SPIRITUAL NOURISHMENT

While shopping in the supermarket, most shoppers are extremely careful 

to check all of the food items for the expiration date to make sure their family consumes the freshest food. 

Realizing this important requirement for fresh food, I realize how important it is to assure that our spiritual nourishment is not compromised by religious feelings that do not pass an expiration date. Our spiritual lives must be ever fresh in our hearts and minds.

With these thoughts let us read this week’s Parshas, Pinchas , which represents the turning point for the Jewish People as their sojourn in the desert comes to a close and  marks the end of the road for Moshe as his leadership is being turned over to Yehoshua.

This must have been a very traumatic experience, not only for Moshe, but even more so for Am Yisrael, - a new leader, a new way of conducting themselves, and a new set of rules and priorities.

One may wonder with this new leadership, can we be guaranteed that he will lead us successfully in assuring that our future generations will remain dedicated and committed to the Torah that was transmitted to Moshe and now in the hands of a new leader? 

The question that always bothered me, “Do we have leaders that know, well, how to lead their constituents in a meaningful and respectful manner reflecting the true needs of the people?”

As I probe this question, I realize that in this same Sedrah, that a new leader is appointed, we are told of an extremely perplexing story of Pinchas who, seeing an act of immorality, reacts with a sense of zealotry, to maintain the sanctity of G-Dsname, and kills the two participants in this very act of debauchery. It is true he did so בקנאו את קנאתיבתוכם, as Hashem said, “When he zealously avenged Me among them.”  However, one wonders, “Is an act of zealousness, the role that a leader should play?” In fact the Netziv, reflecting on G-D’s response to the act of Pinchas, הנני נותן לו בריתי שלום, suggests that this lesson of Shalom, as a reward for his zealous act, was to make sure that Pinchas, himself, was at peace.  Too often such a violent act, as much as it was needed, can have a very serious deleterious effect on the psyche of the individual, who acted in this way. For how just it was, he did kill, and Hashem,needed to bless him with Shalom, a Shalom of an inner peace and tranquility so that he could go on with his life unscathed by this brutal, albeit, necessary act.

In fact, when the word Shalom is written in the Torah it is written with a וי״ו דשלוםקטיעה היא, a split VAV. One may ask, “Why did the Torah write it this way?” I sense the Torah is trying to tell us that, indeed the actions of Pinchas may have brought some kind of peace, albeit a flawed peace. True, there are times that a violent act may assuage a horrendous situation, but such a zealot reaction brings about a flawed peace, for anytime an act brings with it a violent solution, than peace is flawed and must not be tolerated.

I always remember the words of Golda Meir

“We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children”. 

Violence is never the answer, for a sense of humanity is lost even for the most life saving reason. That is why Hashem, rewards Pinchas with a message of peace, a lesson to remain gentle and peaceful in his dealings with humanity. 

Our society needs more humility and less self righteousness.

What better reason, for concluding ourAmidah with the most significant T’fillah,

ה׳ יברך את עמו בשלום, and let us echo, may it be so.

שבת שלום ומבורך