The Garden Within | PINCHAS פִּינְחָס - Portion 41

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Teachers of Torah have coined the Hebrew term PaRDeS (פרדס – a word literally meaning “garden” or "orchid") to refer to a four-tiered system of biblical interpretation, which reveals that each word, verse, and story in the Bible could be simultaneously understood on four different levels.  

Through this year-long course, we will explore the very words of God from these levels of the garden.  The name The Garden Within was chosen for this teaching series because it adopts the PaRDeS system of learning and because it delights in the spiritual pleasure through reaching new understandings and being pierced by lightning flashes of the intellect. The pleasure gained, of course, also refers to the nearness we feel to God when learning His Word.

One of the primary goals of The Garden Within is to demonstrate that the “stories” in the Torah are not merely one-time occurrences, temporal incidents undergone by specific individuals long ago. Rather these stories are archetypal in nature, reflecting or representing various physical and spiritual energies ever present in all aspects of reality and within each and every person.  That is, the Torah is deeply personal and speaks directly to each individual reader for where they are in their life.  So, come, take a walk with God in the Garden of the Torah!

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All right, good evening, everyone. Air of Tob. Welcome to the Garden Within as we continue our journey through the Torah and its portions. Quickly coming to the end of the book of Numbers, because next week's portion is a double portion, I believe, that closes out the book of Numbers. We'll soon be into that final portion of the Torah, the book of Deuteronomy. But this week brings us to the portion known as Pinkas. So we'll talk about that after the blessing. So let's uh let's pray. Blessed are you, Lord God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with his commandments, has commanded us to be immersed into the words and the matters of Torah. Amen. All right, so this is portion number 41 of the Torah's 54 divisions. It is known as Pincus. It covers Numbers, chapter 25, verse 10, and goes through chapter 30, verse 1. Pincus is the Hebrew name that most often gets translated into your English Bibles as Phineas. If you have kids, you may have heard of Phineas and Ferb. All right. So if you were in Israel, it would be Pincus in Ferb, all right? For our sake this evening, because that's just how I am accustomed to it, I will not be calling him Phineas. So I will be calling him Pincus. But if you're English Bible, you're following along, um, 90% chance, I'm certain it says Phineas. Phineas is Pincus. All right, Pincus is just the Hebrew way, but that that's just how my brain is programmed. I would have to do a lot of rewiring to tell myself to say Phineas every time. Um, but this is the 41st reading of the Torah based on the second verse of the portion, Numbers 25, verse 11, where it says, Pincus or Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest has turned away my wrath. And so this will be an interesting point as we continue, because um Pincus is a priest, he's a Levite, and he's even, uh, as it says, uh, the son of Eliezer, who's a son of Aaron. So he's a grandson of Aaron the high priest. Uh and if you follow along kind of through the Torah, you may think, well, he should be a high priest himself and should be in the order of priest, naturally, because he's a descendant of Aaron, and that isn't that how it's set up. However, the way it was set up to be a priest was you were to be a descendant of Aaron and one of his four sons, all right. And Pincus was already born at that time, and so he was not included in that, all right. Uh, and so in this week's portion, he gets this claim to the priesthood that he technically did not have. Uh, so even though he was a Levite, uh, and even though he was a grandson of Aaron, he was not at one point technically a priest, but he does get that covenant, he does get that priesthood, but it's because God himself gives it to him. Uh so it's a very significant thing in this week's portion. Uh, when we kind of come to the end and we talk about five daughters wanting their claim of some land, it kind of ties in thematically with Pincus and his getting his claim to priesthood. Uh, in this week's Torah portion, uh, the Lord does make this covenant of peace with Pincus and his descendants. He orders uh also a second census, he settles questions about inheritance, some of which we will discuss later. He also uh very significant, he appoints Joshua, the Lord does. He appoints Joshua to officially succeed Moses, and he lists uh sacrifices for the appointed festivals, the appointed holiday times. So uh quite a significant portion. Uh, I would encourage you, uh, if you have the time available, to check out uh the archives for Pincus because there's a lot of cool stuff. Um, this evening we will look at one of the jots and tittles in Pincus, uh, one of the special letters. But I believe it's in the series that we did a couple of years ago called The Sun in the Scriptures, where we look uh looked at another one of those jots and titles uh in the word for the covenant of peace. Uh and we saw there a shadow of messiah. So uh that's definitely if you're not familiar with that or weren't part of that class or don't remember it, it's worth listening to. Uh, it's uh very interesting. Uh and so always check out the archives if you have the time. Uh, because each year I try to hit a different angle and so forth. Uh, but we will um look at some of the other special kind of textual things going on. All right. So, with all of that, now that we kind of a good year blimp view of what's going on in the portion, uh, let's kind of dive into the text and look at the real weapon of Pincus. Now, some of this requires a little bit of setup from last week's portion, uh, because last week's portion uh about Balik, uh, Balik and Bilam, um, or Balaam, again, I'm sorry, I try to get the pronunciation right from the English, uh, kind of flows into this week's portion. So I'll try to review it to set us up for it. So in last week's portion, you had the account of the Moabite king. And so when you hear about Moab in your Old Testament, think modern day Jordan. Okay, so you had the Moabite king Balak, uh, and he sees Moses and the Israelites in Moab, in modern-day Jordan, right? They're they're headed towards the promised land, they're headed toward Canaan, i.e., modern-day Israel. Uh, he doesn't like them in his territory, but he doesn't quite know how to handle it. So Balak hires a non-Israelite prophet, a very well-known uh powerful man named Balaam. Uh, and he hires Balaam to use his spiritual powers to curse Israel. That's how King Balach decides he's going to deal with Israel, that Balaam is going to curse Israel. Yet every time Balaam goes, and Balaam is also famous for having the donkey that talks to him. That's all last week's portion. Every time Balaam goes to curse Israel, a blessing ends up coming out of his mouth. And Israel ends up benefiting from Balaam's words, because Balaam is a legit worker of spiritual things. And so after this happens a few times, uh King Balak is like, What am I paying you for? Right, and is is is kind of done with it. So finally Balaam tells Balak, look, clearly their God's got something going on over me, and I'm not gonna be able to curse these people. Every time I'm gonna open my mouth, it's just gonna end up being blessings for them. And this is this is the parent. So here's what you're gonna have to do. Here's how you're gonna overcome Israel. You're going to need, you're gonna need to entice the Israelite men with your Moabite women. Your Moabite women are gonna need to seduce the Israelite men. That's their weakness. And when your women seduce their men, their men through this process will end up forsaking their own God, and they will absorb the Moabite gods in the process. And because of that, and because of their covenant with their God is contingent upon their faithfulness to their God and not being involved in relationship with other gods, once they enter into the relationship with the Moabite gods, their God will take care of them for you. All right. And so Balaam offers that strategy to Balak. Balak accepts it and follows through with it, and guess what? It works. The strategy works, and then there is this great sin at a place called Baal Peor. Um and uh God lashes out, things get really bad, including a plague breaks out among Israel, all the way to the point where things get so bad that an Israelite man named Zimri and a leading Moabite woman named Kozbi enter into the sacred site of the tent of meeting, and they copulate there for all to witness. This final act of arrogance against the God of Israel causes Pencas to overflow with zealous feelings for his God. So he grabs a spear and he impales Zimri in Kosby, and as he does so, the plague is stopped. During the plague, sinners and innocent alike were stricken, and again the plague was only stopped through this intercession of Pincus. Okay, and that's kind of leading into this week's portion and the covenant of peace and all of that that Pincus receives. Now, we may at first be scandalized that an act of violence, such as taking a spear and piercing it through a man and a woman, is what appeases our God. And we may ask, was God really so pleased by the piercing of two people with a spear and killing them that he not only stops a plague, but in the process he also rewards the one who committed that act of killing with a special covenant of peace and gives to him the priesthood? So here I want to use a principle known as scripture interprets scripture. Now it has a much fancier word in Hebrew. It's part of the seven hermeneutical rules of Hillel, but we're gonna go with Scripture interprets scripture. And I want us to turn to Psalm 106 to see if Pincus really pierced and murdered, killed two people, if that's really what he did. And see how it was remembered by the psalmist. How did the psalmist, when he looks back at this very critical event when a plague broke out among Israel because of their unfaithfulness to God, because of their disconnection to God, then receiving the natural consequence of that, that that was stopped by the actions of this man named Pincus. When the psalmist celebrates it, how does he remember it? And this is liturgy. Remember, the psalms become liturgy. They become the hymnal, they become what's recited generation after generation. This becomes the memory of God's people, even to the point of it's still our memory today. So when we look at Psalm 106, verses 30 and 31, we read in the FIV. Then Pencus stood up and Vahhalel. That's the Hebrew word. And so the plague was stayed. Right? And that would go in how it is recorded in the Torah in the book of Numbers. If you're thinking, well, Vahhalel must mean, you know, impale, stuck a spear in them and so forth. Well, let's check it out a little bit. But and that was counted to him for righteousness to all generations forevermore. So this is how the psalmist wants to memorialize, put it in the liturgy of God's people, put it into the hymn book, the psalm book, to be remembered forevermore by all of God's people of all times, the event of Pincus. That what Pincus did was va phalel. Okay. So what did Pincus do to stop the plague according to the Psalm? What is the meaning of this verb, va fallel? Well, interestingly, two quite different words emerge from this common root. One means to intervene or to execute judgment, which is how this psalm is generally translated in most Western English Bibles. But the Shorash, that is the root, Hebrew words have three-letter roots, except when they have two, but they have three-letter roots. And the root of this, phalal, actually means to pray. In fact, it's the same root for the Hebrew word tafila, which is the Hebrew word for prayer. And it's the Hebrew root behind the book the word for like the book of Psalms itself, right? Tefila. So the Radampskar Rebbe, who was a great Hasidic teacher, seizes upon this meaning to offer a different understanding based on Psalms. Pincus intervened not by grabbing so much as a spear and slaying two people, but he intervened by praying. And it was his prayer that stopped the plague. Because of that intervention, God gave Pincus his covenant of peace. That sounds a lot more peaceful, does it not? Does getting a spear and murdering people seem to be a covenant of peace, or does stopping something through prayer seem more fitting for a covenant of peace? It would seem that the intervention on behalf of God's people results in receiving a special blessing from God, and the lesson we might draw from Pincus' reward is that whenever people are threatened, we're called to rush to their defense. And just as Pincus intervened to stop their suffering, even though it was indeed a recompense from the hand of God Himself, so we too must not fail to intervene in helping others who are suffering. But the Robb Domsker Rebbe notes that such intervention doesn't always result in blessing. Note, for instance, the fact that Aaron, the high priest, he also intervened on behalf of God's people. After the sin of the golden calf, a plague broke out among the people, just as it had here with Pincus. And without hesitation, Aaron took the incense burner, and he ran out among the people, and he was swinging the incense to block the epidemic. Now, why was Aaron doing that? That's because biblically speaking, what incense does, incense, biblically speaking, in the tabernacle, in the temple, in biblical worship, incense helps effect atonement. Atonement is not about forgiveness of sins, atonement is about covering, providing a covering, kippur. And so that's what the smoke was doing. It was providing a holy covering. And so even worship services now, if you think about, particularly like in the Orthodox tradition, the Catholic tradition, some Lutheran traditions, when there's smoke in a holy place, that's actually the purpose behind it. It's not just because it's nostalgic or it smells good or it looks holy. It's going back to the biblical concept of it's trying to provide a holy covering in the presence of a perfect God as sinful creatures gather, that this covers them so that they can be in his presence without being eradicated for being in his presence. And so Aaron grabs the incense and he starts just slinging it over everybody because that's his instinct, right? He knows that they need this covering, this kippor, this atonement. And Aaron's intervention, it also works. The plague stops wherever he stood and wherever he had the incense going. But God remained silent. There was no eternal blessing or special covenant to reward Aaron for his diligence or his concern. Why not? According to the Radomska Rebbe, the difference between Aaron and Pincus was that the former relied on incense, which was only available while the tabernacle stood, whereas the latter, Pincus, relied on prayer, which is always within everybody's reach. Why didn't God grant a new covenant to Aaron? Perhaps because God wanted us to know that we need nothing more than prayer, turning our hearts to God in the full simplicity of our love to commune with our Creator. Perhaps God was concerned that we might attribute the miracle of the healing to the incense itself and start making the incense holy, start making that something special, maybe even start bowing before things like the incense burner. Or maybe God needed to discourage using props that would then direct our attention elsewhere. The implication of both stories together is clear. God doesn't need incense, lofty titles, or great drama. God needs nothing more than our need. As the Talmud would say, Hakadoshborhu le babai. God wants nothing but the heart. If we give God our heart, even just a little bit of it, God enters the space we offer, provides us with purpose, strength, and peace. So perhaps the silence we sometimes hear, the absence we sometimes feel, isn't so much God's absence, but it's our own. God wants the heart. That little offering is actually the hardest thing for us to give, though. Our hearts yearn for so many things. Much of what we desire is harmful to us, so much that we seek is petty or inconsequential. And underneath that distracting clamor lies our yearning for matters of true significance. Things like love and truth, beauty, goodness, and holiness. We bury those deepest desires under the gaudy, pushy calls of the superficial and the dangerous. And in acceding to this perverse hierarchy, we banish God from our hearts. And so we need, as not only Jeremiah the prophet recognized, but even Moses himself recognized, we need to circumcise our hearts anew, to be able to fill the fullness of our feelings, to transcend our wounds and our disappointments, to allow our hope and our faith to flourish as though we were babes. Scripture teaches that we have only to reach out to God, and God will be there for us. And so Pincus teaches us that our greatest weapon is not a spear. Is prayer. The initiatives of Moses. All right. So this is going to be kind of waxing poetically a little bit through Moses. Going a little bit into comparing him with Abraham because Abraham shares some of these same qualities. But I think Moses gives us a great example of prayer. And not just prayer in general, but of interaction with our God. Being courageous with our God, being bold with our God, how to communicate with our God. And how to how to balance having a very healthy respect and a proper fear of our God, but also not being afraid of our God, if that makes sense. Absolutely fear God, but don't be afraid of Him. And I think Moses, time and time again, shows us that. And even shows us how to deal with that, even if it turns out in a way that's somewhat disappointing. So in the portion of Pincus, Moses requests God to appoint a leader that's going to take his place. You may remember a couple of portions ago when you had the people beginning to prophesy, right? Eldad and Medad, right? And Joshua was even kind of telling Moses to quiet him down. And we looked at one of the traditions about what the prophecy was that Eldad and Medad had. And it was that not only would Joshua succeed Moses, but that Moses would die outside of the promised land. Right? That that was already starting to find its way into the text before Deuteronomy and before these things have their fullness and so forth. Let's kind of kind of kind of come up again. So God requests, or Moses requests of God to appoint a leader who would take his place, as God had informed Moses that as a result of him hitting the rock in order to bring forth water instead of talking to it, that he would not be the one to lead Israel into the promised land. Now on a side skirt, Sun in Scripture, Christ in the Old Testament moment, how this relates and like why is this such a harsh punishment? It's because the idea of water from the rock is tied very closely to the cross of Jesus. And so the first time water came from the rock was like the crucifixion, and it was striking. When Moses does it again, instead of asking and praying to the one who's been crucified for us and who is our mediator, he crucifies him again. That's the great error, right? That's why it's such a grave offense. Okay. But that would be a Sun in Scriptures kind of topic, right? But just in case you you've ever thought to yourself, why is this such a harsh punishment? That's why it's such a harsh punishment. It's like crucifying the Messiah a second time. So because he instead of speaking to the rock, strikes it, God responded, um, you know, you're not going to be the one to lead it. And so Moses says, Well, you need to appoint a leader then. And so we have these words in Numbers 27, 18 from God. Take for yourself Joshua, the son of Nun. Nun's going to become an important thing a little bit later on. A man of spirit, and you shall lay your hand in the singular. Very important, because we're going to see the audacity and the chutzpah of Moses in just a moment, because God is emphatic. Lay your hand singular upon him. Now, the symbolic act of a teacher laying his hand on a student in Hebrew is called Shhmeka. Literally means to lean, but it's the idea of laying a hand, leaning into your student. Um, it indicates in Judaism rabbinic ordination. So when my teacher leaned on me and put his hands on me, he didn't have to say anything. Everybody in the room knew what he was doing. He was transferring authority to me, all right. Um even in the Lutheran church at an ordination, if you've ever been to one, you will have seen pastors gather, or ordained pastors gather around the one who's going to be ordained, and they lay hands on him. That's coming from our Old Testament Jewish roots, Shmeka. I remember when I was ordained, and I don't know if he thought I had too much gel in my hair or what, but my dist the district president at that time, when he came to give his blessing, transfer his spiritual authority, some of his mojo to me, he hovered. He wouldn't touch my hair, right? He hovered and started talking. So I put my hand on his and smacked it down. I'm like, nah, nah, none of this like sissy stuff. Like scripture's clear. You're laying your hands on me, right? It's transferring, right? And I'm not sure it's transferring in the air, right? You know, something might get lost in the communication, right? So we still do this not only in Judaism, but in Christianity, and it comes from right here in the text. Okay. A few verses later, it says of Moses, he laid his hands plural upon him and commanded him, meaning Joshua, in accordance with what the Lord had spoken to Moses. Regarding the discrepancy between being commanded to lay his hand singular, while in actuality, Moses laying both his hands upon Joshua, Rashi in the Humesh comments that he did so generously. I guess I should have grabbed both his hands and put them on there, right? Um, so for instance, when I'm at ordinations, that's what I do, and I do it because of Moses. I will lay both my hands and I will clutch, right? I even the people I do it to, they often will comment, like, what were you doing, right? Like they feel all ten of my fingers, right? Right, when I speak to them. Um that Rashi says, Moses was doing that to be generous, uh, to give more than what the Lord had asked of him, to make Joshua even a more complete vessel for the wisdom that Moses was transferring to him. When looking closely at the life of Moses, we can see many times that he takes the initiative and that he actually acts on his own assessment of the situation. In many cases, the initiative is considered positive, while at other times, well, we'll just say it sometimes goes astray. The fact that Moses does take initiative so many times on his own seems sometimes a bit surprising, inasmuch as the Torah describes Moses as being the most humble person on the face of the planet and God's faithful servant, which because we believe the scriptures are inspired, he most certainly was. The first instance of Moses taking initiative is when he defends a Hebrew who's being brutally assaulted by an Egyptian. After killing the Egyptian, he flees the wrath of Pharaoh and he abdicates his royal position. Once in Midian, he again shows initiative by saving the daughters of Jethro who were being harassed at a well, one of the numerous instances of women at the well in the scriptures. And then God then appears to Moses at the burning bush. And instead of accepting the divine appointment as leader, Moses decides to argue for seven days, claiming he is not fit for such a role. But in the end, Moses accepts and he comes before Pharaoh, who instead of letting the people go increases their work. And then Moses returns back to the Lord and he complains bitterly to the Lord. And he says this in Exodus 5. Moses returned to the Lord and said, Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why have you sent me? From the time I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he did evil to this people, and you did not rescue your people. So again, this is chutzpah. Like he obeys God, he does what God says. Things don't turn out even remotely like what he would think it would turn out, especially since God is telling him to do these things, and God is telling him to do these things because God wants to deliver these people, and yet things keep getting worse for the people. So Moses basically says, You're doing evil. He actually accuses God of doing evil and says, basically, since you and I have decided to be partners, um things have just gone to trash. Like, like, this is ridiculous, right? I mean, that's bold. That's a bold way to talk to your creator. Um, we see here another example of Moses speaking his mind, just as he did at the burning bush, when he argued for seven days with God, where he questions God's purposes, when he questions God's actions. And we've talked about it before at different times, like um when God was going to uh you know abandon the Israelites, and Moses was like, Well, that's all fine and good, but you realize you're gonna have the worst reputation amongst all the gods in the world, right? You realize your reputation is gonna be like you're worse than Pharaoh because Pharaoh wouldn't even do something of this dirty of a trick to redeem a people only to abandon them in the wilderness, right? Like, again, like speaking your mind, being bold, like Moses is Moses. And one of the most disastrous initiatives of Moses was his decision to take along with Israel the so-called mixed multitude from Egypt. These individuals who had been circumcised by Joseph in his attempt to lift Egypt out of its spiritual morass later caused Israel untold problems during the 40 years in the wilderness. So the mixed multitude in Hebrew, they're called the Erav. This was a group of foreigners, if you will. These were non-Hebrews who confessed their faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, became circumcised, and Moses said, you know what? Let's bring them along with us out of Egypt. And no one was really on board with that. People were like, we're not sure they're mature enough yet. Like, we're not real sure, but Moses insisted, and they were a thorn in the flesh of the people, and they were a major cause of temptation and a continual source of dysfunction in the people. But this was an instance where Moses continued to speak up and took initiative. And God warned Moses that these people were not ready to leave Egypt yet. God wanted them to leave Egypt. He just said, not yet. They weren't ready to become a full part of the nation yet. But in Moses' desire to bring rectification to the world, he did not listen. And when God instructed Moses to tell the people to prepare themselves for three days before the giving of the Torah at Sinai, the intention was that the day he spoke to Moses, that was going to be the first of three days. But Moses adds another day that causes confusion, causes the people to miscount. They think Moses has died up there, and so they panic, they create the golden calf, they create the golden calf, not because they've lost faith in God, but because they've lost the visual representation to the connection to God, which was Moses. So they want to create this calf so that then they can do this ceremony so that the spirit of their God, the one that delivered them out of Egypt, the one that they truly believe in, could come and inhabit that calf so that they could have that tangible reality again, right? It's still inexcusable, but you at least need to understand it just wasn't some random, crazy act that they were doing. They had not a good reason for it, but there was a reason for it. Um, and so when Moses comes down from Sinai and sees this, on his own accord, he takes the two tablets of the covenant and he breaks them, which means he shatters the covenant. He disavows the covenant because of this. And there are many explanations regarding Moses breaking the tablets of the covenant, even though God did not command him to do so. But the sages state that not only did God signal his acceptance of Moses' act, but that he applauded the initiative. And although the simple reading of the text seems to indicate that God commanded Moses to send spies to enter into the land, there's actually a little something going on in the Hebrew there. Rashi quotes the opinion based on the words from the text, you shall send men, the spies, that in fact the Hebrew reads, according to your own judgment you shall send spies. Meaning God really was not saying to send them, was saying, I don't think you really need to send them, but if you really, really want to, go ahead and send them. And later in the Torah, it is clarified that the people came to Moses and requested that he send spies to check out the land. And in a profoundly paradoxical manner, Rashi continues by explaining that Moses took counsel with God, who revealed to him that since he had promised Israel to them in a land that would be flowing with milk and honey, that he would give them the land, and that he didn't need to send the spies, but that he put that there before so that by falling into that, that they would fall into that error, and they would never in that generation take possession of the land. According to this reading, Moses' decision to send the spies was in a deep way a manifestation of God's ultimate will, as he deemed the people of that generation not up to the task, the challenge, or the merit to enter the land. The decree that Moses would not enter the land came about because of his hitting the rock to bring forth water, instead of following the very explicit divine direction to simply speak to the rock. And once again it seems that Moses is acting according to his own understanding. But here again, many commentaries consider Moses to be filling, fulfilling the divine will, as it has already been prophesied by Eldad and Medad, that Moses would die, and Joshua would be the one to lead Israel into the land. At one point, Moses seems to be overwhelmed by the weight of the responsibility, and in desperation he pours his heart out to God. So we hear this in Numbers chapter 11. Moses said to the Lord, Why have you treated your servant so badly? Again, just listen to the honesty and the conversation Moses has with God. Why have I not found favor in your eyes that you place the burden of this entire people upon me? Did I conceive this people? Did I give birth to them that you say to me, Carry them in your bosom, as the nurse carries the suckling to the land you promised our forefathers? Where can I get meat to give all these people? For they are crying to me, saying, Give us meat. Alone I cannot carry this people, for it is too hard for me. If this is the way you treat me, please go ahead and kill me now, if I have found any favor in your eyes, so that I do not see my own misfortune. And God responds to this honesty of Moses by sending the seventy elders who were appointed to assist Moses, the original Sanhedrin. Now we conclude all of this brief overview of the different times Moses took initiative by mentioning all the different times that Moses defended Israel, and all the times Moses diffused God's anger and God's disappointment. Despite the fact that many times the generation of the wilderness questioned Moses' leadership, and on a number of occasions they were actually ready to stone him and take his life, Moses' love and compassion for the people caused him to speak, plead, and defend them, even at the risk of his own life. And in that way, he was a foreshadow of our Messiah. After they sinned by worshiping the golden calf, God initially tells Moses in Exodus 32, beginning in verse 9, I have seen this people, and behold, it's a stiff-necked people. So leave me be, and let my anger burn against them, and I will consume them, and I will make out of you a great nation. In other words, God says, I'm done with this group of people, I'm going to smoke them, but I'll keep you, Moses, and then you and I will start a whole group of new people. Moses responds with initiative, and he pleads for the people, and he succeeds in eliciting divine mercy. As part of his plea, Moses even audaciously tells God that if God will not forgive them, then he should just take Moses' name out of the book of life. Again, foreshadowing the Messiah, willing to give his life for the sake of the life of the nation. Rashi explains that when God commanded Moses to leave me be so that he could destroy the people, God actually wanted Moses to infer that he should, in fact, not let God be, but rather he should challenge God just like Abraham had done when trying to save Sodom from destruction, praying that God would not destroy the people. Significantly, both Abraham and Moses combine tremendous audacity with profound humility. Both confront God directly, both speak what's in their hearts, but they also both demonstrate humility. As Abraham adds, that he is but dust and ashes, and as Moses describes in the Torah in Deuteronomy 12, he is exceedingly humble, more so than any other person on the face of earth. From Abraham and Moses, we learn an important lesson. God seeks our obedience and our loyalty, but ultimately he desires those closest to him to feel comfortable enough to speak their mind when they feel it is necessary. God would never want you to not be able to speak your mind to him. This is, of course, when it's done, has to be done with great humility and a deep sense of compassion for others. That has to be its motivation. Abraham and Moses did not question God's way so as to refute their belief in him. Rather, their questioning was an affirmation of their firm faith in him, and in a God who allows and even encourages independent thought, and that one can speak their mind. And although we see that many times Moses takes initiative, even though it doesn't always turn out the way that he hopes or that he envisioned, being a servant of God does not mean being perfect, and it does not negate taking initiative or bold action. Even when Moses makes mistakes, he never loses God's love and he never loses God's confidence. Thus, humility and loyalty can exist side by side with speaking one's mind to the Almighty and taking initiative with bold action when the situation demands it. So I think there are powerful lessons from Moses, and when you read through the Torah and you just pay attention to how Moses interacts with God, powerful lessons for how we can interact with God. Given to women. Here is some, I think, some nifty things going on in the text. These are the some of the jots and tittles. So in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talks about not one jot or tittle of the Torah will pass away. What are those jots and tittles? That's when a Torah scroll is laid out. But it's formatted, right? And it's always formatted the same way. And so some pages might have two columns, some might have three columns, some might have, in particular areas, wide spacing between words, some less wide or more cramped. Some words might have really tiny letters within the words, some might have really large letters within the word, particularly at the beginning or the end. Some might have broken letters, there might be intentional misspellings, those kind of things. All of that is a jot and a tittle. And that is part of the meaning of the text. Those give meaning to the text. Again, check out the archive, Sun and Scriptures, for a really cool one about the covenant of peace. But we'll look at this one as well that exists. As well as some kind of deeper in the garden. So Numbers chapter 27, verse 1, it begins. Then came the daughters of Zalophahad. So these daughters approach Moses because they have an issue. And remember, while Moses at this point now has a Sanhedrin, he kind of has court of appeals, he has other judges, Moses kind of still functions as a judge. He hears cases, he solves disputes and so forth. So these particular daughters, they have an inheritance issue. And so they are able to get their case all the way up to Moses. So what gives the daughters of Zelophagad who approach Moses respectfully but quite forcefully, such strength to ask for the right to inherit their father's portion in the land, as he had no sons. And this is kind of like the first eleven verses of chapter 27. So we just talked a little bit about the brazenness, the chutzpah, the initiative of Moses. Well, we're going to see it also now in these particular women. So the Torah has just dictated at this juncture laws of inheritance and the division of the land of Israel. And in that process, there was no mention of women receiving a portion in the land. And so for these women to come forward right afterwards is quite audacious. What gave the daughters of Zelephahad the courage to ask for something that seemed unattainable? In other words, it's like Moses had just released the law from the hand of God, and two minutes later they're appealing it. But whatever the answer is that we're going to unpack, it was positive because Moses, he doesn't know how to answer them. Moses doesn't have an answer for them. And so Moses says, Well, you made it all the way to the top with me, and I don't know, so I'm going to have to go to the top. And so he goes to God and he asks God to solve the case. And God responds in the affirmative, and he instructs Moses to grant their request. In fact, God not only agreed, but he also dictated the laws concerning how and when women might inherit the land as well. In the verse stating that Moses brought the daughter's case before God, the Torah uses the word Mishpatan. It uses that word for case, that they brought their case before Moses. Now, this Hebrew word literally means their judgment. Now, even if you don't read Hebrew, if you look at the last letter on the left, hopefully you can see that it's bigger than the other letters, right? And it's the straight one. So the straight letter looks bigger than all the other letters, right? And in a Torah scroll, it's not only straight, it's actually structured to look a little more like a spear. And that's important. It's actually kind of a picture. The Torah actually is kind of like a little picture book at times. That's the Hebrew letter nun, as in Joshua, son of Nun. But that's the Hebrew letter nun, similar to our letter N. And it's written especially large in a traditional Torah scroll. Anytime a letter is written especially large or small, it is a remes, a rimes. And your part is your garden, Peshat, Rimes, Dirachod. Remiz means hint in Hebrew. It is a hint that something deeper is going on in the text. The shape of this final nun, a straight line that continues below the line so that it looks like a spear. And this is in fact where our answer to the question about where the daughters got their courage comes from. The final nun reminds us of the spear pincus used in the previous portion. The Hebrew word for spear, Romach, has the numerical value of 248. You add up all the letters, it equals 248. 248 in Hebraic thought, you have 248 physical limbs that move about. Anytime anything is in motion, you have 248 body parts that are part of that. Okay? And so it symbolizes Pincus using his intellectual, emotional, psychological, physical facilities and devoted to his task at hand. This spear alluded to in the final nun symbolically became a source of strength and encouragement for the daughters of Zalophad. In other words, they were inspired by the courage of Pincus, giving them the courage to also step forward and plead their case. Indeed, the notion that the daughters of Zalophahad took courage from Pincus' actions makes sense because there are several similarities between the two stories. In both cases, no one else knew what to do, and an injustice seemed to be taking place. Furthermore, both Pincus and the daughters had the courage to approach Moses with their plans so that a difficult problem could be resolved. And finally, like these women, Pincus was an outsider, an individual who would not have received his paternal inheritance, for Pincus, the priesthood, had he not taken action. And the large nun at the end of the word Mishpatan also alludes to the five daughters of Zelophagad, because there are only five Hebrew letters that have a different form than usual when they appear at the end of a Hebrew word, and Nun is one of them. And furthermore, these five final letters, which are Mim, Nun, Azari, Pei, and Kaf, are associated with the five forces of judgment. And according to the Arizal, this is the sood, the deeper reason for why there were five daughters who exhibited strength in bringing their case before Moses. The numerical value of the letter Nun is fifty, which alludes to the fifty gates of Binah, the fifty gates of understanding, fifty distinct ascending levels of consciousness, Binah being the highest level on the left side of the tree of life, which is primarily related to feminine energy. In fact, the Talmud states that an extra measure of understanding was given to women. The five daughters of Zelofahad represent the energy judgment possesses when it is infused with understanding, thus making it a positive force for clarification and rectification. The daughters of Zelofahad demonstrate dignity, wisdom, and respect when they plead their cause before Moses, and the fact that God agreed to their request attests to their high level of bina, understanding. Their spiritual maturity is also alluded to by the letter nun, because it possesses the numerical value of 50, which is 10 times five. And in Hebraic thought, 10 times a number represents a more developed and mature manifestation of the initial potential. So in this case, the final nun represents the actualization of the five women's inner power. All right. So just a thought here. Numbers chapter 26. Some verses or some portions of 9 through 11. They were Daton and Abiram, the chosen of the congregation who incited against Moses and Aaron in the assembly of Korach. So this is kind of saying, remember back? You may remember back in the portion of Korach, in Korach's rebellion. When they incited against the Lord, the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and Korach. But then here, this week's portion adds this little nuance. But Korach's sons did not die. So interesting. After naming the families of the tribe of Reuben that would enter the land of Israel, the Torah mentions Dathan and Abiram, who were from the tribe of Reuben, that they perished along with Korak when they incited the rebellion against Moses. Again, that was in portion Korak. The Torah then notes, seemingly incidentally, that the sons of Korah didn't die in that episode. So when Korak said, hey, everybody should be priest, Moses is playing favorites. Isn't it coincidental that only his older brother Aaron gets to be the high priest? Isn't that a coincidence that God chose Moses to be our leader and then God chose his brother to be our high priest? Right? And Korak says, Aren't we all priests? Aren't we the priesthood of believers? Aren't we all chosen? Doesn't God love all of us? Shouldn't we all have the right to do these things, right? Remember we talked about that and how good Korak's argument sounded, and in many ways, he was right. He just wasn't right yet. Remember that? But part of leading the rebellion against Moses, his taking, part of the consequence of that was the earth opened and swallowed those who rebelled against Moses. Well, Dathan and Abiram were part of those that were swallowed, and so were the family of Korach. Then it gives us this info. But his sons didn't die in that. As Rashi explains, although the earth swallowed Korak's sons together with him, Rashi says in the Kumush, an elevated area was set apart for them underground and they stayed there. And eventually they were allowed to leave and rejoin the community. And Rashi adds that while Korak's sons had in fact been among the original instigators of the rebellion, they were spared from death because during the conflict they inwardly regretted what they had done. That is, they contemplated repentance in their hearts. They inwardly repented. How do we know that Korak's sons were so involved in the conflict? Because it would seem logical for the Torah to note that they survived when it names the descendants of Korak among the Levites who were to enter the land. But instead, the Torah comments Korak's sons did not die, immediately alongside the account of Dathan and Abiram's leading role in the rebellion, thereby indicating that Korak's sons too played a crucial role in the conflict. Nevertheless, the Torah states that the sons of Korak were not punished like the others, because ultimately they repented. This illustrates the remarkable power of Teshuvah, the power of repentance. Korak's sons not only took part in the dispute, they were among its original conspirators. Even upon acknowledging their wrongdoing, they did not openly abandon the rebellion. They merely contemplated the repentance in their hearts. And yet their thoughts of remorse alone were sufficient to save them from dying with the other instigators. And they were able to enter the land of Israel. And in fact, if you open up your book of Psalms, there are eleven psalms attributed to none other than the sons of Korah. Repent. For the kingdom of God is at hand. Repentance is the most powerful thing. We will close there for this evening with portion Pincus Phineas. Next week, I believe, is the double portion. But let's close with the blessing. Baruch Ata Adonai Notan Hatorah. Blessed are you, Lord God, who has given to us the gift that is the Torah. Amen. Shalom, shlom, go in peace. Hi everyone. Thank you for engaging this teaching. 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