This Shabbat we study the Parshah Pinchas, referring to Aaron’s grandson (Numbers 25: 11). Pinchas is rewarded for his act of zealotry in killing the Simeonite prince Zimri and the Midianite princess who was his paramour: G-d grants him a covenant of peace and the priesthood.  A census of the people counts 601,730 men between the ages of twenty and sixty. Moses is instructed on how the Land is to be divided by lottery among the tribes and families of Israel. The five daughters of Tzelafchad petition Moses that they be granted the portion of the land belonging to their father, who died without sons;  G-d accepts their claim and incorporates it into the Torah’s laws of inheritance. Moses empowers Joshua to succeed him and lead the people into the Land of Israel.  The Parsha concludes with a detailed list of the daily offerings and the additional offerings brought on Shabbat and the festivals.

Chabad.org

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We read in this week's Parshah of the equitable division of the land of Israel. It was a method of which a gambler would approve. They held a lottery. Equal chances for all. I can just imagine the scene "Roll up, roll up! Where are you and your children going to live and work? Who fancies the mountain region? How about a cottage by the sea? Take your chances. Come one, come all!" Your name along with all your neighbors' went into the same pot and, as the shards inscribed with the subsections of land was plucked out, a corresponding name would be announced, settling the question of where to settle.

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We've all looked around on occasion and asked, "How did I end up here? Is this really what I'm supposed to be doing?" Placed in a situation not of my choosing, facing odds seemingly stacked against me, why shouldn't I just walk away from the table?

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Life is inherently a lottery. Try as we might to influence the odds in our favor, G-d still fixes the game the way He wishes. It's neither fair nor unfair, just the way G-d wants it. You can complain and criticize, you can moan and mourn, but it won't change the facts, so you might as well play the hand you've been dealt.  And because G-d is the dealer, we're guaranteed that if we play the game by His rules; live up to our potential and His purpose, then, come the end of the game, we'll definitely be left holding onto the jackpot.

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From an article by Rabbi Elisha Greenbaum

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We are here to achieve the impossible. To teach the world tricks it feigns it cannot do. To fill it with light it does not know. To make the blind see, the deaf hear, the bitter sweet, the darkness shine. To make everyday business into mystic union. To rip away the façade of the world and to bring it to confess its secret oneness with the Divine.

When they tell you, “You can’t go on that path, it’s beyond you!”—grab that path as your destiny.

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From an article by Rabbi Tzvi Freeman

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Belief in the Redemption is belief in the supreme truth of the Torah. The belief that the world was created by G-d who used the Torah as His blueprint, and that the day will come when this truth will be patently obvious. The Rebbe pointed to various global phenomena that are clear indicators that the process of redemption has indeed started, and asked that we prepare ourselves for Redemption by beginning to "live with Moshiach,"—living a life that is dominated by the values that will characterize the Messianic Era. One primary way this is accomplished is through studying about the Messianic Era. Studying about it makes it a reality in our lives, and allows us to live a life of redemption even in these last moments before we witness the complete and true redemption.

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Chabad.org

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This week's Parshah (Torah reading) is the Parshah of Pinchas the Zealot: the courageous young priest who stood up against idolatry and immorality and, in the end, saved Israel from a devastating plague.

While Pinchas' radical response made him a hero worthy of having a Torah section named after him, we wouldn't necessarily suggest to our children that they emulate his behavior. Those were extraordinary times. Today, violence dare not become our norm. So, Pinchas—hero though he may be—cannot become our role model. At least not when it comes to the details of what he did.

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Nevertheless, Pinchas does give us something very important to consider. What is it that would arouse our righteous indignation? What, in Jewish life today, would get us emotionally worked up? What would it take to galvanize us into action in defense of that which we consider sacred and inviolate? Is there something that would incense us? Anything?

I am reminded of a famous saying attributed to the first Rebbe of Chabad, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi. He said, "A Jew is neither willing nor able to allow himself to become divorced from G-d." In other words, once a Jew becomes consciously aware that what he is contemplating doing will cause him to be alienated from G-d and that which is holy, she or he simply will not—and cannot—do it. Even if s/he is not remotely "religious," it is something which comes from our inner essence, our spiritual DNA. It is in our very being.

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How many true stories we all know that validate this principle. One that springs to mind is of a Jewish actor during the Holocaust. In those days especially, the stage was not the place where one would find "nice Jewish boys," at least not nice, Jewish, religious boys. When the Nazis invaded the town, they desecrated the synagogues and—painful as it is to write these words—they unraveled the Torah scrolls and rolled them out in the gutter. To add insult to injury, they ordered this fellow, the actor, to urinate on the Torah. He was not at all religious. He probably hadn't looked into a Torah in many years. Yet, he could not bring himself to commit such sacrilege. He refused. The savage beasts killed him on the spot. He gave his life al Kiddush Hashem, sanctifying the name of G-d, and he went down in history as a holy martyr.

For the Jewish actor, that was his bottom line. What is ours? Religiously, is it Shabbat, Yom Kippur, Intermarriage? Morally, is it insider trading, fraud, murder? Nationally, is it Gush Katif, Jerusalem or Tel Aviv? Where do we draw the line?

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Our politically correct rules of etiquette promote such unparalleled tolerance that a person's "democratic right" to do anything he or she wishes has become the defining principle of our generation. The Ten Commandments are obsolete. "Thou shalt not violate my democratic right" is the first and last commandment.

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Of course, in any democratic country, people may choose their own lifestyles as they wish. But when there is absolutely nothing that arouses our passion, nothing that raises our blood pressure, nothing that sparks any kind of protest, then we have become an insipid, innocuous, characterless society.

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The story of Pinchas and his brave stand for G-d, Torah and morality gives us cause to consider and an important point to ponder. You don't have to be a zealot to have a bottom line. What is my bottom line? What would I get passionate about? Is there anything in Jewish life that inspires me, excites me or incenses me enough to take a stand?

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Rabbi Yossy Goldman

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