֶת חֲמָתִי מֵעַל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּקַנְאוֹ אֶת קִנְאָתִי בְּתוֹכָם וְלֹא כִלִּיתִי אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּקִנְאָתִי: "Phinehas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the kohen has turned My anger away from the children of Israel by his zealotry, avenging Me among them, so that I did not destroy the children of Israel because of My zeal."

Rashi comments, אֶת קִנְאָתִי ,בְּקַנְאוֹ, By his avenging My vengeance, by his releasing the wrath that I should have released.

The main reason for Pinchas being rewarded, says Reb Moshe Feinstein, is that he did what Hashem was supposed to do. This, says Reb Moshe, teaches us that when a person does something which Hashem was supposed to do, the reward is very great. He compares this to other mitzvos that are really supposed to be done by Hashem which, if we do, the reward is great. For example, the Gemara tells us that when the Roman general asked Rebbi Akiva if Hashem loves the poor people so much, then why doesn't He feed them? Rebbi Akiva answered him: in order to give us a chance by helping them, so that we are saved from the fires of Gehhenum. From Rebbi Akiva's answer we can deduce that really Hashem was supposed to feed the poor people, yet he lets us do it so that we have the merit to gain great reward. It's similar to a small child who wants to help his mother carry the packages. He can't really help, yet the mother gives his something small to carry. Even though it's not really a help, since the child wants to help, it gives the mother pleasure to give the child something to help with. So, too, with mitzvos like tzedaka that we are trying to help Hashem; even though He doesn't really need us to help Him, still, it gives Him great pleasure that we want to help.

A person went around to a number of people asking the following question: “If you could invite one person from the last two thousand years to come join you for a Shabbos meal, who would you choose?” The answers varied; some people said the Rambam; others said Rashi, while still others said a parent or grandparent. For others, it was the Ben Ish Chai or the Baal Shem Tov. When Reb Dovid Feinstein was asked this question, he answered, I would find the person who was the most in need of a meal, someone who was hungry, and invite him in for the meal because that's who needs it.  This is how we have to train ourselves to think. We have to look at how we can do the most good, not what looks good on the resume. That's real chesed. We can’t even imagine what we can accomplish with real chesed.

Rabbi Paysach Krohn tells a story about a menahel of a yeshiva who was telling a story of his origins, how he stayed on the path of Judaism in his small town because of the one shul that was there. This town only had conservative and reform shuls. Even the young people that would have gone to an Orthodox shul, went to them because there was nowhere else to go. One day, a rabbi came into town and wanted to open an Orthodox shul. However, he didn't have the money, so he went to the bank hesitantly, afraid to say that he wanted to build an Orthodox shul, for they knew that the Orthodox in that town didn't have any money. He went to the bank manager and pleaded his case trying not to mention the denomination of the shul he wanted to open. However, the manager pressed him, so he finally had to admit he wanted to open an Orthodox shul. The manager looked at him and said, “I'm going to give you the money and I'll tell you why. When I was a little boy, my father passed away and my mother had children and very little income. There was an Orthodox Jew who owned the general store in town and he came over to my mother and said, 'as long as I own this store, you will always have food for your children; just come every morning and take what you need. We will never ask you for a penny.’" Then he said, “As long as I own this store, you will always have clothes and whatever else you need that we sell, for your children.” In that store, one could basically get anything he needed to live. "Rabbi, continued the bank manager, that's how we survived; without him, there is no way we would have made it. He was an Orthodox man now it's time for me to pay back. I will give you the money to build an Orthodox shul." The shul was built and because of it many people in that town remained frum and spread yiddishkeit to others, all because one man took pity on a woman and her children. We have no idea the ramifications of one act of chesed. As Robert H. Schuller said, “Any fool can count the seeds in an apple. Only God can count all the apples in one seed.” We have no idea how far reaching our actions can go!