 |
Loyal Leadership • Torah.org
At the end of Parshas Pinchos, Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu about
the forthcoming end of his life, and the passing of the leadership to the next
generation. Moshe, concerned about the future of his people, asks a request,
“Hashem should choose a leader who will go and come in front of them, (the
Jewish Nation) and the congregation of Israel should not be like a flock that does not have to them a shepherd.”
Seemingly, Moshe
Rabbeinu uses a few extra words. Instead of simply saying that the Jews should
not be like “a flock without a shepherd,” he adds the words “asher ein lahem
roeh” that does not have to them a shepherd.” Why the extra words?
Rabbi Paysach Krohn, in his book, “Around the Maggid’s Table’
(Artscroll, 1989) tells the following story. At the outbreak of World War One,
A young man came to the great Gaon and leader of European Jewery, Rav Chaim
Ozer Grodzinsky for a blessing not to be inducted into the Russian army. The
hazards of war were terrifying, and the army usually kept soldiers in their
ranks for decades. After conversing with the teen for a bit, the Rav asked, “Do
you wear tzitzis.” “No.” came the reply.
“Do your put on tefillin every day.” ““Do you observe the
Shabbos.” The boy, looking down, embarrassed, and in a whisper he answered
again, “No.”
Silence permeated the room and the boy stood in fear of what
the holy tzaddik would tell him. Instead, after a few moments, Rav Grodzinksy
looked up at him, and in a calming, loving voice, he said, “I bless you that
the Soviet authorities should be just as disappointed in you as I am.”
Only a few weeks later, the boy came back to the Rav and told
him, “ Rebbe, your bracha worked! I was rejected by the Soviet army!” He them
lifted his shirt to show the Rav his tzitzis. Needless to say, he returned to
the path of observance.
My
grandfather, Rav Binyamin Kamenetzky zt”l would explain based upon a passage in
the Sefer Kehilos Yitzchok. Rav Jacob Joseph, a great
orator, was appointed as the maggid of
the city of Vilna in 1883, five years before coming to the United States
to assume the position of chief Rabbi of
the city of New York. In his inaugural address, he answered the question as follows.
One who tends to his own sheep does not care about the sheep
per se, rather he worries about his bottom line. His concern for an injured
sheep would be more for his bottom line than for the welfare of is animal.
But one who is watching sheep for someone else, doesn’t care
much about the bottom line. The sheep are not his, and he has no vested
interest in them. His tending to the sheep is more idealistic, as he is
concerned about the actual health and well-being of the sheep.
The same, explained Rav Joseph, is with leaders of people.
There are many nations in the world – each one with a different leader. Some do
their job well, but they ultimately care about their bottom line. The
individual needs of the many citizens don’t concern that all that much – as
long as their position is secure and they win the next election.
Moshe wasn’t worried that the Jews would be left without
someone taking charge. He knew that there will be a leader. He wanted to ensure
that the leader was a leader “of them.” The new leader had to take into account
the plight of every single Jew,
each personal situation, and every individual’s struggles
and challenges. He wanted the leader
to celebrate with them and revel with joy in their
accomplishments. Therefore, he implored Hashem, “Let the Jews not be like a
flock that does not have to them a
leader.” Moshe insisted that the leader be a leader “for them.”
Moshe, the ultimate leader of the Jewish Nation, knew to
instill this important trait in the future of our leaders for generations to
come.
|
Healing Wonders • Torah.org
And behold! A man of the Children of Israel came and brought
the Midianite woman near to his
brothers before the eyes of Moshe and before the entire assembly of the
Children of Israel; and they were weeping at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
Pinchas, son of Elazar son of Aaron the Kohen stood up
from amid the assembly and he took a spear in his hand. He followed the
Israelite man into the tent and pierced them both, the Israelite man and the
woman into her stomach- and the plague was halted from upon the Children of
Israel. Those who died in the plague were twenty-four thousand. HASHEM spoke to
Moshe saying, “Pinchas son of Elazar son of Aaron the Kohen turned back My
wrath from upon the Children of
Israel, when he zealously avenged My vengeance among them, so I did not consume
the Children of Israel with My vengeance.” Therefore say, “Behold I am giving
to him My covenant of peace! (Pinchus 25:6-13)
What did Pinchas
do to make himself worthy of a “peace prize”? This was certainly not an act
that had any overt gestures of what we would consider peaceful. Just the
opposite is true! It was violent and cruel to the untutored eye. What’s the
meaning of his heavenly award?
Let us approach this “crime scene” like forensic scientists
and with benefit 20/20 hindsight,
deconstruct the incident to discover what happened. I believe we may be missing an important piece of peace! It’s a
little bit of a dirty word in the world of relative values and where the only
absolute is that there is no absolute, but it’s worth mentioning here because
it may the most important part of the puzzle. That explosive word is “truth”-
yes “TRUTH”! There I said it! Pinchas exposed a serious point of truth while
all around confusion prevailed. Certain sacred boundaries were crossed and
blurred. Nobody knew quite what to do about it! A plague was afoot. The
congregation was consumed in a cloud of
chaos. Pinchas surgically exposed that truth – no puns intended- he lanced the
boil and peace triumphed. Rabbi Samson, Raphael Hirsch ztl. wrote that peace is a descendant of truth and not the other way around.
That might just be the hidden factor of peace-the obvious truth- the pink
elephant in the middle of the room that nobody wants to talk about!
There’s a story about a Baal Teshuvah- a returnee to Torah
life who was living in Israel. He had accepted upon himself the full and
complete lifestyle and was experiencing the fullness of community life. He had
one issue though. He wanted badly to go gain the extra purity associated with
going to a Mikvah like many others and yet he was prevented from doing so, not by anyone else but rather by
himself. You see, he had a tattoo on his arm, but not just a tattoo but a nasty image. It didn’t
say “MOM”. So he was ultra-concerned that
nobody should find out about this ugly reminder of his past. Looking at
him nobody would or could ever suspect
that he bore this grotesque image on his arm.
As Rosh HaShana approached wanted badly to visit the Mikvah
and so he began to strategize and scout out how it might safely be done without
his secret becoming exposed. He figured out the optimal time when the Mikvah
would be least crowded and how he would be able walk along a wall from the
shower to the pool with a towel and walk back albeit awkwardly but with no one
being the wiser.
The great day came and the room was a little busier than he
planned and so he nervously hurried along a little faster than he should have
given the amount of soap and water on the floor. Then his feet when flying and
his towel too that covered as his arm because he needed
that hand to break his fall. The busy and bustling room was stricken silent. In
that sudden quiet he understood that his darkest secret was exposed and there
was no way to put the genie back in the bottle.
He was humiliated beyond belief. Nothing anyone could say or
do could possibly remedy his pathetic situation. Then hobbling along came an
elderly Jew who while helping him gently off the floor pointed to the numbers
etched on his arm and declared empathically, “This was my gehinom (hell)! Most probably
that was your gehinom! Let us go into the Mikvah together!
We see that when even the most brutal truth is shockingly
revealed, peace can begin to work its healing wonders.
|
Truly Humane • Torah.org
HASHEM spoke to
Moshe, saying: Pinchus son of Elazar, son of Aaron the Kohen turned back My
wrath from upon the Children of Israel, when he zealously avenged Me among
them, so I did not consume the Children of Israel in My vengeance. Therefore
say: ‘Behold! I give him My covenant of
peace. And it shall be for him and his offspring after him a covenant of
eternal priesthood, because he took vengeance for his G-d and he atoned
for the Children of Israel. The name
of the slain Israelite man who was slain with the Midianitess was Zimri son of
Salu, leader of a father’s house of the Simeonites. (Bamidbar 25:10-14)
Rabbi Tanchuma says, “Whenever three righteous individuals
stand-up, son after son, for three consecutive generations, a covenant is
established with them that they will never cease to be and so we find by Avraham,
Yitzchok, and Yaakov… (Midrash Agada)
The Midrash must have noticed something curious. Three
generations are mentioned in association with Pinchus when crowning him with
credit and a perpetual promise of peace for his descendants forever. Wow! However,
when the perpetrator of the dastardly deed is mentioned it’s only him and his
father: no further back and certainly no way forward. Why is that so?
I was at a Bris in Jerusalem many years ago and Rosh
HaYeshiva stood up to offer his Torah blessings. Amongst the assembled that day
and sitting at the head table was a colleague, a Talmud Scholar, who happened
to be the grandfather of the infant who was attending the Bris of his very
first grandchild. The Rosh HaYeshiva started his speech by praising him, “Today
he is a human being!” People were a little shocked. That’s all?! A human
being!? That’s the best he could say!? He then went on to explain to everyone’s
satisfaction.
Ubiquitous in the animal kingdom we find that a mother or
father of the species has a zealous concern for the welfare of its offspring.
You don’t want to get between a mother
bear and her cubs! Caution is advised when approaching a nest
of eggs or young chicks. Who knows what a mother bird wouldn’t do to protect
her brood.
However, nowhere do we find except amongst humans that there
is any fealty or sense of connectedness to grandchildren and from grandchildren
to grandparents except in the human realm. Why is that phenomena so?
Perhaps because even in the individual behavior of humans we
can take note that when the animal aspect, the nefesh behamios, is under
control there is little thought of past or future. All that exists is the pulse
of present passions and an overpowering current instinct for whatever has
caught the attention of the beast.
However, when the G-dly soul is dominant, when the rider is
firmly under control of his horse, then he is capable of visualizing more
perfectly- from whence he comes and to where he goes. The more he is governing
the more he can transcend the physical and perceive himself as an actor in a
grand historical context. He can appreciate the contributions of generations
past and act now on behalf of future and unseen progeny. Clearly Pinchus is
praised and gifted with perpetuity for having had that kind of clarity while
Zimri who was enveloped in animalism is only worthy being mentioned in father-son
mere biological terms.
A somewhat elderly woman who has one child that intermarried
and a another that became a Baal
Teshuvah and built a beautiful Jewish Mishpacha once confided in me that she
came to understand why it is that she feels so much less for her non-Jewish
grandchildren while feeling so much for her Jewish Grandchildren. Initially,
she had suspected it was some built-in prejudice but later she came to
comprehend that, as she expressed it, “When I look at my Jewish grandchildren I
see the whole past and the whole future.
Maybe that’s what the Mishne in the 3rd Perek
of Pirke’ Avos means, “Look at three things and you will not come into
the grip of sin, “From where are you coming? To where are you going? In
front of Whom are you in the future to give a judgment and an accounting?”
In that sense it could be said that Pinchus was truly humane!”
No comments:
Post a Comment